A weekday holiday in the form of Shivratri got us some time and a few calls later - Madan, Vimal and I decided on paying this black buck territory a visit.
Started early and stopped several times enroute with some good sightings.
Plum headed parakeets
Rose ringed parakeets
The Indian roller in the morning light - sorry about the un-natural perch of the electric line
After crossing the bumpy roads, reached Jayamangali black buck reserve with the bee eaters providing us some fantastic photo ops!
The female
Madan got this fantastic shot of the bee eater spitting out the pellet - which is an amazing way of getting rid of the tough exoskeletons of the insects the bird consumes, talk about packaging!
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The land's a lovely grassland, we were really hoping to spot some Indian coursers and maybe if lucky even a Fox.
Making our way into the reserve we saw a few juveniles running across the road (dirt-track)
A little distance inwards, we spotted this large male. And as it turns out these would be the only saving grace in terms of black buck shots.
The black bucks society is a harem - a dominant male with several females and other juveniles.
The female here seen with her lovely large and sparky eyes!
A young male, which most likely would have been driven out of the herd by the dominant male. Young males often form male only "groups"
Driving around we could not spot any more :( Madan told me last time they saw herds and herds. Well, that's how wildlife goes! It's a large reserve and they could have been anywhere.
The drive though did provide us some good birding ops.
The Ashy crowned lark male
A female lark
Crested lark
A pipit
Purple sunbird
Indian roller
A couple of bay backed and grey shrikes also spotted, sadly against the light.
We explored the surroudings a bit more and spotted another small herd and watched them from a distance.
The dominant male with a juvenile
A Montagu's harrier scouting around for prey providing some entertainment for both us and the blackbuck ;)
Stopped at a couple of water bodies on the way back, but did not spot much.
A shot of the cattle egret in flight
A Indian Spotted Eagle that was being chased by kites
Thanks to Madan for the drive, we know it was a tiring one!
All these with the Sigma 150-500, and almost full frame shots in most cases. Certainly enjoying the reach..
Adios till the next ride then ;)
Cheers,
Hayath
13 comments:
some awesome ones out there..the sigma is definitely proving its worth..:)
Great post mate!! Its such a beautiful place.. i had the pleasure of spending an entire weak there. The fauna is simply superb there!!
Congrats on the new gear...
Regards,
Angad Achappa
hmmm...as i have been saying about all your write ups...gorgeous and superb pics..and the clarity n colour..surely the bazooka had added more charm to your shots..as i understand well how difficiult it is to spot them and still get the right shot...and making the best of that chance..ustaad shots again :)
Excellent captures... loved it all.
Lovely shots!
Thanks much dear all :)
@Richa,
Yeah, the extra reach is super fun and the quality is decent too!
@Angad,
Yep mate. Magical place...I'm sure there will be many more visits to come, and hope that place does show us some of it's hidden treasures
@Shalini,
Very true, it's all about the moment and what one has on the camera then :D
Cheers,
Hayath
Nice crisp picture and summary of the trip.
Hi Hayath
Enjoyed ur shots. My trip to maidanahalli is still a long pending one. Can u tell me which is the camera u used for shots ? with 150 -500 sigma u had shot crispy photos.
let me know the camera body and model . blr_ramesh@yahoo.com.
Dear Mr Hayath
I have seen the pictures in face book.But it is fabulous here.I am happy to see that the Sigma had been put to efficient use as light has favored you all along.
The pictures are remarkably good and also urges me to move out with mine on an outing on a bright day!
Only concern is the pain it can give after 30 minutes!
mind blowing pics man
Thank you Prakash!
Thank you Ramesha, used my Canon 450D for these.
Thank you Sivakumar :) Yeah, the Bigmos is quite a worthy lens and can hold it's own when there's enough light around. Eager to see shots from your bigmos too!
Thank Deepz.
crispy pictures Hayath , you do some post processing ...my pics do not come so crisps what was the exib please give full info on shutter speed ,iso ,metering mode etc
Hemant
Thanks Hemant!
My PP is the very basic curve/level/saturation/contrast correction, plus a round of Unsharp mask applied to the resized version.
Will be difficult to provide EXIF for all, do let me know the images you want the EXIF on, shall try my best to get you that
Cheers,
Hayath
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