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A dream of wild India, finally realized: February 2016


janzin

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michael-ibk

Great you had multiple Dhole sightings in Pench! While we also saw lots of Jackals there, no Dhole for us - but quite a few Tigers.

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@@janzin

 

Wouldn't expect anything less but the perfect shots, yet those are just in another league, such sharpness/contrast wide open. Did you fine tune the lens (200-400) and if yes, which method did you use?

 

And thank you for the link about lens protectors. Too late for Sri Lanka but in time for Kruger. And I think there will be much more dust in Kruger end of October than in Sri Lanka in August :) .

 

 

@@xelas I've never fine-tuned any of my lenses. I just don't have the patience to do it and I also have a problem in that all of the methods require one to be something like 50-60 ft away from the target (for a tele lens) and I live in an apartment with no driveway or yard where I can get that kind of distance; I can't very well take it out into an urban park in NYC to do it! So I just haven't done it and probably never will.

 

Its funny but looking now at these photos I am pleased with the sharpness of them, which goes back to my dilemma on the other post in the photography section re: which lens to bring to Kenya. But of course there were many, many photos where I was not at all happy with the results. The lens is very sharp close up, but its those longer distances where it gives problems. Still planning on giving the 200-500 a shot for Kenya instead of this lens. Will I regret it?? :unsure: :unsure: :unsure:

 

I actually forgot to post my absolute favorite Dhole shot!

 

dhole_5382a.jpg

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Great you had multiple Dhole sightings in Pench! While we also saw lots of Jackals there, no Dhole for us - but quite a few Tigers.

 

@@michael-ibk just shows that you can never predict what you'll see on safari, it can change from season to season, month to month, even week to week! I just tried not to have expectations for Pench so I wouldn't be disappointed. I did have high hopes for Kanha....but...you'll see!

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@@janzin - thanks for sharing your equipment details. It's the skill of the photographer that makes all the difference and the quality of these images is incredible.

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<I actually forgot to post my absolute favorite Dhole shot!>

 

Epic! If I could hit the 'like' button several times I would!

 

I am no expert on lenses as I try and make do with a pin hole camera but I would think that on longer distances a combination of image size, 'wobble' even with a bean bag or tripod, dusty atmospherics and even heat haze will have some effect.

IS etc., can only do so much and if the conditions are not good to start with IS can't make them so.

What you are getting is fine with me! Take the 200-500 to Kenya.

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@@janzin

 

Thanks for that very informative reply! To return the favour, my experiences after about 3 months of using a 200-500 mostly photographing birds in mostly in good light, with D7200:

 

A. excellent details/contrast when the subject is up to 15 or so meters (20 yards) away (and the closer the better), on par with yours in this thread

 

B. acceptable results (but not as crisp as yours photos above) up to 25 meters or so (30 yards)

 

C. subpar results when the distances are longer, like 50 meter (60 yards). In comparison to AF-S 300 f/4 D + TC14, and also in comparison with AF-S 300f/4 D + TC17; both prime combos have more details vs. 200-500 at 500 mm at long distances

 

 

I have noticed one very odd behaviour of my lens, and have tested it several times with the same result. When the bird is of grey (Grey Heron) or geryish-metallic color (Northern Lapwing) the AF focus is hunting like mad! No matter if 10 meters away or 50 meters away!! Might not be the fault of the lens, but AF on my D7200 is quite snappy on every other bird!!

 

It might well be the problem with my example of the lens, yet on the net I have found a couple of others that have reported the same results (about IQ at long distances). Test it carefully at home, or go to safari with proven solution! I will have both my long lenses in Kruger in Oct/Nov this year and will report back. Making extensive comparisons at home is not possible as most of my shots are handheld, and VR on 200-500 is just "out of this world good"! No way I could get a decent sharpenss using a 300 + TC at 1/500 sec which is the shutter speed mostly used for perched birds.

