It was an unplanned trip to Ranganathittu bird sanctuary near Mysore. I was getting bored in my room and decided to roam somewhere and I just caught the bus to Mysore. I didn’t take anything in my bag other than my camera and a pair of lenses. In the month of June it was raining heavily on the way to the Mysore. I got down at Srirangapatana which is the nearest railway station and when I reached there the weather was cloudy and it was drizzling a bit. I just finished my breakfast and when I entered the sanctuary; Waoow!!! It was totally unexpected; It was a Heaven of Birds; an important nesting and breeding ground for the hundreds of bird species!!! The sanctuary wasn’t as big as Thattekkad (in Kerala); but I could able to see more varieties of birds here. I didn’t take my tripod and rain cover for my camera and I missed it badly once I enter in to the sanctuary.
I just roam around inside the sanctuary almost 6 hours there and have gone for boating in the lake which was quite interesting. There were almost 10 members in the boat and they took us through the lake to the small islands in the lake which host numerous mammals and migratory birds. The Migratory water birds include Painted Stork, Asian Open bill Stork, Common Spoonbill and Herons. There were lot of unknown birds also; even we could see the crocodiles also. It was a surprise for me that the crocodiles are not at all dangerous!!!
It was raining a bit while boating. I couldn’t focus properly as it was very difficult to balance myself in the small boat. There were around 10 people in the boat and it wasn’t fair if I occupy more space and click. More ever the boat was shaking in the wind.
I could see a large number of migratory birds from as far as Siberia, North America and Australia. The sailor was explaining about the types of migratory birds while boating and it was quite interesting as well.
In fact, for me the boating wasn’t the main attraction. The sanctuary was of a small area and there were lot of birds there. I am surprised; why the birds have selected a particular area especially!!! The most common birds found there were (not in the lake) Mynas and Red-whiskered Bulbuls. There was a paddy field near to the sanctuary and I got few shots from there also.
I used to click all and really does not care if it is a common or rare species. In fact I don’t know much about the birds and I used to find out the names from Google. I have noticed at least 30 to 35 types of birds within this 6 hours. But I couldn’t utilize the entire 6 hours there since it was raining heavily. I don’t mind the rain since I love rain personally; but without the rain cover of camera it was almost impossible to get in to the field.
I see lot of people visit the sanctuary and they will just have one round of walk and finish the boating and go back. So for the people who are not interested in photography, they can just finish the things off within couple of hours and it may not be worth for them!!!
There were lots of photographers and few Bird watchers and I got introduced with some of them. It was a different experience and with their help I could able to identify all the birds I shot there itself. And I got introduced with one guy who was an amateur photographer like me and we have contacts still; Well I got a new friend!!!
All the snaps I have taken was hand held since tripod wasn’t there with me. And for most of the snaps I have compromised with the exposure since it was too cloudy and there wasn’t enough light inside the sanctuary. But still I managed to take some decent shots.
While processing the photos I found that most of them were bit underexposed as expected. I knew it; but I didn’t want to increase the ISO while clicking; since I didn’t want my snaps to be noisy. I am fine if it is under exposed a bit. I didn’t increase ISO more than 800 and shot with the maximum Aperture available. But later I felt it was a good decision, because most of the photos were little bit dark with rainy background and it made them little more interesting.
So, the next time; the next time if I visit Ranganathittu, I will be well prepared with my tripod and other equipment. I wanted to make it after August which will be the best time to visit the sanctuary.
Terrific work! This is the kind of info that should be shared across the web.
Very nice blog. I have visited ranganthittu recently, unfortunately it is fully commercialized. We will not see a single forest bird now. so sad 🙁
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Very nice blog sandeep; congrats. I am also interested in bird photography and I wasn’t aware about this place near to bangalore. Your blog inspired me to visit this place. Thank you and expecting the same good work from you in future.