Ranganathittu and Bandipur

Last weekend we had a wonderful trip to Ranganathittu and Bandipur. Ranganathittu bird sanctuary is now bustling with activities of painted storks, spot billed pelicans, eurasian spoonbills, open bill storks ,night herons and egrets. While painted storks are busy building nests and mating open bills have already into feeding younger ones and so also are many pelicans. River tern which has no nests and lays eggs on stone has already chicks and busy feeding them. You can see many juvenile night herons,pond herons and greater cormorants . As usual in ranganathittu pied king fishers are always around . Ranganathittu is one sanctuary which always calls visitors every year and always has something to offer for visiting photography enthusiasts. Here are some of the pictures I had there :

An Eurasian Spoonbill

Painted Stork

Pelican with its nesting material landing on water

An openbill stork

Chick of River tern demanding food from mother

Painted storks with spoon bills

From Ranganathittu we proceeded towards Bandipur .The deciduous forests of Bandipur have now shed their leaves totally and though Bandipur is  well known for the Tigers it is a good place for birding too. We could sight spotted deers ,Sambar deers, Barking deer,Stripe necked mangoose, elephants, but the big cat eluded us again. On both the days I was unfortunate not to sight the tiger though our friends in other vehicle were lucky to sight tigers and cubs. Our vehicle was either a bit late or little early to meet the tiger and we missed it on all safaris. But it was a good birding opportunity to see Peacocks in full colors, Jungle fowl, Common Hoopoe, Serpent eagle, Parakeet,Woodpeckers, Myna, Brahminy Starling, Rocket tailed drongo,spot billed ducks,Indian roller, sunbirds, Indian tree pie,Indian pitta, and some more bird which I couldn't identify and was not able to get pictures also.A visit to anti poaching camp to get first hand knowledge of untiring efforts of forest dept in protecting animal habitat especially tigers was a memorable part of trip.

Crested serpent eagle

Sambar Deer

Spotted Deer

A breath taking view of Mayar Gorge ,a deep valley with Mayar river

For a full picas album to pictures of these place click here or on the image below

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Bandipur/Ranganathittu