Marshes perhaps make up for more than half the area of Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur. Naturally, the park has a lot of birds that rely on the abundance of this water. Cormorants and darters come here to fish and so do grey herons and egrets. Black Necked Storks and Painted Storks take pleasure in filtering out algae in the water and consuming them for breakfast. The storks are voracious eaters who seem to be always in a hurry to eat more, as if fearing that their neighbours may take away a portion of the food. Grey Herons stand perfectly still until an unsuspecting fish passes next to them. A microsecond later, the fish is struggling between the beaks of the heron and a few second later disappears in its throat.
I once saw a Grey Heron catch a huge fish almost six inches long and about three inches wide. The heron tried hard to consume it, but it turned out too big and eventually had to put it away. As it tried hard to gulp the fish, a greedy pond heron and a night heron walked up to it without daring to get too close, staring at the fish with a hopeful look!
The large birds were too wary of anyone and preferred to sit as far from land as possible. Even the ones that came closer to edge of the marsh kept a careful look and flew away at the first sight of someone approaching. Some pictures here.
Little Cormorant
darter
Black Necked Stork
Grey Heron
Pond Heron
Painted Stork
Great Egret
Cattle Egret
Let me begin by wishing you a very happy new year. May your dreams take wings in 2011!
I suffered from severe writer’s block for last two months of 2010 and left this space hardly updated. Some photography assignments and a few other things I was working on kept me occupied, which means I also did very little reading online, rarely visited blogs or kept myself updated with happenings in the online-world. However, I managed to keep paintedstork facebook page updated regularly.
I normally do not take the trouble to make new year resolutions—they get broken anyway—and it is no different for 2011. But at this moment, I am hoping to keep this space active at least for the next few months. Let me begin with stories from a visit to Bharatpur’s Keoladeo National Park in November 2010, recounting my encounters with the beautiful birds in the park.
In the three days that I spent in Bharatpur, I hardly saw any rare or exotic birds except for a pair of Sarus Cranes. But I could observe many common species from a close distance and cherished watching their behavior. The most common birds in the park were perhaps rose ringed parakeets that chattered loudly in the trees all through the day in every corner of the park. The rarest among the birds I saw were a pair of black necked storks and a pair of sarus cranes.
The first birds I saw in the park were Brahminy Mynas in a small gathering, followed by jungle babblers in their typical group of five to six. Soon after getting past the entrance, I was excited to see a peafowl family with five chicks foraging in the shrubs. There was further excitement ahead as I spotted two jackals shying away into the jungle and watched a parakeet trying to threaten an enemy hiding in a tree hallow.
The first of the birds that posed happily for my camera were laughing doves. There were plenty of them in Bharatpur. Early morning and evenings, a careful listener could hear the sound of their laughter filling the air. They were also happy to pose for the camera and did not run away at the first sight of a telephoto lens. I first saw a lone laughing dove sitting on the top of a bush. It sat there gracefully until I took a few pictures, but decided to fly away on seeing an approaching vehicle.
Laughing Dove
Half-an-hour later, I saw a pair of doves walking slowly at the edge of the tarmac road that bisects the park. They seemed wary of me, but did not feel threatened as long as I kept my distance. They hopped slowly along the shoulder of the road, occasionally picking whatever they found worth gulping. I lay down on the ground to get an eye-level picture, but they did not seem to like me doing that and decided to walk away from me. A little later, one of them sat on the lowest branch of a bush, started preening and at the same time generously posing for me. I was more than happy to go on clicking it displaying the colourful feathers.
A laughing dove showing off its feathers!
Coming up next: more birds from Bharatpur.
Wildlife photographer Shreeram and I will be conducting an outdoor photography tour of Hampi, covering a variety of photography opportunities in and around Hampi. The tour includes daily sessions and image reviews besides field trips to shoot landscapes, architecture and wildlife in the region. Read on for more details. We hope to see you on the tour.
Many Worlds of Hampi – An Outdoor Photography Tour January 14th, 15th and 16th
“Many worlds of Hampi” is a 3-day photography tour designed to cover a wide range of interesting subjects that goes beyond the architectural splendours of Hampi. We have explored all the corners of Hampi to bring you the best in
- Landscapes – the river, boulders and hills of Hampi. Perhaps few places can boast of dramatic sunsets and sunrises as Hampi can. A crimson sun rising and setting over the boulders and hills of Hampi overlooking Tungabhadra River is perhaps among the most beautiful, but less photographed spectacles in this magical landscape.
- Wildlife – birds and bears of Daroji. Daroji Bear Sanctuary is a refuge for more than a hundred bears living in a small area, offering a high probability of sightings and photography opportunities. The rocky terrain is also home to rare birds like the Yellow-throated Bulbul, Painted Sandgrouse and Red Avadavat. May be an encounter with Star Tortoises too…
- Architecture – the famed ruins of Vijayanagar Empire. Hampi’s architectural heritage and its temples in various stages of ruination have brought this small village to UNESCO world heritage status. A large number of monuments more than four hundred years old are strewn all across the plains of Hampi, inviting photographers to lose themselves in the ruins.
The tour calendar includes
- Visit to sites that offer excellent photography opportunities
- Expert session on landscape and travel photography
- Expert sessions of wildlife photography
- Basic photography session for amateurs
- Daily image reviews
Accommodation:
We will be staying at the Sloth Bear Resort, the new offering from Jungle Lodges and Resorts, on the boundary of the Daroji Bear Sanctuary.
Cost: The cost of the tour would be Rs.8,500/- per person, ex-Hospet.
The cost includes:
– Accommodation on twin sharing basis and 3 meals per day at Sloth Bear Resort
– Field trips
– Photography sessions
– Transport from Hospet to Sloth Bear Resort (for buses and trains arriving to a pre-planned schedule) and transport during the three days in and around Hampi.
The cost does not include:
– Transport from your hometown to Hospet/Hampi
– Additional soft drinks/mineral water/liquor ordered at Sloth Bear Resort
– Additional snacks or eatables ordered at Sloth Bear Resort
– Tips and anything that is not part of the includes list above
ACCOMPANYING GUIDES AND PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERTS
Arun Bhat
Accomplished travel and landscape photographer Arun Bhat’s works have been used by publications in India and across the world, all the way from Japan to USA. He is a professional photographer who has extensively travelled across India, creating some of the finest imagery of India’s landscapes and heritage sites.
Having travelled the country many times over and being used to waking up at 5am in bitter cold winter days, he has seen and captured finest landscapes all the way from Himalayas to the peninsular India but is yet to see anything as spectacular as the ‘morningscapes’ seen from the top of Hampi’s Hills.
Shreeram M V
Shreeram is a passionate naturalist and a professional wildlife photographer. He has photographed wildlife across multiple habitats across India – from the rainforests to the high-altitude deserts to grasslands to coasts. He comes with vast expertise in bird photography, having photographed hundreds of species from places as far as mountains of Ladakh to seashores of South India. See some of his works at http://www.visualquotient.net
BOOK THIS TOUR
Contact us to book the tour. Book before 26th get early bird discounts.
email: arunchs@yahoo.com
Ph: 97400 83260 (Shreeram) / 98800 06460 (Arun)