Edited by xelas
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Without turning janzin's report into a discussion on cameras can I suggest it is not the lens but that the AF problem is common to most cameras where a lack of contrast such as Grey on Grey, occurs. Snow scenes on overcast day, Seascapes ditto all confuse the AF. With birds I focus on the feet but that is not much help when it is wading. :rolleyes:

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@@janzin

 

Thanks for that very informative reply! To return the favour, my experiences after about 3 months of using a 200-500 mostly photographing birds in mostly in good light, with D7200:

 

A. excellent details/contrast when the subject is up to 15 or so meters (20 yards) away (and the closer the better), on par with yours in this thread

 

B. acceptable results (but not as crisp as yours photos above) up to 25 meters or so (30 yards)

 

C. subpar results when the distances are longer, like 50 meter (60 yards). In comparison to AF-S 300 f/4 D + TC14, and also in comparison with AF-S 300f/4 D + TC17; both prime combos have more details vs. 200-500 at 500 mm at long distances

 

 

I have noticed one very odd behaviour of my lens, and have tested it several times with the same result. When the bird is of grey (Grey Heron) or geryish-metallic color (Northern Lapwing) the AF focus is hunting like mad! No matter if 10 meters away or 50 meters away!! Might not be the fault of the lens, but AF on my D7200 is quite snappy on every other bird!!

 

It might well be the problem with my example of the lens, yet on the net I have found a couple of others that have reported the same results (about IQ at long distances). Test it carefully at home, or go to safari with proven solution! I will have both my long lenses in Kruger in Oct/Nov this year and will report back. Making extensive comparisons at home is not possible as most of my shots are handheld, and VR on 200-500 is just "out of this world good"! No way I could get a decent sharpenss using a 300 + TC at 1/500 sec which is the shutter speed mostly used for perched birds.

 

 

Ug, this is a bit worrisome as this is the same issue with the 200-400 and the issue I was hoping to avoid. As you say, its a bit hard to test this here at home because I need some really distant subjects, like lions out on the plains!

 

There are, however, other advantages to the 200-500--mainly its portability, ease of hand-holding, and that extra 100mm without a TC. To get to 500 with the 200-400 of course requires the 1.4 tc and that degrades the distance performance even more. And as you note, the VR is incredible...I can take sharp shots at 1//30th handheld which would be impossible with the 200-400VR. Of course, it is unlikely to be as sharp as a prime, but if its sharper than the 200-400 I'd be happy.

 

Well I need to try and find something distant to test with, unfortunately this time of year around here there isn't much!

 

@@xelas this is for you, check this out....this test finds it very sharp even at distances, and even with the 1.4 tc. http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Nikon_Nikkor_AF-S_200-500mm_f5-6E_ED_VR/sharpness.shtml

Edited by janzin
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Without turning janzin's report into a discussion on cameras can I suggest it is not the lens but that the AF problem is common to most cameras where a lack of contrast such as Grey on Grey, occurs. Snow scenes on overcast day, Seascapes ditto all confuse the AF. With birds I focus on the feet but that is not much help when it is wading. :rolleyes:

 

This is a good point @@Galana

 

Also, a question would be if @@xelas was shooting hand-held only. It would be very hard to judge absolute sharpness at 500mm in that case.

 

Anyway, yes we digress and probably boring most folks. Back to the trip report!

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@@janzin

 


 

I actually forgot to post my absolute favorite Dhole shot!

 

dhole_5382a.jpg

 

It's also my favorite!

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On our way to Kanha! As I mentioned previously, we had requested that Rajen stop so that we could buy some cloth to wrap our cameras. Pench wasn't as dusty as Tadoba, but we expected Kanha to be pretty bad in that respect. So as we passed through a fairly large town, Seoni, Rajen got out of the car and did the purchasing for us; I just told him to buy the cheapest cloth and it didn't matter what it looked like. (We ended up with a huge piece of turquoise cotton for the equivalent of $3--big enough to cut cloths for both of our cameras.) This ended up being a very wise purchase because Kanha was just as bad as Tadoba in terms of dust...just a different color dust...more yellow than red!

The main road we were on was a very busy market street, allowing for some nice streetscapes and candids shot from the car. Most of these were taken in Seoni but some are from other towns we passed through. So before we get back to the wildlife, here's a taste of daily life in central India. I just love how colorful everything in India is.

 

It was a stall like this where Rajen purchased our cloth.

 

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Sugar cane juice seller

 

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India_JZ1_8452a.jpg

 

And of course....

 

horn_please_8057a%20.jpg

Edited by janzin
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Part of the fun and pleasure of travelling are the street scenes. thanks for these.

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@@janzin

 

I love seeing the people and street scenes and these are so colourful.

 

Really enjoying this TR so far, outstanding pictures as usual. Looking forward to Kanha, we went in 2009 and it was our favourite park.

