The Bandipur Tales

A big hello to my readers, its been long, really long since I posted here. This post is all about a three day stay followed by a one day round in Bandipur and Kabini respectively. I had the privilege of accompanying and guiding Alex who was visiting India purely for wildlife photography.

I wont be writing a lot here, but a few words here and there shouldn't do anyone harm.

I had just picked up my Nikon D4S and was dying to try it out in the field. Alex and I were both carrying similar equipment in terms of the main equipment. While he was using a Canon 1Dx and a Canon 600mm F4L IS II as his main camera, I was using the Nikon D4s with the Nikkor 600mm F4 VRII, as for secondary camera bodies, he was using a Canon 5D MkIII with a Canon 70-200mm F2.8L IS II, I was using my faithful D3s along with a Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8 VR. The Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8 was rented out from BookMyLens.

Thats Alex in the middle with his big gun, Rantel and Myself behind and some of the other guests.

Anyway here goes, after the drive from Bangalore, we checked in at the Bandipur Safari Lodge and since we had an hour before lunch, we decided to drive down to the reception area in Bandipur in hope of a little birding. In fact we spent a couple of hours everyday here in between the safaris.

Alex photographing a Bonnet Macaque

After lunch, we headed for our first where we spotted a few birds and spotted deer all over. As the light began to fade we were left with 15-20 min more in the forest. It was in those last few minutes that we came across this handsome male tiger cooling of in a water body. Locally know as Prince, this guy is huge and does not shy away from the tourist vehicles. Anyway he did give us some good photography opportunity and Alex was really happy to have come across and photograph a tiger on his very first safari.

Bengal Tiger panthera tigris , yawning in waterhole

Bengal Tiger Panthera tigris , shaking of water

male Bengal Tiger Panther tigris walking towards us

A Bengal Tiger Panthera tigris sniffing the air

On the way back we came across the Forest Dept doing a great job with burning and creating fire lines to reduce damage due to forest fires.

Controlled Forest Fire

After a quick meal we called it a day.

The next day started with me waking up late, and the last i think!! Anyway the morning safari was good in terms of spotting a leopard, we did miss getting a good photo of it, but nonetheless it was a good sighting. Here is a photo of it crossing in between the two safari vehicles.

an Indian Leopard Panthera pardus fusca, crossing a forest path

Suddenly we heard some frantic spotted deer alarm calls and headed towards the water body from where it was coming, no luck, the predator must have just been passing by, but I did manage to make a quick video showing the alarm calling behavior of the spotted deer. (Video at the end)

Spotted Deer Axis axis at a water body

Alarm Call by Spotted Deer

The evening safari was good in terms of spotting a small heard of elephants and also a leopard, and yes we missed a great photo opportunity again, as we realized its presence on a tree only when we were right under it, having seen us it shied away from us dissapearing into the thick bushes. We did also see and photograph the Brown Shrike multiple times.

A bull Indian Elephant Elephas maximus indicus

Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus on a Butea monosperma tree

Male Oriental Magpie Robin Copsychus saularis

The next day we again had a mainly birding safari except for a wild boar sighting and pair of mongoose foraging for food.

Wild Boar Sus scrofa

Male Oriental Magpie Robin Copsychus saularis

Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus strikes a pose

After returning to the lodge and finishing our breakfast we headed to a nearby lake in search of the Bar-headed Geese that we had heard of, they had stopped over during their migration to the south. This time Rantel who was present during our safaris and staying at the same lodge also joined us. We thrilled when we reached the lake, there were easily more than 100 bar-headed geese there along with some Rudy-shellducks and Northern Pintails. A few distant shots of them were all i could manage.

Bar-headed Goose Anser indicus

Bar-headed Goose Anser indicus

Bar-headed Geese Anser indicus along with a few Northern Pintails Anas acuta in flight

We drove down yet again to the Bandipur Reception area where I met a friend who told us a few birding locations, after driving for about 20 minutes, I spotted none other than our target bird hovering quite low, it was the majestic Black Eagle, a raptor not so easy to photograph, anyway all we could manage were a few shots of this bird in flight.

