Our time at Kaziranga was coming to an end. We had one more morning to bird around the resort. A pair of Oriental Pied Hornbills were above the parking lot of the resort. Blue-naped Pittas were being seen not far from the hotel, so that was our target. Mike said there was a possibility of leeches, so I unpacked my leech socks. For the uninitiated leech socks are basically cloth bags with draw-strings that you wear over your socks and under your shoes. They come up to the knee and prevent leeches from attaching on your feet, ankles, and lower legs. Fortunately, they were not needed on this day, as we did not encounter any.
We birded several nearby locations and did hear the pittas calling, but never got a glimpse of one. I was very excited to see a Common Green-magpie feeding young. Unfortunately I was unable to get any photos. I did get a shot of an Indian Cuckoo, which was calling. Mike commented that they sound like they are saying "One more bottle."We picked up a few more birds, spending part of the morning in a tea estate. Our guide Jintu told us how the tea is grown shaded by large trees, which have peppercorns growing on vines around them. The tea bushes are about waist high. There were women with large baskets on their backs working. A lot of tea is grown in this area.
It was time to move on to our next location. We had to say goodbye to our guide Jintu. I just realized that I didn't say anything about him. He was a really nice guy, and very knowledgeable. His area of expertise is cats, which makes the incident with the house cat the previous day even more embarrassing! He also knew butterflies well, which endeared him to me greatly. He was wonderful at finding birds and I was very grateful for our time with him. We were meeting Dorjee, our next guide at Nameri later in the afternoon. We said our goodbyes and headed off.
I have to admit I remember absolutely nothing about the drive to Nameri, which is about an hour and a half from Kaziranga. We arrived at our lodge, Baligora Eco Camp, and checked in. The cabins are named for birds. Ours was White-winged Duck, which we hoped was an omen of good luck. Nameri National Park is one of the best places to see White-winged Duck, an endangered species. The bird is exceedingly shy and difficult to see. We hoped to take a canoe to the park that afternoon and hike in to one of the ponds to look for it. We got settled in and then headed to the park headquarters.
Going into Nameri is a bit complicated. As I said, it involves a canoe ride across the Jia Bhoroli River. All birders must be accompanied in the park by an armed forest guard, a first for me! Unfortunately, there were no guards available to go with us, so going into the park was out for that afternoon. We were able to talk them into letting us walk the road to the river for an hour. We had a good number of birds and quite a few butterflies. I tried to resist the bugs and concentrate on the birds, but it was difficult. The highlight, bird wise, for me, was watching Wreathed Hornbills flying across the river. I can't begin to explain how impressive hornbills of any kind are!
We finally met Dorjee, who was to be our guide for the rest of the trip. He is a really nice young man, still a college student majoring in geography. He is amazing at finding birds and exceedingly kind and helpful. We really could not have gotten a better local guide.
We went back to the camp and settled in for the night. As I tried to fall asleep I heard an Indian Cuckoo calling. And calling. And calling. He went on and on all night long. As I listened to him his call changed from "One more bottle" to "I'm an asshole."
Photos for the day: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sngcanary/albums/72177720298973160
List of birds:
1. Oriental Turtle-dove
2. Spotted Dove
3. Asian Emerald Dove
4. Green Imperial Pigeon
5. Greater Coucal
6. Green-billed Malkoha
7. Asian Koel
8. Plaintive Cuckoo
9. Sqaure-tailed Drongo Cuckoo
10. Indian Cuckoo
11. Red-wattled Lapwing
12. Common Sandpiper
13. Little Cormorant
14. Little Egret
15. Cattle Egret
16. Oriental Honey-buzzard
17. Crested Serpent-Eagle
18. Brown Hawk-owl
19. Oriental Pied Hornbill
20. Wreathed Hornbill
21. White-throated Kingfisher
22. Pied Kingfisher
23. Chestnut-headed Bee-eater
24. Indochinese Roller
25. Dollarbird
26. Blue-eared Barbet
27. Lineated Barbet
28. Blue-throated Barbet
29. Greater Flameback
30. Rufous Woodpecker *
31. Rose-ringed Parakeet
32. Red-breasted Parakeet
33. Blue-naped Pitta (heard only) *
34. Large Cuckooshrike
35. Black-hooded Oriole
36. Common Iora
37. Black Drongo
38. Hair-crested Drongo
39. Bronzed Drongo
40. Brown Shrike
41. Gray-backed Shrike
42. Common Green-magpie
43. Rufous Treepie
44. Large-billed Crow
45. Common Tailorbird
46. Gray-throated Martin
47. Black-crested Bulbul
48. Red-vented Bulbul
49. Red-whiskered Bulbul
50. White-throated Bulbul *
51. Greenish Warbler *
52. Indian White-eye
53. Pin-striped Tit-babbler
54. Rufous-necked Laughingthrush *
55. Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush
56. Common Hill Myna
57. Asian Pied Starling
58. Chestnut-tailed Starling
59. Common Myna
60. Jungle Myna
61. Oriental Magpie-robin
62. Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker
63. Crimson Sunbird
64. Gray Wagtail
Life birds marked with *
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