Pure Randomness!

Pure Randomness!

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Birding in Himalayas: Part 5

The purple stones of Nameri

One of the many purple stones from the shores of Jia Bharali river


Next day morning, we did a good 2 hours of birding in the resort and in the village. Two experiences from the village left me a little confused. A young woman was sweeping her front yard and when she saw us she gave us such a smile that it lit up my whole world. A little while later, we met a group of slightly older people and an old woman in the group told a man to take my camera and do something with it. I couldn't understand what exactly went on as I don't follow Assamese, it's the aggression which caught my attention. I guess she was making a joke because of my camera. It is impossible to be inconspicuous with a 150-600mm zoom lens on my camera. 

Beautiful eco camp. Pic credit: S


We left for Nameri and reached by noon. I had the idea of doing some good amount of birding before the rest of the people joined in. But rain god played spoil sport and I ended up sleeping in the tent for the rest of the day. Through the day I could hear a lot of birds and I knew that I was indeed in a birding hot spot. 

Great stone-curlew from Jia Bharali





We were lucky to have nice clear weather next day morning. We did some birding while crossing the Jia Bharali river and continued in the Nameri national park. We were warned of the possibility of leeches in the wild and all of us were prepared with leech socks. Another family that was there was having members wearing sandals and shorts. The two groups kept bumping into each other; they would stop to pull out the leeches from the kids' legs, we would stop when we spot some bird, and we would invariably stop at the same place stepping on each other's toes. Finally the men in the other group carried the kids on their shoulders and moved off, giving us the much needed birding space.
Himalayan purple sapphire 



The birding was amazing with 64 species and 17 lifers. But in the kind of forest we were in, with such dense foliage, I didn't manage any good pics. Found quite a few butterflies also on the way. The only animal we encountered was a Malayan giant squirrel if I don't count the emaciated park elephant. 

Cute, cuddly, and curious: Malayan giant squirrel





We did some more birding in the afternoon in and around the eco camp where we were staying and took rest as we were warned that we would not be getting any rest for the next 5 days we would be birding in Arunachal Pradesh. Oh how true that would turn out to be!

Note: All pictures are taken by me except where credit is given to S.

eBird lists:


Next blog in the series: Part 5
Previous in the series: Part 4

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