  After an exhausting expedition to the north east and central Indian wildlife hot spots last month, I had saved time, money and interest for the spectacle of the season – The Annual elephant migration to Kabini. Frequent trips to the backwaters during April and May was what I had decided to do and try my luck in order to capture some action of the gentle giants of the Nilgiri biosphere. Last year during this season, I spent a lot of time in Kabini. With better photography equipment this year, I was eager to revisit this heavenly place as soon as possible.
 Super light falling on a small family of elephants was one of the first real opportunities I got to experiment with this relatively new setup in the Kakanakote backwaters. Within a few minutes the golden light vanished and a conspiring cloud laughed at me. A very young calf probably a few weeks old rushed towards its mother and started sucking milk. Delighted by the rare sighting and with decent exposures of the family I checked out of that location.
 Not far away from that spot, yet another herd of three adults and a tiny calf were contemplating a move across the banks of the river. Our presence in the place persuaded them to go ahead and swim across the river in order to reach the lush green grass on the tiny island. Just as the giants reached the tiny island, the breeding birds of that place started yelling at the unwelcome visitors. River terns which normally nest on the rocks and ground were petrified by the intrusion of three large elephants around their nesting site. A pair of River terns created a ruckus and chased the humongous creatures away. Elephants caught between the yelling terns and jeeps were stranded in between. They moved away from the river tern’s nesting site and stood at the edge of the island. After a while the noisy terns let the elephants carry on. After spending time near a makhana (Adult male elephants without tusk) and a huge tusker, the day ended with some average pictures and decent elephant sightings.
  Morning safaris are always dicey in Kabini. On most occasions I use this only for birding and rarely a cat or elephants show up here. It is surprising the way these large mammals stay inside without getting noticed in the mornings and as the heat of the day increases they walk out towards the shores of Kabini. After an hour we spotted vultures hanging around the right side of the track and we assumed there was a kill nearby. Very near from there we stopped at the Tiger Tank for a while and enjoyed the active langurs play around. I love to shoot langurs back lit in the mornings or early evenings which provide a good platform to experiment with light. Just while the ordinary morning safari was about to end, I had a close sighting of the brain fever bird (Common hawk cuckoo) and in the two seconds of time I got, I got two good full frame pictures of the bird I was seeing so close for the first time. Hearing the noisy shutter, the bird flew away in a jiffy, but not before I had captured it forever.
  That evening I was the only person on the safari, which meant I could stop where ever I wanted and for as many minutes as I wished to. If I ventured with tourists, I would bore them stopping at places for a long time awaiting some action. But on this day, I was happy to make use of the opportunity. Within minutes of entering the jungle, we spotted a well fed python at a distance of 100 feet. His abdomen was bulged suggesting he had a hefty meal. Just next to this spot was a herd of at least twenty elephants. Amidst them was a tiny calf very well protected by his mother and aunts. Hiding between the legs of the elders this baby elephant kept on plucking grass and fed on them.
 I ended up in the sunset point area of the Kabini backwaters and spent the next couple of hours watching a large herd of elephants here. Beautiful light and a great background to the grazing giants made me stick to this place for the rest of the day. The elephants started walking closer to me and I could no longer take full frame pictures of them. That’s when I started experimenting with different compositions of their faces and actions. One large makhna started walking towards another and both of them had a small chat. They walked out of the herd and positioned themselves at a distance.
  Gradually the discussion heated up and one makhna took the argument beyond words. He went ahead and banged the other makhna and the fight developed in to a fierce battle between the two. While one was trying to avoid the charger, the charger chased the weakling and insisted on a fight to end the argument. Every now and then they would separate from each other looking at the other and in an outburst of aggression, they would charge back towards each other and the next round continued. The battle continued till sunset and we had to take leave of them. While returning back to the camp, Kencha the forest guard was walking towards us on the main road. This brave hearted guy has already been injured by an elephant before. (Read more here). He stood next to a place showing signs and calling us to the spot quickly. We rushed and he was standing 15 feet away from a sloth bear. The bear walked inside the bushes slowly enabling us to end the day with a special sighting.
