Tadoba a family Trip

 

Kya Bhool toh nahi gaye hame 😊

My apologies to all of you for taking a little more time to post something, this time it took around a year. Nevertheless, I am back with a bang, the reason for saying back with a bang is the Debut of my family to the wilderness, especially the Alpha Gen Z.

Since it was a debut trip, I had a lot of thoughts to finalize the place, the number of safaris to be done, whether early morning safaris to be done or not, whether 6-year-old kidos will be able to manage or not and many more thoughts.

So let me narrate the whole story which includes the "Action and Reaction" of a family, the trip report, and lovely memories captured during the trip. 

THE ACTION AND REACTION

ACTION

The title is Action and Reaction because “Action” is I forced the action on the family (place, number of safaris, early wake up to rush to safari, etc.), and “Reaction” is how they reacted, whether they enjoyed or not. So let's see both aspects

Firstly on the Action part, introducing the family to the forest was long pending, I was always doubtful that at the age of 6, they would tolerate a tight schedule of safaris or not. I wanted Moneeth (son) and Pranavi (niece) to get exposure to the forest so I checked with them about going to the forest instead of going to random places, surprisingly both kids got so excited and pushed me to plan the trip as soon as possible.  

It was clear that all were ready for the forest visit but the question was what place to finalize, which place to decide from the perspective of sighting, comfort, stay, food, etc, and especially sighting because both kids were crazy and excited to see the tiger. My mantra is when in doubt call Saurabh/Jogi from Nature Explorer, I had a couple of options in mind with Tadoba being the first, Jogi seconds the same, and then Tadoba I finalized.  

REACTION

The reaction was unexpected and way beyond my expectations, the reaction from elders I was aware but about kids, I was worried especially about the morning safari. For a morning safari, you need to wake up around 5.15 am and that is too with a back-to-back schedule, I thought after two safaris kids would give up and would not come for other visits, but the kids proved me wrong.

Let me tell you I am still not able to digest that both kids were super energetic throughout the 4 safaris and at no point they hinted discomfort. A couple of times I asked kiddos if they were tired and wanted to skip the morning safari, and the answer I used to get was “We will go alone if you don't want to come” 😕. This is the reaction I got, Pranavi was equally energetic, and her pet name is now “Tiggy the Tiger” 

Now both kids are asking me when we are going again. Let me give credit to elders also, other debutants were also very happy with the trip and ready for the next one.

So let us understand the reason for such a reaction, what happened that all are so happy with the trip, and who all played the role in making this trip a great success. 

Family meets family

Now let me update you on all the drama that happened during safaris, our journey started with Nimdhela zone. Last year this zone was completely dry for me so I entered the zone with very little expectation and hence was checking about probabilities in this particular zone. The guide and driver said don’t worry we will surely get something. After searching for one hour we got the information about tiger movement, we reached the spot and got a big surprise, it was none other than the King of Tadoba “Chota Matka”. The king because this Big cat is ruling the Tadoba as a king, currently holding the largest area of around 100 km and not allowing any other male tigers to enter the territory. Chota Matka is defending the territory very aggressively, in the last year it terminated 2 tigers, and the message is clear that Matka is the King. 

We saw this handsome hulk very closely, at one point I was unable to click this tiger as a full frame, it was too close for my camera to capture fully. After Chota Matka, we also got lucky with the sighting of Bala the sub-adult cub of Chota  Matka.

Now it was the 1st-morning safari for debutants, I thought kids would sleep during the safari but they proved me wrong. Now Shirkheda rocked with Kankazhari Male tiger, one the oldest and huge one, this was a lucky find because this tiger was not visible for a long time. After this Chotti Rani gave a glimpse while we were coming out from the forest.

Now third safari in the Alizanzha zone, after four tigers what all you expect, but Alizanzha zone said why I will stay behind, it surprised us with Kalva again a family member of Matak, another sub-adult of Chota Matka.  When I said we saw Matka very close, the definition of close changed when we got Kalva, it was even more closure than Matka. These tigers are very much used to vehicles and don’t bother about visitors and vehicle noise, they walk like a king and move ahead. Kalva compared to Bala looked more healthy and heavyweight and looked like he would be the next Chotta Matka. The reason I said family meets family is because my family meets Matka's family.

The last was Bellara, it was dry with no sighting but the zone is beautiful and really good to visit. When I visited last year to this zone Veera’s cubs were rocking but this time we could not find anything.