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Our first morning at Kanha was encouraging. On our very first drive, we came upon this mahout.

 

mahout_5945a.jpg

 

Rajen told us that he was keeping an eye on a tigress with cubs. But the grass was very high and the forest thick so we could not see anything. Still, we waited, and I do believe the elephant tromping around finally roused this tigress, Neelam, who shortly came out and crossed the road. There was only only other vehicle there at this moment so it was a nice and calm sighting. We didn't see any cubs, though.

 

tiger_5928c.jpg

 

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If you look closely, you will note that she is wearing a radio collar...this was the only collared tiger we saw.

 

So we were encouraged, tigers will be easy again in Kanha!!

 

Well...no. In fact, in six more drives we saw no more tigers. In six more very FRUSTRATING drives, we didn't see much of anything! Kanha, for us, was a total dud! This was so surprising to not only us, but to Rajen! I think there were two factors at play. For one thing...the forestry people were doing burns, it seemed like everywhere. No matter what route we took, we would come upon scenes like this...and have to drive through them...

 

kanha_fires_6644a.jpg

 

A couple of times, it was not even possible to drive through and we had to turn around and go back the way we came. Obviously, in these areas animals...even birds...were absent.

 

The other factor was that we hit a cooler, cloudy spell and one afternoon had a torrential downpour. That didn't help. Again, it seemed no one was seeing much...the gypsys we met in passing were just as frustrated as we were. Lots of sad faces :(

 

We did see Jungle Cat a few times, and that was a thrill; in fact one morning one ran across the road before we even got to the gate. But, there were no photo ops--too fast, too far.

 

No Dhole, no Sloth bear, a couple of jackals. The usual antelope, but looking through my photos, I had better images from the other parks. The only new antelope, of course, was the Hard-ground Barasingha, which are only found in Kanha. But they seemed to stay in only the high grass, so no great photos!

 

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hard_ground_barasingha_6100a.jpg

 

I did get some nice Langur shots...

 

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This mother and child was behind our tent at Tuli Tiger Corridor.

 

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We didn't even see many new or new-to-photograph birds. The best were seen around our tent at Tuli Tiger! This Tickell's Blue Flycatcher seemed to live behind our tent.

 

tickells_blue_flycatcher_6081a.jpg

 

One new bird seen was the White-rumped Shama.

 

white_rumped_shama_6022a.jpg

 

Since we were staying at the Khatia gate we most often drove in the Kanha and Kisli zones. But for one drive we were able to go down to the Mukki zone. We'd heard there had been tigers seen there, and we were (slightly) hopeful! But we didn't have luck there either. While there we passed a gypsy with our friend Stephen who'd been with us at Svasara and Pench...he was still following our itinerary but staying down by the Mukki gate. He told us they'd seen several tigers :angry: So I guess we just were really unlucky in Kanha.

 

The park itself is beautiful though, and while we were sitting around waiting to hear alarm calls, I entertained myself with some landscape photos.

 

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Sadly, I have nothing else for our four nights, seven drives at Kanha. We rather regretted that we'd opted out of Bandhavgarh, and I think if we return to that area I'd go to Tadoba and Bandhavgarh, Of course, others have had great sightings at Kanha, but for us it was a disappointment.

Edited by janzin
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michael-ibk

Sorry to hear you were that unlucky in Kanha - I love this park, but I totally understand your frustration after so many fruitless drives.

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We did have one really wonderful experience at Kanha.

Our guide Rajen lives with his family in a village right at the entrance to Kanha tiger reserve. During the days we were there, the village was hosting a holy man (guru). In fact, this was Rajen's very revered guru and friend, and he was staying in his home. There was a tent set up along the main road where, during the day, the guru was holding audience. Rajen insisted that the guru was eager to meet us! So one lunch break, Rajen invited us into his home to meet his family and we had the honor of meeting the holy man as well. We spent only ten minutes with him, sharing grapes and trying to communicate (he didn't speak any English.) But it was a wonderful experience. I did not take any photos, as that seemed like it might be rude; but many of the children gathered around (not only Rajen's but many relatives and it seemed like a whole village full of children) were taking photos of us on cell phones!

To top this off, at the end of the day we got caught up in a procession as the holy man was leaving town, with much of the village joining to honor him. I managed this quick iPhone video (the guru is the man waving in the gypsy car.) Make sure to have the sound on!

