Pakshi Kashi - GaneshGudi

Travelling has never excited me before because it has been norm in my life. Almost every month I travel with either family or friends. But this time I was super excited and looking for the trip to Ganeshgudi. Learning photography from couple of year and never tried “Bird Photography”. But this time I was going to explore it. Also, I have hired special telephoto lens to capture birds.  These things made me excited.

It all started in last tour to Badmi - architectural photography in August 2016. For that matter, in every trip we plan or discuss for another trip. How many of them get executed is the question mark. We zeroed the time on November third week. All got busy in November due to some commitments. We three (Sumathi, Anantha and Myself) decided to go in December first week. This is the season for birds in Ganeshgudi. Many from previous tour could not make it due to personal commitments. Few said they will join and end moment they dropped. This is norm for any trip, be it family or friends. Since, this is exclusive photography tour and no sightseeing; we did not force anyone to join us. We determined to take our photography into next level decided to go ahead with our plan.

Tried to book train tickets but it was showing waiting list. But we are not ready to put our trip into waiting list. We booked the bus tickets and booked the jungle lodges - Old Magazine House. Now the next one was to hire a 150-600mm lens for photography. This was the first time hiring the lens. Anything which you are doing for first time is exciting…!!! Tappers - Lens rentals gave a very good service. Travelling, stay and gears all set for the trip. Count down began.

The day has arrived along with cyclone Nada on Bay of Bengal, which affected Bangalore. It was raining and traffic jam all over. It was difficult to reach the VRL bus station. This was destiny driven trip and all fall into place we were off to Dandeli.  There is no direct bus to Ganeshgudi. Either we need to get down at Londa (by train -30 KM) or Dandeli(by bus - 21KM) and catch a local bus or hire any private vehicle. We took auto from Dandeli. We were hungry as it was 9:30 am in the morning. Auto Driver took us to Kamat hotel for breakfast on the way. Road was under repair and it was roller coaster ride. By 11 am we entered the Old Magazine House at Ganeshgudi. We were thinking that 150-600mm lens was big lens and with some pride went inside the gate. As soon as we entered the gate welcomed by the prime 600mm lens with Nikon D5 mounted on Manfrotto tripod with Gimble head. Other person had Canon 400mm on 5D mark IV. We were blown out by seeing it as our camera is mid range DX DSLR. We checked in with jaws dropping and eye balls popping out by seeing top class gears in action.

We were feeling bit inferior seeing those equipment's. But we are not that weak folks to blown away by it. We know it is not the camera that matters alone, but the skill and ability to capture and frame it. We have done photography with mobile phones too and captured good clicks. We went out with our camera (Nikon D7000, Canon 1100D and Nikon D5100), 150-600mm lens and tripods. The equipment set and ready to shoot. The moment oriental white eye came, we were into action. It was like using AK-47 on the border to kill enemies. But the difference is we were shooting with camera and capturing moments. But the atmosphere was filled with noise nothing less than the battle field shoot out. All were clicking the camera in burst mode and clicking. Now I understood why in movies hero wants to take the AK-47 and go further on battle field. He cannot reach out to enemy and want to hit the head. Same is the case with photographer. I was not able to reach the target (bird’s eye) in spite of the 600mm lens on DX camera which can reach up to 900mm. Feeling the same and tempted camera out of tripod and go further inside. I was tempted to ask “Bird Boss can you pose for me”….!!!! But this is not a movie. Heart was with “Live and let live” policy and so did not disturb the wildlife. I focused to capture without getting into LOC of Birds’ privacy.

Afternoon between 12:00-15:00 hours there was not much sighting on the day one -December 3rd 2016. It gave us bit time to have our lunch peacefully and get ready for late afternoon session. After 15:00hours, there was rush of variety of birds. Some of them have come just to watch and witness the variety of species. There was a professional person to record the sightings into database. It was such a serious place for bird activity. We were fortunate enough to witness one of the rare species - Indian Pitta. This bird is very colourful. It is very shy in nature and was there for few seconds. By the end of the day I have clicked around 1000 photos. Mr. Anantha had around three thousand clicks….!!!!

Late evening, I was accessing the day’s work and was of the target many times. It was more than intended. I did not have knowledge on bird’s behaviours was the reason for it. While doing wild life photography, one needs to know about the behavioural aspect of the species you are trying to capture. Generally, birds are very shy and it tries to hide behind bush, but at the same time also wants to pick food and water. It repeats it behaviour. This second chance is to frame it better. I did not know the ABCD on bird’s behaviour. Kid present in camp was able to identify the species easily. I was spell bound by his knowledge. I need to learn more on birds. A retired military officer at the age of 70+ was identifying birds with the help of book called “Birds of the Indian Subcontinent”. This was inspiring. Had a great buffet dinner and retired for the day.

Next morning woke up and went for walk in the nature to find the birds around the camp. It was more challenging to click as the birds were behind leaves or branches. It was far away. Also clicking with hand held telephoto lens of 150-600mm was difficult. I had monopod but even though it was tough to focus as small leave/branch in between subject and lens was causing out of focus. Some of the bird species (one among them is Indian Trogon) were spotted during the nature trial but could not capture as it was far away. Returned from walk and had a buffet breakfast. It was time for check out. We packed our things and moved out. But we are not finished our shooting. The luggage shifted to bench under the tree. We ordered for lunch and continued our shooting.

A visitor X came and asked “what species you spotted yesterday”. It was like asking a blind man how big is the elephant. I am an uneducated person when it comes to identifying bird species. But I should maintain my reputation and only species name learnt on Day-1 is ‘Indian Pitta’ and told him the same. He was excited by listening to it. He immediately went to the office and booked for day outing package. That is the kind of commitment people have during wild life photography. I was surprised for his commitment.

We continued our task. I was more focused to capture quality pictures rather than clicking more numbers. This gave me some time to plan the shots. Again today afternoon also was less spotting. In free time, it happened to shoot some selfies and portraits with the hired lens. Our macho-man Anantha took photos with two 150-600 lens. Selfie queen Sumathi took photos with camera, lens and tripod. Thanks to MI5 for capturing us. Afternoon, we all had a great lunch and got ready for final round of action. We had good time capturing the birds.

It was around 5:00PM and our hero “Indian Pitta” did not turn out. Visitor X was desperate to see it. He used the mobile and played calling music. By seeing this I felt annoyed. My respect towards him turned to zero. This is disruption to the nature and bird. They have put clearly the board “not to play any bird calling music”. The forest official came and gave him his peace of mind. Then they stopped the music. There are many do’s and don’ts when you are exploring forest or nature. We have already occupying majority of the area and forest is shrinking. Upon that, we do this kind of activity and harm nature. These are educated class and have knowledge. They know this is not the right thing to do but still continue to do this. God only save India…!!!

The time has come and we have to leave this “Pakshi Kashi”. We decided to come back again soon. We did not cover the timber yard area in Dandeli. This area is also good place for bird photography. Forest guard helped us to book the cab for return journey to Dandeli. In cab, we have decided to come back and discussed future trip to this place. We had dinner at the same Kamat restaurant and our discussion on next visit continued in our dinner time too. We boarded the bus at 8pm and returned to Bangalore.