Iwould be lying if I tell you I was not planning for this trip (scheduled for 27th Feb 2016). For a start I was not equipped with proper kit; I had a 18-55 mm & 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G AF-S VR Nikkon lenses along with my Nikon D3100 body.Those lenses were definately not meant for bird photgrapy & didn't had enough guts (I meant money) to buy one at that point of time. So what other option did I had? Renting a lens was the only thing I could do.
So I checked online from where I normally rent my lenses/cameras, but to my disappointment all telephoto lenses were already booked. I straightaway called another renting vendor & fortunately got Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 SP Di though my eyes were on Nikon 200-500MM F/5.6E ED VR AF-S. Kits CHECKED !!
I stay in HAL, Old Airport Road which is close to 39-40 KMs away from 'The Valley School' at Kanakpura Road. To make it worse, my vehicle broke down two days before the trip day & I didn't had the time to fix it too. Fortunately I am a part of an amateur (I hope they are ok with the word 'amateur') phtographer's Whatsapp group out of which couple of them also planned for that trip. One of the member stay nearby my place & helped my commute in his motorbike. Hurrah, atlast I was all set for the trip !!!
On 27th Feb (trip day), I started from home at 5:45 AM, then met my travel mate along with whom we started our journey towards 'The Valley School'. We reached at around 7 AM which was perfect time for bird watching & photography. By the way it is not allowed to go inside the school premises for photography, the areas in & around school is where photographers are allowed after signing a register at the security stop (refer the photo). Birds here we come !!!
The place was huge & could already hear the chirping of birds from the security point itself. By the time we both started going inside, the other guys from the amateur photographer's group (again using the term) also joined in. Along the way we saw couple of beautiful trees along with vast valley of jungle.Have patience, our encounters with birds starts from here.
The bird or the family of birds which I encountered was that of Red-Whiskered Bulbul ( I called them 'Hum Paanch'). They were bold & beautiful, not shying away from the camera, though were a little far off.
Just as I started to move ahead, I saw an angry White Throated Kingfisher flew across me & sat on a nearby tree close enough to click a nice picture. Don't ask me why it was angry (ahh it was angry with Vijay Mallya & not us).
I moved ahead hearing the songs of birds & enjoying the morning breeze, must say I was feeling refreshed & rejuvenated. As I was checking the settings of my camera, my eyes caught the site of a beauthiful 'Green Parakeet' chirping at high pitch as if asking me to click it's photo.
I happily obliged to it's request.
Going deeper inside the jungle, I witnessed a couple of Black Drongos & again a pair of Red Whiskered Bulbull looking at me with suspicious eyes. Don't worry guys, I am here to make you famous.
The time was around 8:15 AM as I proceeded towards the jungle & was little disappointed not being able to get a glipmses of Indian Grey Hornbill or my favourite Indian Paradise Flycatcher. I told myself "Jawan chalte raho".
As I went little deeper, I witnessed a Jungle Pigeon, Rufous Bellied Niltava giving infinite poses around the bamboo bushes & some other birds whose name I am not aware of yet (will appreciate if you can, don't charge 10 cents though).
10 AM & still no signs of Paradise Flycatcher or Indian Grey Hornbill though one of my photographer mate was lucky to get a glimpse of that fabolous bird but couldn't capture them in his lenses.
Though I would like to mention that he came back again after couple of days & guess what he did captured them (Rufous Paradise Flycather & White Paradise Flycatcher)!!!
I waited for the flycatcher where they were spotted but to my disappointment, they never returned. The sun started to shine bright & getting a glipse of birds started to disappear.
We started to move out of the jungle by 11 AM & on our way saw "White Cheeked Barbet", which turned out to be my last catch of the day.
Looking back, it was worth waking up at 5:45 AM & travel 39-40 KMs through the city, come so close to nature & hearing the chirping sound of birds.
That is all I have to share from my trip to 'The Valley School' with a promise that I will be back SOON.
Till then, keep clicking & enjoy viewing !!!