Black Eagle Ictinaetus malaiensis in flight

As the evening safari began, we were exited as we had found two sets of fresh pug marks, one of a female and the other of a male. We drove around quite a bit, but in vain, no cats were to be seen. We did find a few Crested Serpent Eagles and a beautiful Peacock on a nice open branch of which I made some photos.

Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus in Bandipur

After an early dinner we retired to our room and were deciding on where to head the next day after the Safari and checking out.

The last and final morning with only the leopard in our mind, yes the leopard, since we hadnt yet got a good photo of it from this trip, we headed into the forest for our final Bandipur drive. The safari turned out to be quite dry with a sighting of a White-eyed Buzzard in the distance. Returned to the lodge, packed our bags and checked out. We had had a great four day stay in Bandipur with some great sightings. The staff at the lodge was very helpful and friendly as ever and I cannot thank them more for their hospitality.

a male Grey Junglefowl Gallus sonneratii

White-eyed Buzzard Butastur teesa in the distance

We decided to head to Kabini from Bandipur. We had already spotted the tiger and the leopard in Bandipur, but had missed out on the other carnivore from there, the Dhole, also known as the Indian Wild Dog. The Kabini evening safari gave some lovely opportunity to spend almost 20 minutes and photograph a pack of Dholes.

A Dhole Cuon alpinus strikes a pose 

A male Dhole Cuon alpinus scent marks his territory

I must also mention that whenever we got a lot of opportunity to click baby Bonnet Macaques and Langurs, and below is one of my favorite photos ever, it shows the strong bond between the mother and the baby.

The bond, Bonnet Macaque Macaca radiata

After this nice journey into the wild it was time to say bye to Alex as we was heading to Orissa for some birding with another friend of ours. I do have a lot many more photos from this trip which I will share in the days to come, I hope you enjoyed your visit here. For suggestions and feed back do use the comment form bellow.

Alex's Photos @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexantal/
Rantel's Photos @ Rantel Pereira Photography
Anupam's (my dear friend through whom I met Alex) Photos @ Anupam Dash's Photography
Sverker's website @ Tigressa.com

For me all the days were a great learning experience thanks to Alex, especially the use of this simple to use software for sorting and filtering out raw files on the move FastPictureViewer, you can download a trial of the software from their website HERE.

EQUIPMENT USED:
Nikon D4S
Nikon D3S
Nikon 600mm F4 VR II
Nikon 70-200mm F2.8 VR

Some usefull links:

Jungle Lodges: 
2nd Floor, Shrungar Shopping Centre
M.G.Road
Bengaluru, Karnataka
Ph no.: 080 25584111
website: http://www.junglelodges.com/

Book My Lens: 
No 745, 18th Main
1st A Cross 6th Block
Koramangala
Bangalore 560 095
Ph. no: 080 41633669 / +919611234528
website: http://www.bookmylens.com/

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For tailored wildlife photography trips please get in touch at: angadachappaphotography@hotmail.com

All Images are Copyrighted Angad Achappa and may not be used in any form, website or print/online media without written permission of the Photographer. For any inquiry for the photographs please contact: angadachappaphotography@hotmail.com

Indian Elephant - a portrait in monochrome

Here is a portrait id made last year of an Indian Elephant in Kabini, Karnataka. The image was originally shot in color and later converted to Black and White in Photoshop CS3.

Indian Elephant

Canon EOS 20D + Canon EF 600mm F4 L IS USM

1/250sec, F4, ISO-800 @ 600mm

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All Images are Copyrighted Angad Achappa and may not be used in any form, website or print/online media without written permission of the Photographer. For any inquiry for the photographs please contact: angadachappaphotography@hotmail.com

a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!! :)

The legendary Gowri...

While people were busy deciding which party to head to on New Years eve, the six of us bums hadn't even decided on a place. Siting at Hotel Airlines we were busy chalking out various plans, and then it was decided, Kabini it was going to be.

Our journey began around 12:30AM as we headed of to Kabini, six of us cramped into one little car(AKA 'Hessarghatta Express').

Our first safari in the morning with some excellent skills by our naturalist Afsar 'Billicatcher' and we saw her, a majestic tigress walking across the game trail. A fantastic moment for all of us. It was even more special for Aditya & Ajay as they had been dying to see a tiger in South India their entire life(26 years to be precise)! While Vinay V, Vivek and I could only enjoy the moment, Vinay L, our champion photographer managed to get an image o her, and what an image it was. You can see the image HERE.

