Return to Kabini

Having spent a good part of the morning in the Bangalore traffic jams and after searching for quite a few roads, we arrived at the Jungle Lodges resort pretty late in the afternoon but just in time for the evening safari. The safari time was only about 2 hours but after the last experience there, expectations were quite high. The lodge itself hasn't changed much and neither has the forest but it has been split into two zones now with jeeps allowed into the zones at alternate safaris. The park all of a sudden felt very small because of this change.

The safaris were quite interesting that way. We did not have the devil's luck as in the previous trip but there were things to see. The only large carnivores that we saw were a few wild dogs but birding was pretty good. Somehow we saw very few elephant as well. The other herbivores were very visible with herds of gaurs and deer and mongoose scampering about.

Among the birds, we spotted a few paradise flycatchers within the campus but within the forest were a number of streaked woodpeckers, heart spotted woodpeckers, white bellied and the flamebacks. The pick of the sightings was a blue faced malkoha. The riverside near the lodge provided a few macro opportunities while spiders easily posed in the trees. The lodge was pretty crowded despite being off season and sighting being fewer due to the weekend. Overall a lazy weekend but not as spectacular as we were hoping for.