[graaja]

A Weekend Drive to Ranganathittu Birds Sanctuary and Lalithmahal Palace Hotel

Did a drive to Mysore with friends for some bird photography at Ranganathittu birds sanctuary and stayed in Lalithmahal Palace Hotel for a pleasant weekend.

The team:

1. RSUDARSANAN in a 320d
2. Mr. and Mrs. Robimahanta in a M340i
3. Mr. and Mrs. Dr.AD in a 320d
4. Mr. and Mrs. tilt in a Thar
5. graaja and kids in a 330i GT
6. Zebo and his kid joined us in his VRS only for the Ranganathittu birding part

It all started a couple of weeks back when Robi mentioned he was planning to go to Ranganathittu for a weekend for some bird photography. A few of us immediately decided to join the party.

The plan was to stay at a homestay called Atmaveda in Srirangapatna (very close to Ranganathittu) on Friday night, visit Ranganathittu early in the morning of Saturday for a boat ride and photography, and then stay at Lalithmahal Palace Hotel on Saturday and return on Sunday morning after breakfast. Mr. and Mrs. tilt skipped Ranganathittu and joined us on Saturday at Lalithmahal hotel and Zebo did an early morning drive to Ranganathittu and returned back after the boat ride. Everyone drove from Bangalore and I drove from Coimbatore with my kids.

Drive from Coimbatore to Atmaveda

I started from Coimbatore at around 2PM and reached the homestay at around 7:30PM. I took the Sirumugai - Bhavanisagar - Bannari - Dimbham - Chamrajnagar - Nanjangud route to Srirangapatna.

The drive was uneventful with good roads and minimum traffic. Earlier, the section between Hasanur and Chamraj nagar used to be very bad and used to take an hour and a half to cover 40km. But now they have made new roads and it is a breeze driving through this stretch. The total drive time has come down by more than 30 minutes due to the improvement in road conditions.

Took the regular coffee break at Hasanur.


And another coffee break at CCD Nanjangud.





When I arrived at the resort, RSUDARSANAN, Dr.AD and Robi had all arrived. We had a good dinner and spent the evening in good conversation and retired for the day. The plan was to start at 6:15 next morning and reach Ranganathittu at 6:30.

Nightscapes photography:

As the sky was clear with a bright shining moon, I got up early morning at 5:00 and spent some time shooting some nightscapes.

[graaja]

Ranganathittu Birds Sanctuary:

Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, located in Mandya District of the state of Karnataka is the largest bird sanctuary in the state, 40 acres in area, and comprises six islets on the banks of the Cauvery river. The sanctuary is a place of nesting for several species of birds. Some of the most commonly found birds in Ranganathittu are Spot Billed Pelicans, Asian Openbills, River Terns, Painted Storks, Less/Intermediate/Great Egrets, Black Headed Ibis, Kingfishers, Eurasian Spoonbills, Grey Herons, Night Herons, Greater/Lesser Cormorants and many more.

As planned, we left the homestay at 6:15AM and reached Ranganathittu at 6:30. We took Dr.AD's 320 and my 330i GT to the sanctuary. We were the first to arrive at the sanctuary. We had booked three row boats at a cost of 2K per boat with about 2 hours of boating. A few pictures from this visit.

We were the first to arrive.


Beautiful orange skies at dawn beyond the fields.




At the boat house ready to begin.




We got into the water just as the sun was rising and the birds had started their morning activity.







Morning activity of birds.


Robi in action.


Dr.AD in action.




The moon was up as well.


A few sunrise pictures.

[graaja]

Bird Pictures:

Below are some bird pictures I managed to shoot. These are shot with a Canon R6 full frame mirrorless camera with an RF 100-500 telephoto lens.

