I very, very rarely sight snakes (I can’t say “reptiles”, having seen so many Agamas, lizards, geckos, crocs, and monitor lizards!) in the wild; probably because a) they disappear in a trice into the undergrowth and b) I have not been “trained” to spot them (I remember being as bad with birds, some months ago!)…but today,Karthik showed us a baby spectacled cobra….



 



Incredible sight. The little snake was quite annoyed at being spotted, and was hissing like a heated kettle. I was certainly glad that Karthik was around to ensure that it didn’t disappear in a trice into the undergrowth before , , KM and I had a good look at it.


 



The whole episode was over in less than a minute...but what a memorable minute it was! Other photos will follow....we saw three Grey Hornbills, and got some lovely macro shots of a plant hopper (what's that? watch this space!)....but I just couldn't wait to get to the net and share these snaps. No, I agree, they are not technically good, but the SPEED with which the baby cobra zipped into the undergrowth was just so fast, I am amazed that I got any shots at all! These pics are on the S3IS...KM was so glad that I didn't keep bugging him for the Canon EOS20D, but there were a few moments when I wanted to....for birding, the EOS with the 300mm Prime is SO good! We met Prashanth Badrinath, an expert birder, along with his friend Vijay; they had just seen an Oriental Honey Buzzard.. the only Oriental thing that WE saw, apart from the landsape of the southern Indian peninsula, of course, was the Oriental Magpie Robin, which will make its appearance in the next post.