Nilgiris! - October 1st to 6th

October 01, We, (Sumit, Ramki, Swarna & Myself) left Bangalore by road to Bhandipura via Kanakapura and Mysore. The "Harohalli" lake had plenty of "Pheasant-tailed Jacanas". We made a quick stop at Mysore at the Karanji Lake. This is a protected lake right next to the Zoo. Here one can see a lot of fish dependent birds as there is no fishing by man! It was fun photographing the Darter that springs up to the surface with a huge fish in its beak now and then.

We met up with Harsha at Bhandipur. Couple of rounds in the forest yielded all the usual herbivores like Elephant, Guar, Sambar, Spotted Deer, Wild Boar and Indian Muntjac. Plenty of birds too!

October 02, we drove to Ooty for lunch. Birding and photography all the way. We spent the next two nights at the Kurumba Village Resort near Coonoor. At this Resort you cannot miss the Black-throated Munia. On the 4th Morning, Sumit and myself did what Swarna and Ramki did the previous day. We drove up to a place called “Dodda Betta” where one can always find the Nilgiri Laughingthrush. We had fun shooting these birds in a place which is flooded by hundreds of Tourists all day, each day!

October 4th and 5th night we spent at Anamalais with Suraj (Swarna left for Bangalore by train) who had made all the arrangements. Pornima a doctorial student from FRI was of great help. We had a superb breakfast followed by an even better lunch at her place at Top Slip. (Thanks Poori!)

Sumit, Ramki and Myself were shooting all the time ! Though these were places I had visited before, I did mange to get a few “better” images !

Regards,

Vijay Cavale

October, 2005