NOCTURNAL PREDATORS

OWLS & OWLETS

OWLS are intriguing birds that easily capture the attention and curiosity of birders.They are from the family of the order STRIGIFORMES. Owls are peculiarly difficult to spot in the deep forests due to their camouflaged nature as well as their ability to hide quite easily into the bushes of the trees.

Owlets are small forms of the owls smaller in size than the owls whereas the owls are bigger and huge in form.

As avid photographers we always give our best to spot the owls and owlets cause they are very difficult to be photographed but once if spotted then they are photographers' best friends cause they don't fly away if proper silence is maintained at that juncture.

NATUROGRAPHERS have been lucky to spot either owls or owlets on all the wildlife tours we have been to and we are very privileged to display them on our blog for your viewing.

Few Facts About The Owls:

1.The owls have asymetrical ears.They are located above the head which in turn help them to get ready for the hunting of their prey.

2.The owls have binocular vision enabling them to have a large depth of field of view enabling them to get the view of the prey quite easily.

3.The big owls hunt smaller owls for their food and are very dangerous in the night hence we have coined them as nocturnal predators.

4.Spotting a single owl is difficult but sometimes they are always in pair or in a group. That group is called the parliament. Parliament of Owls.

5.The owls have their heads which rotate about 270 degress thereby giving them almost roundabout view of the places where they are.

6.They feed on small mammals , insects , fish as well as small birds.Their eyes are more powerful in the night making them dangerous predators at that time.


NATUROGRAPHERS have photographed different species of owls like 

1.

                                            Spotted Owlet @ Sasan Gir,Gujarat

2.

                                         Brown Fish Owl @ Perambikulam,Tamilnadu

3.

                                      Collared Scops Owl @ Ranthambore, Rajasthan
4.

                                                                 
                                        Spotted owlets @ Ranthambore, Rjasthan
5.

           
                                        Indian Scops Owl @ Sasan Gir, Gujarat

5.

                                                       
                                   Spotted Owlet In the Bush @ Sasan Gir, Gujarat

    6.                                                                 

                             
                                          Jungle Owlet@ Perambikulam, Tamilnadu


All these owls are very different from each other in their forms but are very very beautiful to view especially in photographs.Some of the photographs of these owls in pairs enjoying their time make it easy for the photographers to create  stunning images of these creatures.

Hope you enjoyed these photographs under the nocturnal predators the OWLS & OWLETS. We will come up with more in the future.

JHALANA JAIPUR

Jhalana one of the forest ever I have known which constitutes mainly of flora and fauna with a widespread of 24 sq.kms located in the center of Jaipur. A place where leopards own their place totally like the Tigers of Ranthambore. Our trip started on the evening of 22 nd of June with WILDARK NATURE and with Sumit Bhai who took their lead for the sighting of Leopards. Vipul & Catherine who took lead had already informed us regarding the kill.

 There are actually two zones namely NEEMGHATTA & LALAKUND where we sighted the leopard in the zone 1 where it was hiding inside the bushes. And we started to search for leopards after it did't show up. Then we halted near the kill (Bluebull- Neelgai) where we were expecting for the leopards to show up. Then we saw a male & a female nearly at the time of completion of our first safari where we saw BIG FOOT moving away from us.

This guy was making a territory marking directly looking at us and he had many scars around his face and probably those scars would have been for mating with the female. Then we saw a remarkable jump of big foot to the other side through the fence which could not be captured and was not expecting for the moment.

The day 2 was impressive with the sighting of Indian Leopard aka Flora which was enjoying her kill letting us capture images for more than 10 minutes. Our gypsy was the only one capturing the photos and really without any disturbance we did enjoy the moment.

Then we started to birding after having a mini breakfast inside the forest and we also saw beautiful birds such as GOLDEN ORIOL, INDIAN PITTA and of course Indian Pitta mating, JACOBIAN CUCKOO, PIED STARLING, BRAHMINY STARLING & YELLOW FOOTED GREEN PIGEON.

Then the evening safari was wonderful as i was experiencing rain during the safari and we got the good pictures of Indian Leopard aka Prince who was reaching for the food and that sighting was nearly for half and hour.

He was so majestic in look and neither these leopards dare to run away seeing us. We captured the beautiful moments that possibly I think no one can capture in Kabini, Tadoba or Bhadra.

