Birding in Himalayas: Part 1

Guwahati Waste Disposal Site

In my life I haven’t seen such a big garbage dump, will never ever see again either. Except for the Greater Adjutant Storks which live there, I need not have known about the existence of such a place. But I went there. I also committed one of the greatest mistakes in my recent past; I pulled down the window to take pictures of the stork. I didn’t know what hit me, once the stench hit me, my brain refused to work, and the only thing I could think of was how fast I could get out of that place. Even though I had planned to be around there and do a thorough birding at that place for 15 mins, I ran, my car sped off from there after exactly 3 mins of my being there. Now when I look back even the 3 mins I managed to be there were long 3 mins. I didn’t get a picture with one full stork in it, for that I needed to plan, move, and possibly get out of the car. I wouldn’t have done that if my life depended on it. So, ya, I ran.

Greater Adjutant

I think this is quite a strange looking bird. When I showed the picture to my friend he said "Beautiful". I hope he was talking about my talent in photography (duh) and not about the beauty of the bird. 

Later in Kaziranga, at the resort we stayed when we started talking to two Brits about birds and when they mentioned Greater Adjutant and the garbage dump, I appreciated their decision to avoid the place. I wouldn't want that experience even for my enemies.

I started on a 20 day birding trip with S, to the foothills of Himalayas (East and then West) which included Kaziranga and Nameri in Assam, Dirang, Sangti Valley, Mandala, and Sela Pass in Arunachal Pradesh, Sattal, Pangot, and Corbett in Uttarakhand.  Earlier I have written one or two travelogues. But somewhere I stopped recording my travels and thereby writing about them too. These will be reminders to me on what I did after retiring at 40 (a lot of people do ask me that), even if it is not read by anyone else. 

After going crazy on birding and doing some frenzied birding in South India, which included Thattekad, Goa, Bangalore, Hampi, Karwar, Manipal, Mysore, Pune and Bhigwan (not so South, still), this is the first trip I made out of South of India for birding. All places except Corbett were already visited by me earlier, before I turned a birder, and revisiting them was extremely nostalgic, but a completely different experience than when I was traveling as a tourist.

The travel itself started with a late Bangalore-Guwahati flight; I should have guessed that that late flight was a sign of further delayed flights during the trip. There we were picked up by Mr. Gogoi. He agreed to take us to the garbage dump en-route. He wouldn't have been able to dissuade me from going there, but he could have warned me not to open the window. I hold him responsible for my one hour of misery. 

We lunched at the same place where we had lunched together with R and P 4 years back when we were traveling from Kaziranga to Shillong, there started our nostalgia. I did 15 minutes of birding while waiting for the food to come. Another 3 hours of drive and we were in the resort where we would be staying for the first 3 days of our trip. It was already sundown being more to the East, so there was no more birding that day. Our first day of the trip concluded with the promise of many more birds the next day.

Next blog in the series: Part 2