The overall trip went very well; we all enjoyed it like anything and now waiting for the next jungle trip. It was a dream come true type of trip. The big role played by Nature Explorer (NEI) in making this trip a great success. The team NEI planned this so well that everything went very smoothly. Let me also acknowledge that Chimur Tiger Resort also added a flavor of enjoyment to our trip, the food and stay were very comfortable

Now at the end please look at the DSLR section to see exciting pictures of the tour, do share your feedback with me at btwildart@gmail.com

Vote of Thanks

Nature Explorer Team – Many thanks team NEI for managing the tour so smoothly, you people are rocking, keep it up.

Drivers and guides – Many thanks for such a memorable time

Chimur Tiger Resort and Staff -  Many thanks for the lovely food and stay arrangements. 

BT Wild Art

Dils se DSLR  

Passage Migration GRK Trip report

 
Lovely readers, hope you all are rocking and ready for festival season, get set to go for a Diwali vacation to explore our own nature.

So, you will be thinking what’s there in the bucket today, is it Tiger/Lion what else. Let me tell you this time no animals for sure but a different place with a unique offering.

You must have noticed the title of the blog, it is about migratory birds and that is too from the land of Bhuj. The first time I got an opportunity to visit Gujarat side to evaluate different types of species. Let me take you to Bhuj directly to know more details. 

BHUJ THE EPICENTER

Long awaited trip to Gujarat, I always wanted to visit Run of Kutch but somehow the timing needed to match. This time Prathamesh (from Nature Explorer) updated me with this wonderful opportunity somewhere in May month, without taking more time I immediately confirmed my booking in advance for the September end trip.

The main reason to visit here in this season is to see passage migration, which means some birds while migrating from Africa or European countries take a halt at Bhuj for a couple of months and they continue their journey ahead. So this is the short time we get an opportunity to capture them plus some of these birds are found only at Bhuj so all the more reason to visit this place. 

Now you would be thinking what is Epicenter. So the place where we stayed (Bharat Bhai Kapdi’s owned Home Stay) is known as Epicenter, the name is Epicenter because Bhuj was the Epicenter of one of the most deadly earth quacks a couple of decades ago. In other words, you can also say this place is the Epicenter of passage migration.

Now you are aware of what is special about the place, let us move to the next step to see the virtual world through the lens of this blog.

 

Birds, food, and dhokha

Birds

This tour is the 3D tour, I mean 3 dimensions to it, or you can say 3 parts to it, I am sure with the title you got some hint. Let’s talk about each dimension one by one.

Firstly, let’s start with Birds, as I explained this place becomes special due to the arrival of special birds. We the gang of 13 including Abir (7-year-old Kido) who is equivalent to all of us started the journey together from Dadar, with discussion on what would be the target, what we would get, etc.

Though this was the first time experienced going to the field directly from the time of arrival, upon arrival first went to the hotel/homestay and the Safari starts at around 3pm, but here due to harping on an opportunity for morning time, we did not want to let go the chance. We reached out immediately and started evaluating the field. You will not believe within 15/20 minutes the first target was achieved, we got Rufous-tailed scrub Robin and many other species in the next couple of hours. 

We managed to get these things thanks to the efforts of Bharat Bhai, all the groundwork he had kept ready, daily monitoring, and tracking helped us to find birds easily. 

The activity to find other targets continued in two slots, morning and evening without any feeling of tiredness. The time came to search for the most awaited bird "Eurasian nightjar". We were trying to find this lovely rare species but had no luck; even we tried at night and spent 45 minutes but remained without luck. 

Now we had the last chance with a lot of hope, Hope means “Ummid” Baba BT ne bola hai “Ummid pe Duniya Kayam hai warna Kayam Churan hai” so what do you think what we had?. Finally, with an expert on roll, we managed to find the key species of this land “Eurasian nightjar” It was like hitting 6 on the last ball so Kayam Churan's plan got canceled 😜

During the last visit the plan was to visit sun temple to get mouse tailed Bat (Munni Badnam hui COVID tere liye) Bechara BAT badnam hai COVID ke liye after the Bat, we got some glimpse of Weaver bird and come back to homestay to bag pack return to the origin 

Food

We just cannot ignore the food part of this trip, to find a bird you need a lot of energy which comes from food, if you get the best then your tempo goes high. 

