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2023 - The Year That Was

Places impact you for a variety of reasons. And the same place impacts different people in different ways. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual experiences, where every single person’s experience is unique. And personally, every spiritual experience is unique, the same person can have different deeply spiritual experiences at different places, at different times. This thought has emerged because of my own experiences over the years, but especially so this year, with different and unique experiences at various places I have visited recently. I began this year with a visit to Baroda (Vadodara) with friends. It was meant to be a relaxed trip, a touristy trip, with our sons. We enjoyed ourselves to the hilt, but the highlight of that trip was a visit to the Lakulisha temple at Pavagadh. It was the iconography of the temple that I connected with, and I spent a few hours simply lost in the details of the figures carved around the temple. There was an indefinable connect with
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A Boat Ride on the Kaveri at Ranganathittu

We first visited the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary in May2014, when Samhith and I spent a week at Mysore. We visited the sanctuary again this year, at the special request of Samhith, for his birthday! It is amazing how the sanctuary, and the river, never cease to surprise us, with the profusion and variety of avian life. This has been my only birding trip this year, so here are some photos from the boat ride on the Kaveri at Ranganathittu…

Grey Heron

Painted Stork


Group of Painted Storks

Open Billed Stork

Oriental White Ibis

Oriental White Ibis, in their nest

Black - Crowned Night Heron

Cattle Egrets in breeding plumage

Egret


Snake Bird or Darter

Spot Billed Pelicans

Spot Billed Pelicans

While birds were certainly the highlight of the boat ride, there was more to see in the river.... such as these crocodiles!

Crocodile





The visit to Ranganathittu was our first halt during our Summer Trip of 2016. Read more about that trip in the coming days....

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Location: Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, Srirangapatna, Karnataka 571438, India

Comments

  1. Harish ShettyDecember 20, 2016 at 11:28 AM

    Great shots.. Loved the croc..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anuradha ShankarMarch 17, 2017 at 5:40 PM

      Thank you! We love the crocs too.... Its always good to spot one

      Delete
  2. NatalieGDecember 21, 2016 at 8:47 AM

    The Ibis and Storks are so other-worldly with their dramatic heads and beaks! Many of them looked like they posed just for your pics! :) When you mentioned it was your only recent birding trip it made me realize how much I've missed your photos of all the beautiful birds you encounter. Thanks for the great wildlife pics and I'm looking forward to your upcoming posts about your Summer Trip.

    ReplyDelete

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