find-it-yourself

Bike ride to Muthodi

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 15:37:00 +0000

It was an unplanned journey. Chose Muthodi Tiger Reserve as the destination.
Started from Bangalore at 6AM on two TB350 with my nephew.

Reached Muthodi Tiger Reserve by 11AM.

This is my 5th visit to this place so far, first on bike. Remembered 2007 when I visited this place in car with my birdwatcher friends - Mohan and Sandeep. Then, we had driven up to Kemmannugundi through the forest route.

While the initial plan was to return in the same route, remembering 2007, decided to ride up to Kemmannugundi and loop back to Bangalore.

The decision was really rewarding. The route went through some of the core areas guarded by the forest guards at check posts.

(TB350 parked on a view point, with the hill ranges in the back ground)

It was quite an uphill task to maneuver the bikes through the forest roads. We kept riding praying that the tires would not go flat.

A stretch of 13 kms between Attigundi and Kemmannugundi check posts were really a challenge. The picturesque landscape of the baba-budan-giri ranges kept us going. The brown shades of the shola grasslands contrasting with the forests in the valley was visible through out the ride as the bikes rode through the ridges passing over the shoulders of the mountain ranges.

(One of the roads as we were about to enter into the thick forest below the shola grasslands)

(The landscape of the baba-budan-giri ranges)

It took good two hours for us to cover 40 kms from Muthodi to Kemmannugundi.

From there, we took lingadahalli-beeruru-arasikere-channararayapattana-bangalore and reached home by 10PM. The total distance turned out to be 650 kms in 18 hours.

It was a good time spent with nature, a memory I would cherish forever.

Grey Treepie

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 11:49:00 +0000

From Nature - Animals

Scientific name: Dendrocitta formosae himalayensis (Old name: Himalayan Treepie - Dendrocitta himalayensis)

Treepies belong to the family 'Corvidae'. Other birds in the family are - crows, jays and magpies. Birds of the family have bristle-covered nostrils, broad round wings and tail. Wings often short and tail long, or wings long and tail short. Treepies are the birds with longer tail and short wings; therefore, undulating flight - a few rapid wing-flaps followed by a short glide.

'Corvidae' is derived from the Latin word 'Corvus' which means 'crow'. In the bow of ships the Romans had a long beam with a spike on one end and the other end was fastened to the foredeck by a heavy hinge. This was the corvus or "crow". When the corvus was dropped on an opposing galley, the spike sank into the wood and held the two ships together. The corvus was then used as a gangplank for boarders to go aboard the other ship.

The species occupies a large geographical range and has several recognised regional forms that differ slightly from one another for instance in colour and tail length. The species in the image is Dendrocitta f. himalayensis occurring in Eastern Himalayan foothills, and has smaller tail than the Western Himalayan foothills (Dendrocitta f. occidentalis)

Place and date: Karmi farms, Darjeeling, 09-October-2009.

Source: Birds of South Asia - The Ripley Guide; http://wordinfo.info; http://en.wikipedia.org

Its playtime at "the queen of Hills"

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 09:23:00 +0000

From Theme based photographs

Taken at Karmi farms, Darjeeling in October 2009.

Small/Lesser Yellownape (Western Ghats species)

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 04:58:00 +0000

From Nature - Animals

Scientific name: Picus chlorolophus chlorigaster

Picus: An ancient Italian god of agriculture with prophetic powers. In Latin legend, he was a brave warrior, the first of Latium, and was finally turned into a woodpecker by Circe, whose love he rejected.

Generally called 'Green woodpeckers' (Picus), these birds are mainly green, often with dark scales or bars below. Sexes differ in head pattern and colour. The 'yellownapes' ('Chrysophlegma') differ from other Picus in having a crested yellow nape and rufous or maroon in the wing.

There are three geographical variants in Picus chlorolophus:

Picus c. chlorolophus - nominate species. Occurs: Himalayan foothills to SE Arunachal (roughly, north eastern strip of Indian subcontinent along the Himalayas)

Picus c. chlorigaster - Western and southern peninsular hills (including western ghats)

Picus c. wellsi - in Srilanka

Source: Birds of South Asia - The Ripley Guide; http://wordinfo.info

Place and date: Virajpet, Coorg district, 28-September-2010

Walk in the woods

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:59:00 +0000

From Nature - Landscapes

Landscapes

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 14:37:00 +0000

From Nature - Landscapes

Random thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 06:34:00 +0000

From Theme based photographs

Square-tailed Black Bulbul

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 04:42:00 +0000

From Nature - Animals

Scientifc name: Hypsipetes ganeesa

Place and date: Virajpet, Coorg district on 28-September-2010

Another bird endemic to western ghats. (Srilanka has a subspecies)