Then we had beautiful crossing moment of Prince to the other side where the kill was present.

The above image i really loved capturing the sprint of the leopard. Then we were able to notice the Prince enjoying the kill with the rainy mood in the clouds.

It took 7.30 p.m for us to reach the hotel and i bet u that the only place where we can see leopard together is JHALANA. We mainly could see the leopard because of the kill and thanks a ton for the NEELGAI.


K.KARTHICK
WNG: OUR LIMITLESS PHOTOGRAPHY

SMALL PRATINCOLE

One of the cutest bird can be seen in India & Southeast Asia which is of 16-20 cm found breeding on the gravels & sandbanks. We did sight the bird on the first day of our safari at BHADRA TIGER RESERVE, KARNATAKA. Out of six safaris we did learn the life of Pratincole what they do & how they survive. We have captured different moments of the bird where it feed its chicks, protects her chicks & breeds.

SPECS:
Shutter Speed- 1/1250
Aperture- f/5.6
ISO- 250

                                                                                                                               

The bird was holding the food and was searching for chick to feed. Then due to the absence of chick around it enjoyed her food.

SPECS:
Shutter Speed- 1/1000
Aperture- f/5.6
ISO- 500

      

This chick showed itself outside for food waiting eagerly and its new born.

SPECS:
Shutter Speed- 1/160
Aperture- f/5
ISO- 1000

Mother instructing her children to have its food. This image was difficult to get as we were holding our cameras near the shelter for the mother to return with food.

K.SWARUP & K.KARTHICK                                                     Ph.No- 8124487585

RANTHAMBORE

Ranthambore National Park famous for Tigers covers an area of 500 km. It is present at SAWAI MADHOPUR where the name has come from the palace called Ranthambore. The life of the tigers is difficult to understand and they don't show themselves outside. We had done six safaris and we were able to sight the tiger called NOOR in the fifth safari. We had been waiting for more than 3 hours for the tiger to get sighted and it was the evening 5 p.m where we heard the alarm call from the Sambhar Deer. Then followed the call where we saw the tigress NOOR in the zone 1 area. We were so excited, that our hands were shaking and photos were starting to blur. Then we focused on the background and the tiger for better image show that the contrast may change the quality of picture. NOOR had come outside to relax herself leaving her cubs in shelter while the herbivorous were thinking of great threat. Then she neglected all other animals and started walking towards the pond for water. This was the first sighting of tiger and we will not forget the the exciting moments that we experienced.

Specs:

Shutter speed-1/500 sec

Aperture- f/5.6

ISO- 1600

This image was taken along with background for good contrast.

The below image was taken while she was walking through the branches .

Specs:

Shutter speed-1/200 sec

Aperture- f/5

ISO- 1600

WNG: Our Limitless Photography                                               Ph.no- 8124487585

                                                                                                         

RIVERTERNS OF BHADRA

THE TALE OF RIVERTERN
JAGARA VALLEY renamed to BHADRA WILDLIFE SANCTUARY in the year 1974 is famous for both flora & fauna and mainly for the tigers. The Sanctuary is totally of 572 kms occupying by most of Guars, Deer & many other birds of different origin. During the monsoon the water rises covers all the island with a height of 180 m & during the summer the water level reduces to 100 m or less. During the summer, nearly thousands of River terns visit the island and start doing their day to day work that includes breeding. We can find different behaviors of River Terns which always plays with the fish called MINERS. The main part of River Terns is the mating where the males fight each other for a female with the fish. Just like the olden days where the queen chooses the king in the competition, River terns bring fish instead of gold or something for mating with female. The River Terns picks up the fish from fresh water lake and cleans several time again and again in the same lake for feeding it to the female.

Then the Terns then feed their females and try to show their heroism to the females. The female has the sole authority of choosing her mate.

Then the male mates with the female after overcoming such difficulty to mate. While other males try to distract the mating process to prevent from mating.

After mating they female produces the eggs which it takes nearly 3 weeks to hatch while the male brings the feed for the female she protects her eggs.

Female preserves her eggs by keeping inside the rocky areas like carves preventing from predators. The life of River Terns starts from fishing to protecting their chicks. That's the tale about River Terns.