Wildlife Photography

[hvj1]

Gentlemen
It gives me tremendous pleasure and happiness to see all of you, posting such beautiful photographs. Its a sunday morning and this IFG addict switched on at 7.00 am to get his daily dose and what a surprise. Thanks once again to all ye gents for making this thread so refreshingly positive, first thing in the morning. By the way Rajat, we would really appreciate, if you could give us a short commentary on each of your photographs, like where, when, how etc?
Regards

[prashantsingh]

All this while I was waiting for Rajat to post. He is one nature lover.
Looks like these snaps are from the state I live in. Uttarakhand. Lovely snaps of the Kakar,Cheetal and Elephants.The other day I was driving down from Rishikesh and saw a Kakar by the side of the road at about 10 yards. Unfortunately did not have my camera that day.

[xl_target]

Very Nice Rajat!
More details please.

[Vikram]

Rajat,

Some very nice photos there.Thank you for sharing.

Best-
Vikram

[Rajat]

My friends, thanks for the warm and generous response. Actually I had been thinking of posting these photographs for quite some time now but finally I could and from your response I am glad I did. These photos are more than a year old now and come from my trip to Uttarakhand. It was a good guess, you are right Prashant!

Hvj and Xl here are the details:

More specifically these are from the Jim Corbett National Park and the stretch starting from Ramnagar and closer to Mohaan (a small village), Sitabani, Dhikala & the surrounding area. It was somewhere around the first week of June.

The lone road that you see in the first two pics is the road to Sitabani at 6AM in the morning. It was a beautiful experience I still remember how peaceful it was and everything was so fresh and green. The dry river bed was also somewhere en route; you can come across quite a few of these in this area.

The river that you see the next is the Kosi near Mohaan, the small stream I am guessing is one of the tributaries of the Ramganga. The other two pictures of the river are of the Ramganga at very different points, the second one is from Dhikala and you can also see an elephant on the left side bathing in the river.

The wildlife:

You can see anthills over most of this area. This particular one that you see in the picture was also from the morning trip.

We saw many deer but I was able of get a clear picture of the lone deer that you see in the picture with a peacock on the distance. These are the solitary kind, we never even saw two together at any time during our wanderings. They are also very shy. Quite unlike the Cheetal. This species of deer is the Indian Muntjac or the Muntiacus muntjak most commonly known as the Kakar or the Barking deer. These animals are incredibly alert and upon being alarmed make a very loud sound. You cannot really call it barking but it really is very loud and you can often hear it in this area and once they start they keep on at it for a couple of minutes and others nearby follow suit. At first it was hard to believe that this loud sound originated from this small deer!

The Cheetal or the Axis deer (Axis Axis) can be spotted almost everywhere alone, in twos, threes but more often in herds like in the picture. This particular picture is from Dhikala.

When we were going around in Dhikala there were tall Sal trees all around and then all of a sudden there was a break and we came upon the plains: the grasslands and the elephants!

It is the same tusker that you see in the two pictures. We came head on with it on the dirt trail and it was a big one. I think it was not even aware that we were in its way and we had to make a hasty retreat!! It was Magnificent!!

As you see in the pictures from the grasslands there were a lot of elephants here in herds or just wandering around. They were the least bothered about the humans intruding in their territory as long as there were not too many or get too close I guess.

All in all it was a wonderful experience and I am glad that we decided to go to Corbett. I would gladly go there again and spend a few days. From what we had noticed Corbett is just a one day stop for most people traveling in this area. This is what we had planned too. After two days we moved on to Nainital (the plan was to move on further to other places) but after staying at Corbett the crowd at Nainital came as a shock. Do not get me wrong, it was a beautiful place but not really for us I guess and not after staying away in the wilderness, far from the madding crowd. We had reached Nainital in the evening and the next morning we gave up all other plans and returned back to Corbett and stayed there for the remaining part of our vacation and it was even better than before!

Well that’s about it guys! Thanks for the patience.

[hvj1]

Hey Rajat,
Thanks for the info, hope you have many more such holidays, which can be shared with us.
Best Regards

[prashantsingh]

The Terai Arc landscape between Yamuna and Sharda rivers is called the Rajaji-Corbett Conservation Unit.
Corbett as we all known was re-named after the legandary hunter turned conservationist Jim (Edward James) Corbett. It was earlier called Haileys National Park and is the oldest National Park in India.

