INDIA 2010 : Last Full Day at Ranthambhore

Nov 14 – Much to everyone’s delight, after the rough rides on Track 5, we were assigned a new route for this morning’s game drive, Track 2. However, it was not long before we were wishing we were on Track 5! In spite of the rocky ride it is another very scenic route through valleys, across stony river beds edged in golden grasses and in the more open areas wonderful vistas with steep rising hills.

On top of one of these, the brown stone walls of Ranthambhore Fort (above) wrap around the hill blending in with the sandstone cliffs below. A pale Booted Eagle was over the fort and it was nice to see Indian Long-billed Vultures circling overhead, and one hopes that this very small population here can rebound.

While looking at Oriental White-eyes we heard Chital alarm calls. This went on for a short while and we positioned ourselves in a more open vantage point, but the calls got further away. There was a tiger on the move. We continued down our track, holding on as we rock-and-rolled down rocky slopes and relaxed on the smoother sections of the flats, till we came across another canter with everyone looking in one direction. There she was a hundred meters away, walking with calculated steps through the open woods, crossing the track in front of the lead canter 50 meters ahead of us, before disappearing behind thick shrubbery. This was T39 a three year old tigress (above). She crossed the river which ran parallel to the track, but our vehicle could not see that, and vanished into the forest on the far side. We could hear Chital on that side put up the alarm as she moved further away from us. Once again the sighting was brief, but what a memory.

A walk through the scrub habitat by the main entrance gate began with a couple of raptors – a circling Eurasian Sparrowhawk and a Bonelli’s Eagle flapping laboriously as it carried prey possibly back to a nest. In the heat of the day it was pleasant to be able to bird from the shade of the trees. There were Rose-ringed Parakeets inspecting a nest hole, Ashy Prinias showing well and Chestnut-shouldered Petronia’s foraging on the lower branches of a tree. A Sirkeer Malkoha (above), a bird that we do not often encounter, was seen very well as it foraged. It was interesting to witness its behavior on the ground when it was trying to evade detection. This is slender bird in the cuckoo family that is about a foot in length, and it would crouch down low like a roadrunner or lark and scurry along the undergrowth. At the large watering hole, water buffalo and goats with decorative paint on their horns or forehead were either drinking or bathing. It was here that Janis struck up a friendship with three friendly teenage girls that had cutting wood, one of whom had been married for 6 months!

Track 4 was where we were fortunate to get our first tiger, but in spite of hearing sambar and langur alarm calls near to the ‘paperwork’ station, no cat showed itself. There was better luck from an avian standpoint, though most were seen around or on the lake. These included a party of Small Minivets, Common Wood-Shrike, Shikra, Greater Coucal, White-bellied Drongos and noisy Alexandrine Parakeets. At the waters edge a nervous acting Painted Snipe eventually found cover and four Pygmy Cotton Geese were feeding amongst the burgundy colored azolla. On our way out we came face to face with a Nilgai blue bull (above) feeding beside the track.

Though it was our last night at the Tiger Den, and we would have liked to think that the evenings entertainment was put on just for us, there were dozens of other guests. Dinner was an outdoor barbeque, where we we able to watch nan and chapatis being cooked in a stone oven and tandori chicken sizzling over charcoal. The music was performed by traditional Rajastani folk musicians with two women alternating dances, known in this part of the state as kalbelli. Most impressive was a dance with four jugs balance on her head, one on top of the other with flames coming out of the top jug.