Bheemeswari - Part 1

A post pending from 3 weeks. Finally a 4 day leave on grounds of ill health helping me post this.

All right here we go - as usual our manager B was grinning wide when our partner confirmed funding for team outing and with no second thought the option to choose the place has been passed on to yours truly. After being tired with the usual city resorts, I thought this is the time to try Jungle Lodges and Resorts day visits. Quickly checking facts of JLR we zeroed in on Bheemeswari on the banks of Cauvery. In fact JLR had 3 nature and fishing camps located on the banks of cauvery - Doddamakalli and Galibore being the other two.

Off late our team had become more family centric- hence I starte calling it AUT, well nothing to do with Applicatin Under Test, but it's the "Aunties n Uncles Team". The moment guys hear about a trip they start it-"only day trips","I can't leave my husband/wife, but I can't bring them either", "I have a baby to take care"! "My in-laws won't let me go", "we are expecting guests"..... the list goes on. Whatever, we realized that we cannot afford an overnight trip with team anymore! Hence the day trip is best for us. Once we finalized the place the usual games of "Who's IN" and "Who's OUT" for the trip started. Finally 2 people dropped out. So we ended up with 9.

Let me stop this crap and start the drive. Soothing the nerves of our manager, sap(my best buddy at office) and I made it just in time for the 7-00 am deadline for transport and for a change everything went smooth with transport and breakfast and bloody hell I again endedup counting money, collecting bills, maintaining accounts! WTF!? When will I relax and enjoy the trip as a member than worrying about money, food for driver, route etc. We hit Adigas at Banashankari for some yummy breakfast and started off.

The travel till Kanakapura had no surprises and the tiny town of Kanakapura which seems to have got some inspiration from Bangalore with roads being laid and expanded! Guys reminded about the Water rafting and i went searching for an ATM. I was in 2 minds on water rafting but on a safer side carried enough cash to try it just in case my decision changed. After travelling down to Satahanur we took the right turn to Muthathi. The terrain started changing and we didn't feel that its been hardly 1.5 hours away from bangalore. This is the beauty of bangalore, travel for 2 hours in all 4 directions of bangalore, you end up seeing different jungles and eautiful landscapes!

Finally after traversing mini ghat roads, we reached the place - "Cauvery Fishing camp aka Bheemeshwari Fishing and Nature camp" at 10 am after paying a 50 RS village developement fee which I wonder where it ends up. The moment we entered the resorts, we are in for surprises.. 1. The resort manager was not informed of our arrival (I made payment just the evening before the day we left) 2. Cauvery is in full flow!! Man you gotta see the beautiful cauvery which appear to be flowing slow and silent but a closer look tells you that it's a strong current! The monkey menace has to be noted here, these guys having used to visitor littering have become smarter. One chap jumped into the van and despite of Shalini's balooned body and trying to converse in English with him/her, he/she didn't give a damn flicked a packet of chips!! Evolution hmmm..

The bird watcher and the naturalist enthu in me could no longer be hidden. I started with bird watching pulling the whole team into watching the Green bee eater, the king fisher and the red rumped swallows! Most of them wondered how to use the binocs!!Whatever after a refreshing welcome drink (my favorite- lime juice), we were asked if we are game for rafting since another team are leaving for rafting then, we choose to do it in the afternoon after lot of debating. The first activity was a trek up the hill to the view point.

While yasvanth and I were busy chasing the butterflies with cameras, rest of the team walked half a kilometer and were shouting. So we ran and caught up with them. I soon realized why we were served lime juice. The sun is blazing and trek at 11-00 am is not a good idea espcially with 90% obese persons in the gang!! (uff including me). I was dissapointed that this camp do not have a naturalist! But still, I love JLR camps for the ambience, the places and the food! Although I have been to only 3 (Bandipur, Bannerghatta and Bheemeswari.. oh wait all B's). The log huts make me think wild and feel like staying back there for some more time.