 

"https://youtu.be/OF1UXQ4LWM4"

 

This made the day quite special...even without any particular wildlife!

Edited by janzin
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What a shame you only got the one tiger. Kanha has always worked well for me. Still that's showbiz or shikari biz.

Pleased that you made it up with some nice birds and those landscapes are not to be sneezed at either. (well maybe the fire is!).

Enjoying every minute of your trip. Thanks.

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One only tiger! Spoiled or what, Galana! I would be thrilled having taken half so good shots of a tiger, not to mention the mahout!

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One only tiger! Spoiled or what, Galana! I would be thrilled having taken half so good shots of a tiger, not to mention the mahout!

 

Ha, I suppose we were spoiled by Tadoba--but we had such high expectations for Kanha, after reading so many reports of good sightings. Even Rajen thought that six tigerless drives was unusual. And as I said...we weren't seeing much of anything else, either! It seemed we'd go hours without so much as a chital! I really think it was in good part because of the fires, and probably not typical at all.

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Spoiled. No just empathising with janzin. My first three trips (not drives) to tiger country yielded exactly zilch although we did find and smell fresh P on a tree and heard mating noises in the grass. Been there done that! Never got so much as a T shirt.

I would think and hope that the burning had a lot to do with it.

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Such a shame you were so unlucky in Kanha with the tigers.

 

The mahout and landscapes shots were lovely.

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Just a couple of more notes on Kanha before we move on to Kaziranga.

 

In Kanha we stayed again at the Tuli Tiger Corridor. There's not much different to say about it then what was said regarding the one in Pench! Service and food was similarly excellent, if even a bit more elaborate. Because, I think, Kanha is more popular and crowded, the dinners were even more varied, with some nights having special tables of Chinese food, or one night more continental food; but there were always Indian dishes to choose from as well. We were there over a weekend and there were several large Indian family groups. (We saw virtually no American tourists at any of our central India stops; whatever foreign tourists there were seemed to be mostly British, German, Dutch, etc. The only place we saw any Americans at all was in Kaziranga, oddly enough!)

 

The rooms at Tuli were exactly like those in Pench; and the set up was the same, with the larger "tents" being at the far end of the property; and golf carts were available here as well to take you back and forth. Every morning before our drive--5:30 a.m. or so--the golf cart was waiting to bring us to the front!

 

Our room:

 

tuli_8448.jpg

 

There was a beautiful pool at Tuli (in fact all the lodges had lovely pools) but I never saw anyone using them, except a couple of kids at Kanha. Never any adults. We had brought suits but ended up spending our lunch breaks in the cool of our room (or in my case, hunting the grounds for birds.) Never used the suits. It just seemed like too much trouble to get in the pool, although the heat was intense mid-day!

 

pool_6640.jpg

 

Finally, a couple of random images. Yes it was much more crowded at Kanha, especially on the weekend days. Here is the line one afternoon (we are of course at the head, or almost!) Luckily, Kanha has several routes and inside it never felt crowded, everyone was very spread out (of course if a tiger had been found, that would have changed, I'm sure!)

 

gate_6620a.jpg

 

Finally...this sign gave us a laugh every time we passed it on the road entering the town of Khatia. Would you stay at a resort named Amoeba Woods??? :o :o

 

amoebawoods_6647.jpg

 

So, on to Kaziranga now, I promise!

 

But in order to get to Kaziranga we first had to go back to Delhi, and due to flight timing we had to spend the night. I was a bit surprised to find that our Spice Jet flight back to Delhi was not a jet at all, but a prop plane; but it was fine, if no-frills.

 

After being met again at the airport by Abhishek, we returned to the Sheraton Four Points--the one that turned us away on our first night. Well, they were STILL apologizing (clearly they wanted to keep in good standing with Wild World India, who uses them a lot.) We got an upgraded room, a fruit and snack basket awaiting us, AND free dinner! This was all greatly appreciated. Luckily we did arrive early enough to take advantage of a very nice dinner buffet in their restaurant.

 

After a good (partial) night's sleep and another early 3 a.m. wake-up call, we were off to our 5:35 a.m. flight on IndiGo to Guwahati, gateway to Assam and Kaziranga National Park.

