Sharing some bird photographs from my East-Sikkim birding tour with the wildlife tour organizers called Goingwild. It was in April 2015, a good memorable time!
It's
a paradise for birders we well as nature lovers. If you're lucky you
could spot various mammals as well. These Himalayan birds are such
beauties and capturing them was a real treat. A guided tour helped us
locate and learn about the species of birds found here specially when
we come from the non-hilly regions.
Here
I am sharing the beauties whose pictures somehow came good from my
Nikon 55-300mm lens. But otherwise I saw plenty of other birds, few mammals and got
lots of lifers (almost all). It was awesome!!
Barbara! What do you imagine? A Blonde beautiful women? Alas it's a Forest Reserve I'm talking about. Though the name was given after a British Forest Officer's wife who was killed by a Tiger there. I had been quite lucky to be traveling twice to the beautiful jungles of Barbara, under the Division of Khurda, Odisha, India. And of course hoping for more visits. Barbara is kind of a pristine jungle, less explored as compared to other places and that's a reason why roaming inside is a kind of experience one does not forget! A place to wander, to find mammals and birds and butterflies and other nature's wonders. Beautiful to the core and a paradise for nature lovers. All green around, narrow paths made for nature trails and in between streams gives a pleasant feeling. Both my trips had been content to my heart. Being a lover of feathered and winged beauties, I got a lot of birds and butterflies to see and got some good photos. My first visit had been a day-trip with a group of nature-explorer men. We had a good time hunting down the place majorly for birds. Of course we were in the stealth mode and had a nice local lunch on our way back. Second had been for a survey purpose with the senior wild-lifers and fellow junglee friends. A trip to count majorly the number of bird species and other fauna found in the Barbara Reserve Forest as per the briefings. We halted there the previous night at a nice guest house. At night too a search and discussion on fauna was on. With merely two hours of sleep we were up to catch the early birds. Got divided into teams and along with the forest officials and vehicles we went on bird searching. Had to take in the humid and sweaty weather. We found many lifer bird species and I found few butterflies too. Around noon freshened up back at the guest house and had a hefty lunch. After lots of bird discussions and experience sharing of the day, all started off towards the city and after a small gathering all dispersed to respective their homes :-) All the listings from various team were compiled and given to the respective forest official. What a well spent day! Specially learning from the seniors like Mr. Manoj Nair. His bird recognizing skills with his sharp eyes and bird calls made us all awestruck ! I experienced a lot of things but did not get such amazing photographs. Here sharing whatever I could land my hands on, I mean camera on! :-)
A series of 'Common Lascar' butterfly.
Indian Pitta
Plum-headed Parakeet - Male
Scarlet Minivet - Male
Scarlet Minivet - Male
A pretty flower
Common Sailer
Common Crow
Spot Swordtail
The jungle routes
Fire in the woods !
Mating Robber flies
Common Emerald Dove Green Imperial Pigeon
Common Fourring
Common Grass Yellow
Double-banded Judy
Some tree fruits. Beautiful aren't they!
leaf canopy
Little things to notice .. Ants!
Some Insect house!
Indian Peacock
Indian Golden Oriole
Some Mushrooms ?
Yellow-footed Green Pigeon
More species :
Recording of a 'Indian Pitta' call. Do watch in HD !