 One morning, I was photographing another herd of elephants near the ‘president’s road’ area. I was shocked to see a villager on top of a bamboo thicket trying to chop something off. As soon as he noticed my presence he turned back, got below and vanished inside the bushes. I was wondering what he was doing there and I spoke to the ACF of the area who in turn immediately sent some guards to that area to keep a tab on what was happening. Later that evening, just as I entered the forest, 4 villagers who were conspiring something ran helter shelter seeing my jeep. I was wondering what’s wrong with Kabini; the villagers have started intruding in day light. The ACF thanked us for alerting him, while we hoped not to see such men inside again.
  A nice evening safari ended up with a rare sambar herd sighting in the open. Very rarely I have come across sambars in the open grassland here and I made use of the opportunity to get some nice shots of them. Just while we were about to end the safari and reach the camp, a couple of vehicles from jungle lodges vehicles were watching something on the right side of the track. Shivappa (my naturalist) and I were surprised to see a sloth bear digging the ground for termites hardly 50 feet away on the left of the track. We over took the jeeps which were ignorant of the bear and had a lovely 10 minute sighting of yet another sloth bear on a successive day. Thrilled by the bonus yet again, we got back to camp. The final morning was a super disaster with all the resorts full and vehicles moving in and out of every track.
  I reached Mysore and decided to spend some time with the Blue-tailed bee eaters which are breeding around here. A maiden visit to their place made me realize I badly had to hide myself in order to take better pictures of them. I went to the spot yet again with a hide and waited for them to approach me. The ignorant bee eaters came very and provided me ample opportunities to take full frame pictures of them. The Blue-tailed Bee-eaters breeds in farmlands, parks or fields. It is most often seen near large water bodies. They predominantly eat insects, especially bees, wasps and hornets, which are caught. The insect that are caught are beaten on the perch to kill and break the exoskeleton.
  Thinking about elephants at Kabini, I think during this time of the year going there is a must for any nature lover. Though most people whom I met in Kabini were disappointed that they hadn’t seen any cats and were bored of seeing elephants, I think the serious nature lover or the one who appreciates wildlife as a whole will most probably agree that sighting such number of elephants in the open and so candid is not something that is possible all through out the year, anywhere else and even in Kabini after the summer. So there’s still some time left, get there and succumb to the gentle giant enraptures. Happy Wildlifing!
Birds and Animals Sighted
*** Birds ***
1. Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis)
2. Oriental Turtle Dove (Streptopelia orientalis)
3. Yellow-footed Green Pigeon (Treron phoenicoptera)
4. Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)
5. Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus)
6. Red-vented Bulbul, (Pycnonotus cafer)
7. Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela)
8. Grey Jungle fowl (Gallus sonneratii)
9. Blue-faced malkoha (Phaenicophaeus viridirostris)
10. Common Hawk-cuckoo (Cuculus varius)
11. Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba yarrellii)
12. Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis)
13. Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis)
14. Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)
15. Greater Coucal (Centropus sinensis)
16. Shikra (Accipiter badius)
17. Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)
18. Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)
19. Intermediate Egret or Yellow-billed Egret, (Ardea intermedia)
20. Changeable Hawk eagle (Spizaetus cirrhatus)
21. Red-whiskered Bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus)
22. Jungle Crow (Corvus macrorhynchos)
23. House Crow (Corvus splendens)
24. Greater Racket-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus)
25. Asian Openbill Stork (Anastomus oscitans)
26. Lesser Adjutant Stork (Leptoptilos javanicus)
27. Paddyfield Pipit (Anthus rufulus)
28. Red-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus)
29. White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis)
30. Hoopoe (Upupa epops)
31. Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis)
32. Jungle Myna (Acridotheres fuscus)
33. Grey-headed Fish Eagle (Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus)
34. Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)
35. River Tern (Sterna aurantia)
36. Black-bellied tern (Sterna acuticauda)
37. Green Bee-eater (Merops orientalis)
38. Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops philippinus)
39. Malabar Lark (Galerida malabarica)
40. Red Spurfowl (Galloperdix spadicea)
** Mammals **
1. Asiatic Elephants (Elephas Maximus)
2. Gaur (Bos gaurus)
3. Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus)
4. Sambar (Cervus Unicolor)
5. Grey Langur (Semnopithecus hypoleucos)
6. Bonnet Macaque (Macaca radiata)
7. Wild Boar (Sus scrofa)
8. Chital (Axis axis)
*** Reptiles ***
1. Indian Python
Last edited by Jayanth Sharma on Mon May 14, 2007 7:10 pm; edited 1 time in total
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