Silhouettes from Sakleshpur

Back on the blog after a 4 month gap, may be deserves something different to be written or posted. The summer is back here in Mumbai and how!! I can only hope that the sweltering heat subsides in the days to come, which is very unlikely of course, or just have to wait for those fun-filled monsoon days in the near future! But that can hardly stop me from reminiscing about the trip we did in the month of December 2014...just about 3 months back, to Sakleshpur.  A 3 day vacation with hubby, daughter and a school friend, great fun!!

Sakleshpur, a hill station in Hassan district in Karnataka makes for a great weekend cum monsoon holiday destination.  Elegant mountains, wonderful vistas, coffee, pepper and cardamom plantations are just a few characteristic features of this place. One can find good resorts and homestays to make their stay and experience enjoyable.

A drive to a nearby hillock during the first day of our stay in a quaint village in this place offered us a visual treat.  Evening breeze, superb panoramic views and a sun who was at his mischievous best! It only made for a wonderful opportunity to try and learn to click some silhouette images.

For viewing the photographs in bigger size, click on the images.

A perfect podium set in the fore with the drama as this in the sky for a backdrop, amazing view!

It was bright one moment but when the clouds started moving rapidly it did turn a bit dark.  However the sun tried his best to peep through the passing clouds It would be interesting to have somebody walk into the frame to experiment with my camera. Hubby walks in!!

The actor makes his entry into the frame!

  

At the other end of this small platform like podium, my friend stands still as I click this photograph.

Sun completely hidden amongst the dense cloud, only a red tinge
of the sun rays adds some colour to this picture.

It was an enchanting few minutes. The lofty mountain ranges surrounding us, cool breeze, setting sun and picturesque little hillock - where we were spending time. A distant view of the place we stood!

It's drama all over!! 

It has been a very simple photography session!! Just when I was thinking, 'need some action', got this lucky break.  But this was unintentional capture...still loving it!!

Hubby trying to handover the cap, a busy buddy making away with his jacket
and me standing at a little distant clicking this!

Are we in a mood to move away from this place? Nope!!
But we need to.  Walking down the hillock, it compels you to turn back and enjoy that one last glimpse of this beautiful place.

Take a quiet walk with mother nature - it will nurture your body, mind and soul.
 A.D. Williams

Waders of Wild India

One for the Album!

We the Waders, slightly of a different sort of course, went on an expedition to watch the feathered waders, I mean the actual ones – the winter visitors to this part of our country. It is always a joy to join the friendly group of members from Wild India (their FB page ), ably led by Bhavesh, Sunil and Rupali. So this time too, it wasn’t any different. After missing many an opportunity to go on some or the other interesting trips, finally I could make it to the Akshi Beach with them on their ‘Wader watch’ trip.

 A well-planned and nicely executed trip made for an interesting & fun Sunday (16 November, 2014).  The group Members on this particular event were - Kundan Nitin Sule, Ganesh Johare, Mateen Patel, Arvind Singh, Dilip, Suru Nair, Sumukh Deodhar, Seema Deodhar, Me and as mentioned earlier group led by Bhavesh Rathod, Sunil Kadam and Rupali Kadam. It is but natural to thank Mr & Mrs Sumukh Deodhar, Mr. Arvind Singh and Mr. Mateen Patel who drove all the members of the group through the day. Very much appreciated and many thanks to the other members of the group for the great company. Wild India Team, great Going. :)

The trip began as planned around 3.45 am for all those members residing in the western suburbs and further continued towards the central side to finally congregate somewhere just after Panvel for a cup of hot chai around 6.30am!  From here onwards the group drove and spent the next 12 hours together. Aah, absolutely fun, interesting and enriching experience this was! Coming from various professional backgrounds, one thing or may be two, that was common to all of us was the interest in birds and photography! Small camera, Big camera, small lens, huge lens (Which almost seemed like rocket launchers) were the most integral part of this expedition.  Needless to mention, most of the time I was in awe of these people and even I kept quite for a few minutes during the entire trip - I know, to those who know me well, it is almost an unbelievable feat!! 

Anyway, many a lessons learnt and most of all a great opportunity to meet these members whom I have been probably interacting with on facebook on different fora for a couple of years now but had never met them before.

So to continue - post tea, directly we drove to our breakfast and chai point, after which we marched to our destination – Akshi Beach! 

