Kabini

The Kabini river area of Rajiv Gandhi national park is something I had always wanted to visit for quite sometime. We got from Ooty to Kabini, late in the afternoon. After a lunch and a bit of relaxing, we started off on a safari. After a few peacocks, CSE, langurs and mongoose, a leopard decided to cross our path just in front of us. There had been reports of tiger sightings around but we saw just a few elephants (some of the tuskers in Kabini have huge tusks and the herds are large) gaur, boar and deer.

The next day morning safari was just as fun, along with the usual we also managed to see a spot bellied eagle owl. Again on information from other jeeps we tried to spot a tiger but kept missing it by a few minutes. Other birds included a pair of mating rollers, loads of white bellied woodpeckers (couple of them courting) and a few other woodpeckers. The evening safari gave us more of the same with nothing new. Going back to the roosting spot of the owl, we did not find it after that morning. In between the 2 safaris, we managed a few macros of spiders and my new underwater cam helped in some frog shots. Also saw a coppersmith barbet and managed to shoot it in the lodge. It is one of those birds that I have seen a lot earlier but always wanted a photo.

The final day morning safari, after driving around a bit we saw a couple of peacocks dancing and after missing views of the tiger by just minutes twice, we found it was visible from a point but it was far off and sleeping. As we all strained our eyes and binoculars to get a glimpse, the drivers joked around raising false alarms saying it was getting up. After a few of those, while everyone ignored those alarms, one of the drivers kept repeating it. As we turned to where he pointed we saw another tiger out in the open which none of us had noticed as we were so focused on the first one. They must have been a mating pair said someone. Although far off we were just happy to see one. It was more a case of the "The driver who cried tiger" rather than "The boy who cried wolf". Also saw two packs of wild dogs on the same safari.

The last safari which was an additionally paid one was also without any carnivores but we saw a couple of tuskers not fully grown in a mock fight. Also saw a pair of malabar trogon, mating oriental magpie robins, paradise flycatchers and a blue faced malkoha along with the other. Spent some more time trying to shoot frogs in the river at noon but the waters were not as still as the previous day and not many clouds in the sky so gave that up.