The birds I saw- Great hornbill.

I missed seeing him in the last three trips of mine. First one was to Pachakkanam -Joseph's uncle's cardamom estate deep inside Periyar tiger reserve- in Oct-08, then two subsequent trips to Valparai. The Valparai trip had given us amazing sightings of the endagered Lion-tailed macaque and the the Nilgiri Tahr. We reached the estate on our second trip- December 09 and Joseph's uncle remarked that our timing couldnt have been better- there were a couple of Giant hornbills coming to a fig tree behind the estate every day. We walked out to have a look and were greeted by a loud 'Kok' call - undeniably the hornbills. This loud call gives him his Malayalam name - Malamuzhakki or he who makes the mountains reverberate. And undeniably he is the state bird of Kerala. We saw them take off elegantly from the trees and disappear higher up into the canopy, and all of us were thrilled to the core....

After our lunch we decided to climb up to the tree where these chaps were supposed to be feeding. It was a leech infested path and most of us got bitten. Finally we reached the top of the climb, but there were no hornbills. We walked off further, and had some sightings of a crested serpent eagle, some white bellied treepies etc. On our way back, I noticed a huge black and white bird on the same fig tree. And then as it turned its head, there was this huge yellow beak, that was revealed to us. It was sitting on the tree, quite close to the road. We set up our tripods and cameras and started firing away. There was a second one sitting on another branch, probably his mate. The rich yellow beak and casque had pink tips, and overall the birds looked in the pink of health as well.He entertained us for a while, and took off with his mate, and sat on a tree further away. As he flew off, his wings made a loud flapping noise that sounded like a whiplash. We moved on, thanking god for this wonderful sighting.

Great Hornbills (Buceros bicornis) mate for life and during times of laying eggs, he seals the female inside a tree hole with mud and his saliva, leaving just her beak out. And he feeds here day in and day out as she lays eggs and hatches them. Once the kids are hatched, the male (mostly malnourished by now)helps in opening the hole and letting the fattened female out. In most cases, if the male hornbill dies in the hand of hunters/ through some other means while the female is nesting, invariably the female dies of hunger as well.

Our second sighting came a day later as we were driving along the forest road, to the estate. Nikhil, our expert sighter noticed something dark in the horizon, flying towards us. We stopped the car and got down. There was a hornbill couple, flying really high, but they being so huge, identifying them wasnt difficult. And the swooshing sound of the wingsweeps were still audible, resonating in the silence of the forest. And they disappeared into the canopy somewhere higher up.

The last spotting was on the last day of our stay in Pachakkanam, when we decided to go back to the hornbill tree. They were there again, picking berries, tossing them up and swallowing them and preening themselves. An estate worker told us that early in the morning, at around 6 am, there would be quite a few of them on the tree, but the others go off later in the day. The duo gave us some more poses and took off from the tree half an hour later. By then we had our hearts and memory cards full of visions of this amazing bird!

Copyright Sandeep Somasekharan, 2009

Migrant watch- the new season begins.

The kestrels are all over the place here in Mysore. The week before last I had my first Kestrel sighting outside Infosys Mysore- it was a lady soaring high over the outer wall. And that saturday I roamed about the outskirts of Mysore and saw a couple of them. Couldnt make a decent shot though. But in the evening, in the golden light, I did manage to get hold of one of them!

I would have managed a better shot, had the sun not have hidden himself behind a cloud a minute earlier. This lady was sitting on a log, and we got our car parallel to her at about 3 meters from here. The shots were comign out blurred as the engine was idling and there was no direct sunlight. I asked Nikhil to switch off the engine. But as he switched it off, the car gave a beep and unlocked the doors- hearing which she got startled and flew off! Bad luck!!!

Copyright Sandeep Somasekharan, 2009

I beg you... not to feed me.

A large concrete board that you see while entering Mudumalai- en route to Ooty, featuring a Nilgiri Langur's face, has this line written on it. "I beg you... not to feed me". I, my friend Prasanna, and our wives were on the way to Ooty. The primary intention was to get a few clicks of the flycatcher birds there. As we entered Mudumalai, there was the aforementioned board that attracted our attention. We discussed at length on the same. The most plausible reason that we could think of was that animals would get dependant on the easy food that they get from the tourists who drive through, and lose their natural feeding skills. We discussed at length other reasons. It could as well have been because unaccustomed food like chips and other fried items could upset the stomachs of these creatures. But to realize another major danger, we had to wait till our return trip.

On our way back, somewhere near the Bandipur safari camp, there were monkeys all over the road-side. Both Hanuman langurs as well as the common Indian bonnet macaque - the ones you find near temples etc. There was a qualis right ahead of us, crammed with family members and the rear window area showcasing piled up food baskets. They started throwing out bread crumbs out of the windows, all over the road. All the monkeys were on the crumbs in an instant, and in a moment, there were monkeys all over the road, right in front of us. Thankfully, we were driving at a low speed, and the monkeys picked the food and scampered off from just in front of the bonnet, without any being hit. And I saw a little one pick a piece of bread right from near the front wheel, and it was really its luck that its hand didn't get trapped under the wheel. The mindless, though gracious act of city dwellers nearly caused greivious injury to innocent wild animals.

A few feet ahead, we saw this group of Hanuman langurs, and one of them had a bad, fresh injury on his shoulder, which I used my tele to get a shot of. God knows if it was because of scrambling for food on the road, in front of incoming traffic...

But to those of you who read this, PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT FEED Wild animals while you pass thorough forest roads.

Copyright Sandeep Somasekharan, 2009