The food trail started on day 1 morning when we had breakfast in the vehicle (the style we followed throughout the trip), A variety like Upma, Handvo, Poha, Thepla with Thecha and fruits were amazing, we just loved it.

After breakfast, the Kuchhi lunch and dinner had their own charm, Bajri Rotla with Onion Papdi sabzi, buttermilk (Kucchi Beer) Khichdi Kadhi, and many more were just outstanding, and the last Bharat Bhai ended the food trail at Bhuj with Kutchi Dabeli, what more you can ask for

The trail continued on the train as well, if you have BT Food Art with you how can you miss Surti specialties, we had Mejbani of Surti Locha, Sev Khamni, Samosa, Gathiya, and Kadhi and added with Start fruits, this is how birding trip changed to food trip

Now you would be thinking yeh Dhokha hai ya Dhokla confusion hai na?

Dhoka

Certainly, it is Dhoka, my camera body gave me Dhokha, though it was my fault for mishandling it but on day 1 it stopped working so I had to borrow point in shoot camera from Bharat Bhai so somehow could manage to get snaps. So now the question is where is the Dhoka, it is Dhoka because it started working on the last day of the trip without doing anything to it. Dhoke Baaz's last day ko at the end of the trip started working fine but lost the moments, hope it will not give Dhokha again.

Special mention

This blog need to have this special mention, let me tell both these species need special mention their name is Abir Sharma and Bharat Kapdi

Abir is special because, at the age of 7, his command over identifying birds that is too during bird flight is just god's gift and his efforts of reading and getting into the depth of it. Without a Camera and with Binocular the champion rocked. At this age normally Kidos take time to adapt to hot weather and the comfort of their food habits but little Champ never gave any discomfort to his father and enjoyed the trip most. Load of wishes and blessings to the little champ.

Bharat Bhai owner of Epicenter Homestay, a person who is a businessman who got into wildlife and took himself to such a level with in-depth knowledge of the field and detailing of species is commendable. His personal attention during the trip in sighting plus giving comfort to travelers at all stages is much appreciated and deserves special mention.   

So at the end please visit the DSLR section to see exciting pictures of the tour, do share your feedback with me at btwildart@gmail.com

Vote of Thanks

Nature Explorer (erstwhile Mumbai Travellers) and Team – Many thanks Prathamesh team lead the tour, your knowledge of the field is truly amazing, keep it up

Co-Travelers - Many thanks for such a great time

BT Wild Art

Dils se DSLR  

Ashy Crowned Sparowlark

Eurasian Nightjar

Europian roller

Europian roller

Hoopoe

Blue-cheeked bee-eater

Green Bee Eater

Bay backed shrike

 Long legged Buzzard

 Mouse Tail Bat

Red Backed Shrike

 Rufous-tailed scrub robin

Variable Wheatear

 white-tailed Iora

 Baya Weaver

Europian roller

Europian roller

Isabelline shrike

 Isabelline wheatear

Laughing Dove

Red Backed Shrike

Mouse Tail Bat

 Pratincole

Streaked Weaver

Rocking Ranthambore - A Trip report

 

Good morning gang, lovely friends hope you traveled this season and had a great time, if not do plan a nature trip and rejuvenate yourself, trust me nature is the best medicine to get refreshed from stress.

The Journey

Before I get into the details let me tell you my special love and affection for Ranthambore. This is my 2^nd trip to Ranthambore, the earlier happened in May 2015 so it was Van Vas of 8 years.

I am still thinking why I could not make it to this lovely place for such a long time. The first ever tiger sighting came from zone 6 of this place (Noor with 2 cubs) and gifted with me friends forever after that not looking back but sadly it took 8 years for me to visit here again. Nevertheless, the journey was equally rewarding with a lot of action and drama.   

Aap ka Sanjay will narrate each and every moment absolutely the same way Sanjay narrated the Mahabharata war to Dhritarashtra 😜) so I will be your Sanjay going further ha ha ha

So let me tell you how it started, as usual, Nature Explorer announced a trip to Ranthambore for the month of June to break my van vas of 8 years. I cannot let go of this opportunity and hence I jumped immediately for the trip. 

After a wait of a month, finally, the day arrived, we 12 wildlife lovers gathered at Mumbai Central to reach this lovely destination. Ashish Rego was added to the gang rest of the others are known gangsters, ohh sorry we were 13 people and not 12 because 1 person was watching us with his Mayavi Shakrti from somewhere 😝😝😝(bolo kaun hai who……….)

