As The Wheels Roll and The Shutters Click…Travel Reminiscences…


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Highway Ranger

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Foreword:

In this thread I would like to share the nature and wildlife that my wife and I see on various road trips that we take. We love going on drives and enjoy watching wildlife and nature. Hope you like the wildlife and nature that we share as much as we like watching them. My wife is a natural spotter of wildlife and slowly I too have learned to spot them. We try our best to identify the wildlife and may give some fact about them that we find online. If you do find any error in the data we provide, please feel free to correct us.

Thank you for watching and hope you enjoy the show.


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Valparai with point and shoot camera - Aug - 2011

Valparai 2013

A drive to Nazareth - Dec 9, 2014

 A drive to Kelavarapelli Dam, near Hosur - Dec 28, 2014

Kumarakom - Thattakad - Thekkady Jan 15, 2015

Aiyur Reserve Forest - Mar 14, 2015

Valparai 2015

Nilgiri Hills in search of four birds... Sep 5, 2015

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A drive to Nazareth (a small town near Tirunelveli, in Tamil Nadu)
Reason : To attend the engagement and Wedding of a relative.

Started at 5:30 am from Hosur and reached the destination at 2:00 pm for lunch. In between stopped for breakfast at Salem and tanked up near Sattur.

I always enjoy the drive in this route - Hosur > Salem > Karur > Madurai > Tirunelveli. This time though, the road condition was not that great. Badly maintained, there were some small stretches with patches and some uneven stretches. Overall it was a good enjoyable drive.

We had not planned any visit to tourist getaways this time and I didn't want to take my camera or my laptop. But at the last minute, I just took one camera - just in case. (without the charger or additional memory cards/lens). In the end I was glad I took the camera.

As usual we stopped whenever we felt the presence of birds and checked them out.

Saw a Dragonfly... during one brief stop...

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and a Butterfly...

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next stop, a Indian Roller... we can see a lot of these on the electric wires along the highways.

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an angry Barn Swallow...

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relaxed... sort of...

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#2
vijay

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Re: As the wheels roll and the shutters click… Travel reminiscences…

Wow HR glued already for the amazing sets of captures coming ahead.
As your city wont go ahead without the fuel filling up thats what your camera gears are HR, you cant stay away from it.[:)]
 
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Highway Ranger

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Re: As the wheels roll and the shutters click… Travel reminiscences…

vijay said:
Wow HR glued already for the amazing sets of captures coming ahead.
As your city wont go ahead without the fuel filling up thats what your camera gears are HR, you cant stay away from it.[:)]
Click to expand...
Thank you, vijay! Hope I don't disappoint you.[;)]


As we neared the town we found a lot of water bodies and water birds. Since we were hungry, we just took a few shots and reached the place for lunch.


Green Sandpipper...

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Pond Herons...

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Asian Open-billed Stork...

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The engagement was in the evening and we went to our room to get some rest and get ready. There was a pomegranate tree in that complex and I found a Squirrel happily enjoying one fruit. I have never managed a clear shot of a Squirrel before and this one made sure I didn't get one this time too. [frustration]

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[to be cont.]
 
Thread Starter #4
Highway Ranger

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Re: As the wheels roll and the shutters click…Travel reminiscences…

Between the functions we had some free time and we decided to check out the country side. We found some birds... as usual.

like this sleeping cormorant...

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which finally woke up...

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and the Black-winged Kite... which entertained us as we followed it around...
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watching us intensively...

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[to be cont.]
 
#5
AR Ram

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Re: As the wheels roll and the shutters click…Travel reminiscences…

HR great clicks

No matter whether you are going on a casual trip or a dedicated one, the wild life or birds will be waiting for you to get clicked.
 
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Highway Ranger

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Re: As the wheels roll and the shutters click…Travel reminiscences…

AR Ram said:
HR great clicks

No matter whether you are going on a casual trip or a dedicated one, the wild life or birds will be waiting for you to get clicked.
Click to expand...
Thank you, Ram! Wildlife/birds and natural beauties are always around us. But we fail to see and enjoy them due to our commitments/busy lifestyle.

BTW, early next month, we will be going to Coimbatore to attend another wedding. We are hoping to convert that into a trip as there are a lot of interesting places around Coimbatore. Parambikulam/Top slip, Valparai, Munnar, Conoor/Ooty, Aleppey/Cochin or Kumarakom... tough to decide. What is your take, Ram?


Mr.Boss said:
Nice set of snaps buddy.

Which camera was that?
Click to expand...
Thank you. I took the D7100, as it's battery had 92% charge.


Some more birds that we saw in Nazareth...

Brahminy Starling...
Quite surprised to see these in great numbers here. We had seen them @ Masinagudi and Sathyamangalam earlier. I was under the impression these preferred forested area.

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a Drongo...

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Purple rumped Sunbird... @ our stay...

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our roommate... a colorful insect/fly...