At Shri. Nandakishore Shankar Patil's Residence - A neat and clean place to have tea and breakfast.
One can also order for lunch before leaving for the beach. Ample car parking facility is an added bonus.

With Bhavesh & Sunil helping with the Ids of the birds sighted and carefully steering us towards the flock, had an enjoyable time watching the winged-friends!

On the beach at 8.45 am

Action Time! Take a look at these waders first! :D

Mateen Patel - Suitably armed to shoot! And boy, what pics he did get!!

Arvind Singh, crawling for the one perfect click!
Suru Nair, looking around for any new birds to point his camera towards.

A few get lucky in this manner - birds walk up to them!

Watching them busily clicking away was a treat to the eyes!! Highly inspired by them, did the crawling bit myself!! Well, some waders from my camera!

Seemed like Bollywood song was being picturized -
Aage aage chale hum, peeche peeche preet mitwa...

Akele Hum, Akele Tum?

It was interesting to see mixed flocks of Plovers, terns, Gulls not very far from each other.

Gull-isatan hamara!
Brown-headed, Black-headed and Heuglin's Gulls

In conference - Ruddy Turnstones and Plovers!

Do we have some Sanderlings too in this meetup?

One, two, three, four,
Get on the dance floor!
Worried Gulls

Under the watchful eyes of the gulls, we the 'terns' are prospering!

Time to wind up and leave!!

A good 2 ½ hrs of wader watch and a short fun-filled photo session of the members finally came to an end around 11.15 am.  Back to the breakfast point for a quick change of clothes and another round of hot cuppa turned even more interesting with our group member finding an exciting and very interesting creature – Striped Keelback snake. Another photo shoot was bound to happen here! 

Kundan Nitin Sule, introducing us to a cute little Buff Striped Keelback Snake!

It was after our a hot cup of chai that the idea to visit the nearby Korlai lighthouse and fort was suggested by Rupali.  Well, within no time we were on the road being driven towards the lighthouse.

Driving towards Korlai Fort.

 Located at a strategic point on a hill, Korlai fort is located in the then Portuguese island town of Korlai. Today, only the ruins of this once glorious fort remain in the form of ramparts and some fort walls.

 

Kadam Kadam Badhaaye jaa,
Khushi ke geet gaaye jaa!
Walking up towards the Korlai fort!

Pausing for a while - to catch a breath and absorb the wonderful views this place had to offer.
Behind us is the Korlai Light house!

The fort is 2828 feet long, and its average breadth is eighty-nine feet. The enclosing wall is 5' 3" high and has 305 battlements for guns. (Wikipedia) 

Peekaboo...Remnants of the fort bastion emerges under the blue sky!

We spent some good half an hour walking around the edges of this fort in search of some raptors.  Though we were not lucky enough to sight anything more apart from a lonely Brahminy Kite and a Kestrel, we did get to witness some picturesque views and also had a short fun photo shoot.

A wonderful vista - where the fort walls take a plunge in to the Arabian Sea or at least seems so!

Standing by the edge, seeking some raptor sighting!

Walking back towards the waiting group!

Walked back to the vehicles and drove for the much needed lunch break!! A reasonably good place to have meals and a drink or two on a hot afternoon, we ate and rested for a while before we took to the road. 

Hungry Kya? Lunch break!!

Evening Chai just after Pen and an interesting sighting of this lovely creepy crawly (had spotted this one even in the morning during our chai break, by Mrs. Seema Deodhar from our group) and some click click and finally bid goodbye to the group and were on our way back.  

The Rockstar - Violin Mantis.

By 9.00 pm I was back at home with some photos in my camera from the day’s outing and loads of wonderful and sweet memories to cherish for a long time to come.

Highlights of this trip – Being with Wild India in it-self is a nice feeling, meeting Rupali, meeting new friends, seeing the photography equipments the members were carrying, the way they take care of the same, the passion with which they follow their hobby (birding as well as photography), flocks of gulls, plovers and terns made the day for me!! The lucky sighting of Striped Keelback snake, Violin Mantis and off the beaten track visit to Korlai fort made for an exciting trip!

Salad Sunday!

