Tuesday 23 August 2011

Kabini Explored

As always the case, it had been a while since my visit to the Jungles, my last trip there being the Brahmagiri Trek. So when a trip to Kabini JLR was suggested I quickly agreed. Luckily since it was a weekday the tents were available.

Left at 6 from Bangalore and other than for breakfast there were no stops or breaks in the journey. The last 12 Kms stretch to JLR was a nightmare to drive as the roads are very badly maintained.

But once I reached JLR itself all that was quickly forgotten and I was excited to be there. I had vague memories of Kabini JLR, from my visit here in my teens, but the property looked prettier than what I remembered.

Since I was hungry, quickly dumped my bags and headed for lunch. The food like in all JLR properties was awesome, simple and tasty. After tucking in more than the usual amount of food, I was ready to explore JLR.

The gardens were in bloom and this gave me a chance to capture butterflies, spiders and bees.



Time seemed to have passed really quickly and soon it was safari time.

With great expectation we boarded the jeeps. Of course the hope is always there that we get to see the cats, but I had also requested for stops when any bird was spotted. I didn’t know then that the naturalist in the jeep (Shivanand) was a great spotter and knew names of birds and animals.

Encounters with wildlife started right in JLR, the gardeners handed over snakes in a bottle to be left in the forest. Shivanand pointed out birds as the jeep drove past them

Once in the reserve Spotted Deer/Chitals and Langurs were plenty, there was a lone guar near a watering hole who posed for a while. Then there was an elephant that crossed the road. As we drove along, another jeep from the forest department mentioned spotting a Leopard going for a drink at GK bunk. We quickly headed in that direction, drove around for sometime, but with no luck. The other spotting that evening was another lone female elephant and sambar.

Back in the resort, hot pakodas and coffee gave me company as I read a book. Dinner was again very good and I ate more than my share.

The safari next day started at 6:15, initial sightings were only birds, but as we got closer to water we got to see some elephants and strip necked mongoose.

The highlight of that safari was seeing the Crested Hawk Eagle at close quarters. It was a beautiful bird that let us watch him for good 5 mins. The other bird I was excited about was the pygmy woodpecker. It was so small it mistook it was a warbler till Shivanand pointed it out.

Back from the safari took a short boat ride and once done with breakfast, I was ready to leave. Since the sun was out there were a lot of butterflies around so spent time chasing them. And then I was back on the road to Bangalore. So ended a peaceful trip into the wild.

More Pictures in the Link below

https://picasaweb.google.com/110258699064065442660/Kabini?authkey=Gv1sRgCMPbh5qrmtXeSw#

List of Birds

  1. Crested Serpent Eagle
  2. Crested Hawk Eagle
  3. Black Kite
  4. Brahminy Kite
  5. Black Shouldered Kite
  6. Jungle Crow
  7. House Crow
  8. Greater Coucal
  9. Asian Koel (Female)
  10. Little Cormorant
  11. Little Grebe
  12. Little Egret
  13. Purple Moorehen
  14. Common Moorehen
  15. Common Coot
  16. Spot Billed Duck
  17. Pheasant tailed jacana
  18. Black Ibis
  19. White Ibis
  20. Common Hawk Cuckoo
  21. Cuckoo Shrike
  22. Pied Cuckoo
  23. Racket Tail Drongo
  24. White Bellied Dronga
  25. Black Drongo
  26. Flamebacked Woodpecker
  27. Streak throated Woodpecker
  28. Pygmy Woodpecker
  29. Imperial pigeon
  30. Laughing Dove
  31. Spotted Dove
  32. Green Bee Eater
  33. Chestnut Headed Bee Eater
  34. Orange Headed Thrush
  35. Blue Winged Parakeet
  36. Ashy prinia
  37. Pied Bush Chat
  38. Scaly Breast Munia
  39. White Throated Kingfisher
  40. Peafowl
  41. Great Tit
  42. Nut hatch
  43. Purple Heron
  44. Pond Heron
  45. Jungle Babbler
  46. Red wattled lapwing
  47. Grey Jungle Fowl
  48. Painted stork
  49. Grey hornbill
  50. Magpie Robin
  51. Pied Wagtail
  52. Jungle Myna
  53. Hill Myna

5 comments:

  1. Kabini never disappoints either in the form of wildlife or bird life or just simply the green forests... truly a wonderful place to be :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful narration and nice pics!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amazing and useful blog page. Thanks for posting this. It’s useful and useful. Keep up the excellent.
    Resorts near kabini

    ReplyDelete