Finally, we reached Savai Madhopur, the land of the fort, Trinetra Ganesh, and forest, distance from the station to the hotel (Heritage Haveli) is hardly any so we reached quickly in 15 minutes and took a rest for the upcoming safari at 3pm. Now gear up for the bumpy rider to the jungle. 

Ek Shaam Leopard ke naam

We started with Zone 2 with a lot of excitement because this was 1^st visit for some of us and for me the feeling of Karan/Arjun returning to the place after Punar Janam J, I am becoming dramatic day by day.

On a serious note, the excitement was more for me because the attachment towards wildlife came from Ranthambore. Now we entered the zone and started thinking about what is there on the plate, within the next 20 minutes we heard deer calling, Yeh hota hai asli pyar, just in 20 minutes, and a straight indication of the arrival of the big cat. The calling was strong enough for us to decide to halt and wait for further action. Jogi was quick to find Leopard sitting on the left side, it was around 10 minutes long sighting for this elusive cat. 10 minutes with a leopard is extremely rare and more precious than sighting a tiger. 

Taking this luck, we moved ahead to see where the King is, in between we saw a few lovely birds and landed in another rarity, this time it turn out to be my favorite Ballu means Sloth Bear. Again it’s not easy to get an appointment from Bhalu but somehow it was a double jackpot for us. with this we ended the day without the King but with double happiness and double hope for the upcoming safaris. 

Mayavi Shakti😈 

Now time for the next day, so Zone 5 in the morning the Zone 3 in the evening. Both zones are beautiful and are full of greenery because of rain which is again unusual in the month of May. We were enjoying dancing peacocks all through the journey and we actually started counting. At one stage, we saw three peacocks dancing at the same time, and the count crossed 50 in 6 safaris.

To see as many as 50 dancing peacocks’ gives a feeling of a warm welcome from the heart of the forest, but you would be thinking what about the tiger? Tiger kaha gaya? Kidhar gaya tiger luck?

My answer is Ruko zara, Sabar karo, so in both these zone, we got trapped by the 13^th person who was following us from a suspicious place, Uski Parkhi nazar, Mayavi shakti or tiger nahi mila. 

So Zone 5 and 3 went without a tiger but again luck came to our rescue with a rare sighting of a Dusky Eagle owl, Stork-billed kingfisher with fish catch, Crocodiles, and many more lovely species which are gifts of nature. This is how we ended with a mix of feelings of no tiger but the happiness of rarity. Now watch out for the next 3 visits and the impact of Mayavi in the next section.  

Koi Mil Gaya 

Now we had zone 6, 5, and 1 in our bucket (for 1 jeep it was zone 4 instead of 1 as part of the last visit). We started with Zone 6 in the morning with a prayer to break the Mayavi trap, 75% of the time we spent with no sign of the king but we continue to evaluate different species and were running from pillar to post to meet the King. Suddenly the situation changed, got the hint of the presence of a tiger around, thirsty tigress T127 Laxmi wanted to drink water so she arrived near the pond. Our thirst for the tiger also ended with her thirst for a water

With a change in luck, we started getting tigers on all visits, now it was time to meet hunk T121 Male in the evening. This hunk was sitting in the water with a lazy attitude, we were greedy to take head-on pictures but the hunk was too lazy to come out of the water and due to lack of time, we rushed to the exit gate. 

Now 3^rd in a row, Zone 1 with early luck, with morning time we just entered the forest and hardly had passed a few KM and saw two sub-adult cubs of Norrie sitting a little far, both were in play mood but watch full at the same time. We started clicking record shots and waiting for them to come out but a stupid biker disturbed the sighting. These were sub-adult tigers not very used to the presence of bikes going with speed, which spoiled the probability of long sighting. Kahi yeh woh Mayavi ka banda toh nahi 👹 this is the mystery and will be solved once the 13^th person will come on a future trip, Kahi Kisi roz Milega toh sahi na…………. 

