When I started bird watching many years ago, one of the curious birds that I read about was the Narcondam hornbill. Why the name?
Well it turns out, this hornbill is endemic to this small little 6.8 sq km extinct volcanic island named Narcondam island between Andaman islands and Burma. Can you imagine? The whole species of a big bird like the hornbill (some people even call it a honorary mammal) is found in this tiny little island. Since then, the goal was set. Visiting this island and exploring this went into my bucket list. It took more than 5 years for that dream to come true.
It took more than a year of planning, applying for permits and constituting the team for this trip. Finally it was a small team of scientists, photographers and forest dept official. The plan was to spend few days on the island and assess the situation of the island, the endangered hornbills and also look at some of the other wildlife that this island holds along with all the coral and marine stuff around the island.
So here is the first of series of posts about this expedition.
Day 1 (12th April 2010)
All of us reached Port blair two days before to pack, plan and setup things for the expedition. We chartered a sail boat/yacht from thailand to go on this expedition. We left port blair very early and set sail. Since the winds were not favorable, we could not use the sail and had to use the engine which meant we could only do a speed of 6 knots. After few hours, we were out in the open ocean with endless horizons on all sides. Past lunch, we suddenly saw this pod of spinner dolphins playing in the ocean. We slowed down and the the whole pod came towards to boat to play with us.
See this video to know why they are called spinner dolphins and its quite clear that they were just having fun. I shot this footage with a Nikon D90.
After the initial jumps, they swam in front of the bow of the boat for many kilometers. Dolphins love to ride on the waves that bow of boats create.
A pod of spinner dolphins swimming with the boat
Bow-sailing: A very favorite activity of dolphins (thats my foot in the frame)
One of the dolphin breathing with its blow-hole
Only these two remained in front of us after a while
And the last one that left us and went away
We also came across a pod of Pilot whales. No great photographs as we saw them only late in the evening just after sunset. We reached the island only the next day afternoon. More about the island in the next post.
Update : Since many of you asked, here is the wallpaper version of the last image
‘spinner’ dolphins, fantastic to see.. the sea blue and the sunlight.. simply brilliant!
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by kalyanvarma: The first set of photographs of dolphins from the Narcondam trip http://bit.ly/cZAp7d...
Wow, the Spinner Dolphins are gorgeous..
Brilliant. Esp, the last two pics.
Very nice images. Though my favorite is the last pic. There is something about the tiny rings of water on the dolphin, and the wavy lines on the top corner.. Has a sense of calmness to it. Love the shot!
Wondering what the black shadow on the bottom is though?
Thats the shadow of the boat
The shadow is in two different spots?
wow. its beautiful. I adored the last one in particular
http://kalyanvarma.net/images/blog/_NRC5304_KalyanVarma.jpg
It has got 2 center points. one on the left, as a water turbulence, and one one the right- that is the dolphin. Way to go
Loved the last shot. Gray & white Dolphin on the beautiful blue water with the waves & the small ripples near the Dolphin. Just Awesome!!! May I request for a Desktop Wallpaper version?
Wow! Amazing pictures! Love them! The last one is just out of this world
Wow!! Great pictures. I love Dolplin
Superb set of pictures and nice writeup …waiting for the complete set of pictures and the article…
Whoa! The blue sea and those beautiful dophins.. must be a very nice experience..
Needless to say.. awesome pictures..
Waiting for more pictures from the kutty island.
Beautiful! Beautiful!
Hi Kalyan,
Very nice post , as usual images are amazing.
waiting for the next post.
Cheers,
Goutham
If it looks so awesome in the video… to see it live must have been quite an amazing experience…
Class man! Last image is one to cherish for life time. Composition and colors are just perfect! Love this series.
Wow!! Awesome pics man.. Especially the last one
Amazing to see them through your lens….Hats off for the last image.
loved the pics..the last one is my desktop background now
Great images Kalyan! you must have had a great time photographing wildlife there..
amazing.. waiting for the complete story
Awesome Kalyan!! What lovely colors, compo!
Fantastic pics. Amazing creatures. Wondering what gene makes them spin like that?
Looking forward to see your island stuff in detail.
Wow brilliant Pics.. Loved the Video ! Is that off D700 ?
Amazing pictures, love the water colour!
Just love the tranquility in the last one … save the best for the last,eh? Wonderful, brilliant as always!
Simply amazing! The last pic – serenity captured in a frame. I also liked the third one. That’s called pushing yourself to the edge – literally
With the boat moving to match the speed of the dolphins, it must have been quite a thing to do.
simply awesome…:)
following the nature can be amazing..which can teach u things which u can never ever anywhere else..this is life
wow… beautiful it is, for a moment there I could feel the sea…Thanks for sharing with us, your amazing pictures.
awesome pics kalyan…i really love the last two pics…..
Fantastic series Kalyan! Truly amazing. Eagerly looking for the next posts…
great stuff kalyan!
sun and sand and dolphins..hmmm
beautiful pics..esplly the one where the dolphin is breathing..how long did it take you to reach the island from PB ?
Amazing amzing pics.. pleasure to watch TFS
Beautiful pics and an exciting expedition ahead….hope u get such wonderful captures during the expedition too…!!!
hii..I just read your interview in the book “Connect the Dots”, must say really great work, After reading I discovered your blog and I was really impressed by your work.
cool video and superb photos!
Great pictures Kalyan. Coincidentally I saw a programme on the Animal Planet the same day. It was about a dive site off Cocos islands.It mentioned of such behaviour as “Bow Riding”. Dolphins and a few other marine creatures use the wave pressure generated by the bow of the vessel for a free ride. All the jostling and spinning is to get to the best bow wave.
Wow!! This is just the beginning I should say and each such trip will be remembered for long! What stunning maneuvering and summersaults!! Phew, never seen one spinning that way before!!
And the last image, truly mindblowing! Beats all compositions, colors.. Rocking!!
Many congratulations for living your dream!
Regards,
Ram.
[...] Expedition Narcondam : Dolphins [...]
it’s been my dream to work with dolphins and whales someday in the wild.
I’m just going ‘oooooh’:)
amazing video of spinner dolphins. dolphin breathing shot meets clarity. great work Kalyan.