A rare catch
Indian Cuckoo | K.Gudi wilderness camp
05-05-11
It’s been a really long time that I wanted to have at least one record picture of this beautiful bird on my camera. Over the past 2 years every March-April-May-June it has enchanted us with its call. Some say it resembles ‘One more bottle’ whereas some say ‘Cross word puzzle’
Every morning, we all here in K.Gudi gets wakeup call from this bird. It proclaims its presence on top of canopy. Difficult to spot but easier to follow from its loud call, it can make one’s neck agonize in pain (as for long we need to look on top of the tree branches).
And today morning as usual, the mesmerizing calls enticed me to try again my luck to have a glimpse of it. I followed the calls and it was coming from a tree behind tent no. 8. It perched on top, uttering loudly (I hope for its mate). It then moved to other tree and I kept on following until by chance it came and perched right into the open, behind tent no.6.
Jack pot!! After an hour of struggle I finally managed to capture it. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this bird through my camera eyepiece. And just a fraction of a second from one perch to another, it finally vanished down the hills.
I believe that for clicking birds one needs to be really patient. They are not so comfortable all the time with us (I am not considering birds and raptors in cities which don’t even move from its perch). But sometimes they do or may be luck will favor us as this are all uncontrollable and unpredictable. So one has to be ready for its chance and this chance came for me after 2 years of stay in K.Gudi.
So now I hope most of the guests who visit this place and listen to this call can recognize which bird it is.
K.Gudi truly is a bird watching paradise!! 
9 Responses to “A rare catch”
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Congratulations Ashish! Great photo, and love your detailed write up too! K.Gudi is truly a bird watcher’s paradise, and your interest, patience and talent will always reap rich rewards! Thanks too for sharing the lovely shots from Kabini! Good luck for many more sightings! Aunty.
Hey Ashish Bhai,
Lovely Picture and a Nice writeup…Kgudi is a birders paradise, u r enticing us to plan for kgudi…
Cheers
Pramod
One rainy evening in March 2009 we were near the K Gudi camp looking for the Indian Cuckoo, which had been calling furiously all day. When the call seemed to come from right above us we stopped the car, got out into the pouring rain with our (luckily, waterproof) binoculars and looked long and hard at this “rare catch”! Just to distract us, an Asian Fairy Bluebird came and sat on the next branch!
Your blog’s looking better and better! Nice to see you at work again, Ashish!
Thanks Bijoy. Thats really encouraging for me. Appreciate it !!
great ashish
One of my fav birds, its call brings in merry memories of my childhood. Congrats on finally making the shot!
Thanks Diwakar ji, Thanks Kausambi !!
Hi Ashish,
Lovely pics again, always a pleasure to read your blog!
What a coincidence that you took those pics at Hampi because a naturalist in Kabini (Basil) advised us to visit Hampi and the Old Magazine House after the rainy season for reptiles and amfibians. Unfortunatly from Holland there are no cheap flights in this period so we will have to look into it…..
Lovely catch Ashish. The call is really enchanting. You got the bird a few days after our KGudi visit!