Day 5: Bandhavgarh National Park

Even though, you tell yourself that it doesn't really matter if you see a tiger when visiting an Indian national park, we felt like the pressure was off. We had another 2 days to see whatever came our way. We had seen tiger behavior up close for over an hour which is something we definitely did not expect. After seeing the tigers the previous day, we were curious whether seeing a tiger would become a common occurrence. We went through the entire third day without seeing a tiger. We did hear warning calls and it was interesting to see how the guides tried to locate a tiger. They listened for warning calls from monkeys, chital deer, sambar deer and even birds. Noone really knows why birds give warning calls since they are not at risk from the tiger. When you hear all the warning calls that occur when a tiger is on the move it made us wonder how the tiger can ever sneak up on prey. If a tiger is on the move, the guide told us it is like a 5 alarm fire. Many warning calls will be heard. For a leopard its more like a 1 alarm fire, just a warning call or two. The guides also told us that often when the warning calls are going off, the tigers is moving through the jungle but is not interested in stealth. He is simply roaming his/her territory and doesn't care if he is seen. If he really was stalking prey, apparently they are so stealthy that hardly a warning call is heard. Also, the previous day, we never heard warning calls near the Chorbehra Tigress. Apparently, the other animals had figured out that a kill had been made and there was no need for alarm. On the third day we did come across a huge line of jeeps clustered around the location of where a warning call was heard. Apparently some people caught a fleeting glimpse of a tiger through the branches. This is more the typical encounter and it really made us appreciate what we saw the previous day. Although we didn't see any tigers, we did get to see some beautiful birds. We saw this Black-headed Oriole as we made our way through the park.

We also saw this beautiful Changeable-Hawk Eagle fishing in a river. This is one of the most majestic birds of prey I have ever seen.

A Black Ibis was perched near one of the many lakes that are scattered throughout the park.

Right as we were leaving, our guide spotted a beautiful Brown Fish Owl. Owls are usually very difficult to see. Especially in the day time. For some reason, day roosting owls are easier to see in India than in North and South America.