Whenever we go to Forest Hills, Masinagudi, we make it a point to go on atleast one evening drive on the Moyar road. Tourists who frequent Masinagudi have had numerous wildlife sightings on this road. Tiger, Leopard, Dhole, Elephant, Sloth Bear, Sambar, Chital, Barking Deer, Peacock etc. are some that come to my mind. We haven’t yet seen a Tiger or a Leopard on this road but we have seen Dhole with cubs, a Sloth Bear and Elephants a couple of times. We would surely recommend this road to anyone travelling to Masinagudi.
So on this trip to Forest Hills, one evening we were on our usual drive on the Moyar road. That’s when we saw an Indian Robin male and female forging in the roadside lantana. Though I drove my vehicle slower to get closer to the birds, the skittish female flew into the lantana and disappeared. The male also flew a little away from the vehicle. But it was within the range of my trusted D300, 300mm f2.8 with 2x TC. Given the fact that this is a common bird, we normally don’t take record shots and I switched off the vehicle and waited to see if the bird would come closer.
After about a couple of minutes of waiting, the male Indian Robin realized that we were of no threat and it flew closer and perched on the lantana almost at eye level. The one minute or so that it was on this perch was good enough to get a few frame filling compositions.
