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 2nd
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 1st 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 13th 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.
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 3rd 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 13th 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
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
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
