I want to go out with my all-time
close friends from many days. We made many plans but all turned to be flop for
what so ever reasons. This time when I went to Ahmedabad to take the exams we
meet at our routine meeting point and talking about one day trip. We plan to visit
Bera - famous for Indian Leopards sighting. Next morning I asked my friend at
Bera, but he informed me that there is too much rain so plz do not come. Again,
we become little depressed. However, we keep our plan alive, change the place,
and shift our plan to visit Mount Abu. Mount Abu is small hill station in Aravalli
Range of mountain. On Monday, finally my friends started from Ahmedabad to Mount
Abu. As per plan, they have to start their journey at 6 pm but few of friends
have to work on Sunday so they started their journey at 9.pm. Sandip Maheria, Mohshin Sachora, Anil Maheta,
Vishal Gohel , Deep and Afazal started to drive towards Mount Abu in Fortuner.
They pick me up from Unjha but one of my friends Nayan Patel is also coming
from nearby Unjha, so we all decided to meet there at 10.30 pm. I started my journey
from Patan to Unjha. We reached Mount Abu at 1 pm.
It is very foggy atmosphere in Mount Abu when
we reached there. We spend 1 & ½ hour to decide the hotel in Abu. At our hotel,
I saw many colorful moths attracted by light. I never thought they are this
much beautiful. I saw at least 10 to 12 type of moths and insects in light of
hotel. I got some nice clicks of them
while all are busy in settling themselves around the light in hotel room.
Asota ficus
Indian Owlet-moth
Pygospila tyres
We
decided to go for trekking at early morning but we were little late because of
Sandip as he was taking much more time in getting ready…! In mean time, I
clicked few of my favorite avian friends around hotel. We saw House Sparrow, Silver
bill, Scaly-breasted Munia, Red-vented Bulbul,
Jungle Babbler, Ashy Prinia , Black-lored Tit, Great Tit, Tickle –blue
Flycatcher, Fantail, Red-rumped Swallow and few other.
Brown-rock Chat
House Sparrow
Red-vented Bulbul
Rock Pigeon
Scaly-breasted Munia
We started out trekking in foggy
morning, its real long route. During trekking, we took few nice selfi with
friends. My previous experience of trekking in Mount Abu was not so good. I did
not excepting much birding from this and again same thing happened. We able to
find only few birds on that track like Black-lored tit, Indian Blackbird,
Red-whiskerd Bulbul and a Black Cobra at the end of the trekking.
My friends want some exiting
experience so we decided to visit Bera once we finished the trekking. Again, we
called my friend at Bera and luckily, he informed us that it is a fair chance
of sight Indian Leopard with cubs. We started for Bera. Roads are horribly bad.
Its take more than expected time. We reached Bera in clouded atmosphere. We
take my informer friend and started to search for the Leopard. All of sudden on the side of road we saw big
cat in attacking position. One of my friend was so excited he started shouting “look
there is a Leopard….!” . All are very excited started talking and moving in the
car at same time. It’s more than enough to alert the Leopard, it’s instantly
move in bushes and disappeared quietly. We wait for it to reappear; during wait
we had a peek-a-boo behind a rock. It is a cub of leopard. Image is not so
great but it’s so candid and I love to share with u. Lots of people started to gather
there. At least 25 to 30 people are there. So they never came near. In night,
the mother leopard came, took her cubs and started to walk toward forest might
be to hunt. We saw their movement from distance. It was difficult to take
images in nighttime with search light so I try my luck on record a small video.
And its really awesome. Finally, they vanished into the jungle and we started
our back to home journey. We also found Golden Jackal and India Rock-python on
road while coming back.
However, sight of Leopard with
cubs is the most memorable moment of this trip. While coming back to home we
decided that we would return to Bera soon. We will always remember the first
trip forever.
One of the features of a civilized man is that he has hobbies, serious hobbies. From time immemorial man has invented and developed various hobbies ranging from stamp collection to feather collection. Though man has been a social animal for a long time, the primeval instinct in his has not died. We yearn and long to be close to nature. There are a few hobbies that give us an opportunity to do so. One such hobby is bird-watching. It might seem simple to read the word and guess that it is very easy to watch the birds. But it is not what it seems. It needs a lot of dedication, determination and consistency to master ‘the art of bird-watching.’ It takes years of patience and perseverance to be a good birdwatcher. What you choose as your hobby is not as important as to what hobby chooses you. You have to be the chosen one. Dr. Pankaj Maheria, a Professor at GMERS Medical College, Valsad (South Gujarat) is one such Chosen One. Birds have chosen him as a medium between their worl
It is also known as Jacobin cuckoo or Pied crested cuckoo ( Clamator jacobinus ). It is a member of the cuckoo family. Pied cuckoo is a medium-sized, slim black and white cuckoo as its name indicate. The distinctive crest, white wing patch on the black wing and the pattern make it unmistakable even in flight. But what gave out its presence without even seeing it, is its ringing series of whistling call. They are very vocal during the breeding season. We generally observed these birds in pairs or in group of 3 to 4. They call from prominent perches and chase each other with low-level flight in slow wing-beats, mostly hunting near the ground level. We witnessed babblers, myna, and crows sometime trying to drive them away as the species is a brood parasite. Here in Gujarat Pied cuckoo locally known as the Chataka (Gujarati: ચાતક ). It has been said to be migrates between Africa and India. Pied cuckoo arrives in Gujarat in late summer, mostly in end of the May. Arrival of Pied cu
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