I only managed to get a few images of a Crested Serpent Eagle and a young Tusker.

A young Tusker in Kabini

An Indian Elephant calf at Kabini baby elephant

The evening safari had the regular sightings such as Spotted Deer, Elephants and Sambar Deers. What a way it was to end 2011. A tiger sighting on our last day of the year.

We decided to spend the first day of 2012 in Bandipur, and what a decision it was. Another Tiger. This time it was Gowri, the legendry tigress from Bandipur. She has successfully raised 8 cubs to adults in the last 2 years.

Tigress(Gowri) at Bandipur

Another image of Gowri

Thank you boys for making this New Years special!!

All the images in this post were shot with a Canon EOS 20D & a Canon EF 600mm F4 L IS USM, while Vinay's image was shot with a Nikon D3S & a Nikon AF-S Nikkor 600mm f/4G ED VR

A tip for amateur photographers: Please do not use your flash inside the forest!!

Links for images/reports from the blog:
Ajay's Blogpost
Vinay L Photography
Vinay Venugopals photograph
Vivek Kumar's photograph

Click HERE for my previous Kabini Trip report and images

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All Images are Copyrighted Angad Achappa and may not be used in any form, website or print/online media without written permission of the Photographer. For any inquiry for the photographs please contact: angadachappaphotography@hotmail.com

Kabini Calling!!

After traveling to most of the Tiger Reserves in Karnataka, there was still one left to be ticked off the list, Kabini.

The backwaters of Kabini, which adjoins the Nagarhole National Park is a heaven for any wildlife photographer. After coming across a lot of leopard photographs from the region, i knew this was where i would make my first ever leopard image. Kabini is also famous for its large congregation of elephants during summers.

A leopard resting on top of a tree in Kabini

The leopard grooms herself before setting off for the night

On the 10th of December along with Sagarika, Sandeep, Suman and Prasana, we left Bangalore at 7AM and headed for The Serai, in Kabini. We checked in at our resort just short of lunch and were introduced to the GM Mr. Ashwin Pinto, who gave us a brief introduction about the resort and also about Kabini. From the time we arrived, we were all exited about the jungle safari that was just an hour away and it is in that very Safari towards the end that we found her sitting on a tree. I was thrilled, my very first safari in Kabini and id got my leopard image. My trip was made.

The night was spent chatting with the others over dinner.

The next day we opted for the jungle safari again in the morning and the boat safari in the evening. The morning safari yielded some fantastic sightings in the form a Malabar Flying Squirrel in broad daylight. It is quite rare to see them during the day as they are mainly nocturnal. We also came across a huge tusker on the banks at Sunset Point.

A tusker enjoys a mud-bath on the banks of Kabini Backwaters

A tusker on the banks of Kabini Backwaters

The evening boat ride yielded some very good elephant herd sightings. Kabini Backwaters is also home to a large number of Ospreys.

An Osprey at Kabini Backwaters

Crested Serpent Eagle

The next day before it was time to leave, we went for a short nature walk along the banks of the Kabini Backwaters with the head naturalist Mr. Kuttappan who showed us quite a few birds. The highlight of which for me was the Blue-tailed Bee Eater.

Blue-tailed Bee Eater

Wild boar in the backwaters

A sambar deer grazing along the banks

I must take some time out to thank Mr. Ashwin Pinto, the GM at the The Serai, Kabini, who was kind enough to help us plan the trip.

Some more images from the trip:

That's me photographing elephants at Kabini during the boat safari

Tusker along the banks

Common Kingfisher

Sunset at Kabini

We stayed at The Serai. Do visit their website for more details: http://www.theserai.in/en/in-the-waterfront.html

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All Images are Copyrighted Angad Achappa and may not be used in any form, website or print/online media without written permission of the Photographer. For any inquiry for the photographs please contact: angadachappaphotography@hotmail.com

