Birds of Africa #3 - Amur Buzzard

  

We spotted our first Amur Buzzard as we were approaching the Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge on day one of our visit to East Africa. However, the mid day sun and a shy bird made photography near impossible. We hoped to observe and photograph this beautiful raptor later in our safaris and we finally got to do that when we were in the Ngorongoro National Park. 

This Amur Buzzard was soaking up the early morning sun in the crater and seemed very relaxed, thereby allowing us to get close to it. We kept taking pictures as our jeep inched closer and closer to it. Finally, we got so close to it that we were able to get full frame images of this beautiful raptor.

 

Animals of India #65 : Posturing Gaurs

 
During one of our visits to the Bandipur Wildlife Sanctuary, we heard Langur alarm calls near a waterhole. The naturalist who was with us spontaneously stopped the Jeep in its tracks since Langur alarm calls mostly indicate that there is a predator (Tiger or Leopard) nearby. All of us in the vehicle got very excited and hoped that it would be our lucky day! A few minutes later, a herd of Gaurs came to the waterhole to quench their thirst.

We hoped that once they moved on we would be able to catch a glimpse of the elusive cat. Meanwhile, as we waited, two huge bull Gaurs entered the scene and gave us an interesting display of posturing. It was evident from the posturing that the hierarchy was being established as to which one of them would mate with the female Gaurs in the herd that had just passed by. It was particularly thrilling to notice that the Bulls sized each other up with various postures without any physical contact and after a few minutes a clear winner emerged.

Animals of India #64 : Snow Leopard's favorite prey - The Blue Sheep

While we were in the Hemis Wildlife Sanctuary in Ladakh, we camped at the Junction camp that is ideally located at the base of the Rumbak valley. The steep snow capped rocky terrain and the large Bharal (Himalayan Blue Sheep) population in the Husing nallah and Tarbung valley make the camp an ideal location to search for the 'Ghost of the mountains'.

We were confident that we would soon get good photographs of the Blue Sheep (Bharal) - the favorite prey of the Snow Leopard. However, we knew that would be possible only if we got close to a herd and had clear weather with good lighting. On our first trek to the Husing nallah we almost immediately  sighted a Blue Sheep herd on an adjoining ridge. However, the low lighting did not help much with photography. The next morning we once again sighted a Blue Sheep herd and this time, not only were they much closer, but the lighting was also perfect for photography! We could not have asked for anything more.

As we were observing and photographing the herd, we noticed that the dominant male amongst them, which was grazing nearby, was slowly and steadily moving closer and closer to us. At one point he got so close to us that that we could count the rings on his horn. The number of rings on the horn is an indication of the Blue Sheep's age. And we estimated this one to be about 8-10 years old.

National Parks #5 - Sri Lanka - Yala National Park

Yala Wildlife Sanctuary is the second largest National Park in Sri Lanka. It is estimated that the park has 40+ mammal species, 200+ bird species and over 40 reptile species.  

It has one the largest density of Leopards in the world. Tourists are permitted to visit the Block 1 region of the park and we had over 15 sightings of Leopards in the three days that we spent there. Apart from Leopards, Asiatic Elephants and endangered Wild Buffalos are the other big mammals in the park.

The park is situated in the South Eastern region of Sri Lanka and is blessed with many rocky mountains. One can witness some gorgeous sunrise and sunsets at Yala. Here are some landscape images of sunrise and sunsets that we photographed during our stay there.