[Coooolcat21]

We had made up our mind to be the first ones at the gate the next morning .Woke up at 4 am, and start shaking up the little one saying its time to go visiting the animals in the forest. He truns around saying that its not good to be visiting anyone this early in the morning. Anyways it never takes him too long to be all ready to jump into the gypsy.
At 5.45 Am we wait at the gate feeling happy that we were well in time and our minds full of anticiaption of seeing the collarwali.
But there was no sign of the driver as he had gone back home to get the keys.
It felt like we are informed that a tiger has been well sighted on the road and many gypsys are lined up, the excitement builds up and then the guide informs us that the route alloted to us is an alternate one. Its a completely washed out feeling.
Finally he arrives and we proceed.



We almost cannot see the gate.

Anyways we all are ready with our gear in order,hubby with the video camera, brother with his canon and myself with the sony nex5. Not forgetting the little one who had taken over the binoculars , while we were always left pleading to him not to jump around the gypsy and shake it so that some pictures could be taken
The gates finally open and all the gypsys rush in. But we surely dont want to zip thru , we are anyways always in a rush back home. We slow down and take in the morning mist with the sun slowly breaking thru with a spectrum of warm colors.

[Subrat Seet]

Oh boy! These are some fantastics Penchscapes. Pench is beautiful. Difficult to wait till April 2. Nice captures. Which machine?

[Coooolcat21]

Originally Posted by Subrat Seet

Oh boy! These are some fantastics Penchscapes. Pench is beautiful. Difficult to wait till April 2. Nice captures. Which machine?

Thank you so much, wait till u see Kanhascapes.
All the landscapes are with Sony Nex5.
Regards

[Coooolcat21]

We then drive thru the golden medows to see some feathered friends







Crested serpent eagle





A ruffled blue jay/indian roller





The stars of our safaris so far.
Yellow wattled lapwing, its the first time I have seen one in all my years of visiting various wildlife sanctuary.





Nilgai in a perfect frame

[Coooolcat21]

Having really enjoyed seeing a yellow wattled lapwing for the first time in our lives, we felt lucky .
The road ahead looked beautiful and dreamy.

The forests in complete harmony as in the fairytales often we read, where the birds are flying low, deers walking around in no fear, butterflies picking up the dew from various colored flowers. A World peacefull, joyfull and complete.

The pictures are well made in our minds from the illustrations in books or by the detailed writing of the writer.
Its a perfect setting for a fairyland in fairytales.
But sure the inspiration must have come from somewhere, it must be from this very pond in Pench Tiger reserve.





























The red wattled lapwing walks towards the pond for a good reflection, but turns back unhappy as he does not have matching feet unlike the yellow wattled lapwing.

[fazalaliadil]

Coooolcat21,

The very same meadows, waterholes and drives in the forest, I have been through recently and also photographed them, but they look so different from a little change of angle, light, different leave structures on trees etc. Makes me miss Pench more.

Nice photographs and composition of reflections and landscapes.

The second photograph of the Brahminy ducks, Jackal (looking towards the camera) and the (last pic.) all female Neelgai group with perfect light on them have all come out very good , and your beautiful narration takes us through it virtually.

Thanks for sharing.
Regards,

[Coooolcat21]

@Fazal Ali Sir,
Thank you
Regards.

Now it was the turn of the beautiful Aleaxandrine Parakeets to adorne the pond . They almost seemed like they were having a conversation of thier own, seemed heavenly .

Best foot forward











Fly away Peter , fly away Paul

[Coooolcat21]

Having enjoyed the show put up by the colorful birds we decided to move on and here are few more picture

















Now as it was getting time for us to continue our journey to our final destination Kanha national Park, decided to go see the Pench river. Here is the story of a wandering loner.







From far we see a lonely jackal walking along the banks of the river and suddenly he wants to cross the river hoping for greener pastures ( better pastures would surely provide better prey ) , while he is checking out the depth





He turns back as its too deep for him to swim





He turns one last time to promise himself that he shall be back and try getting on to the other side of the river someday.



We too have one last look promising ourselves to be back soon..



And we turn back bidding good bye

[fazalaliadil]

Cooolcat21,
The parrot, look at the pomp in his march and the arrogant expression on his face in the next pic. Serpent Eagle is crisp.

The lonely Jackal and its reflection has come out very good, well composed.

The close up of the doe eyed Jackal, I think is the same guy I have posted on my Pench thread.

The deers grazing in the fire line is a nice habitat shot.
Fire line:
The reason this long and broad stretch of land is deliberately cleared of all bushes and trees is, if one side of forest on either side of the fire line catches fire this bald patch of cleared land disconnects the other side from the spreading fire.
Regards,

[Gandhi]

Wow. Awesome photos. So many wildlife travelogues going on, it's a treat. Keep 'em coming.

[Coooolcat21]

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

Cooolcat21,
The parrot, look at the pomp in his march and the arrogant expression on his face in the next pic. Serpent Eagle is crisp.

The lonely Jackal and its reflection has come out very good, well composed.

