Walk the Wilderness

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Five wildlife moments and a milestone

Update on the "Great Driving Challenge" contest - Voting closes this week before the first round of qualifiers are announced. Pl. do vote for us and also request you to send this voting link - vote for walk the wilderness to your friends urging them to vote for us.

Coming to this week's post - Now in its 45th year, The Veolia Environnement Photographer of the Year Competition is an international showcase for the very best nature photography. The competition is owned by two UK institutions that pride themselves on revealing and championing the diversity of life on Earth - the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine. Being accepted into this competition is something that wildlife photographers, worldwide, aspire to - and we aspired as well. Each year thousands of entries are received and judged by a specially selected expert panel.

We participated in this competition this year, and some of our images made it to the semifinal round. We are absolutely thrilled, as being amateur photographers, this is a significant milestone for us. And, it is only appropriate that we share these images with all our blogger friends.

We sighted this Leopard on what is popularly called the 'Leopard Rock' located in the Nagarhole wildlife sanctuary. He was playing hide and seek with us - one minute he was seen crouching in the grass and the next minute he was gone. We kept waiting for him and just when we had given up hope, we saw him again, right where we wanted to see him - on the 'Leopard Rock', posing magnificently for us. You can read more about this experience in this post.

EXIF - D300, 300mm f2.8 lens with 2x TC, 600mm focal length, f5.6, 1/800 sec, 0EV, ISO800

This image of the Dholes (Indian Wild Dogs) was shot in the Kabini wildlife sanctuary. A pack of eight Dholes, completely oblivious to our presence were at their playful best. There were both adults and cubs in the pack and it was just wonderful to see the softer side of these otherwise ruthless and ferocious hunters. We are yet to write about this particular experience and will be doing so shortly.

EXIF - D300, 300mm f2.8 lens with 2x TC, 600mm focal length, f6.3, 1/2000s, -1.0EV, ISO800

This we would say is one of those images, which literally tugged at our heart strings - a tender moment capturing the bond between an Elephant and its calf. The image speaks for itself - be it human beings or animals, the bond between a mother and child is universal and always celebrated. You can view more images here.

EXIF - D300, 300mm f2.8 lens with 2x TC, 600mm focal length, f5.6, 1/1000s, -0.7EV, ISO640

This image is again part of the same series, where we shared with you one of our dream sightings of spotting a Leopard on the 'Leopard Rock' in the Nagarhole wildlife Sanctuary. Here you see him in his full glory. You can read the complete post here.

EXIF - D300, 300mm f2.8 lens with 2x TC, 600mm focal length, f5.6, 1/800s, 0EV, ISO800

Now this final image is very special to us, as it was part of our very first post on 'Walk the Wilderness'. Yet again a chance encounter with a pack of Dholes. But this time round, an encounter, which showcased to us their hunting prowess and their ruthless nature, wherein they killed and devoured a Chital (Indian spotted deer) in 20 mins. Here we see, the only cub in the pack standing besides the bared to bone carcass of the Chital. A gory sight, nevertheless, those are the ways of nature.

EXIF - D300, 300mm f2.8 lens, 300 focal length, f8, 1/200s, -0.3EV, ISO800

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Changeable Hawk Eagle - on an unsuccessful hunt

The Changeable Hawk Eagle (CHE) is a raptor that is widespread resident in India. As we had mentioned in one of our earlier posts, its a shy Bird of prey and rarely sits in an open perch . In our opinion a wild CHE will allow you as close as 30-50 feet, before getting spooked, except when it is hunting.

During one of our jeep safaris into the Kabini Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka, India we had this rare encounter with the CHE. It was one of the morning safaris where we had a good sighting of Asiatic Elephants, the Indian Gaur, a couple of species of Woodpecker and a Crested Serpent Eagle. We had almost reached the end of the safari, and were on our way back, when suddenly this CHE came flying past our jeep and landed on a tree, by the side of the tracks, about 75 feet from us. As our jeep was getting closer to the CHE, it descended on the forest floor at the base of a tree. A CHE on the ground is not something seen very often and we took the opportunity to get to as close as within 20-25 feet (way inside the comfort zone of Raptors). All the cameras in the jeep were firing away. The CHE completely ignored us and was intently looking into a hollow at the base of the tree. - laying in wiat for its prey! We were sure that there was a small mammal in the tree hollow that had rushed seconds before trying to escape the claws of the CHE. We were fortunate to witness this hustling behavior of this majestic raptor. It kept alternating between sitting on a low-hanging branch of the tree intently looking into the tree hollow and then descending on it and trying to find a way to het into it. Then finally after 15 minutes into the routine, with no signs of the prey coming out, it gave up the hunt and flew away.

Here are a series of images from that rare sighting of a CHE on the forest floor. The camera setup is our favorite D300 with the 300mm f2.8 lens mounted with the 2x TC. I experimented with the auto ISO sensitivity control mode (to provide minimum shutter speed at 1/200s). Interestingly it threw up some vague ISO settings to maintain minimum shutter speed . Incidentally it was the first and last time I used this feature.

EXIF-600mm focal length, f5.6, 1/200s, ISO360, -1.0EV