Rajaji National park is named after the first and only Indian Governor General.
Legand has it that Rajagopalachari visted Dehradun in 1948 and was invited for a hunt in one of the blocks. On seeing the unspoiled beauty of the area he refused to hunt and asked the authorities to conserve it instead. In 1983 the Rajaji National Park covering an area of about 800 sq kms was formed.

The dry river beds are seasonal rivers. They fill up during the rainy season (July, Aug and Sept) The cosways are submerged and the National Parks and closed for the season.Every year vehicles are washed away by these rivers.

You will often find a Kakar close to large herds of Cheetal. They are the watchdogs and an ideal example of how one species helps the other. Langur monkeys can often be seen closeby. Perched on the trees they have a birds eye view of approaching danger.On my last visit I actually saw a group of langurs shaking the trees and dropping fruits for a Cheetal herd feeding below.

Rajat :
[ I think it (the elephant) was not even aware that we were in its way and we had to make a hasty retreat ]

Put a man (unarmed) with an inflated Ego infront of an Elephant or a Tiger in the Indian jungle and he will belittled. Such is the beauty and majesty of these powerful animals.

[faisal]

Nice snaps Naga and Vikram.What species of deer are those Naga. Look like swamp deer from a distance.

"Birds of the same feather, flock together."
Here's the most beautiful of all migratory ducks...."SURKHAAB".
Brahminy Shelduck

dear prashantsingh ji. nice pictures.

I am always confused in this name and need experts' opinions. This name is the combination of two Urdu words "Surkh" ( Dark Red) + "Aab" (water), like Punjab (Five waters or rivers). In most parts of India this bird is called by the same name, though it is Brown instead of Red. I think this name fits on Flamingos, cause when their flocks fly over water, it looks like water became red due to reflection of their inner feathers, and also I heard in some parts of U.P. flamingos are called Surkhaab.
sorry if I am mistaken.

[Rajat]

I will definitely share whenever I get the opportunity Hvj.

Thanks for the additional information Prashant. Just want to say this: Not everyone gets to live where you are living. Enjoy every day you live there (I know you do ), it is a blessing. I once told you this earlier and am repeating it again: I love this place. In fact I love all such places with abundant wildlife, free of the city crowds and negative human influence but this place holds a special place in my heart.

Put a man (unarmed) with an inflated Ego infront of an Elephant or a Tiger in the Indian jungle and he will belittled. Such is the beauty and majesty of these powerful animals.

I know, the deflation is very quick. Our egos (mine and the tusker's) did not clash, there was no competition he had the right of the way. I was just trying to get a good picture. In fact he got very close to us, I was also trying to record a video and he was closer to us than what appears in the picture.

The reason I was able to get some good pictures (I think) was because we were not zooming around in the Gypsies and did not cause much disturbance to the animals. The fast Gypsies rides are really for thrill seekers rather than for people who want to soak it all in.

By the way the equipment used and was a modest Sony Cybershot with just a 3X zoom. I travel light and usually do not carry my SLR everywhere.

[hvj1]

Finally got some time to shoot this duck season. Mind You, a few years ago, all these ducks would have been actually shot DEAD! This is more fun now, yeah a simple case of sau chuhe khake billi challe haj

[Rajat]

Great shoot Hvj! How much time did you spend over this and how many rounds did you have to fire in all to get this pick? I really like the flying ducks.

Bird photography is really the most difficult of all and you are getting good at this.

Now, what will we see next?

[grewal]

A visit to Kanha.

[Rajat]

Beautiful pictures! You got the Tiger, in fact 2 of em, and the Gaur too!!

[grewal]

You got the Tiger, in fact 2 of em,

Actually we were so lucky that we saw 4 tigers in different occasions on the same day.

[Vikram]

HVJ and Grewal, super pictures there.

Grewal, noticed the skeleton of some animal in the second picture? I absolutely loved the Baby Gaur. .Cute.But the adult Gaur,one of the most awe inspiring creatures on earth.

Best-
Vikram