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And as we were getting in the car to leave Nazareth, we saw this little banded goshawk/Shikra on a water pipe. It was raining and the light was low, clicked around 9 snaps - 5 blured, 1 bird movement, and 3 sort of ok, considering that they were shot @1/8 hand held as usual. This was the best of the 3.

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[to be cont.]
 
Thread Starter #8
Highway Ranger

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Re: As the wheels roll and the shutters click…Travel reminiscences…

The route we took was Nazareth > Tirunelveli (visiting relatives) > Sattur > Sivakashi (visiting relatives) > Virudhunagar (visiting relatives-night halt) > Hosur.

We could spot birds on the Sattur - Sivakashi state highway and Virudhunagar.

Common Myna...

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Common Hoopoe...

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Peacock...

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[to be cont.]
 
#9
vijay

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Brilliant HR, disappoint[shock] these are treats to watch sir,as you rightly said we always fail to notice the amazing beauty surrounded us to catch and take a glimpse of it.
Also as to what AR said, wilidlife and the birds surely do want tobe captured by your lenses.[clap]
 
#10
incarnation

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Mesmerizing and brilliant pics HR. I agree Vijay Due to our lifestyle we forget to see the beauty of nature. once in a while we need to step back from our daily routine and enjoy the beauty nature is provided us with. HR one question though, is phtography your passion or your occupation. if its not a profession then hell make it one. Like the R Madhavan of Three Idiots, I'm sure you can work under Andre Istaban. [:D]
 
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AR Ram

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Re: As the wheels roll and the shutters click…Travel reminiscences…

Highway Ranger said:
Thank you, Ram! Wildlife/birds and natural beauties are always around us. But we fail to see and enjoy them due to our commitments/busy lifestyle.

BTW, early next month, we will be going to Coimbatore to attend another wedding. We are hoping to convert that into a trip as there are a lot of interesting places around Coimbatore. Parambikulam/Top slip, Valparai, Munnar, Conoor/Ooty, Aleppey/Cochin or Kumarakom... tough to decide. What is your take, Ram?


HR

I am sure you might have visited all these places, but still always something you are interested will be waiting for you again. Cochin, Aleppy or Kumarakom are not unfamiliar to you. You can consider Silent Valley, but you got to get prior permission to get into there. Let me know the dates. And here is the link

https://www.keralatourism.org/destination/silent-valley-national-park-palakkad/157

Thank you HR
Click to expand...
 
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Thread Starter #12
Highway Ranger

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Re: As the wheels roll and the shutters click…Travel reminiscences…

vijay said:
Brilliant HR, disappoint these are treats to watch sir,as you rightly said we always fail to notice the amazing beauty surrounded us to catch and take a glimpse of it.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your comments, Vijay! [:)]


incarnation said:
Mesmerizing and brilliant pics HR. ...is phtography your passion or your occupation.
Click to expand...
Thank you! Photography is neither a passion nor my occupation. It is just a hobby for me. I use it to record whatever wildlife we see.

BTW, I am in the IT field.


AR Ram said:
HR

I am sure you might have visited all these places, but still always something you are interested will be waiting for you again. Cochin, Aleppy or Kumarakom are not unfamiliar to you. You can consider Silent Valley, but you got to get prior permission to get into there. Let me know the dates. And here is the link

https://www.keralatourism.org/destination/silent-valley-national-park-palakkad/157

Thank you HR
Click to expand...
I checked out the silent valley national park. A friend from Cochin also suggested this to me. Since I will have my aged, (78 yrs), mother-in-law with us, I don't think this will be a good place to visit. She loves the boat/ferry rides and wants us to go to Cochin/Alleppey/Kumarakom.

In the end, it all depends upon the no of days my wife can take off. Makes no sense to go to Cochin for a short trip. In that case it will be Kodai or Munnar.


Rosy Starling (Juvenile)... a first time sighting for us. so a lot of photos.[:)]

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Red-vented Bulbul... having a bad hair day[;)]

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[to be cont.]
 
Thread Starter #13
Highway Ranger

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Re: As the wheels roll and the shutters click…Travel reminiscences…

After Sivakasi, our next destination was Virudhunagar. We have traveled on the Sivakasi-Virudhunagar road many times before. The road used to be a narrow road with many, (read every other kilometer), speed breakers and these speed breakers were in pairs. But now, to our surprise, they have broadened the road and have removed most of the speed breakers. It was well past 1 pm when we reached our relative's place and they insisted that we halt there for the night there and start the next morning.


Asian Koel female... @ Virudhunagar... a mean fighting machine when someone tries to share its food.

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[to be cont.]
 
#14
Mathew

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Re: As the wheels roll and the shutters click…Travel reminiscences…

Hi HR,
You have wonderful skills behind DSLR. Each of these photos stand distinguished, and project the birds/objects from the backgrounds. Keep posting such photos. I suggest to compile an executive collection of distinguished photos on yearly basis.
 
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