Note: Click on the pictures to open in full resolution in a new tab

Asian Openbill









Black Crowned Night Heron





Black Headed Ibis





Cattle Egret



Eurasian Spoonbill







Great Cormorant



Great Thick Knee





Grey Heron



Intermediate Egret







Intermediate Egret in Breeding Plumage



Little Cormorant





Painted Stork







River Tern





Spot Billed Pelicans

[graaja]

Birds in Flight Pictures

I also tried my hand to take some "in flight" pictures of the birds. This turned out to be quite tricky. Too low an ISO, the shutter speed became high such that the shots were blurred and too high an ISO, pictures were over exposed even at the fastest shutter speed of 1/8000. Add to this catching the bird in the frame and tracking it. Almost 60% of the pictures had to be scrapped due to issues like out of focus, bad framing, blurred motion etc. A few pictures from the remaining 40%.

Note: Click on the pictures to open in full resolution in a new tab

Asian Openbill








Bat in flight





Bat and the Moon



Grey Heron







Night Heron





Painted Stork





Eurasian Spoonbill





Spot Billed Pelican











Spot Billed Pelican fishing





There were also many crocodiles. When we started the boat ride, they were all submerged in the water. When the sun was out, they came out to bath in the sun lying on the rocks.

[graaja]

After the boating in Ranganathittu, we had a nice breakfast at a restaurant called Ruchi Mane. Food was just awesome.

Idlis dipped in sambar


Idli and vada dipped in sambar


Masala dosa


Rava masala dosa


Chief enjoying puris and kesari


And finished with this gudbud


Zebo and Junior went back to Bangalore and we went back to the homestay with tummies and heart full.

Atmaveda Homestay:

This homestay is located on the banks of river Cauvery. There are 5 or 6 cottages. The cottages are clean and simple. They served good tasty food. The highlight of the homestay is the access to the river. After returning back from Ranganathittu, we spent a lot of time enjoying the breeze sitting on the rocks in the river with the feet in cold water.

The cottages.




The river.


Enjoying the breeze and the cold river water.


At noon, Mr. and Mrs. Tilt arrived from Bangalore, and we checked out and left for Mysore to Lalitmahal Palace Hotel.

The cars just before we left.

[graaja]

Lalitmahal Palace Hotel

We arrived in Lalitmahal Palace Hotel in the afternoon.

Lalitmahal palace has been taken over by JLR. As this is a palace converted into a hotel, the ambiance is Royal. The architecture is huge with ceilings almost two floors high, huge pillars and corridors and well appointed rooms. Food was very good as well. The only agenda for the day was to rest and spend the evening exploring the palace and then spend time chatting. We roamed around the hotel in the evening and then spent hours talking about lots of topics - cars, photography, reliving our past drive experiences and more. Then we all retired for the day.

The room where we stayed


The dining hall


A few pictures of the hotel.

























3GT pictures

We had planned to do a photoshoot of the cars in front of the palace. But unfortunately, they were setting up a stage and chairs for a wedding event that was to happen the next day. So, we had to be content with taking pictures of the individual cars. I managed to click a few pictures of my 3GT in front of the palace.











Chamundi Hills

On Sunday morning, I visited the Chamundi temple with kids. The road to Chamundi temple is a beautiful hill road that is a joy to drive on. Being Sunday, there was a heavy rush at the temple. A few pictures from this visit.

The Narakasura statue that is a landmark of Chamundi hills.


The temple.


Clicked a few pictures of the car on the drive back.







Final regroup and Goodbyes

We all met for breakfast and post breakfast, checked out, did a final photo shoot with the cars and the full team and bid our goodbyes.







The team, just before we said our goodbyes.



I then drove back to Coimbatore and everyone else to Bangalore. And thus concluded a wonderful weekend.

That's all folks, I have for now. Until the next drive!...

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[RSUDARSANAN]

Ganesh…a camera happy budding “Salim Ali”.
Our drive well encapsulated.
Cheers

[Dr.AD]

That was a very good, crisp report @graaja. And amazing photos too. The timing in your bird photos is really nice.

Thank you for taking efforts to write this report and share your photos. What is really amazing is how fast you processed your photos and compiled this report. In just over 24 hours since we returned from this trip, you had this report up and live! That is really fast and kudos to you for this efficiency.