Before you forget about the trek, let me go back,.. so with lots of huff and puffs we reached the view point after 45 minuts. I was the last one to reach clicking pictures and complaining about the trek not being a walk. Well there is a big difference between a nature walk and trek. A trek is something you start early in the day (to restirct loss of energy due to sun) and your aim is to reach a particular place by so & so time and come back and time is the utmost thing. But a nature walk is where you hardly walk... yes if you have the keen eyes and the company of a true naturalist like Karthik, every step shows you something and catches your imagination and attention. Every flower had a story to tell every bird makes you think about it's behavior, every thing in the jungle tells you a story if only you can hear! Unfortunately our urban souls could not hear or understand those and half of our team mates think I am crazy and they hoot, shout and scream.. thinking it's a picnic place.


The view from top is just amazing... with cauvery flowing full, it's just WOW! Here is how it looked like. Imaging one sititng here and enjoying the view.

The late monsson showers ensured good patches of grass on the hill.

here is the watch tower

and the butterfly that made me wait and wait to pose like this..

Finally the JLR guy who accompanied us thought we had enough fun and just before we started back, we spotted the water rafting group and the 12x zoom + digital zoom helped me click this one at the "splashing moment"More to continue in Part 2...

The Love of Nature

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Prelogue:
~I woke up in the morning, got out of bed. Picked up the news paper. Read it a while sipping coffee.

~I started to office, cursed the traffic, waited impatiently at the signals and finally reached the office and rushed in with impatience.

~I took a break and came out of office, crossed the road cursing the traffic yet again and finished off my work and get back to office.

~While walking on the road with friends and collagues, we gossiped and discussed about job, manager and gals of course ;)

~On weekends, I sit back at home on saturday morning wondering what to do !

Epilogue:

~I woke up in the morning, went out and my eyes searched for the daily visitors- the whitebrowed wagtails and the spotted dove. While I read the newspaper I lent an ear to enjoy the song of the wagtail.

~I started to office, scanning the skies and the tress tops. Traffic signals provided ample time to look out for birds around. I reached office glancing the "resident" Rock pigeons and the huge fig tree.

~I took a break and came out of office and noticed the regular Pariah kites that dominate the skies. I found that a group of rose ringed parakeets too were making lot of noise.

~While walking on the road with colleagues gossiping, I talked less and scanned the skies and trees... besides regular gossip. I picked up something from the ground aaah a fig fruit, I opened it and searched for the fig wasps!!
( at times preaching friends about how wonderful fig pollination is..)

~On weekends, I started wondering how to manage time with so many birding places to visit!!

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Aaah.. you are right!!! I misplaced the Epilogue!!. But, it was intentionally done!

Now some questions-
What can a 3 day program do to a city/town-born spoiled brat?? - Magic!!
What can a meeting with other nature lovers can do to a nature lover--? Rub-off effect!!
What can an enlightenting session do to someone who think wild life=forest?Discover the city outskirts!!

The answers for all those can be searched by analyzing the prelog and epilog I wrote above
Between the prelog and the Epilog happened the Jungle Lodges and Resorts-Naturalist Training program! (henceforth referred JLR-NTP)

When Shalini called me on one fine day in September and informed me about the JLR-NTP Program plan, I jumped up at the thought. How can I reject such an offer, it's something that I have been looking forward to, but never thought it could happen so soon. So how can I reject such an offer. I need to attend a wedding around the same time, but gave it a slip and decided that I will spend 3 days away from the civilization learning what is it to be a naturalist. I blocked my calendar, applied for leave and was counting days.

Finally the D-day arrived and I packed off my bags and reached Ramesh's place albeit with regular delay.We are joined by a group of women and in total 11 of us set off in 2 cars to Bannerghatta to spend 2.5 precious days away from home. We stopped at one of the darshini and finished our breakfast and reached the Bannerghatta zoo well in time. From there finally we were "escorted" by the JLR staff into the herbivores park and eventually to the JLR-Bannerghatta camp where our trainer Mr.Karthikeyan was waiting for us.

