The Pelicans of Kokkare Bellur

This weekend was a solo trip to Kabini, and on the way was a detour to a small village known as Kokkare Bellur. This is a 13km deviation from Maddur and the roads were great until the last 5kms. As you start closing in to your destination, you could see quite a few Pelicans hovering up in the sky.

I was expecting an organized conservation effort like Ranganathittu, but it was amazing to see that the village is no less than a sanctuary in itself. When I reached the place, I asked one of elderly person on which way to the bird sanctuary and he pointed me to two different directions and mumbled off something in Kannada. I couldn't understand what he said, but I could make out that he was trying to tell me that the birds are everywhere, you can just walk around the village.

Apparently the villagers are very appreciative of the fact that the large winter migrants such as the Painted Storks and Spot-Billed Pelicans nest in large colonies on trees in their village. The forest department has some kind of arrangement to compensate the villagers for every tree where the birds are nesting. This is since the land below the tree and any produce from that tree has to be foregone.

I didn't see too many Painted Storks at this time, but there were quite a few Pelicans on trees by the road side. So I decided to walk around there and watch the birds do their daily chores.

Here's a close up shot of a large Pelican on the tree:

Tech Specs:

Canon 1D Mark IV + Canon 600mm F4 with 1.4x TC
Shot at 840mm, 1/5000s, F8, ISO 800