What a look in eyes, Wolf on prowl- Nannaj

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Nikon P510, 1/160, f/5.1, 134 mm, ISO-400, 20% crop for better presentation.

Clicked in Nannaj GIB sanctuary on 01-Sep-14. It was out on an early morning prowl looking for birds for breakfast. I was inside the hut and watched it for good 15 minutes in the panoramic grassland till it disappeared. It looked beneath the shrubs for partridges, tried to jump on doves, sat down & scratched its front legs with hind legs and slowly melted away in the grasses.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

wow nice scene...such a majestic predator forced to live in pockets. do you have any wider compo??

TFS
Roopak

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Good to see a Wolf. I would prefer a wider composition instead of cropping to show more of its habitat.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Lucky to sight a wolf moving freely around trying to hunt. You said you were in a hut, was it some kind of watching place? Thanks for sharing.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

The image looks like a beautiful sketch and off-focus framing as if, testifying to its stealth character and folklore associated with it. Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Thanks Roopak, Sabya, Mrudul and Saktiji for sharing your views on my image.
I have a succession of photos, in fact I saw wolves on all three days of my stay in nannaj.
On 30-Aug, the most agonizing day, it had been raining since previous evening. my morning half in the hut had produced nil. Afternoon, spent in searching for owls in heraj area produced nil and the guide said it was the first nil report of his career till date :-(, though i was happy with overhead sighting of female gib (i find them more graceful than male). Came back to the hut by 5:30 and waited. All of sudden male gib appeared around 6:15 pm and the day was made. Recharged, the guide was able to spot 3 wolves at a distance of more than 1 km (he used all of 82x of my camera's to show them to me ). I took their photos too, grainy and ominous.
The next day, 31-Aug, the golden day, i was in hut by 6 am alone. and without rains :-). the guide joined by 8:30. nail-biting wait in pin-drop silence. at around 9:30 i looked to my extreme left and saw one stalk of grass white as marble, next moment i uttered, 'the maharaj has come', and it made all the difference of hell and heaven to us. For the next 4 hours there was 'he' and here were 'we', the beauty and grace personified in front of us, the grace of his walk, how would have it looked in 90s when there used to be 40 of much marvels in this grassland spread out. In between, at around 11 am, i looked to my extreme right and there it was looking for morsels under shrubs, and i whispered, may be a little loader, 'the wolf'. it looked into my eyes and started trotting away, looking back time to time. I took photos but all were out of focus due to too much of luck flowing into my veins. Post lunch, sky opened, still we went to gangewadi, got my xuv stuck, i may tell this story in another post of thick-knee.
01-Sep, for first time in nannaj,i had disturbed sleep like in hyd, consequently woke up late and reached hut 1 hour late at 7 am, was alone and very satisfied, with no exceptions then gentle cool breeze. at 7:20, turned my head to right and there it was again. i was silent as a dead oak and the breeze was sweeping side the hut so no smell. The wolf was at peace and very playful, it came within 15ft of the hut in front of me. this image was taken at that time. i had a wonderful chance of framing a real wide image with a wolf in sharp focus, but my eyes were glued to look at it's each hair and, omg, it's eyes. it slowly went away going zig, zag back and forth, it sat down twice, did doggy kind of scratching, tong out etc. The guide came at 8:30 am and today we were quite chirpy thereafter. afterwards saw another wolf in grasses at 400mts about 11 am. And the my days drew close and curtain fell on my haven.

Hi Mrudul, there is a small round white hut in the core area of GIB sanctuary with a 8 inch slit in its wall to watch out. i thought of framing it in a landscape but then dropped it as there are many photos in internet of it.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice write up subash, pls put up a trip report (including ur thick knee adventure) on the wilderness updates. I guess other members will also like to know about Nannaj in detail .

Rgds
Roopak