It was a very short trip (just above 300km round trip for us from Bangalore), but nevertheless, a very memorable trip. Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary is always a nice experience, and this it was no different. I really enjoyed the boat ride and watching the birds there.

Thanks to all of you guys for your company and one more memorable weekend.

Please allow me to take this opportunity to add my own short report (with a few photos) to this thread. I hope that is OK.

I will divide my report in two posts. In this first post, I will post my general photos, and then in the second post, I will post a few bird photos that I managed.

I started from Bangalore after finishing my work on Friday, and I by the time I arrived at Atmaveda Resort, robimahanta and RSUDARSANAN were already there.

My car joined the Blue 320d of RSUDARSANAN and the Sunset Orange M340i of robimahanta, making it a three 3-series parked in that parking lot, under the sunset light:



A near full moon in the night, while we had a late night discussion session on the banks of the Kaveri river:



Next morning, as we stepped out early morning to drive to Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, the car was bathed in the morning mist:



Sunrise at Ranganathittu:



Another picture of the sunrise:



My apologies for sunrise spam. I knew we were supposed to photograph birds there, but I can not resist photographing sunrises and sunsets in different angles:



graaja concentrating on his next shot:



And the master photographer in the team, robimahanta planning his next frame:



And then taking his shot (wait for his photos later in this thread; they are going to be the best!):



A 'landscape photo" in the middle of that bird photography heaven (I must admit that landscapes and cars are closer to my heart than birds and animals):



And finally, I am a car guy and can not write a post without car photos. Here, a group photo of our convoy for this weekend:



I started this drive by joining two BMWs in that parking lot of Atmaveda. And I ended this drive by saying goodbye to another BMW near the parking lot of Lalith Mahal Palace.

Parting shot while saying goodbye to graaja's 3GT:


This was a fun weekend. Unlike our usual weekend drives, there were not too many car pictures. Instead, I got some bird photos this time, and I will share those in the next post.

[ashishsGT]

Originally Posted by graaja

A Weekend Drive to Ranganathittu Birds Sanctuary and Lalithmahal Palace Hotel

Hello graaja,

Nice and crisp writeup with awesome clicks to match! Your group is the best and second to none, when it comes to penning down travelogues!
I'm an avid bird photographer too, and Ranganathittu is any bird enthusiast's dream. The nesting months, during second half of the year (June to October), also witnesses some amazing activity.

Originally Posted by graaja

I also tried my hand to take some "in flight" pictures of the birds. This turned out to be quite tricky.

Lovely clicks! The Canon R6 is very capable and has a fantastic AF system. Since all the action happens within seconds, I always use the Aperture priority mode when shooting birds in flight, and set an upper limit for the camera ISO to vary between. Evaluative / Matrix metering also helps in nailing the exposure right. Thank you for sharing!

Cheers,
Ashish

[Dr.AD]

Bird Photos:

I am not a bird photographer by any means. I am quite new to this. I am usually happy shooting cars and static objects, but once in a while I get to try my hand (and my basic camera equipment) at wildlife photos thanks to my friends like robimahanta who are real experts. I just try to follow them and learn from discussing with them both the techniques and final results. Here, let me share some of the bird photos that I managed at Ranganathittu.

Just like I am not an expert at bird photography, I am not an expert at bird study at all (is it called ornithology? I hope I am right about that word). I do not even know the names of most birds. The names of birds are quite interesting (and quite graphic in many cases), and I love hearing the names from robimahanta, but I keep forgetting them. I still do not understand or remember when an Intermediate Egret graduates and becomes a Great Egret. Therefore, I may not be able to give names of all the birds in the below photograph, or sometimes I may give wrong names. Please forgive me (and correct me if possible) if I mention some wrong names.