I read Karthik's blog (http://wildwanderer.com/journal/) and learned more about him through websites and forums and admired him. So, the idea of meeting him excited me.Karthik came to receive us and ushered us into the meeting room. Another student named Rachana joined us. After completing the formalities, the "ice-breaker" session started where we tagged each of us with an animal or bird name and Karthik added more insights into each of those.The fun has just started!! I was asked to start the naming and I smartly passed on to my neighbour to start, but evenutally we were told that everyone should reiterate all the names quoted till then and proceed that put me in a spot!! :)Now the ball passed on and I should thank god we are only 11 members. I quicly picked up the Copersmith barbet name looking at the name of one of the tents and co-incidentally I was alloted accomodation in the same tent.That is not the end, we spotted Coppersmith Barbet in almost all 3 outings that followed and I fell in love with this bird.

The first session was very interesting (infact all sessions). It's on the "Naturalist" and "Bio-diveristy of India" which amazed us and we started to get a feel of the whole thing. We had a break which prompted us to take our cellphones and go hunting for signal. Ramesh and I went searching for signal in the JLR campus and somebody told us that we can get decent airtel signal if we walk beyond the dinner place taking the small clearing that reaches the border of the campus.

We went promptly looking at our cellphones signal and while we are searching for signal as I stepped further I heard some noise in the bush next to me. I was curious but then started looking at the signal and stepped further.I heard another sound from the bush that drew my attention and bingo out came a colorful small bird out of the bush, glanced at me and flew away.!! It's the INDIAN PITTA. It's colors are stunning and awesome and made a vivid combination. I know instantly that I had seen this birds before. Memories from childhood flashed for once. I remember, we tried rescuing it when we were kids but failed to so. It's a complete surprise to me.

Back to the sessions- the afternoon session was when we tried to draw a sketch of birds. It's fun and imagination at it's best and we are anxiously waiting for the "nature trial". Eventually at 4-30 we set out albeit a bit late on a nature trail.We started geared up wtih cameras and bincos and first spotting if i remember right was none other than the "Copper smith Barbet"...way 2 go.. !!It's an interesting birds with beautiful bright colors and never seazes to amaze me.No wonder that's why they had choosen it to be on the cover of the Grimmett and Inskipp's "Birds of Indian Subcontient ".

Once we moved out of the campus,we saw a millipede and karthik told us that it's harmless and we handled it with ease. We learnt the difference between the Centipede and Millipede.
Interestingly it had ticks or parasites clinging on to it's body. Then we debated what we say was a Jungle crow or a Common crow and moved toward the lake.We had a good outing and we started to identify birds...oops I should say we started to find out birds to identify.

I must admit as a starter it's tough on first hand to spot the bird leave alone identifying it.With the kind help of Karthik, we saw the White cheeked barbet and Pond Heron and then moved on to see the "Resident Sambar" of the Herbivore park. The light was quickly failing and just when we are about go back we saw this active brid flying around and catching something in air.The beautiful blue color and tiny body made it look awesome. It put up a great show for us. Karthik eventually told us that is' the TICKELLS BLUE FLY CATCHER.

With the ligh failing, we returned to our rooms and refreshed and watched a wonderful part from the "Life of birds" series of Sir Attenborough. Later we had a dinner and with that we called it a day and retreated to our rooms and set off to sleep.

The next day morning we set out to a lake and it rained birds in that session. We started with the bulbul cousins. The redvented and the white browed perched on the same branch and gave us a good show.The cocophony started, "where is it??", "I can't see the bird", "aah yes I can", "can you give me the binocs", "it's red tail", "no it's white, bigger than crows", "smaller than sparrow"... anwyays, we had good sigthings and returned to the resort and munched happily on the yummy breakfast.