The close up of the doe eyed Jackal, I think is the same guy I have posted on my Pench thread.

The deers grazing in the fire line is a nice habitat shot.
Fire line:
The reason this long and broad stretch of land is deliberately cleared of all bushes and trees is, if one side of forest on either side of the fire line catches fire this bald patch of cleared land disconnects the other side from the spreading fire.
Regards,

Sir,
Thank you for your detailed input.
Regards

Originally Posted by Gandhi

Wow. Awesome photos. So many wildlife travelogues going on, it's a treat. Keep 'em coming.

Thank you,
Regards

Then we see this grand elephant on its way back to the camp. Thats when we remembered that we started our safari with a small wish of a tiger show so that we clould see collarwali with her cubs.
We had not missed much as we had witnessed the harmony of the forests





We rush back to the resturant and have a good breakfast.





Looking back once and we are back on the road .



It was a fulfilling experince at Pench Tiger Reserve. Now all of us got down to reflecting back on our 2 safaris .
One of the observations that we have made in my travels across various forest / jungle lands across Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Goa and Madhya Pradesh is that planting Teak Trees in their effort of re-forestation by the various state forest departments have had a negative impact on the bird and insect life of the areas as well as the grasslands usually found below the trees. We have seen it at close quarters in Madhumalai, Dandeli, the western ghats in the areas of Belgaum, Karwar, Uttar Knnad Districts of Karnataka. The forests are greenish and appear to be in good shape but they are silent and there is no undergrowth. We even had a local forester once say that this was a blunder that was a fad in reforestation efforts in the 70's and the 80' but soon discontinued. I see this same phenomenon in Pench, it is strangely devoid of natural foliage and other fauna wherever you find Teak Trees so very very different from the Sal forests of Kanha which again I believe are planted and not fully naturally occurring. It would appear that not all 'good intention' based actions result in desirable results, though more difficult in terms of sustenance and implementation and also not offering instantaneous visible results it would seem better to allow a denuded forest land to recover by themselves with indigenous flora shaped by Darwins Laws. But in this times of 'Twitter' who would have the patience but the nature loving 'twits' themselves!! Before anyone takes umbrage let me say, I define 'us' so as we are not a calculable variable of any vote bank!! Lets all say YEEAH to lost causes and sad hearts

Getting closer, I close my eyes to form the mindscapes of beautiful golden hued medows and winding paths of Kanha national Park waiting for me.

[Subrat Seet]

Wow! I liked your way of presentation. Superb pictures. Thanks for sharing Kippling court photos. Any suggestion on selecting rooms. Waiting for April 2 to reach there. Lalan is booked for 4 drives. All set.

Superb captures again.

[aviorp]

One of the best TL's, I have read so far. Marvelous pictures combined with superb narration, deserves a well credited 5 star rating.

[mallumowgli]

Originally Posted by Coooolcat21

Sir,
One of the observations that we have made in my travels across various forest / jungle lands across Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Goa and Madhya Pradesh is that planting Teak Trees in their effort of re-forestation by the various state forest departments have had a negative impact on the bird and insect life of the areas as well as the grasslands usually found below the trees. We have seen it at close quarters in Madhumalai, Dandeli, the western ghats in the areas of Belgaum, Karwar, Uttar Knnad Districts of Karnataka. The forests are greenish and appear to be in good shape but they are silent and there is no undergrowth. We even had a local forester once say that this was a blunder that was a fad in reforestation efforts in the 70's and the 80' but soon discontinued. I see this same phenomenon in Pench, it is strangely devoid of natural foliage and other fauna wherever you find Teak Trees so very very different from the Sal forests of Kanha which again I believe are planted and not fully naturally occurring. It would appear that not all 'good intention' based actions result in desirable results, though more difficult in terms of sustenance and implementation and also not offering instantaneous visible results it would seem better to allow a denuded forest land to recover by themselves with indigenous flora shaped by Darwins Laws. But in this times of 'Twitter' who would have the patience but the nature loving 'twits' themselves!! Before anyone takes umbrage let me say, I define 'us' so as we are not a calculable variable of any vote bank!! Lets all say YEEAH to lost causes and sad hearts

A very very valid point, Cat. It is a kind of dampener when you suddenly encounter a patch of teak forest in the middle of a natural forest. These plantations by the forest department were not made in any 'good intention' as you mention, but because they have commercial value. Teak and Sal are excellent timber and they can be felled after 30-40 years under some pretext.
But at least nowadays they are not planting the horrible imported Acacia melanoxylon and eucalyptus trees (at least in Kerala, the forest and NH authorities has moved away from planting both the above trees). Not many would think that planting only teak is actually harmful for the ecosystem. (I think Maddy42 made a similar comment in some thread)

Anyway, thanks for the wonderful snaps. My favorites are the photos of the tranquil lake in post 27. Has a very soothing effect

[fazalaliadil]

Coooolcat21,
The photograph of the elephant carting the logs is magical!
Also the angle of the meadow with lined up posts on the right is good, but....only veg and eggs for breakfast???

Now waiting to tour Kanha through your lens and a beautifully detailed narration.
Regards,