Painted Stork:



Cattle Egret:



Painted Stork:



A pelican in flight (well, it is actually a "Spot-Billed Pelican", but I call it just pelican here to make it easier for myself):



A pelican again (and again, it is "Spot-Billed Pelican"):



Another pelican about to take flight:



An egret, which think is an Intermediate Egret:



An Intermediate Egret again:



An Intermediate Egret in flight:



A pelican ("Spot-Billed Pelican" if we insist on the full name) in flight:



An Intermediate Egret (or is this a Great Egret?) carrying straws for nest:



A Night Heron hiding in the trees (I loved the bright red eyes):



Pelicans again:



A pelican in flight:



An Indian Cormorant:



An "Asian Openbill" in flight:



Another pelican in flight:



A Night Heron enjoying the sunny day:



A brahminy kite:



Another pelican in fight (sorry for the repetition, but it is not often that I get to shoot birds; so I went a bit overboard this time):



An egret in flight:



A grey heron:



A pelican in flight:



And finally, once again (and I promise this is the last one) pelican in flight:

[Dr.AD]

Crocodiles at Ranganathittu

Ranganathittu has plenty of crocodiles as well, and it is a great sight (and surely a scary sight too when your boat takes you very close to them) to see them basking in the sun on the rocks. Also, I can easily and confidently identify a crocodile when I see one (unlike the myriad varieties of birds there). So that was an added bonus for me to try to take some crocodile pictures and post them here without confusion about the names.

An eye of the crocodile as it surfaces on the water:



A big, heavy, scary croc moving elegantly in the water:



A close-up of the tail:



And then it comes to bask in the sun:



A fearless bird dares to stand there and tease the crocodile:



And finally, a close-up of the open jaw as the crocodile basks in the sun:

[robimahanta]

Great report with images GRaaja, AD. It was a wonderful weekend trip with the group. Looking forward to many more. Sharing some images from the trip.

I wanted to experiment with spot billed pelican images. Here are a few.


















Sunrise



Openbill Stork



River Tern





Grey Heron



March Harrier



Great Egret in breeding plumage



Spoonbill



Basking Croc



Head on Cormorant



A drone image of our resort in Srirangapatna



Closing it with some car images









Finally a night image of Lalitha Mahal Palace

[graaja]

Originally Posted by RSUDARSANAN

Ganesh…a camera happy budding “Salim Ali”.
Our drive well encapsulated.
Cheers

Thank you so much for the kind words, Chief

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

I am not a bird photographer by any means. I am quite new to this...

Fantastic bird pictures AD, and awesome framing and timing with the bird flight pictures. The pictures do not look like you are new to bird photography at all.

I am sure you will explore this hobby more in the future and we get to do many more such trips to shoot bird and animal photography.

Originally Posted by robimahanta

I wanted to experiment with spot billed pelican images. Here are a few.

Incredible captures of the Pelicans Robi. These pictures totaly freeze these subjects in time. You got everything right there - the exposure settings, tracking and framing, and lighting. You have set some very high standards for me to aim for. Hope we do many more such photography trips in the future.

Originally Posted by ashishsGT

Nice and crisp writeup with awesome clicks to match! Your group is the best and second to none, when it comes to penning down travelogues!
I'm an avid bird photographer too, and Ranganathittu is any bird enthusiast's dream. The nesting months, during second half of the year (June to October), also witnesses some amazing activity.

Thank you so much for the kind words. It is great to know another bird photographer. Please do share some of your pictures.

I will plan to visit again during the nesting months.

Originally Posted by ashishsGT

Since all the action happens within seconds, I always use the Aperture priority mode when shooting birds in flight, and set an upper limit for the camera ISO to vary between. Evaluative / Matrix metering also helps in nailing the exposure right. Thank you for sharing!

Thanks a lot for the tips. I too use Aperture priority, but set the ISO manually. Also, I have not experimented with metering options. I have left it at the default setting. I will now experiment with auto ISO settings with limits and evaluative / matrix metering.

[tilt]

Lovely write-up and photos guys! I did not join you at Atmaveda or Ranganthittu; and now after seeing all the pics I realise that I have not missed anything - I have now seen all the birds and the scenery, thanks to the three of you!

It was a different feeling, being the only non-BMW in the group. That is something I am used to, considering my other car is a Jetta heheheheh, but this time it was a slow Thar in the midst of all the fast ones.

It still was a fun drive and more fun spending time with all of you!

Cheers