Gold-fronted Chloropsis / Leaf Bird / Green Bulbul

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 04:34:00 +0000

From Nature - Animals

Left frame: Female

Right frame: Male

Scientific name: Chloropsis aurifrons frontalis

Place and date: Virajpet, Coorg district on 28-September-2010

This species is an accomplished mimic. Some of the bird calls in its repertoire include: Tailor Bird, Redwhiskered Bulbul, Black Drongo, Iora, Whitebreasted Kingfisher, Rufousbacked Shrike and Magpie-Robin. The different imitations follow one another in quick succession without a break, its own song of several notes being wedged in between the imitations; thus a single chloropsis hidden in a leafy tree will often fool the listener into imagining a whole concert of mixed species within! (Salim Ali)

Nilgiri Flowerpecker (Dicaeum concolor)

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:38:00 +0000

From Nature - Animals

Another species endemic to Western Ghats.

A view of Radhanagari reservoir

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:45:00 +0000

From Nature - Landscapes

Photo credit: Varsha Madhukar

Images from Western Ghats

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 09:30:00 +0000

From Nature - Landscapes

From Nature - Landscapes ("abbe" falls, Madikeri)

From Nature - Landscapes (kuduremukh)

From L-R: Raghavendra, Vidyadhar Atkore, Madhu and Varsha

Indian Hanging Parrot

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 07:13:00 +0000

From Nature - Animals

Indian Hanging-Parrot (Loriculus vernalis)

Seen in Virajpet, Madikeri.

High canopy fliers, these birds are seen flying swiftly in small flocks accompanied by a shrill trisyllabic bat-like squeak chi-chi-chee repeated every couple of seconds or so. These birds possess one very unorthodox peculiarity, unique among Indian birds, that of sleeping at night hanging upside down like a bat.

Depth-of-Field

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 05:35:00 +0000

From Theme based photographs

Skylight

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:18:00 +0000

Beautiful twilight and full moon. It appeared as though the sky did not want to fall behind in making the western ghats look more beautiful. It made a colourful display of light in pink and blue shades.

From Nature - Landscapes

Photo credits: Varsha Madhukar

Green carpet, Cloud ceiling: Kuduremukh

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:16:00 +0000

From Nature - Landscapes

This is my most favourite landscape photograph. This was shot by my wife at Bhagavati Nature Camp, Kuduremukh - Karnataka.

Meadow of flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 13:12:00 +0000

From Nature - Landscapes

We passed through this beautiful stretch of MSH-4 (Major State Highway) between Tarkarli (Malwan beach) and Vengurla.

Framing a picture

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:22:00 +0000

Puttting border to any photograph makes it look better. More so is a natural framing. When it comes to landscapes, it is a common practice to include something that would act as a natural border to the image. It can be trees on both sides, or a canopy covering the landscape shot (as shown in this image below), or a portion of a water body, etc.

From Nature - Landscapes

This image was taken on the way from Kolhapur towards Radhanagari. The plants with yellow flowers were used to fence the paddy fields. I thought it would make a good picture and tried including the tree top to act as a border to compensate for the blank dull sky.

Used "Aperture Priority" with F22 to have a good Depth-Of-Field. Shutter speed was set to 1/50th of a second as there was good ambience light. ISO was set to 200 for a good quality image.

Monkey business

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:39:00 +0000

From Nature - Animals

Colours

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 03:35:00 +0000

From Theme based photographs

Visit to Kaas plateau

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 04:30:00 +0000

From Nature - Landscapes

Global Warming - blah, blah, blah

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 03:36:00 +0000

I came across this article in today's The Times Of India (Pune edition) and felt little intrigued. It says "Proper livestock management can reduce global warming"

Here is the snapshot of the article:

From Image Store for my gpitta-blog

Points of interest:

We know that carbon, methane, nitrous oxide are some of the greenhouse gases. Livestock ruminants produce methane and carbon dioxide while digesting feed in their rumen.
In India, a majority of the livestock are low on productivity, under-nourished and surviving on open grazing, high fibre roughages (includes pasture and hay). These animals release more methane than high yielding animals that consume better quality feed.
Importantly, most farmers are unaware of the threat posed by their livestock to global warming.
Most of the low productive livestock release significant volume of methane during night when housed in cattle sheds. Besides, animal dung and urine releases methane and nitrous oxide. Better management of farm yard manure and compost pits can reduce this emission.
Explore the policy and scope for relaxing export of cattle and other livestock.

Here is a link to another article that reads "Can Cattle Save Us From Global Warming?"

