Kaziranga East Zone
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| Resort. Pic credit: S |
The picture of the resort where we stayed is what dreams and picture postcards (when they existed) are made of. In reality, it looks a shoddy younger brother of the picture. This was the place which was chosen for our stay last time when we traveled, we changed it (for some goofy reason like low rating) and just had lunch and a relaxed afternoon here instead. The uber pleasant staff sort of made up for the not so maintained old building, the fans and bulbs that don't work, and the missing dessert during lunch (Really, No dessert?). S says he prefers this to the place where we stayed last time, as they served tea 4 times a day. Apparently the other place gave him a hardT time. The place is a hot spot for birding with 70 reported species. I guess there would be easily double that number or more as there are only 3 people who have recorded the birds around here, including me.
Once in the North-East of the country, the first thing one needs to do is getting adjusted to the virtual daylight saving time. Everything advances by an hour or more. I started my morning birding at 5.30 and recorded 23 species of birds in an hour. The problem with birding at a new place is getting a picture of every new bird. I am a birder and not really a bird photographer. I carry a camera while birding as I can't identify most of the birds directly and do not have the memory to check in the book later and identify. Sometimes even if I have seen a new bird, if I have not managed to get an identifiable picture of it, I have missed it irrecoverably. The highlight was a Crimson Sunbird that came and sat on a hibiscus plant, so close to me that I might have touched it with my elbow when I turned, if it was not fast enough to fly away. Obviously I didn't get a picture, but that was one bird I could identify without a picture.
I had requested for the resident birding guide in the resort, but apparently he was already booked by October last year by the Brit couple we had met the previous day. Now I understood why the manager kept trying to save me money by offering me a driver who would double up as the birding guide even after I told him many times that I would rather keep the guide than the money.
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| Mid-air clash of a Grey-headed fish eagle and Lesser Adjutant |
Our driver cum guide picked us up and we started our birding safari in the East zone. East zone is claimed as the best birding zone and I think it is quite right. It has quite a bit of wooded area compared to the other zones where the grassland dominates. Before we reached the gate of the park itself we could see a Crested serpent eagle sitting on the tip of a tree; it was a great starting for the birding. After 3 and a half hours we left the park and the birding session ended with 6 Citrine wagtails sitting on an electric line. With 54 species which I managed to identify and 14 lifers (seen for the first time by me) it was quite a birdful morning.
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| One of my lifers: Green-billed malkoha |
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| Berries for the walled up female. |
The best part of the birding was a Great hornbill nest, a little far away from which we waited for a while. Some more jeeps were waiting for the male to come and feed the female who was walled up inside its nest. The bird came with its beak full of berries, took them out one by one and fed the female before flying away for more.
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| Walking towards us so purposefully! Should we turn and run! |
We also encountered Elephants, Rhinoceros, Wild boars, Water buffaloes, Sambar deer, Otter, and Rhesus macaque. When there were no birds to aim at, I managed to train the camera on some of the animals too.
Note: All pictures are clicked by me, except where picture credit is given to S.
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