Friday, May 13, 2016

Photography at Bandipur Wildlife Sanctuary, Karnataka

This trip was planned only one week in advance. The first choice was obviously Kanha Wildlife Sanctuary but one month waiting time for safari booking skewed my decision elsewhere. Some options that came up were Dehradun, Ganeshgudi and Bandipur. After a lot of contemplation finally decided on Bandipur National Forest. Also, clubbed together the Nagarhole National Forest as they were nearby.

I’m not sure whether our luck would have accompanied us to Kanha – however the lady luck for sure was showering from all quarters when it came to either Bandipur or Nagarhole.

I didn’t add significantly to my Life List of birds, with only two additions this time. Still I’m not complaining – because the kind of wildlife sighting we got, was hard to beat. We took 4 safaris in Bandipur and only in one safari we got to see almost everything - Bear, Wild Dog, Leopard, Gaur, Mongoose and of course the Tiger. I couldn't click the Leopard as the kids in my safari jeep got excited and started shouting - which made the leopard run away. A point to debate - whether kids should at all be allowed in safaris or not.

For now, enjoy the pics below.



Tiger!
 
Sloth Bear

Sloth Bear

Sloth Bear

Wild Dog

Wild Dog

Gaur

Spotted Deer

Spotted Deer

Mongoose

Blue-bearded Bee-eater (lifer for me)
White-rumped Vulture (lifer for me)

Indian Peafowl Female

Indian Peafowl Male

Indian Peafowl Male

Grey Jungle Fowl Male

Grey Jungle Fowl Female

Grey Jungle Fowl Male

Streak-throated Woodpecker Male

Streak-throated Woodpecker Female

Lesser Goldenback

Lesser Goldenback

Yellow-crowned Woodpecker

Serpent Eagle and White-browed Fantail

Serpent Eagle and White-browed Fantail

Serpent Eagle

Oriental Honey Buzzard

Spotted Owlet

Jungle Owlet

Common Hoopoe

Indian Roller

Indian Roller

Bay-backed Shrike

Yellow-footed Green Pigeon

Yellow-footed Green Pigeon

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Purple Sunbird Female

Asian Paradise Flycatcher

Asian Paradise Flycatcher

Common Hawk Cuckoo

Sambhar Deer
TRIP 2: 07-FEBRUARY-2020

This was another im-promptu booking. We were supposed to drive back from Conoor to Bangalore. Since we anyway had to go past Bandipur, so while in Conoor we thought of checking about the room availability. And to our surprise, it was available. So we took a driving break in Bandipur from Conoor and resumed our drive to Bangalore the next day.

There was however another advantage this time. For some reason the cops blocked the jungle road through Masinagudi while coming back from Conoor and we couldn't go through the Ooty road, instead we had to take a detour through Gudalur. But this detour was such a wonderful drive, with those Bamboo Forests initially followed by Mudumalai National Park, the entire drive was worth the extra couple of hours.

Below id the Trip Report downloaded from MY AUDI app.


Bandipur to Bangalore (1st leg)

Bandipur to Bangalore (2nd leg)


Leopard

Elephant herd
Elephant

Green Bee-eater

Brown Shrike

Jerdon's Bushlark (lifer)

Oriental Honey-buzzard


2 comments:

  1. Excellent bhaiya! Why do you call the bird Peafowl. Pardon my ignorance but is it not peacock and peahen?

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    Replies
    1. Maggie - yes it is indeed peacock and peahen. Nothing wrong in that. Peafowl is more acceptable in birding community. Like for instance - parrot is not parrot - it is Parakeet.

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