 

We were fortunate to have seats on the left (looking northwest) side of the plane, so we got a view of the Himalayas rising above the clouds!

 

himalayas.jpg

 

 

Rhinos here we come!

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Double dhole and Maya's cubs--those are good birthday presents. Somebody always sees something better than you do. That's just a safari rule. I'm sure this report is making some other folks out there :angry: :angry: :angry: .

 

That Tadoba sign immediately brought back memories. Such an odd looking creature on it.

 

Page 2

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Delightful dhole, such outstanding poses. Jackal too with the leg 'o whatever that was. Maybe no tigers but a tremendous success in Pench. The roufus treepie in the antlers is quite funny. Nice street scenes, but nothing like the video of the holy man visit. What an experience!

 

Your lack of luck in Kanha (after that first lovely tiger) shows why it is a good idea to visit several places if possible. If one does not pan out, another may. Your itinerary incorporated this plan. You just never know...after a splendid outing in Kanha, I had no luck in Bandhavgarh after 6-7 drives over 4 nights. With 2.5 hours left on the last drive, out came about 5 tigers.

 

Overall, the variety and quality of sightings was excellent on your trip! Really allowed some fantastic photos.

Edited by Atravelynn
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@@Atravelynn yes indeed, we had some wonderful sightings in Tadoba and Pench, so don't get me wrong, we absolutely loved our time in central India! Interesting what you said about having no luck in Bandhavgarh...at first...but then five tigers! You just never know what's around the corner and that's what's so exciting about safari, be it in Africa or India :)

 

Anyway, we had such a wonderful time in Kaziranga that all thoughts of disappointment with Kanha were soon forgotten.

 

Arriving early morning in Guwahati, we met our driver for the long but comfortable drive to Kaziranga. I might add here that all of our transfer vehicles were extremely comfortable--some model of Toyota sedan that seems to be modified specifically for touring, with comfortable bucket seats and good air conditioning. All of the drivers were excellent, but varied in how they handled the horn :o I believe it was on our ride out of Kanha that we did have one drive who definitely believed in the "Blow Horn" mantra and was on it about 95% of the time, which after awhile drove us crazy! But I digress.

 

We actually saw our first rhino before even reaching our hotel, as the road runs right through the park, and there are several overlooks where one can stop and look into the fields. Our driver stopped at one and pointed out some rhino way in the distance! Unbelievable, rhino from the road!

 

Kaziranga has three entrance gates: a Western, Central, and Eastern. We were staying at Wild Grass Lodge, which is near the Central gate. I do believe this is the best area to stay, as clearly you have easy access to the central area and are equidistant from the two peripheral areas. But more on Wild Grass at the end of the report, I know everyone is eager to get back to the wildlife.

 

Our guide Tarun was waiting for us at Wild Grass; he was the primary reason we picked this lodge, as he is their top guide and came highly recommended by Lynn, Michael, and Galana who had told me he was fantastic with birds. I also knew he had been the accompanying guide for many birding tours. And it was all true--Tarun really knew his birds and where to find them; he also seemed genuinely excited by the birds as well as the beasts. I think he was really happy that we were birders!

 

So after lunch at Wild Grass, we were off for our first game drive.

 

I'm actually not sure if this gate was at the Central, Eastern or Western section. Maybe @@michael-ibk or @@Atravelynn remembers?

 

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We were eager to see our first close-up rhino! Well within five minutes of entering the park, we got our wish:

 

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To show how close they can be...this was actually the same pair we saw, they crossed the road after we had driven on a bit.

 

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You'll notice that there's an armed ranger in the vehicle. I don't think I mentioned this before, but one is accompanied on every drive by not only your own guide and the driver, but a ranger with a gun. Just in case. :o There was actually one drive in Kaziranga where we did not have a ranger--which turned out to be a bit of a problem! More on that one later....

 

In Kaziranga we also picked up some new deer species. There are no Chital there, but they are replace in the ecosystem with Hog Deer. Despite the less than cute name, these are the absolute cutest deer...I think they are sweeter looking than the Chital.

 

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Another new deer were the Swamp Deer, or Barasingha...not to be confused with the Hard-ground Barasingha of Kanha. Actually, those in Kanha are a subspecies.

 

barasingha_8566b.jpg

 

And we saw more of the Muntjac..this one munching on a flower..

 

muntjac_7269b.jpg

Edited by janzin
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