Photographer | Travel + Photo | A blog by Nathan Busscher

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Where did all the Puffins go???

Friday, August 5th, 2011

Photographers waiting around for the Puffins

Iceland is famous for puffins. It is home to the largest colony of puffins in the world. My hopes were pretty high to walk away with some spectacular puffin photos… it was strange then (and very disappointing) that we only saw a handful on what was supposed to be a fantastic puffin photography experience.

We chose to go to the Ingólfshöfði nature reserve which is in the southeast corner of Iceland. It’s an isolated bluff a couple kilometers from land but it’s accesible by tractor.

Ingólfshöfði Nature Reserve (photo from top of the bluff)

The guide we hired was very knowledgable about the area and was a good photographer and just a plain nice guy. You can book the tour with him here.

Now to the puffins. First, there weren’t many of them and the ones that were there were all out at sea fishing. I did get a few decent shots but I was hoping for much better. I suppose it is a nature reserve and not a zoo so good sightings aren’t guaranteed. Plus it was overcast and raining on and off so nothing was really working in our favor that night.

Puffins

Puffin

Puffed up Puffin

This is also a nesting spot for other birds like the Razorbills here…

Razorbills

and some pretty nasty Skuas

Nasty Skua

you can’t really blame him for being nasty though because he was only protecting his chick…

Skua chick

Tags: chick, HDR, Iceland, Ingólfshöfði nature reserve, nature reserve, overcast, photographer, photography experience, puffin, puffins, Razorbills, skua, zoo
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Bandhavgarh and Kanha National Parks… more than just tigers

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

Bandhavgarh Landscape

Bandhavgarh and Kanha National Parks have much more to offer than just tigers. The tigers are the main tourist draw and it was the main reason we came here but they aren’t the only attraction. Both parks are different and I’ll go over some of the best non-tiger things that Bandhavgarh has to offer first.

The most obvious non tiger things to do in Bandhavgarh is to photograph the many other animals. My favorite pictures came from the plethora of bird sightings which I posted about earlier but there were also plenty of deer, wild boar, and langur monkeys to search for. Sometimes you didn’t have to search that hard as was the case in the langur monkey roadblock.

Langur Monkey Roadblock

[View with PicLens]

spotted dear drinking water next to monkey

samba deer

langur monkey hanging around

wild boar

spotted dear drinking water

There is also the Bandhavgarh fort which makes for a nice afternoon hike (or a extraordinarily strenuous climb if you asked our guide Talat). You can have your guide arrange to visit the fort in between your morning and afternoon game drives. It can get pretty hot in the middle of the day so be prepared. Also have you lodge pack a lunch for you because the views from the top of the hill are the perfect backdrop for a picnic.

View from Bandhavgarh Fort

Talat struggling on the long way around to Bandhavgarh Fort

The climb to the top of the fort wasn’t that bad but it was a little bit of hike. For my marathon running wife she bounced up like it was nothing. However, if you’re an out of shape photographer that spends most of his time sitting in the back of jeep taking photos of tigers then it could be a bit of a challenge.

If you hire Talat from Wild Life Photo Tours for your India safari make sure to say Nathan recommended to hike to the top of the Bandhavgarh fort. He’ll think that its a great idea If he doesn’t thank you then I’m sure his wife will thank you for giving him som exercise… sorry Talat… I just had to mention this.

Talat passing out after finally making it to the top

The views from up here were great. There was also a vulture nest on the side of the cliff I tried to take a photo of. Unfortunately, it was just a little to far away to get a decent shot with the lens I brought up with me.

Nathan at the top of Bandhavgarh Fort

There were also some pretty cools ruins to explore on your way up to the fort. The first one is a big statue of Lord Vishnue reclining on a seven headed serpent. You can see the pics of the others below. All in all, it was a nice break from the game drives and I recommend a trip to the top of Bandhavgarh Fort.

[View with PicLens]