Big Bull Blue Bull

Thanks lovely people for a wonderful response, such overwhelming responses motivates me to travel to different places to search for something unique which I can deliver to you on blog platter. So let’s get into this week’s topic, from the last couple of week we have seen some wonderful birds so let me give you something different, I mean time to know about an animal. I thought a lot had few choices to make but I decided Blue Bull because it is my observation that not many people are even aware that such animal is in existence hence I decided to introduce Blue Bull which is also known as Nilgai, interesting isn’t it? Bull and Gai dual name, so let us get into the next section to read more.

The Blue Cow

The nilgai or blue bull literally meaning "blue cow"; Boselaphus tragocamelus is the largest Asian antelope and is endemic to the Indian subcontinent. See how you can identify them,  a sturdy thin-legged antelope, the nilgai is characterized by a sloping back, a deep neck with a white patch on the throat, a short crest of hair along the neck terminating in a tuft, and white facial spots. A large animal found in forest and grassland gives lovely moments to create a frame. It is not always you will find nilgai with blue color, so do not be surprised if you see tawny/orange color nilgai because females and juveniles are orange to tawny and not blue like a male blue bull.

After color identification, let us see where we can find them and what they eat etc. Nilgai prefer areas with short bushes and scattered trees in scrub forests and grassy plains. They are common in agricultural lands but hardly occur in the dense forest. Major populations occur in the Terai lowlands in the foothills of the Himalayas (northern India).

Nilgai are herbivores, they prefer grasses and herbs; woody plants are commonly eaten in the dry tropical forests of India. Studies suggest they may be browsers or mixed feeders. The nilgai can tolerate interference by livestock and degradation of vegetation in its habitat better than deer, possibly because they can reach high branches and do not depend on surface vegetation. Diets generally suffice in protein and fats.[49] The protein content of the nilgai should be at least seven percent. The nilgai can survive for long periods without water and do not drink regularly even in summer. Now I am sure you will be able to identify this large size animal in wild, do capture beautiful pictures with such a lovely animal. now let us see some facts as well. 

The Fantastic facts 

Nilgai is a large animal. It usually has 4 to 5 feet in height, 6 to 6.6 feet in length, weighing up to 530 pounds

Only males have horns. They are conical in shape, slightly curved forwards. In adult nilgai, horns can reach 5.9 to 9.4 inches in length

Nilgai can survive long periods without water

They are diurnal (active during the day) animal that usually lives in small herds, composed of animals of only one sex

Mating usually takes place between June and October. Females reach sexual maturity at the age of two and males one year later

Males will mate with more than one female during mating season. They do not form harems but rather wander around looking for females that are ready for mating

Nilgai lives 12 to 13 years in the wild and up to 21 years in captivity.

One of the sad facts of Nilgai is that it is not liked by many because Nilgai has been considered a pest in several north Indian states, as they ravage crop fields and cause considerable damage. In Bihar, authorities have classified the nilgai as vermin

Rather declaring Nilgai as Vermin hope Authorities takes some reasonable step to secure crops as well as this lovely creature

A Message of the Day 

Don’t harm the harmless, to keep them alive do the best that you can

Author

BT Wild Art 

Life is Safari. Enjoy it.

Deadly DSLR:

Royal Roller – Indian Roller

Royal Roller – Indian Roller

My dear friends hope you are doing fine, I know uncertainty day by day is creating frustration, no one is sure of how many waves are yet to come. In this difficult time, we need to ensure that our physical and mental health is not disturbed. Health drinks, early morning walk or take a small break with plan "Do nothing" spending good time with friends and family will give you booster and yes please complete the vaccination at the earliest without paying attention to rumors of best and not so best. 

In this time I know it is not easy to decide on travel hence I am trying my best to publish something different every time. With this thought, bringing the details of one of the most beautiful and colorful birds “Indian Roller” 

The Neelkanth 

The bird is known for its combination of beauty and habits, both compliments each other so well that it has reached the level to become the State bird of not only one but three states. 

The Indian roller is significantly known for its aerobatic display that has earned the bird its former English name. Whilst in a perched position, the Indian roller performs displays like wing drooping, bowing, and tail fanning which is performed as an act of courtship. Another quality of twist and turn is its version of bathing that involves direct dives into the water, usually from a high altitude or height, this was assumed that this act is for fishing

The roller is special to me because this is amongst my first few clicks, I still remember the first forest visit Nagzira where this “Man in Blue” attracted me with colors and activity. First love will always remain in the heart which the case with Roller. Let’s explore this beauty more in the next section

The Fantastic facts 

Indian Roller is also known as Neelkanth or Blue Jay

Indian Roller flaunts the brilliant combination of colors on its feathers. This beautiful bird has a mesmerizing sky blue-colored tail with a hint of Prussian blue color. The feathers towards the center have a dull green tint. Its throat and neck are purplish lilacs in color with a dash of white streaks

