travelogue-ketki

Noisy,red breasted parakeet flocks,yellow footed green pigeons,blue throated barbet,oriental hobby,black hooded orioles,spangled drongoes,long tailed minivets,common ioras,chesnut tailed starlings,jungle mynas.....etc.......about 35 species before even i got a cup of tea. Capped langurs were enjoying their breakfast,in the campsite trees.After quickly freashning up, i joined the group to go to nameri wild life sanctuary which can be reached on crossing the river -jiah bhorelli, famous for the golden mahaseer -fish and river rafting .

crossing the Jaih Borelli river barred c.dove.

On my way I saw-red junglefowl,asian barred owlets,hoppoe,pied kingfisher,and the white breasted kingfisher. On the bank of the river the river lapwing,and sand larks greeted us.

Our wish list was white winged ducks-very elusive and shy,so without wasting time we went to the spot of marshy waters where they were sited the day before. I was very lucky to see a pair of them swimming and enjoying their meal. My pleasure was short lived since they flew off showing their white under wing pattern.

happy -and very happy about the sitings I walked with the group to a big Banyan tree -where we saw the great hornbill,blue eared barbet, pintailed green pigeon,maroon oriole,red whiskered and red vented bulbuls.Another tree had a gathering of barred cuckoo doves, chestnut headed bee eaters,vernal hanging parakeet,white vented mynas,jungle mynas,greenish leaf warbler. On the pathway was the emarald dove feeding away. The grey backed shrike was quietly waiting in the bushes.On the top of the tallest trees was the roost of peregrine falcon-calidus variety. He showed off his hunting skills to us . The banks also had small group of small pranticoles flying around. Tired and hungry we returned to the campsite to pack and leave for arunachal pradesh -eaglenest wild life sanctuary.

WHAT A FANTASTIC BEGINNING !!!!!!!!!

15th march:

lama camp site. jaisigh/zenzee???

eaglenest was different. There were no lights when we reached. cold ,dark and tired ,i hit the bed , not realising that the cold hit my bones and was shivering the remaining part of the night.

early morning was nice and warm with good sightings of

bhutan laughing thrush

beutiful sibia--wonder how this bird got his name?

green tailed sunbird

great barbet

yellow billed magpie

mountain hawk eagle

black baza

lots of sulky babblers and fulvettas but by now I was too tired and just needed some sleep.

the weather again played mischief in the evening while we were at eaglenest pass and rest of the group went in search of slender billed scimitter babbler--not me - not really fond of this cold weather.

suddenly Mandar saw a spotted nutcracker

finally got snuggled up with hot water bottles and an extra blanket to protect myself i slept very nicely/comfortably.

16th march:

got up seeing a row of olive pipits on the wire.

good birding - sulky warblers, around the camp site and Shashank tried his level best ,looking up all the spots he knew in search of the Bugun lichichola, but no luck. I saw the spotted forktail, and orange bellied leaf bird. After lunch left for Bompu Camp.

Search was ON

this time for Ward Trogan

playing hide and seek for birds in this type of forest -difficult no VERY DIFFICULT.

looking up, up, up........

TOO TALL TREES WITH SMALL,SMALLER,SMALLEST BIRDS

REALLY STRETCHING OUR NECKS

BUT NO TROGON.

saw this forest fire near eagle nest pass.

17th march/18th march

Bompu camp was very comfortable, with warm weather.

2 full day birding with packed lunches along the route of

bompu-sessni-keylong-bompu.

excellent birding with loads of lifers since this was my first north east.....

to highlight a few names:

scarlet finches

flock of rose fiches

flock of 50++ mountain bulbuls

lesser racket tailed drongo.

grey chinned minivets,long tailed,short billed minivets

pair of beautiful nuthatch

flocks of black throated tits

sultan tit (feeling sad since i saw only while it was taking off-rest of the group had a better view.)

mixed hunting party of 15+ coral billed scimitter babblers along greater roufous headed parrot bills and black winged cuckoo shrike,black chinned yuhina.

yellow throated fulvetta

golden babbler

little buntings

yellow naped woodpecker

grey capped pygmy woodpecker

himalayan bulbul

long tailed sebia

white throated needletails and many more .......

Malayan squirrel scuttled down the slopes

heard the calls of the grey peacock pheasant ,and hill partidge ...but just could not see them.

19th march:

As usual i was out of bed birding at 4.45 a.m

groups of fulvetta

slaty blue flycatcher female

bay woodpecker called and we waited for about half hour for our luck so that we can see the bird. fortunately it did show off its pale bill and flew across overhead us. In another tree we saw the courtship dance (i call it) of crimson breasted woodpeckers chasing each other from branch to branch. it appeared as though winter is over and spring love has began. we saw this for almost half hour and adesh announced -time to move on in search of elusive wards trogon , on our way to lama camp, via pakke tiger reserve and to nameri ecocamp. orange flanked bush robin walked on the road side ,birding even while having breakfast. On our way we stopped at eaglenest pass, and enjoyed all the usual yuhinas- whiskered,stripe throated,striated- i could ID them without the help of leaders now.

Suddenly while walking I and Dr sheila spotted a green bird with an eyemask and some marking on head -not very familiar with northeast birds -we were wondering which one is this---when adesh too saw and screamed in excitement fire tailed myzorinis. wow a rare lifer again!!!

After a good lunch at lama camp, we started walking along the pathway in search of the sulky bugun......but in vain -our moods were sad since it was last day and had to return to civilization after so much peace and happiness Adesh took these bird photos for my memory

green tailed sunbird blue fronted redstart.