The first session of the second day was on Bird behavior and we dwelled deeper into the subject. It helped us understood and made us awed by the depth of the details we are witnessing. It's just the introduction to the big world of Birds.Late in the afternoon Deepa and Mohan joined us. That's the second person I have been looking forward to meet in this training. I read deepa's blogs and when Shalini mentioned about deepa during some conversation and told me that she knew deepa and that she is going to drop by at the training, I was looking forward to meet her in person.

Finally I met her and yet again I realized the power of blog. If you follow someone's blog and meet the person I am sure you tend to feel that you know each other from quite some time. It's different from a situation where you hear about someone from a third party/person and meet him/her. Deepa is sweet, warm, open, active, friendly, witty (the kinds of friends I always wish to have) and Mohan who enrolled for the course was my roomie and they make a good couple!!Anush also joined us for the evening.

The afternoon session is when where we are supposed to go for lion-tiger safari. But we did not want to trouble the poor beasts and instead had a session on Mammals which was a learning experience.During a break in that session we came out and saw the drama of a WASP paralzying a spider,laying eggs inside it and trying to dig in a hole to secure it!! what a drama.. more on it here.. http://deponti.livejournal.com/451434.html

Later in the day another nature trail and some more sighting. But as we are about to start, it drizzled a bit but we procceded. We proceed in a different direction and since it just stopped raining and an overcast october sky didn't do any good to us. We could spot few drongos and barbets and just when the excitement is going down Mohan managed to see and click an EURASIAN EAGLE OWL. Although the pic shows it facing the other side, it's such a a beautiful one. It made our day and we spent quite sometime tracing it as it went into the bushes after we started looking at him. Anush with his sharp eyes was quick to spot it and then he had his belly full and left for home.

We then proceeded to the lake when the heavens thought the otherway and it started pouring. We got drenched and karthik managed to call the resort to send us a vehicle and we all were transported back. On the way back, few of us wished to have some pakods+chai in such a chill weather and Karthik had them ready by the time we got freshened up.We attacked the pakodas and tea... reminded me of Youth hostel treks....! Later, we watched video from the "Life of Birds" and concluded the day.

On the morning of the last day we went for another trial and our list of birds almost doubled on this eventfull day. We saw the malkoha, the cuckoo shrike, the robins....
Interestinlgy, we DISCOVERED a new species of birds. :) In all our nature trials Ramesh used to spot lots of birds, but eventually most of them ended up as Red-vented Bulbuls. The last day was no exception and finally mohan suggested renaming the bubuls as "Ramesh Vented Bubuls" instead of Red vented bubils

The last day had a session on Ubran wild life which was an eye-opener and dispersed the myth we usuallly have that Wild life is only in forests!!. We started to know what a big world we have around. Karthik quoted that he spent 400+ hours watching just a bird from his house window. We learnt lot which I cannot share all here, rather it need to be felt and experienced than read.
With a heavy heart (at least me) we packed off and checked out and reached home.

Now let me differ from what I wrote above. I want to share something I learnt.
~Nature hosts so many miracles that it never ceases to interest you.
~There is so much happening around us that we fail to notice and all we need is an attitude to understand and learn.
~There is never a dull moment in life when you stay close to nature.
~The joy of being with nature is unmatchable and less told and more to be experienced.
~The way you look at things will change and you will start observing minute things and details when you get used to being with nature.
~It's a duty of naturalist to spread the awareness, share knowledge and I promise myself to do so.

~Nature is a delicate web of interdependancies where a distrubance at one palce can make a big impact on lot other. So be sensitive when dealing with nature
~Every living creature (incldues flora & fauna) have a role to play in this world and all of them are equally important. An ANT is as good as a TIGER to me.
~Ultimately the same generic logic applies to be a naturalist- Be curious, Be energetic, Be patient, Be hungry to learn more, Be open to admit NO or say I DON'T KNOW....

There is so much to learn , so much to understand, that once you start exploring or understanding nature you can't help yourself from admiring it. The bonus here is there is never an end to this learning since a life time is not enough to completely understand each and everything thing that constitutes the nature and I am glad I started my journey....