Indian Roller is State bird of three States, Karnataka, Telangana, and Odisha

It is quite rare for the Indian Roller to fly in a groups 

Frogs top the favorites’ list when it comes to the Indian Roller’s diet. Besides frogs, the bird also feeds upon all kinds of insects including crickets, grasshoppers, moths, butterflies, and wasps

The male Indian Roller is known for its unique and startling sexual display, which it performs during the breeding season. During the course of the display, the Indian Roller bird flies high up in the sky and descends downwards in a circular motion, flapping its wings rapidly. It also produces harsh chack sounds during the act

The Indian roller is considered as a sacred bird in Hindu mythology and is associated with the deity Lord Shiva

So many qualities are there with this lovely creature, facts are endless, hope you enjoyed every bit of it, please shower your blessing and keep motivating me to deliver unique stuff, and at the end, do not forget to share feedback on btwildart@gmail.com

BT Wild Art

DSLR Section

 

Big Bill Hornbill

Hello lovely people hope you all enjoyed the Pench Trip report, I am sure you will plan a trip to Mowgli’s world soon. So what do you expect today? I know something unique is now expected every week, your expectations motivate me to find something new for you even though it is a very difficult task but I love my followers and hence little bit difficulty shall not be a problem. After thinking a lot I have decided to write on one of the different bird, which is unique in behavior as well in its looks, yes I am talking about Hornbills a lovely bird known for its huge bills, let us learn more about bili bird

Hornbill a unique character 

The bird has really different and interesting characters and hence updating you these characters herewith, I am sure you will be surprised to know about such interesting features

The bird is so different that it differs in size from within hornbill category, it shows considerable variation in size. Black dwarf hornbill is of around 102 grams with 1 ft in length whereas the great hornbill reaches up to 4 kg with 3 to 4 ft in length, isn’t is a unique character, of course, it is because such wide variation within the bird is in itself is a rare feature

The most distinctive feature of the hornbill is its heavy bill, supported by powerful neck muscles as well as by the fused vertebrae. The large bill assists in fighting, preening, constructing the nest, and catching prey

Hornbills possess binocular vision, although unlike most birds with this type of vision, the bill intrudes on their visual field. This allows them to see their own bill tip and aids in precision handling of food objects with their bill, also it has large eyelashes that act as a sunshade also protect the eyes

A last but very important characteristic of Hornbill is that it has a two-lobed kidney. They are the only birds in which the first and second neck vertebrae (the atlas and axis respectively) are fused together; this probably provides a more stable platform for carrying the bill

Now after unique characters let us now see how fantastic this bird is, fantastic features are listed below for your information

The Fantastic facts 

Hornbills are omnivorous birds, eating fruit, insects, and small animals. They cannot swallow food caught at the tip of the beak, as their tongues are too short to manipulate it, so they toss it back to the throat with a jerk of the head

A number of hornbills have associations with other animal species. Hornbills are known to forage co-operatively with Dwarf Mongooses, catching prey items that the mongooses scratch up from the ground. In return, the hornbills alert the mongooses to danger from overhead raptors

Hornbills are omnivorous and eat both plants and animals. In the wild, they eat a lot of fruit, but also insects, snails, crabs, frogs, nestling birds, bats, and lizards

India has nine hornbill species, of which four are found in the Western Ghats: Indian Grey Hornbill (endemic to India), the Malabar Grey Hornbill (endemic to the Western Ghats), Malabar Pied Hornbill (endemic to India and Sri Lanka) and the widely distributed but endangered Great Hornbill

The festival is named after the Indian hornbill, the large and colorful forest bird which is displayed in the folklore of most of the state's tribes. The Hornbill Festival is held at Naga Heritage Village, Kisama which is about 12 km from Kohima. All the tribes of Nagaland take part in this festival. The aim of the festival is to revive and protect the rich culture of Nagaland and display its extravaganza and traditions

I am sure now you will agree that Hornbill is a fantastic bird with some unique facts and features, do capture Hornbills when you visit any such forest in future and try to compare the features you may capture in the wilderness

A Message of the Day 

The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now

Author:

BT Wild Art 

Life is Safari. Enjoy it.

DSLR for you

Pench - the trip to Mowgli's World

Hello friends, I know you were waiting for the blog but I could not make it because of my travel but to compensate delay will take you to Mowgli's world to reveal the best experience and some very good pictures of a fantastic journey. So today, I will update you on my latest visit to Pench Tiger Reserve, the experience was such that you will feel why you were not there and it will force you to plan a trip to Pench in near future, so let's move to the next section to feel the heaven through pictures and words.

