Guano Sighting

This last weekend was a pretty busy one. So much so that I actually forgot to call my mom--eek! Saturday we had a grand opening of our new office space. I had to attend that and it threw my schedule all off. Fortunately Sunday I got to relax. I had gotten notification of a group going to the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, just before Mysore City. (4 km from Srirangapatna) This info was forwarded to me by my wife who is out of station at the moment. I replied and said I was interested in going along, and would they let me know of any carpooling plans etc. In the mean time I arranged for Manju to come in on Sunday and drive if necessary.

Well Sunday came along, and I hadn't heard back, despite a followup. So, I thought, well, I'll just go to the park and be there at the time they plan to meet. If I recognize them, I'll join in, otherwise, I'll just see what comes. Well as it happens, I was there just about 15 mins early, and I waited for about 1/2 hour, checking out the map of the park, putting on sunscreen, adjusting the settings on my camera, etc. I didn't see anyone come in that I recognized. So I took off, and wandered the park by myself, well sort of.

The accessible part of the park basically runs along the river for maybe a little more than a Kilometer. I first took the path to the left (not sure if this is down or up river as the current was truly undetectable), and down past the islands where most of the birds nest. There was a nice raised viewing platform along the way, unfortunately the bamboo had grown across in front of it so the view from the ground was better. There were a lot of people there, obviously one group was a well prepared bunch of photograpers. They had serious lenses, tripods etc. There were also many families and couples just out for a nice picnic and afternoon in nature. I even saw something scandalous, there was one couple who were kissing behind the bamboo along the river.

Then I took the boat tour. Now these boats are all row boats, and can hold about 20 people. I was lucky being an only traveler, I got the bench behind the oarsman, well really in front, but we were all looking backwards. So I had lots of ability to turn around and focus my camera wherever I wanted without hitting someone, or having to dodge someone's head. We spent a leisurely 30 minutes on the water going around three islands, which had different birds on them, plus some other animals like crocodiles, and bats. It is also possible to rent private boats, like this well prepared gentleman did. I didn't feel the need, but might do so if I had a small group, or really wanted to do some serious photography as he did.

After the boat tour, I had a simple lunch. I had brought sandwiches, so I sat along the river and just enjoyed the location, weather, and quiet time. Then I went home. Manju did say he had seen a couple of expat drivers he knows, but I don't know if that was the group I was supposed to join. Their loss, if it was. I had fun anyways.





More pictures.