avinash_kj

Great Horned Owls of Chennai

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:09:45 GMT

Theres a small patch of Shrub Jungle called Nanmangalam which is a home for many of the Great Horned Owls, amidst the busy city of Chennai The Place is an ideal habitat for these Birds.
Last Sunday, i made a quick visit to chennai keeping two things in the agenda.
* The Horned Owls and
* The Turtle walk
The latter wasnt really possible due to unexpected rains which slashed chennai, but got lucky to see and Photograph these owls in their habitat.
All thanks to Ramnath who took me to the place and helped me search these birds.

In search of my First Tiger !

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 21:20:56 GMT

Its a hard feeling that, inspite of experiencing many close encounters, i never happen to see a Tiger in the Wild till date ! It reminds me of that board in Bandhavgarh National park ( ive never been there though ! ) which says " You might not have seen me, But dont be disappointed.. IVE SEEN YOU ! " . Thats always true when you are out there in the Jungle.
I spent four days in Bandipur, took 8 safaris back to back hoping to see a Tiger ! Starting the safari 15 mins late, waiting for msgs from other jeeps, accompanied by experienced Naturalists of JLR, tracing Pugmarks, tracking Alarm calls, huh yielded nothing much !
At the end of my evening safari on the Third day, there were alarm calls along side the DFO's house next to the Range Office.. Two Jeeps, one from JLR and one from Tusker Trails waited on the main road in anticipation. Very Dim light, surprisingly no traffic, Pin drop silence except for the Alarm call.. I was cautiously looking on either sides and before my mind said " This could be it ! " A silhoutte of a Huuge Cat appeared out of the bushes, crossed the road slowly and disappeared into the thick bushes on the other side..
People in my jeep said it was a Tiger, Tusker trail fellows said it was a Leopard, By its lazy elegance it surely appeared to me as aTiger... But im not too sure.. Not too sure if I can claim that Ive seen a Tiger ! But i enjoyed every moment i spent in there.. Sighting a Forest Eagle owl was really special.

Here are a few Photographs i managed to capture

Photographs

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:35:09 GMT

All these days, I was using my LJ account to acknowledge those wonderful posts shared by you wonderful people.
Ive been a Blogger user for a long time now. But thought of kicking off my First post on LJ with the first visit i made ths year, to the popularly known birding heaven Mancinabele reservoir.
As most of you know, this is one of those beautiful places which is untouched by times. Well, i just hope the place stays like this for the years to come.

Im not sure if this picture below might seem very interesting to many but its really special for me :-) . The reasons being,
1. Its first of the kind ive experimented. Mounted on a tripod, Reducing the shutter speed to do the magic. It worked out well, for me.
2. This isnt the natural light. . The bird had settled down for the day. Time was almost 7pm and i had to use the external flash pack to get this photograph. Actually, with the flash on, its difficult to get the slow shutter speed. So, it was fun working on it.
3. Fortunately it was my Birthday ;-)

Few of the other photographs taken,