It seemed to be a lazy, dull and drab Sunday, yesterday. Needed to add some colour and fun to it! Should I go out and take a walk and try to click some pictures of the colourful birds in my favourite place, SGNP or should I drive out somewhere - was the confusion!! Well, could not decide on anything so just thought let me try my hand at preparing this salad which was served at my friend’s place during my recent visit to Bangalore. I had loved the taste as well as the colours in it.  I generally prepare the regular Kosambri (cucumber salad or the other veggie salads in south Indian style) or the veggie raitas regularly, but this time I did want to experiment a bit.

So, off I went out and brought home these colourful bell peppers a.k.a capsicum!

Refreshing colours - Red & Yellow Bell Peppers!

Cubed the peppers and whisked some sauce to dress up the salad.

Cubed bell peppers,  cabbage julienne, some mayo with magic sauce and olive oil!

A lazy Sunday looked more interesting with my daughter joining me in the kitchen.  Of course, the minute she entered the kitchen I was sure that I had some extra work.  She would never let me do anything simple. ‘Are you adding paneer to it’? ‘You know, cheese would go so well with it’…are just a few suggestions I would be subjected to! Well, a salad would never be simple after her grand entry!

That extra touch - Paneer and cheese!

Well, the next 15 minutes I was busy. The mayonnaise seemed to be perfect for mixing the veggies with but I had added to it a tsp of black pepper sauce, a bit of mixed herbs and liberally squeezed in juice of 1 whole lemon along with a tbsp of olive oil. Later sprinkled some salt and freshly ground black pepper on top of paneer and grated cheese, just before mixing the salad well.

The final 'Creamy look'! Bell Pepper with Paneer & cheese.

Finally, it seemed like I dished out a reasonably tasty salad. Hubby and daughter enjoyed it!

Bird watching!

Black Kite

Bird watching is one of my favorite hobbies. About a couple of years ago what started as timepass activity, is now an activity which I pursue with great interest. The best part of this hobby is, I can watch the birds by just looking out of our flat window and observe the sparrows hop, skip & jump on the bougainvillea creeper or a common Myna preen at leisure on the lamp post just across the road or a huge flock of parakeets fly by from here till there or even vice versa (There is this adorable flock of parakeets in our residential complex)!!

Well, in short, I don’t have to venture out or plan an outing especially for this purpose.  Recently, during my trip to Bangalore, I had this rare opportunity to watch a very common raptor ‘Black Kite’ perching on a police patrol van just beside the window at my mom’s house.  A godsend opportunity to watch this handsome bird, that too just beside our window!! The bird could be very common but getting to see it at such close quarters is not very common, I must say.  

The first look - Black Kite
Black Kite, is a medium sized 'bird of prey'.
They generally are found hovering high up in the sky identifying their prey on the ground.

A boring evening immediately transformed into an interesting as well as exciting evening! I picked up my camera and ventured out of the house. I wondered if I could get some closeup pictures.  I was totally excited but was also worried that the bird would take to it’s wings if it saw me approach it with the camera in my hands. To my surprise, the bird did not even try to move from it's place of perch. Within seconds I had this feeling that the bird was hurt or was not keeping well. Of course the bystanders already had many theories –

• The bird’s leg is hurt.
• It’s very weak, hence it has come down so low, else it would never come so close to human beings.
• It’s still a juvenile, may be it doesn’t know how to fly.
• The bird’s wings are not developed…etc etc!

Birds joining the police force? An amused police!

Well, even I was worried. Such a majestic bird, what would happen to it if it was really hurt? Who would care for it? Whom shall I contact and ask for some help? I immediately posted my doubts on a bird forum on FB too, but within minutes, when the police patrol van moved, the bird took to it’s wings and comfortably flew away and perched on a tree branch, along the road.

Isn't he handsome?

Almost everybody standing around jumped with joy and cheered the bird! But I still wonder why the bird could have come so close to the ground especially if it was not feeding! It sat and obliged me with many a photographs and never tried to fly away until the vehicle moved from the place it was parked. Whatever the reasons, it was an enjoyable experience overall! 

Roses!!

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Sugar is sweet,

And so are you...

is the poem which instantly comes to our mind when we see or think about roses! It so happened that while going through the morning newspaper the previous Sunday morning, I chanced upon this 4 line news item about the 'Rose show /exhibition and competition' being held at Maharashtra Nature Park (MNP), Mumbai and I was instantly reminded of the above poem.

Red Roses - Maharashtra/Mahim Nature Park. February 2014.