Points of interest: (Compare this against the points above)

First, the cattle industry and meat eating are targeted as a leading cause of global warming, up there with autos, jet planes and coal-burning power plants.
Second, efforts to stop global warming have been focused almost entirely on reducing emissions, not in taking existing carbon out of the atmosphere (a process known as known as carbon sequestration). Therefore this article talks more about carbon farming. Moreover, it supports no-till agriculture and managed grazing projects. The article suggests that these techniques help in higher absorption of atmospheric carbon by the soil.
But what about the argument that meat-eating is a major cause of global warming due to massive emissions of nitrous oxide, methane and other greenhouse gases from livestock operations? John Wicks answers immediately and forcefully, “That’s absolutely correct about feedlots and absolutely wrong about grass-fed livestock. Sustainably-raised grass-fed beef is a natural system and the methane and other greenhouse gases are mitigated by the carbon sequestration in the soil. We see this as a way to phase out feedlots.”
If the solution to global warming involves large herds of hoofed animals moving through landscape in ways that take carbon out of the atmosphere and into the soil, we can do that.
The central idea in carbon farming is moving the animals frequently—as once happened with wild herds chased by predators—so grasses are not gnawed beyond the point of natural recovery and plant cover remains to fertilize the land and sequester carbon.

Observations:

First article talks against low productivity of under-nourished livestock. Whereas, the second article talks against feedlots where high-quality food is forcefed. It rather supports open and managed grazing.
Energy output of green food (feeding on leaves, grass) is inherently less. Livestock ruminants have to feed a lot to get the required energy. Isn't that natural? While mentioning export of cattle and other livestock, about having better quality feed, is the first article insinuating about profiting some industry? Does this smell fishy?
While mentioning livestock as one of the contributors to the emission of methane, are not the exploding population (and so the meat consumption), exploding industrialization as the major contributors towards global warming?
While the second article supports no-till farming and managed grazing, India does not have much land space to afford this luxury. It may hold good to the US. With the forested land being less than 7 percent of our land mass, and the agricultural area under high pressure feeding the current population, all these suggestions are impractical to most of the third world countries.

Why can't the scientific community think simple?

Be a thoughtful spender of natural resources. This does not need one to be a hermit or a miser.
Put a brake to the wants. Why does a family need more than one vehicle (considering vehicle is a need in the current generation)? Number of four-wheelers in the US is almost equal to the adult population. The trend has started in the cities of India as well.
Understand and respect the difference between "needs" and "wants"

"Noteworthy" accomodation at Mahabaleswar

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:53:00 +0000

From Nature - Landscapes

My wife and I visited (and would not like to call it a trip) Mahabaleswar last weekend and we would like to share the bad experience of our stay at a hotel called Sunny Mid Town where we had booked an accomodation for two days through Sai Bless Holidays Services Pvt Ltd.

We reached the hotel by 1:50 PM on 3-July-2010. We had opted for "Luxury room with bath tub". Though we did not expect any luxury as such, the least we expected was that the room would be clean. To our disappointment, the room was very dirty and badly maintained so was the lobby on each floor. For instance, bedspreads and the pillow covers were not clean. The bed was damp. The room was right next to an entrance that opened up to a garbage disposal area. There were also red stains of pan spat on the floor and window sill. Hotel Sunny International, where the food is served for the guests staying at Sunny Mid town was equally unhygienic. It looked like dining hall was never mopped and there were flies all around. The steel plates and glasses which were used to serve food were way too dirty.

The bath room was not clean either. In contrary to what the website claims, there was no 24-hours supply of hot water (we were told that the water would be available between 7 am and 9:30 am). We informed the manager in charge about the room and the bathroom being unclean, but it fell on deaf ears. He was aloof when we mentioned about the lack of cleanliness.

In summary, the so called "luxury room" was in fact unhygienic. We were very disappointed to end up in one such room after paying Rs.1700/- per day. It was not worth even half the money paid.

The hotel staff also did not even bother cleaning the room, in spite of requesting them. We checked out of the hotel at 3:30 PM (within two hours of checking in). Though it was a financial loss for us, the terrific conditions of the room did not give us much choice. We returned to Pune the same evening.

Although the weather was very pleasant at the hill station and the clouds crossed our path as we ascended the hill almost blocking the view ahead (pleasantly foggy), all these came to an abrupt end and our much awaited & planned trip was washed off; all thanks to the "luxuy hotel" called Sunny Mid Town.

From Nature - Landscapes

Mahabaleshwar is breathtaking in the monsoons. So, for all those who are heading to this place to have a good time we recommend to not even consider this hotel for enquiring let alone booking an accomodation.

From Nature - Landscapes

P.S: Kindly note Sunny Mid Town, Sunny International and Sunny Classic are a chain of hotels managed by the same group.

Happy outing!

Bhigwan - A birding profile

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:15:00 +0000

Varsha and I visited Bhigwan on 1st March 2010 (Monday). Reached the place around noon. We could not venture out under the hot burning sun. We had to bird from a shelter close by for the next four hours.

Few kilometres from Bhigwan is Diksal village, where a wetland has formed by the backwaters of river Ujni. We settled at the backwaters along the road between Diksal and Bhilarwadi sugar plant.

Here are few of photographs taken at the place:

Bhigwan in a nutshell

noreply@blogger.com (Madhu) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:02:00 +0000

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