Land of flowers- Gundalpett Karnataka India.

It was un planned visit to gundalpet on my way back from a monsoon south indian trip.

we were planning to roam around in bangalore city eralier, but the heavy traffic give bad feeling to be there again, from the previous evening experience. Wake up in the morning, just had a round up in the bangalore city for the breakfast..

after breakfast i decided to drive to gundalpet - The land of flowers.

when i calculate the time, i might reach around noon.. because of the harsh sunlight, i drive slowly to make the time bit late.

After lunch stop, we reached the boarder side of gundalpet. sunflower farms give us a warm welcome to the land of flowers. both sides of the main road is covered with sunflowers. but the season was bit over, thats why most of the sunflowers lost its yellow feathers.. and turned into seeds.. i drove bit inside in a non tarred road to get some good photos..

after capture enough frames from the sunflower land, i moved forward...

the next eye catching view was waiting fro us, is the yelllow chendu malli farm... capture some frame.. and move forward... 

suddenly a nice view stuck in my eyes.. is a small colorful farm house in between the yellow flower land...

i stop the car and run towards the house for making a good frame.. between the flowery land.

captured enough frames and returned to the car.

the real orange carpet was still not reach.. yes.. after a while we reached the place.. which can explain like.. a full mountain covered with the orange carpet...

yes, is feels like that.. o my god.. i never seen this type of experience in my life before..

in my locality, i have seen paddy fields are covered with green carpet.... the rice fields.. corn fields in Philippines.. but a full mountain side is covered with gundumalli flowers.. is the first time...

i drove bit inside sa before through the macadam road, found some good spots for photography.

along the way there are some caretakers for the farm land were asking some bucks for taking photos. many wedding outdoor units were seen capturing moments between the flower farms..

i go further there is no enough people around, to capture the beauty of flowers carpet. take enough fotos, breath plenty to have the natural breath with the malli flowers smell.... its a breath taking experience, those who are living in the city side... yes.. a cold gentle breath with the smell of flowers...we should enjoy that there.....

spent bit more time between the flowers.. and be ready for drive back to my home....

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Bird Of Kuwait mid 2016

I have been watching and taking birds photos in Kuwait from 2011. Kuwait is always visited by different types of migratory birds from October - February every year. It is always a delight for me to see new species which I have not seen in my life before. However it is very sad that bird hunting is also common here in Kuwait.  Being born and brought up in Kerala- India where it is illegal to kill birds or wild animals, it is very heartbreaking for me to see people killing birds for fun.

Some Hunters from kuwait

The heap of birds

A hunter showing his days collection

Hunters market or birds market

Capturing wildlife photos is one of my first interests when I started shooting. I can say i am fortunate enough to see these fascinating birds in wildlife. I have gained new knowledge and more information about different variety or species of birds and their natural habitats. 

Below are some of my recent shoots from the file:

Blue tailed Bee eater - Jahra East Outfall.

A White breasted Kingfisher - Jahra East Outfall.

A Pied Kingfisher from - Jahra East Outfall. (A highlight of this year.. hundreds of photos were taken and circulated online for this specie  this year... all the exhibitions were flooded with this as well.)

 Hoopoe and wood chat shrike in action  - Rumaithiya

I can say that being a wildlife photographer requires patience and long hours to capture a perfect photo. I have travelled all the corners of Kuwait, with or without my birding friends searching for birds. My weekends and vacation days are well-spent watching and waiting for birds too. 

White eared Bulbul- KISR back yard

Cape Glossy starling - Rumaithiya

Sparrow-  rumaithiya

BulBul and Shrike in action - Rumaithiya

White eared bulbul - Rumaithiya

For this year, I have met new acquaintances and earned more birder friends. It is indeed a very fun way of spending my free time during weekends. Unfortunately I did not get perfect shots as I was having issues with my lens nor I was busy sleeping as the winter forbids me waking up at 3am to travel to Jahra. And since the birds area in Jahra has become quite popular among birders, the place has become a bit crowded and I can say that birds became less as well.

Egret

yellow throat

Common Snipe  - Jahra East Outfall. 

Yellow throat  - Jahra East Outfall. 

Common kingfisher  - Jahra East Outfall. 

Common myna - Salmiya

Seagull - Kisr back yard

Shrike-   - Jahra East Outfall. 

Common Starling  - Jahra East Outfall. 

Yellow Wagtail- Rumaithiya

Crake -   - Jahra East Outfall. 

White wagtail-   - Jahra East Outfall. 

Collard dove- Rumaithiya

Marsh Harrier JEO Kuwait

Common kestrel - Mutala ridges

Namaqua Dove  - Jahra East Outfall. 

slit

sparrow

Shrike

 Ospray - Jahra East Outfall. 

I have always wished for a birds photo exhibition in Kuwait. Luckily, I am part of FotografiaQ8 who have been very supportive to Photography events and has made the event possible. It was a very simple discussion one early Friday morning, of which the whole group welcomed the idea and started planning for the very first Birds of Kuwait Exhibition in the country.

Why Birds exhibihition? mainly because I personally believe that Kuwait is a very special place for birds...  Being one of  migratory birds base, a mid-landing spot in migratory route. It is high time for people to be aware of these beauties in nature and raise awareness on how can we protect them. We have decided to bring out good birding buddies from the dark and invited entries from different nationalities.

Everyone worked hard and we finally decided to have the photos exhibited at Kuwait national library premises. A lot of famous photographers showed interest and submitted their images for the event. A total of 85 photos were collected for the exhibit.

Unfortunately, the day before the exhibition, there were some security issue, and we were forced to postpone the event.

Luckily in a very short gap, we have managed to shift the location and has opened the event inaugurated by a world famous photographer Mr. Bryan F Peterson, along with Nikon middle East official Cesar Parrocco and Nikon Kuwait Distributor (Ashraf and Co. manager) Mr.Tuffy. Delegates from various embassies, Director of Kuwait social workers association Dr.Sanaa and Indian Embassy undersecretary Mr.Shrivasthava has also attended the event.

The program was held in connection with Hala february celebrations.

After the success of this program , we also exhibited  the pictures in two other venues including Delhi public school (FAIPS DPS) to raise awareness among the students.

The start of 2016 is indeed very special for us. We are hoping to have more programs in the future showcasing the beauty of nature and raising awareness on how we can protect our wildlife. We would like to discourage people who hunts birds for recreation and hoping someday the Government will have strict laws banning bird hunting in Kuwait.