It's on days like this, rain, more rain, even more rain that your mind wanders back to previous foreign trips and great times. It does seem that bank holidays are either wall to wall birds or very very quiet like now. With the high water levels I thought I'd post a few more pix from my recent trip to NE India as it's quite clear I'm never going to get the chance to post the whole trip here, Birdtour Asia website. http://www.birdtourasia.com/eaglenest08.html The first set of photos were taken at Nameri national park, or should I say on the river as we couldn't access the park due to high water levels.
The Ibisbills had sadly moved on back to their breeding grounds but by taking a white water rafting trip we could enjoy cracking views of the following and still mange to keep the camera dry........ish!!
River Tern, a stunning bird.
Small Pratincole, common here and a stunning bird.
Crested Kingfisher, one of the big Daddies of the KF World.
Up in the highlands of Eaglenest Himalayan Buzzard is a great bird to see and this one was particularly photo friendly. The stay at Eaglenest involves staying in tented camps, at we chose to stay at the three main camps, Lama, for the Endemic Bugun Liocichla, Bomphu for the bamboo specialities and Sessni for accessing the lower slopes of Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary. 
Sessni Camp, a peaceful camp complete with en suite Elephants and big top!!, and simply stunning birds. One of the great joys of travelling is the opportunity to see some great birds, culture, fantastic scenery and sometimes mega mammals. The Elephants in the park are very numerous and you often see the tracks where they've been and even smell what they've just eaten!! The track through the park is very narrow but despite the Elephants being common we only saw them once though knew they were around. The early morning chorus of Nellie the Elephant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eti21PVHXrg kept everyone looking on the bright side of life and was one of the memories of the trip as well as a certain person's comment that the Elephants came to visit us as we had set up a Big Top for them!!! 'our dining tent'
Simon did had a dodgy stomach but this was 100% elephant.
This one was at Kaziranga, and decided he would give us a warning.
The park guards at Kaziranga were very good at looking after the safety of the visitors though despite much looking we never saw a Tiger, though check out this one, courtesy of a link from Punkbirders. http://www.freewebs.com/punkbirder/ . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LjG7S8aqJgAnother aspect of birding in the tropics is the chance to become attached to new friends, in this case, Leeches. A veteran of Leech bites, I managed to only get a few bite this trip but they really are fascinating things and incredibly adapt at finding someone to hitch a ride with.
Happy post breakfast.
At home, and not a leg to stand on.
FEEDING TIME!!!
The last piccie is of a Hoopoe, one of the best birds in the World and I'd rather be watching one of these in North Kent now, instead of sitting at the computer.
Happy post breakfast.
At home, and not a leg to stand on.
FEEDING TIME!!!The last piccie is of a Hoopoe, one of the best birds in the World and I'd rather be watching one of these in North Kent now, instead of sitting at the computer.
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