Blue-eared Kingfisher

What a beautiful bird!

Me and the wife went on an impromptu trip across the Konkan. The daughter had gone to some camp and we wanted to be in the vicinity. On day 3 we went to a remote village called Abloli. Sachin Karekar runs a nice eco-tourism place called Gaarva agro-tourism. Nice stay and excellent local food. The area is thickly wooded and home to many birds. Sachin is an excellent guide to birdwatchin.

These little buggers hung out in the under sides of bushes on the river bank. Very dark spots. They are so quick. I loved watching them fish. But they were too fast for me to capture on camera. We spend well neigh 2 hours prowling the river banks for these photos.

Camera Sony A7R3 with the Sony FE 200-600/5.6-6.3

Sony A7R3 with a Sony FE 200-600/5.6-6.3 G lens

Birds of Phungus Sangameshwar - May 2023

Rufous Wood Pecker

Brahminy Starling

Black Shouldered Kite

Jungle Babbler

?

Indian Blackbird

Indian Blackbird

White Cheeked Barbet

White Cheeked Barbet

Pipit

Red Vented Bulbul

Yellow Footed Green Pigeon (हरियाल). State bird of Maharashtra.

Common Iora

Tickel's Blue Flycatcher (Devrukh)

Fantail (Devrukh)

Camera Sony A7RIII with Sony 200-600 F 5.6-6.3 on a Getzo Monopod

A peaceful sunset

We travelled to Karde beach near Dapoli. A few families from our building. A quiet restful time. I had taken my new levelling base and the Lee reverse GND filter to try out some sunsets. This time in the Konkan is very drab - gone are the dramatic skys and crisp rainy days of the monsoons. As winter sets in, so does the haze. It's all dull. The sky, especially is colourless and boring. But I had to try.

To get this shot, me and Appa travelled to a high point between the Karde and Ladghar beaches. From this higher perspective we got a view of the rocks below. The haze and the RGND combination rendered the horizon dark.

It was a peaceful sunset. No drama. No excitement. Just peace.

Wildflowers

The august sun shone through the broken clouds. It had just rained a few minutes back. The sada was green with life.

The wildflowers danced to the light breeze. They gave a soul to the landscape.

Birds of Sangameshwar

It was fun chasing the birds for their portraits. I had good company in Jo, Rima and Animesh. Exploring the countryside early morning or in the golden hour of evening is so refreshing.

I had got the Sigma 100-400 just before the trip. It was almost a decade since my last birding lens, the Tamaron 200-400. I struggled a bit to get focus and finally shot mostly manual.

Sighting the hornbills was most exciting. The sunbird was so shy and required a lot of patience. The hoopoe was on the path and watched us with so much suspicion. The bee eaters used to sit still for long minutes, almost as if posing.

Those eyelashes!

After the lockdown

It was late October last year. The sudden and vicious lockdown and first wave had taken its toll. We had all been prisoners of our homes. A few months earlier we experienced the anxity and tensions of having a couple of cases in our home. Father locked in his room for 3 weeks, Viv Rash in theirs. The kids, the dog, me and Jo juggling it together. Thankfully the patients recovered in time.

But the months were full of cleaning up, washing up and trying to keep the anxity down as day in and day out the news told us gory details of the pandemic. Our building experienced cases in almost all of its floors. It was a difficult time emotionally.

All we wanted was an escape. Me and Jo had been yearning to get back to the Farm of Happiness since our visit just before the lockdown. The memory of the open spaces had given us a few moments of peace in the otherwise restricted and tense time.

So when the travel restrictions were relaxed, we gathered some family and headed to the Konkan. The journey was long but with 10 people, it was fun. We paid a quick visit to Amey and family at his Devrukh house. He has been wroking from there the entire lockdown. It was so much better than his small apartment at Mumbai, he said.


The first evening we headed on the sada for a walk. The walk. In the wild open space, on the sada. It was a piece of heaven for me. We are so connected with Nature.

You can enjoy the photos full screen by clicking on them.

If you enjoyed this post you may want to read about our trip in March 2020 just before the lock down here: Deep Konkan and Deep Konkan the lucky trip.

Of Spider Webs and Dew Drops

It was cold december on the sada in the Konkan. The grass had become reddish golden brown. Early mornings were enveloped in dense fog.

This wondorous landscape had another surpise for the intrepid adventurers - the jewels of the Gods. These symmetric webs of thin strands, adorned with sparkling spheres, dotted the landscape. The spider webs and the dew. It was mesmerising to look at them in the early morning fog-filtered light.

Sunset, Devgad Fort

It was long back in May 2009.

It was our second bike trip. We reached the Devgad Fort by late afternoon. There was a sudden thunderstorm approaching from the east. There was great running about as we hastily put all our equipment into waterproof bags and huddled near the temple. The storm was low and it was moving fast. It passed over the fort, spewing its contents, and out into the sea. Within half an hour the rain had gone. I clicked this photo in the beautiful light as the sun went down towards the horizon. It is Unmesh on the wall; reaching out to the clouds — the remnants of the fiesty storm.

Photo shot on the Panasonic LX3

Deep Konkan, the lucky trip

The glorious Palash tree

Back in Feb Me and Jo (and our little parcel) were planning to go to Ooty in the first week of March. We had planned a nice 4 day trip via Bangalore, were we would meetup with Aniket and Priyanka and drive down to Ooty. But the dark clouds of Covid-19 were hanging on the head and when the time came to book these flights I was really worried. The airports would be the distribution centres of the infected for an imported virus. So we cancelled it.

Rima and Animesh (and their parcel), in the meanwhile had visited a farm in the deep Konkan and highly recommended it. We had to get out and so we decided to book it. On those days Amey and family would also be in Devrukh and we would visit them too, that was the plan. We would drive non-stop and avoid any interaction with people. First week of March was getting to be a risky time.

So finally the three of us left one early morning in the trusty Hexa and headed for the Konkan. The highway is good and we made good time. Soon we took the right past Karad and headed towards Malkapur. The first few kilo meters were good as the road was newly laid. We took a short halt at a hotel for loo and headed on. The road then got very bad and it was tough going.

In the ghat just before Malkapur we came across a fabulous 'palash' tree were we took some photos. Then on to Malkapur and Amba. At Sakharpa we took the right for Devrukh. For once we headed on towards Sangameshwar without halting here. From Sangameshwar it took some finding, a missed turn, but we finally managed to get to our destination. The last kilo meter or so was a dirt track...




The 'sada'


Early morning Fog!


Looking at the west valley


12000 year old art — Petroglyphs


a traditional kitchen


Testing the PD36R in the night


Chafa near the temple


Early morning!


Malkapur hinterlands

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