मैं अकेला ही चला था जानिब-ए-मंज़िल मगर लोग साथ आते गए और कारवाँ बनता गया

This sentence narrates how the trip started, Amish/Sanjay/Parag/Mahesh/Abhinav and Yogesh are true follower of my blog and after reading these blogs they motivated Sarang/Ashwin/Ratan and Vishal as well to plan a nature trip to the forest which all agreed and I took responsibility to plan out the place and other things. Before I start let me acknowledge three more people for the trip without which the success was not possible, the none other than Vishnu and Team Book My Safari (Jogi and Saurabh’s Team)

It was a difficult task to make the right choice, how can I finalize the place it was a big challenge but my challenge was made easy by Jogi by helping me to finalize the Pench. The complete responsibility of arrangements was outsourced to Book My Safari who is best or I would say champions in wildlife travel. Everyone agreed for the place at once without any debate and we booked the dates for November 23, 2018, I know all of you are eager to know what happened on trip, let me tell you good things come with investment of time, if you wait; the best thing will come in the next section.

The Mowgli’s world 

Finally, the day came for which we waited since September; we reached the place on November 23 where we got a warm welcome at Village Machhan. We all were charged up for the best time, even more charged up 8 debutants of 12. With a lot of expectations we entered the Mowgli’s world, the moment we entered, the feel of the forest with supportive weather made us crazy, green trees, dusty road and pure cold air what else one can demand. Though we all wanted to enjoy the forest with all animals and birds comes to us in our way but somewhere in our heart, the hidden greed was to sight the Big Cats. Even Vishnu and I wanted our new travelers to see Big Cats in the wilderness and one more greed to keep our record of cat sighting intact (that is too without Saurabh/Jogi with us). It was greed or request from heart difficult to judge but yes it worked when we were blessed with a super sighting of Leopard on day one itself. 

The date with wilderness

The shining star Leopard was sitting on a rock as the head of the area and was looking at everyone in a style, all of us were lucky to sight him at the same time at the fag end of the safari. The craziness and greed got doubled now to see the King in the wild with which we ended the day with super tasty food served by Village Machhan team. Chicken Saoji for Non-Veggie and Gulab jamun for all of us was like treat from the hotel. This was not the end of the day, here we had one more reason to celebrate, it was Birthday of Amish sir, how can we forget the birthday of our beloved Sir the day ended with cake cutting (Sarang and Vishal still clueless on who ordered the cake😜and finally we made Amish sir to awake beyond his routine 😅

After wonderful day one the expectation was on high to find the King, we made all the effort to find but it is said that Tiger has seen you during the journey but you may not see him because of dense forest. However, we are nature lovers we are like never say die and search continued till the end time which turned rewarding when we meet the sub adult cub of the queen (lungdi tigress’s cub). The madness was out of control it was difficult to digest that on back-to-back safari we got double lucky. Now what next was the question for other safaris but an answer was simple, enjoy whatever comes your way, with this principle and continued madness we booked night safari, we were as if we want to stay in the forest itself forever and away from the concrete and digital forest (I mean City life). let's take a tour to a night safari then.

Night Safari a Unique Therapy

The night safari experience was unique in itself when we closed car's light for a couple of minutes, the experience was out of the world, which you will never get anywhere. The full moonlight, closed eyes, sparkling stars of a galaxy and unique sound of forest mosquitoes there no words to describe the heaven on earth. It was like natural medicine for relieving the day to day stress, though sighting is always difficult and taking a chance instead of sighting the USP was unique therapy of night view of the lovely forest. 

The enthusiasm of all of us was unbelievable, after back-to-back three safaris people were ready for the next early morning trip. We all were ready to explore the forest with the same feeling even we had big sightings in first two safaris itself but we did not wanted to stop here and wanted more and more, we continued 3^rd and 4^th for exploring another part of the forest for lovely birds and other animals which we could not sight in the first two

Now while ending the blog let me update on the list we sighted during the trip: Tiger, Leopard, Jackals, Wild dog, spotted dears, Sambar deer, Blue bull, peacock, grey hornbill, Rufous Treepie, scops owl, Palm civet cat, Eurasian Thick-knee, monkeys, Bison and many more, will leave you with some pics to end the blog

Salute to the Nature lovers

Apart from Vishnu and me, others were not frequent travelers like us and were not used to back-to-back safaris but kind of enthusiasm and love towards nature they had was actually out of the world and unbelievable. While ending the trip they said they want more of such trips in near future to some other forest, this few words to repeat the forest trip itself explain the kind of experience all of us had. I salute each one for such lovely words and continued interest towards the wilderness.

Thanks a ton for your kind co-operation for making this trip the great one, many more to come. 

The special appearance

Be it a Project or a travel plan, it will succeed only if the complete support system is in sync, we all know that 12 people were at the front enjoying the wilderness but let me applaud for the team who at the backend managed so well that we enjoyed without any kind pain during the journey.

Team Bookmysafari.com includes, Deepak, Amey, Saurabh and Jogi, guys amazing work for arrangements, the food, the place, the safari arrangements, transport everything was absolutely in place. You guys are master of wilderness. Best of luck and continue the best job

Vishnu, your expertise of wilderness and knowledge sharing was really great and enjoyed by everyone, thanks once again.

A message of the Day 

Wildlife is Mother Nature’s greatest treasure, To protect it, we must take every measure

Author:BT Wild Art
Life is Safari. Enjoy it.

 Photo shootout