Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Kanha...contd.
Kanha
On reaching the park in the noon, we had our lunch and got ready for the afternoon safari. Within half an hour of the start of the safari we were lucky enough to see a male tiger resting under the shade of the tree. It was difficult to see the tiger with the naked eyes so had to use binocs and due to the limitation of the camera lens it was impossible to capture it. But seeing a tiger in the wild for the second time was a wonderful experience. First time I saw the tiger in the terai jungles of Dudhwa. The glimpse of the tiger was breath taking. At that time I could hear my heartbeats clearly…no sound was heard except that of my heart with my gaze fixed on the tiger while everything blurred out in the surrounding with sweat trickling down by back. The feeling didn’t repeat again this time because of the distance between the tiger n me was much greater than the last time. We waited for the tiger to rise from its slumber…which didn’t happened as the heat of the day had made him dull. The sun was setting and silhouette of the herd of gaurs could be seen grazing in the horizon. A large number of tourists were eagerly waiting for the tiger to rise but the tiger seemed not to be in a mood to entertain his guests. Soon there was movement of vehicles and on the other side of the road a yellow spot was seen moving in the grass. It was a tigress as a male will not cross the territory of another male without getting into conflict as they are solitary animals. And it was the mating period of the tigers so the female had the free pass to enter their territories. This tigress was collared. Seeing too much movement she sat under a thorny bush for a while and waited for the humans to disperse so that she could cross the road. After seeing that the people had no intention of leaving the road, she entered a narrow water stream and crossed the road. The vehicles were parked on the road which didn’t bother the tigress at all. The increasing number of tourist vehicles entering the park had made them habitual of the human presence which was not so in Dudhwa. It was almost dark when we started for the forest rest house. On our way back two jungle cats jumped in front of the jeep. For few minutes they played in the light of the jeep and then disappeared into the darkness, the way they had come.
Next morning we started early for the safari. While looking at the spotted deer, sambhar, swamp deer and gaur which were a common siting in the park premises… four elephants were also seen. There are no wild elephants in the
A very interesting phenomenon was observed while taking snaps of the grazers. To capture the front view of them…our guide used to mimic the mating call of the tiger to get their attention. On hearing the call they would look at the direction from where the call was coming from. But in case of wild boar they would not look in the direction of the call but would just freeze in the position they were in. This was very interesting on the part of boars. May be it was due to the thick short neck of the boar which hinders the movement of head.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
IIT Kanpur Resident Aves
- Indian Peafowl
- Lesser Whistling Duck
- Comb Duck
- Spot Billed Duck
- Cotton Pygmy Goose(Cotton Teal)
- Northern Pintail
- Black-Rumped Flameback(Golden Flamebck)
- Brown Headed Barbet
- Coppersmith
- Indian Gray Hornbill
- Common Hoopoe
- Indian Roller
- White Throated Kingfisher
- Pied Kingfisher
- Common Kingfisher
- Green Bee-eater
- Blue Tailed Bee-eater
- Common Hawk Cuckoo(Brainfever)
- Asian Koel
- Greater Coucal
- Rose Ringed Parakeet
- Plum Headed Parakeet
- Eurasian Eagle Owl
- Mottled Wood Owl
- Spotted Owlet
- Rock Pigeon
- Laughing Dove
- Spotted Dove
- Eurasian Collared Dove
- Yellow Footed Green Pigeon
- Sarus Crane
- White Breasted Waterhen
- Common Moorehen
- Marsh Sandpiper
- Green Sandpiper
- Wood Sandpiper
- Eurasian Thick-knee
- Black Winged Stilt
- Pheasant tailed Jacna
- Yellow Wattled Lapwing
- Red Wattled Lapwing
- Black Shouldered Kite
- Black Kite
- Brahminy Kite(not confirmed)
- Egyptian Vulture
- Marsh Harrier
- Shikra
- Oriental Honey Buzzard
- Little Grebe
- Great Cormorant
- Little Cormorant
- Intermediate Egret
- Cattle Egret
- Indian Pond Heron
- Great Egret
- Grey Heron
- Purple Heron
- Black Crowned Night Heron
- Black Ibis
- Painted Stork
- Asian Openbill
- Woolly-Necked Stork
- Long Tailed Shrike(plz. confirm)
- Rufous Treepie or Indian Treepie
- House Crow
- Eurasian Golden Oriole
- Large Cuckoosrke
- Black Drongo
- BlueThroat
- Oriental Magpie Robin
- Indian Robin
- Black Redstart
- Brown Rock Chat
- Pied Bushchat
- Brahminy Starling
- Asian Pied Starling
- Common Myna
- Bank Myna
- Brown Winged Starling(Aplonis grandis)
- Wire Tailed Swallow
- Plain Martin(plz. confirm)
- Red Rumped Swallow
- Red Whiskered Bulbul
- Red Vented Bulbul
- Plain Prinia
- Ashy Prinia
- Zitting Cisticola
- Jungle Babbler
- Sand Lark
- Crested Lark
- Purple Sunbird
- House Sparrow
- Chestnut-Shouldered Petronia
- Citrine Wagtail
- Yellow Wagtail
- Grey Wagtail
- White Browed Wagtail
- White Wagtail
- Black Headed Weaver
- Indian Silverbill
- Scaly Breasted Munia
- Black Headed Munia
- Common Rosefinch
Kanha National Park, March 2009
Bird Sightings
2. Black Drongo
3. Coppersmith Barbet
4. Black Shouldered Kite
5. Common Crow
6. Jungle Crow
7. Little Egret
8. Black Rumped Flameback
9. Black Hooded Oriole
10. Greater Racket-tailed Drongo
11. Inidan Roller
12. Spotted Dove
13. Oriental Magpie Robin
14. House Sparrow
15. Greater Coucal
16. Lesser Coucal
17. Rose ringed Parakeet
18. Plum headed Parakeet
19. Large Cuckooshrike
20. White Rumped Shama
21. Jungle Owlet
22. Oriental Honey Buzzard
23. Blue winged Leafbird
24. Black Ibis
25. White Eyed Buzzard
26. Turtle Dove
27. Long Tailed Shrike
28. Scarlet Minivet
29. Grey Indian Hornbill
30. Shikra
31. White Bellied Drongo
32. Grandala
33. Common Stonechat
34. Blue-capped Rock Thrush
35. Changeable Hawk Eagle
36. Sirkeer Malkoha
37. Indian Peafowl
38. Common Myna
39. Red Wattled Lapwing
40. Yellow Wattled Lapwing
41. Brown Headed Barbet
42. Red Jungle Fowl
43. White Rumped Flameback
Animal Sightings
1. Tiger
2. Leopard
3. Wild Boar
4. Sambhar
5. Spotted Deer
6. Jungle Cat
7. Barasingha
8. Gaur
9. Langur
10. Rheus Macau
11. Indian Hare
12. Jackal
13. Mongoose
Samanvaya and Abhinav visited. Hired a guide named A K Singh.
The place is damn costly, roughly 4000 rs for the safari only per day. But it's very large as compared to Dudhwa.
Worth a visit at least once :)