The owl that made the trip
This owl is the Oriental Bay Owl. People thought this bird was extinct in India till 1992 and till date only 2 – 3 birds have been spotted in India. When we actually saw the bird and started shooting, the bird was in a weird angle and we were not getting any good shots. Then the skies opened up and we had to rush to a watch tower. After the rain, Yathin and Vijay wanted to get back, but I stayed back in the forest with the guide to shoot this bird. After spending half an hour, he finally looked at me and I got my shot. Only after coming back that I realised this was the only photographic evidence of the bird till date.
Now how often does that happen ? Another rare bird I got to capture was the Srilankan frogmouth.
Since Yathin did a lovely trip report, I’ll skip mine. My Anamalais pictures are finally up.
kickass pictures.. dude.. wow.. I am in a dreamworld now :))
Funky Owl for sure:)
just checked the other snaps…awesome ones:)
Lovely pics.
Anamalais -one place on *my must soon* visit list
Now when are your snaps coming online ?
Leeches – To keep them off, just wet a soap bar and rub it all over exposed leg and let it dry. No ripping leeches off after that…
Only photographic evidence till date?!? Doesnt that make you some kind of celebrity (along with the bird, of course!) ?
ask no questions and you won’t get any lies:p
great pics!
could die for such an expedition
a life to live!!
great work!
Kallu is already a “salebrity” (KalluSpellTM). The reason why he got a snap of that owl was because it stopped to ask him for an autograph.
🙂
Fascinating pictures! the owl and the frogmouth pictures are simply awesome.. and yeah the frogmouth gives me the shivers.. like its evolution from a bird to an amphibian was abruptly halted! :O
thanks much for the wildlife fiesta! 🙂
We should do a trip sometime
I used quite a bit of salt to take them off me. But I’ll try to soap trick the next time around.
The bird sure is. That’s why it made it here :
http://www.orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?action=searchresult&Bird_ID=602
Re: could die for such an expedition
I wish I could do this all my life… sigh.
yeah! we should.. do let me know if you are planning any.. its been quite a while since I walked in the jungle.. and dude u keep clicking 😀
I’m thinking of a trip. Need a break badly. Current plan is to visit Bylakuppe for a three day weekend. Interested?
nice shot
congratulations man! thats evidence of much patience..nice shot by the way..it looks slightly dark on my monitor tho..
Re: nice shot
Is this picture better ?
Simply awesome. Its truly worth all the leech and tick bites 😉
The frogmouth bird really gives me creeps… Thats a really neat pic, given that the bird is in shades of green color and also the color of the leaves…
Great work there Kalyan.
Awesome, you sure have a LIFE there! Carry on with the great work.
breath taking
Really nice pictures…beautifully composed. Almost all the pictures have very good DOF (rather the lack of it). Very nice indeed..
I use a can of Axe Deo on my treks. Just spray on leech, it withers, dies and falls off in 5 seconds painlessly. Most importantly, it won’t leave its pincers inside your skin.
There is some kind of a big bubble above and behind the owl’s head. Or is it just some illusion of light?
Not quite sure what you are talking about …
Re: breath taking
In the whole trip, I never went down 400 ISO. Infact I shot 80% of the shots at ISO 600 or 800. So I had to leave the aperture at 2.8 all the time 🙂
Wow, amazing. I envy hat u get to do all this. Your pictures adorn my desktop :). I hope i am not infringing copyright laws.
U do a great job!
No issue at all. Let me know if you need high resolution versions of any of them.
Whats that HUGE BUBBLE right behind the owl? (starting from the owl’s head, slightly to the left)
You know, for anyone who cannot view pictures, your words would seem ANTI naturalist!
“When we actually saw the bird & started shooting”
“We were not getting any good shots”
“Finally looked at me and I got my shot”
How about substituting “photo” once in a while ? You almost scared me there 🙂 Kidding.
The PHOTO is awesome. Beautiful. The bird itself… fascinating because it is unique and you don’t see this kind of thing everyday, but not evocative of my natural aesthetic sensibilities. It seems like it’s missing something…. a tail maybe ? Seems soo…butt-less! Maybe the bird seems worth cradling because it is so butt-less, and yet it is an animal of prey, an animal of the wild.
What confusing images nature puts in front of us, and what confusing associations.
Am vicariously enjoying it all.
Oh ignore my comment. Those white patches of light peeking through the leaves above the owl’s head made it look like one big bubble.
Absolutely cool!!
> only photographic evidence of the bird till date
I presume you you mean “only photographic evidence of the bird till date in India”?
Nice capture – just keep at it
Kallu great pictures man !! Keep at it ..
Awesome pictures Kalyan!!! Way to go!!
Awesome man.
Just wanted some info dude, How do you manage to identify what species/name of each bird. Do you submit your photos to some expert and wait for his ‘results’ or do you have some handy book/site where you look up the photos?
Kallu, I’d love the lazy elephant on my desktop. Could I have that?
I hate to kill any animal. What I did was pull out as soon as they I felt them and I didn’t get a single bite and it worked pretty well.
Some good reference books are there:
A Field Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by Krys Kazmierczak
Birds of the Indian Subcontinent – Grimmett, Inskipp
About 80% of the birds can be easily identified, but for birds like warblers, larks, pipits, thrushes and raptors you need expert help and that’s when a birding egroup comes to the rescue.
Usually they creep into some corner in the shoe/socks and would be sucking blood by the time I find them. At this point if I try to pull them they drive their pincers in deeply into the skin and hold on tightly.
this weekend ?
Yes. And we need another girl, to make a case to Urmila’s parents.
hmmm… ok, now if you both guys could do me a favor and help me identify that moth in my LJ. If at all it is identifiable.
I have absolutely no idea about moths and butterflies … 😀
I’m still learning about animals and birds! 🙂
Where is the pic ?
🙂 I thought I’ll post a message saying hang-on but you were too quick for me. I thought no one would be staying up this late. Its up now. Flickr was a lil slow today.
More
Atlast there is bird pic …..
Its really nice
But I want more bird pics 😉
‘Tree spider’ in yr photos looks like the Giant Wood Spider