Ohh wait please, Ruko zara, sabar karo, this is not the end of the story, read the next section for a couple of unique instances

Truly amazing 

I notice three instances, which were unusual and hence mentioned in a separate section. The first instance was the Rufous treepie, though this bird is very common in Ranthambore the behavior made us laugh a lot. This energetic bird is such a crazy creature and is bold and fearless. On all safaris at the entry gate, this bird was present in good count and one of them was behaving as if it is hired by the forest department to check each vehicle. There were more than 15 vehicles waiting for clearance from FD where this bird was visiting each vehicle standing there and checking everyone sitting in the vehicle. The act was too funny, we counted and noticed that it ensured to check all the vehicles and not even a single car was left unattended

The next instance was playtime with the cute and sweetie pie squirrel, again like Treepie, a squirrel was bold enough to reach near anyone who calls out. During the break time, we got the opportunity to come out of the gypsy for 5 minutes. I utilize the time with sweetie pie, she came very close and intended to drink water from my hand. It was too funny to play with a harmless squirrel, normally such small specie will not come closer to anyone out of fear, but Squirrel was funny and fearless

Now the last event is special from anything else we sighted because this animal is nocturnal and sighted mostly after the dark. This is none other than a deadly Hyena. Accidentally we got to the site where it was a routine for Hyena. Probability is after dinnertime, we tried our luck for two days and luckily sighting three at a time. For pictures, the time was difficult due to hardly any lights around (not even streetlights) but to watch this animal is a big treat. This is how the trip ended with so many twists and turns and with amazing sightings making Ranthambore Part 2 a huge success. For your information listing down the list of total sightings and some exciting pictures

Now at the end please take a look at the DSLR section to see exciting pictures of the tour, do share your feedback with me on btwildart@gmail.com

Vote of Thanks

Nature Explorer (erstwhile Mumbai Travellers) and Team – Many thanks Jogi and team for managing the tour so smoothly, you guys are rocking, keep it up.

Co-Travelers - Many Thanks to John, Sonia, Amol, Kshipra, Neel, Neeraj Sir, Kishor Sir, Himani, Dharmesh, Ashish, and the Expert Jogi.

Drivers and guides – Many thanks for such a memorable time

Heritage Haveli Management and Staff -  Many thanks for the lovely food and stay arrangements. 

Unmatched list

Brown fish owl

Dusky eagle owl

Indian Scops owl

Indian pitta

Peacock

Indian paradise flycatcher

Red-headed Vulture

Honey-buzzard

Oriental magpie-robin

Night jaar

Stork-billed kingfisher

White-throated Kingfisher

Common Kingfisher

Pied Kingfisher

Eurasian thick-knee

Pond heron 

Woolly-necked stork

Moor hen

Yellow-footed green pigeon

Painted stork 

Spoonbill

Crested serpent eagle

Grey francolin

Orient white eye

Crested bunting

Golden oriole

Red-vented bulbul

Blue-cheeked bee-eater

Leopard zone 2

Sloth Bear Zone 2

Tigress T127 Lakshmi Zone 6

Tiger 121 male zone 5

2 Sub adult cubs of Norrie Zone 1

Spotted deers

Sambar Deer

Chinkara

Langoors

White Bellied Drongo

Black Drongo

Blue bulls

Rufous Treepie

Great Thik knee

Asian Open Bill Stork

Lesser Golden back woodpecker

Little Green River turn

Darter 

Little Cormorant

Indian cormorant

Black-winged stilt

Little grebe

Lesser whistling duck 

Black-headed Ibis

Bay back Shrike

Long-tailed Strike

Painted Spurfowl

Green Bee-eater

Red Rumped Swallow

Red-wattled Lapwing

Spotted Owlet

Jackals

Brown crake

Jungle bush quail

Common hawk cuckoo

Asian koel 

Greater coucal

Mongoose

Hoopoe

Yellow crown woodpecker

Indian robin

Tickell's blue flycatcher

Fantail

Large grey babbler

Brahmini starling

Indian pied starling

Stripped Hyena

Monitor lizard

Garden lizard

BT Wild Art

Dils se DSLR  

Leopard

                                                                     Leopard

Leopard

Sloth Bear

Laxmi T127

T121 Male

Norrie's Cubs

Street Dance Peacock 

Stork Billed Kingfisher 

Dusky Eagle Owl

Crocodile 

Indian Paradise Flycatcher

Indian Paradise Flycatcher

Deer fight

Indian Scops Owl

Indian Thick-knee 

Stork-billed Kingfisher

Wooly necked Stork

Oriental White Eye

Large Grey Babbler 

Blue-Checked Bee-eater

Garden Lizzard

Forest Officer -  Rufous Treepie

Playtime with Squirrel