The event was held on 1st and 2nd February, 2014 at Maharashtra Nature Park more popularly known as Mahim Nature Park, Mumbai. To me, it was yet another opportunity to carry my camera and try to capture the beauty of these flowers.  On display were hundreds of roses in all their captivating colours and shades.

Mauve is the in colour - Maharashtra/Mahim Nature Park. February 2014.

There are around 3500 varieties of roses in the world. Roses had arrived from many parts of India - Bangalore, Kolkata etc. The popular variety displayed in this show was the 'Floribanda' and a few others too.

Double shade - Maharashtra/Mahim Nature Park. February 2014.

It was an amazing experience to be at the venue and see the participating members lovingly handle the flowers with utmost care and affection.  

Coral Power - - Maharashtra/Mahim Nature Park. February 2014.

The pleasant February weather seemed to create the perfect atmosphere for these flowers to exhibit their best colours. No wonder the flowers were in their full glory.

Night photography

LIGHTS!

One can spend hours photographing the lights, be it during the festival of lights (Deepavali) or as simple as an oil lamp in a dark room. It is a challenge to capture the flame or the lights through a camera lens and getting it right would be a task in itself.

Yesterday, it so happened that I finally mustered enough courage to try my hand at simple 'night photography' and capture the lights - the lights of the speeding vehicles on the road. Carrying a tripod was never my idea of photography. But after going through a few write-ups on night photography and the challenges one confronts during poor light conditions and the benefit one derives with a little bit of extra effort invested in carrying this three-legged apparatus made great sense to start my 'night photography' lessons/experiment in the right way.

The effort was absolutely rewarding - for an amateur photographer like me. Presenting a few photos from my yesterday night's rendezvous with the lights!!

My very first photo - God knows what I thought when I clicked it without mounting the camera on the tripod. I still was hesitating and thought, "oh, definitely it is not as difficult to click without a tripod".

Handheld - without a tripod, it would be hard to click the pic.

One look of the above pic and within seconds my thoughts were. "I better mount the camera on the tripod without wasting time'!! :P

Of course,I felt that the camera settings were also incorrect! But then, I was there to experiment & learn. So just kept varying the aperture, ISO & shutter speed and spent blissfully the next 2 hrs on the foot-over bridge.

Varied the camera angle or adjusted some settings! Results were encouraging.

Particularly liked this pic, just don't know what I did and clicked this. But still liked the blur.

The vehicles which were in no hurry to speed.

Our Studio for the evening - The foot-over bridge where we spent good 2 hrs clicking the vehicles speeding below.

The desired result - after about 2 hrs of experimenting.

The desired result - after about 2 hrs of experimenting.

It wasn't a scary or bad photo-session. Hence I have decided to venture soon on another such expedition to capture those colorful lights. May be a different location and some other sort of light!! Any suggestions? :)

Beach Birding.

Gulls - Mixed flock.

The winter has just begun - It's November already!  And the winter visitors are here. A few of my friends had already welcomed the guests on the Arabian sea coast and taken many a wonderful pictures of the guests on the beach. Well, how could I resist visiting the place and spend sometime with the guests myself?  From the above picture it is already clear who the 'guests' in question are! We are here talking about the 'winged-guests' who migrate and on their journey happen to visit us and spend sometime here - Akshi Beach, Alibaug (Maharashtra). 

In the last week of October one of my birding friend Mr. Avinash Bhagat, had visited the beach and had brought us the good news of the arrival of huge flocks of waders along with fantastic photographs of those birds, in this part of the state.  Should I write that it was too tempting and hence I had to visit the place and do a bit of clicking myself? May be not. :)

On November 1st, me and hubby decided that the next morning we would drive down towards Alibaug and visit Akshi beach and spend some hours watching these birds. 

02 November, 2013.
After a long time, I was on trip exclusively for birding!  I was thrilled. Took some tips and instructions from my friend as to the exact location to sight these birds, the previous day and by 5.30 am we were on the highway driving towards Alibaug. 

Route - Borivali - Chembur - Panvel - Mahad - Pen - Wadkalnaka - Alibaug - Akshi beach.
The road condition from Pen to Wadkalnaka is not very good, lot of 4 laning work is in progress (it happens to be the Mumbai/Goa highway). 

Vehicle Parking area - Akshi Beach.

