Sunday in Tadoba

The morning safari would be our last for this trip. Visiting such exquisite places leaves me with a feeling of longing. Today, we decided to go to the birding zone. We spotted few birds and later went into one of the creeks in Tadoba which were my favorite. Tiny streams of water covered with trees and sunlight streaming through the gaps. We suddenly spotted wild dogs today. Wild dogs are rare to spot and usually seen in pairs. They were initially undisturbed by the tourists, but as soon as many jeeps starting coming, they decided to go out of our sight. I was lucky to get a few pictures of the pair, though only from behind.

We then moved on to some other areas where we were distracted with a sambhar deer alarm call, warning of a tiger in the vicinity. The call continued and we drove around the area trying to spot anything. The tall yellow grasses with the sun in the background made it impossible to spot a tiger even if there was one. After a bit of hunting around without success, we took pictures of these huge sambar deer, one male and one female, both staring at us as clueless as we were staring at them. Obviously, they were also perturbed with the warning call one of their fellow deer had set off. The call stopped. It could mean the tiger had sat down deciding to take some rest. The warning call mechanism is shared by species that stand lower in the food chain, to warn other species in the jungle of the lurking danger of a tiger that is moving around the jungle. Monkeys are often the first to see and start a 'whooping' call warning other animals. Peacocks, barking deer, jungle fowl, and sambhar deer also exhibit unique calls when they spot a tiger. After all the excitement died down with no signs of the tiger, we decided to go ahead and spot other animals.

We were lucky to spot a Roufous Treepie for a really long time, followed by a common kingfisher. Both gave us ample time to take pictures of them. Though the light was perfect and so was the opportunity, I managed to goof up some settings and didn't get as sharp pictures as I should have. I was spotting a common kingfisher the first time. I admired its unique yellow and blue colored feathers.

After moving on to another fantastic location with a really large lake with a pure and clean deep blue color, we got to know a leopard had been spotted by one jeep and it had now moved on. On our way back, we stopped to click a couple of playful green bee-eaters. When it was almost time to head out, I happened to comment that we hadn't seen a crocodile in this lake after being told there were many. Sure enough, we spotted a huge croc, lying on the bank in the sun, stationary but watchful. I managed a few pictures of the croc though he was extremely hard to spot through the dry grey branches that surrounded him. I was hoping that I camera had done a better job.

After another exciting safari, we headed back, this time to pack up and start back to Hyderabad. Another satisfying trip after the last weekend ended really well.

On our way back we stopped at several places for coffee and tea. Finally after dinner, we were met with a flat tyre at 10 PM. That delayed us by another 45 minutes but we were back home an in bed by 11:30 PM. A good end to a successful and delightful trip!

Some more pictures on flickr but I promise to never use the program mode for such trips again!