I came out of the tent right after dawn and was blown away by what I saw. The sky was cloudless and the sun shining. The Himalayas were glowing across the valley! It had been cloudy at best during the time we were at Lama Camp. I had no idea we were that close to the high mountains. I was feeling a bit sad to be leaving Eaglenest.
We wanted to get to Nameri in time to do an afternoon trip across the river to try for the White-winged Duck again, so we packed up quickly. I took a good-bye photo of the rest of the crew under the entrance to Lama Camp. Hey, look! There are a couple of Red Pandas over Willie's shoulder! We decided to eat on the road and found a place to get our last meal of momos.
We did stop by the Sessi River where Blyth's Kingfishers were being seen. Despite some serious searching we had no luck. But, I was happy to see quite a few butterflies, including this Panther. We also had a bunch of Himalayan Swiftlets and some Nepal House-martins feeding overheard. There was a work crew at the site of a recent landslide working. I had noticed that a lot of the work crews were mostly women throughout this area. It was somewhat disturbing seeing some of them with babies strapped to them, or with small children playing next to the busy roads. Here we saw a woman breaking off branches and covering a car with them. As we walked by I saw two small children in the car. She was trying to sheild them from the sun. I guess daycare is not just a problem in the states.
We arrived at Baligora Camp where we had stayed earlier in the trip. We got settled in and then went to cross the river back to Nameri. Willie decided to not go, as it was very hot and the previous trip had been a real slog. Maybe I should have made the same choice. We stopped and picked up the armed guard and drove down to the river. We made the crossing and started the walk to the pond where the ducks are seen. Mike, laughing, said you knew things were serious when the guard was wearing leech socks. I certainly had mine on this time. I
The guard was really good with birds. He heard a Hooded Pitta calling and took us into the woods where we got good looks. We had a couple more as we neared the pond. Suddenly my middle back started seizing up. I had done really well, for me, the entire trip. I had kept up pretty well and had not had any real problems. Dorjee offered to carry my camera, which was a big help. There were no ducks on the pond, unfortunately.
We worked our way to a place on the river where we could look for shorebirds. The guard found a huge soft-shelled turtle on the path to the bank. My back was only getting worse. We did see a several Great Thick-knees, which we had missed on our first trip. There were some other shorebirds and a River Tern, along with a Pied Kingfisher. We started back and the guard offered to take us on a loop further into the forest. At that point the pain in my back was really bad. I offered to stay put while they went on and they said "You can't do that! You have to be with a guard." I was really embarrassed to be holding them up, but they agreed to go back. We did do some birding around the camp where the guards stay, with me sitting off and on to rest.
After we got back to camp I laid down for a while, and then cleaned up. Then I laid down again. By the time we got together for dinner my back spasms had stopped. We heard a Brown Hawk-owl calling behind the cabins. It was our last dinner together, as we were flying back to Delhi the next afternoon. I went to bed and hoped the Indian Cuckoo that had kept me awake when we were there before would keep quiet.
Photos from this day:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sngcanary/albums/72177720299306640
Bird list for the day:
1. Indian Spot-billed Duck
2. Red Junglefowl
3. Spotted Dove
4. Asian Emerald Dove
5, Thick-billed Green-pigeon
6. Wedge-tailed Green-pigeon
7. Green Imperial Pigeon
8. Green-billed Malkoha
9. Indian Cuckoo
10. Himalayan Swiftlet
11. Great Thick-knee*
12. River Lapwing
13. Little Ringed-plover
14. Common Sandpiper
15. Common Greenshank
16. River Tern
17. Asian Openbill
18. Little Cormorant
19. Indian Pond-heron
20. Striated Heron
21. Oriental Honey-buzzard
22. Black Kite
23. Asian Barred Owlet
24. Spotted Owlet
25. Brown Hawk-owl
26. Great Hornbill
27. Wreathed Hornbill
28. Common Kingfisher
29. Ruddy Kingfisher
30. White-throated Kingfisher
31. Pied Kingfisher
32. Blue-bearded Bee-eater
33. Green Bee-eater
34. Chestnut-headed Bee-eater
35. Indochinese Roller
36. Blue-eared Barbet
37. Lineated Barbet
38. Blue-throated Barbet
39. Gray-capped Pygmy-woodpecker
40. Greater Flameback
41. Greater Yellownape
42. Rose-ringed Parakeet
43. Red-breasted Parakeet
44. Vernal Hanging-parrot
45. Hooded Pitta *
46. Large Cuckooshrike
47. Black-hooded Oriole
48. Common Iora
49. Ashy Drongo
50. Bronzed Drongo
51. Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo
52. Black-naped Monarch
53. Large-billed Crow
54. Yellow-cheeked Tit
55. Bengal Bushlark
56. Common Tailorbird
57. Black-throated Prinia
58. Golden-headed Cisticola
59. Gray-throated Martin
60. Nepal House-martin*
61. Red-vented Bulbul
62. Red-whiskered Bulbul
63. Greenish Warbler
64. Black-faced Warbler
65. Indian White-eye
66. Pin-striped Tit-babbler
67. Striated Laughingthrush
68. Red-billed Leiothrix
69. Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch
70. Velvet-fronted Nuthatch
71. Chestnut-tailed Starling
72. Common Myna
73. Great Myna
74. Oriental Magpie-robin
75. Pale-chinned Blue-flycatcher
76. Plumbeous Redstart
77. White-capped Redstart
78. Black-throated Redstart
79. Paddyfield Pipit
80. Scarlet Finch
Life birds marked with *
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