Bandipur - 14th November, 2009

Had been waiting for quite some time to go to Bandipur(which happens to be one of my favourite places on earth). Also needed to test the Canon EOS 1D MkII which i recently got. While the initial plan was to make a days trip alone, Vivek at a later stage decided to join me.
We left Bangalore around 5:15AM, took a KSRTC bus from Bangalore to Mysore, as some of the conductors and drivers at the bus stand told us to take a bus from Bangalore to Mysore and then catching a Ooty bound bus, instead of waiting for the direct Ooty buses. Slept most of the journey, but spotted a few Black-headed Ibis, Black Ibis, Indian Rollers and a Crested Serpent Eagle. Reached Mysore and immediately got a bus heading to Ooty, most of these buses stop at Bandipur check-post or the reception area, we got of at the reception. The time being 10:30AM, we had missed the morning safaris, which are around 6:30AM, and were too early for the evening rounds(start at 4:00PM). Spoke to the receptionist about the different safari options, and we were told that they didn't have the jeep safari option and that we could take only the van/minibus safari.
The small canteen near the reception area didn't have food ready, so on enquiring about food we were told to ask some of the locals, one of the tribal ladies agreed to prepare food for the two of us at a very reasonable Rs. 20/- per person. She informed us that food would be served around 1:00-1:30PM.
Having roughly 2-2 1/2 hours before lunch, we decided to walk around a bit and look for the common birds found around the reception area.
The whether wasn't really on our side and kept drizzling, hence we saw almost no birds, which was pretty disappointing.
Vivek who took a fascination towards ants had plenty to photograph.
The photograph on the right is that of Vivek in action. Considering the gloomy weather, i guess i should have also tried some macro photography.





After quite a bit of walking around, i finally spotted a few Common/Hanuman Langurs and decided to photograph them. Made a few decent images of these langurs, especially of one juvenile.

At one instance the baby langur actually came upto me and touched my lens(damn Vivek, why didn't you take a pic of that). Stopped clicking after about 45 mins, as lunch was ready. The lunch(rice, sambar & rasam) was awesome. I just love homely food!! :)

Done with lunch, we headed towards a few benches and plonked ourselves there for some rest. The weather was slightly chilly and kept drizzling on and off. Out of nowhere we heard this loud trumpeting sound, on looking around we saw the tamed tusker being given his daily bath at a small pond nearby. Took a few pics:


Around 3:30PM we went and stood at the ticket counter so that we could get the front row seats. The counter opens at 4:00PM. Bought the tickets and waited for the safari to begin. At first we hardly saw anything, towards the end of the first safari we saw a few spotted deer, a few peacocks & peahens. I decided to photograph one instance where two male spotted deer were standing next to each other, i guess they had just fought, as on checking the photos later found one of the males had a cut on its face(most probably by the other male).
Also saw aGreen Sandpiper, first timer for me.
During the entire safari it was raining. No more sightings during this safari, not even Crested Serpent Eagles that we usually find on all our safaris.













After the first rather disappointing safari, we were contemplating on whether to take the next safari. Having nothing to loose, except Rs. 95 on for the ticket we took the next safari. Saw the same spotted deer, peacocks & peahens. After about 20min we were behind two
jeeps belonging to Tusker Trail lodge. The jeep right in front suddenly came to a halt, and we just about managed to see a pair of sloth bears in front, while the driver of the jeep didn't budge, i was totally disapointed and frustrated as the bears were in the open and i might just have been able to make a nice image of two bears(not very common). Only after the bears ran into the bushes did the driver finally move ahead. At the end of this safari, i was really pissed at that stupid driver, because of whom i didnt get a shot at those bears. He could easily have moved a few meters ahead. This way all three vehicles would have had a clear view.

With the rains and gloomy weather, and poor light, it really wasn't a field test for the new Canon EOS 1D MkII, this will probably have to wait till the rain gods show some mercy!!
Around 6:45PM we caught a bus coming from Coimbatore and headed to Gundalpet, from where we took a bus to Mysore, and then another to Bangalore. Reached Majestic bus stand by 11:45PM. Hopefully shall be back in the forest soon. :)

Lastly i am a photographer, not a writer, so please pardon the mistakes. ;)


All Images are Copyrighted Angad Achappa and may not be used in any form,website or print media without written permission of the Photographer. For any inquiry for the photographs please contact: angadachappaphotography@hotmail.com