Anyway with a short break for 'pet pooja' (breakfast & tea) at Wadkalnaka, we were walking on the beach by 9.00 am.  It was already a bit too bright and sunny.  We spotted the flocks as expected at some distance. Made it to the closest point to watch the birds by almost crawling on the hard beach bed.  It took a bit of an effort and some patience to get somewhere at a comfortable range (both for me and the birds) to photograph the birds, I confess.  BUT, it was all worth it. 

Black Drongos - First Sighting of the day.

The beach - a view!
Gulls and plover flocks in full attendance.

I had not seen many waders in the past, birding itself I had picked up in the past couple of years.  I was only too happy to lie on the beach and observe those beautiful birds feeding, preening, walking sometimes swimming and many a times fling away into the sea when they felt there was some company  in the form of whizzing bikes or some zooming jeep or some exuberant visitors on the beach walking and talking at the top of their voice. All the while, I just lay there still on the beach watching the birds if the were in front of me or waiting for them to return if the had ventured a bit into the sea.  Return they would, within few minutes and again settle down. 

The Gulls on the beach.

The Plover Party!

Some 3 hours on the beach with extremely hot sun right above my head, by around 12.00 pm, finally thought I should be walking towards the vehicle and take cover.  Actually within an hour's time, my hubby had already retreated to the comforts of our vehicle.  I was obviously oblivious to his activities as I was totally engrossed in my birding activity.  

A Kentish Plover (Left), inspecting the activities of a Ruddy Turnstone (right).

The star in the middle - The taller and slightly stocky bird right in the centre
is the Brown-headed Gull.

The brown gull in the middle - Heuglin's Gull (1st winter).

Crab Plover pair (Centre) flanked by Grey plovers.

Eurasian Curlews, walking closer to the sea water. Their beaks seem huge
for their little head!!
Grey plover in the fore ground.

Beach bums - Little Terns.

When it started getting hot, a few decided to take a swim and others wanted to just cool their belly on the sand.

Gulls enjoying a swim in the shallow waters.
Black-headed gulls in the foreground and a Heuglin's Gull
(Brown in colour, on the right hand side corner closer to the water)

Kentish Plovers on the sand.

Mixed flock -  Terek Sandpipers (Long upturned bills),
Kentish Plovers (Little black legs & collar around their neck)
Curlew Sandpiper with long upturned beak (In the centre, but out of focus in the last row)
Some Lesser Sand plovers (Larger & Longer legged than Kentish plovers and also lacks white hind collar)

Lost in thought - Grey Plover

A Ruddy Turnstone - looking for something interesting to put it's beak into to use!

Checking me out from the corners of it's eye - cute little Kentish Plover.

 It was time to walk back towards the vehicle parking lot. Still, as I walked back, took some pictures.

Layers!
Plovers in the foreground with the Gull flock in the background.

Bid Goodbye to this beautiful pair of Crab Plovers.

Wanting to fly back into the sea?

To fly or to take a boat ride, seems the dilemma for these birds!

The beach.

Once back in the vehicle, took a 10 minute break and replenished my soul with tender coconut water being sold near the parking area. Felt totally rejuvenated. We drove back towards Alibaug and reached a water body where we saw a few more water birds. Spent just a bout a few minutes at this place.  It was time for lunch but we decided to get back to the highway and take a quick lunch break at Wadkalnaka where had stopped for our breakfast. We reached home around 6.00 pm.

List of birds seen in and around Akshi beach. 

Black Drongos - the first ones to welcome us as we got down from our vehicle at the beach.

Gulls - Black-headed, Brown-headed, Heuglin's 

Plovers - Lesser Sand, Kentish, Grey,

1 pair Crab Plover

Sandpiper - Terek, Curlew

Curlew - Eurasian Curlews

Turnstone - Ruddy Turnstones

Tern - Little Terns

Brahminy Kite - Juvenile
White Wagtail, Spotted Owlet, minivets, Prinia
Around Alibaug - Lesser Whistling ducks, Bronze-winged Jacana, Cormorants, Egrets, Sunbirds

I would like to thank very senior birders and bird experts like Mr. Adesh Shivkar, Mr. Vaibhav Deshmukh and few of my close birding friends like Avinash Bhagat, Bhavesh Rathod and others too, who have helped me with the bird IDs on different fora.  Many thanks to all of them, for all the help.