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…My Christmas Gift…

Yesterday I alongwith my friend Balwant went to Bhakrakot Stream near Mohan in Uttarakhand state of India in search of forktails and some other species but we didn’t know that something more interesting was waiting for us.

After crossing Mohan we reached at the first stream which is just 300-400 mtr from the Mohan chowki. I stopped the bike to look for some birds near the water but the first thing we heard was the alarm call of a junglefowl for which I thought that there may be any raptor sitting nearby, but to my surprise the next call we heard was of a Sambar Deer which is a sureshot call for the presence of a predator.

I crossed the stream to have a good look if the predator is coming alongwith the stream but suddenly approx 50 mtrs behind Balwant I saw a silhouette which was standing on the side of the road and looking right at us. Balwant was standing with his back on that side so I whispered, “Balwant, Leopard”.

As Balwant turned back the Leopard crossed the road and went inside the bushes. We thought that it is now gone but suddenly I got another glimpse of him coming outside. I took my camera out and came into position for any action. People will call me mad but I started to go towards it on foot the distance between me and Leopard was merely 50 mtrs. The excitement of seeing a Leopard was so overwhelming that I didn’t even once think that I am following it on foot and it can be dangerous but I kept following.

After 2 minutes it got out of the bushes and started walking ahead. I started taking pictures but the light was too low so wasn’t getting any good shutter speed. Suddenly it stopped and looked directly at me. When, through the camera eyepiece I saw it looking at me, my God knows about the shivering I felt all over my body. After giving some decent eye contact shots it vanished again into the bushes again and not came out again.

The feeling was so great that after it went away, for next 5 minutes we were shocked the what the hell just happened and how foolish we became in excitement that we followed it on foot.

But whatever happened this was the best Birdwatching ☺ trip I had ever been to…