Vagabonds in India Part III

[certhia]

After the excitement of mahseer fishing on the Cauvery, we left Bangalore and travelled via Delhi to join with a small group of other birders for a couple of weeks exploring parts of the far north east of India : mainly in National Parks in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam (where the tea comes from) and Meghalaya. If you want to find them on a map they are tucked away in that part of India, east of Bangladesh and close to the borders with Bhutan, China and Burma. Our party comprised: a Canadian, a Belgian, two French and ourselves led by Craig Robson, a finder of birds par excellence whose ears were amazingly tuned to every squeak and rustle from the forest and whose eyes could spot and distinguish dots in the distance and see through trees! Most of the photos shown below were taken by Craig.

 

One twelfth of the world's population lives on the Gangetic Plain. We were in the valley of the Brahmaputra River, which flows into the Ganges before their combined waters flow out into the Bay of Bengal. The busy traffic in the city of Bangalore had been a culture shock on our arrival there two weeks before, but the vehicles, people and animals on the roads in the many smaller towns and villages we travelled through in the north-east of India were surreal. No pavements or edge to roads. Bicycle-drawn rickshaws and three-wheeler taxis transporting whole families on the rear seat, mopeds carrying three passengers and huge bales of animal fodder, ancient long-distance buses packed to capacity inside and with luggage and passengers on top and enormous timber-laden twenty-wheelers all with horns blaring. Interweaving between it all: ladies in bright saris with large water pots on their heads, children in immaculate school uniforms, soldiers carrying rifles, hand carts laden with bamboo scaffolding eased along by six dhoti-wearing runners, scrawny cows, bleating goats, scavenging dogs and pecking chickens. In our comfortable Ta-Ta off-road vehicles we felt distanced from the melee, but had some scary moments when closing our eyes was the only way to survive the next near miss.

 

In great contrast the National Parks were havens of nature so lush and prolific that the travels outside were very soon forgotten. Our first week was spent in Namdapha National Park in Arunachal Pradash .

 

Photo of the Guest House on the Noa Dihing River

 

After a couple of nights in the guest house on the Noah Dihing River we crossed the river by punt, waded a smaller river and trekked into the forested hills for five days. Our camp was transported by a dozen bearers, and three elephants with mahouts. A very small baby elephant trotted in between two of the larger beasts nervously avoiding any close encounter with the foreign, telescope-carrying visitors.

 

Photo of the White-bellied heron

 

The sighting of the extremely rare White-bellied Heron on the big river was an unexpected bonus resulting from a rain-delayed start to the trek. Vagabond tried long and hard to identify the fish it stalked, caught and swallowed for its breakfast.

 

The rain cleared, the sun shone, the forest steamed and leeches emerged. They reared up from the leaf litter sensing their way to any nearby boot. Over the next few days our party provided a hefty boost of human blood to the local leech biomass. We were grateful for an issue of leech-socks which were extremely effective in protecting legs and ankles but didn't entirely stop the bloodsuckers gaining access via waistbands and zip-ends.

 

A very common bird of this part of the forest was the Blue-throated Flycatcher, a newly arrived summer visitor busy establishing breeding territories by singing from perches in the bamboo.

 

Photo of Blue-chinned Flycatcher

 

The forest was well populated with gibbons whose haunting cries rang out soon after dawn each morning, macaques, flying foxes and a variety of squirrels all seen clambering and swinging their way through the canopy. Some beautiful butterflies provided distraction to photographers.

 

Photos of Common Tinsel

 

and Forest Quaker Butterflies

 

Pink and white epiphytic orchids grew from mossy branches

 

Photo of epiphyte

 

After the lush forest of Namdapha we travelled to Tinsukia, a busy town set in the oldest oil field in India. In a strange forest that had grown up around the derelict rigs of the Digboi oil-field we watched laughing-thrushes, drongos and sunbirds. In a beautiful lily-strewn lake amongst the trees local men were netting small fish, in competion with Little Egrets and Indian Pond Herons.

 

A day in a motorised punt on the Brahmaputra took us through the Dibru Saikwoha National Park. Ganges dolphins swam and leapt alongside us but proved impossible to photograph. The wetland birds were a mix of new and familiar species: parrotbills, prinias and babblers amidst redshanks, snipe and a Little Ringed Plover with chicks. It was a Sunday and local visitors to the national park included the Chief of Police and an entourage of armed guards and wives and daughters. After lunch whilst several of our party took a short siesta in the daba where we had eaten, I was approached by a charming daughter of the family wh wanted to practice her English. We engaged in a conversation which seriously taxed my knowledge of current British pop bands. I posed amongst the ladies for photographs taken on their mobile phones and was questioned about life in England. I may have found the place very strange but I suppose I was the real oddity.

 

We rode in open topped jeeps for four days in Kaziranga National Park. The world famous tiger reserve did not provide any sightings of the tiger but splendid views of the Indian Horned Rhino in its most populated stronghold, herds of Swamp Deer, families of wild Asian Elephant and Wild Boar with a large litter of piglets. This was the only place we saw vultures on the trip: a Slender billed Vulture on a nest and Himalayan Griffons circling high on thermals.

 

The final few days were spent in the hills above the town of Shillong and driving up to the waterfalls at Cherrapunjee, the "wettest place on planet Earth" – 17ft of rain per year, but only a few drops while we were there. A Brown Bush Warbler stole the show amongst a strange moorland landscape scattered with open cast coal workings and small chapels. Pretty miniature gentians littered the grassland

 

Photo of Brown Bush Warbler

 

Photo of Himalayan Gentian

 

Three hundred and ninety three species of birds were recorded during the trip by our group. One hundred and thirty were new birds for us. We talked with one of our Indian drivers about the mahseer of the Brahmaputra. We heard of plans to encourage the tourism prospects of the region with guided fishing and staying in tea-garden residences. Maybe another trip……..

[Vagabond]

Errrr. Because Certhia is a new poster without an edit function as yet, we have to find a way of inserting the pictures.

 

Help from a mod needed

 

[helpful mod note - I'm off for several hours fishing in a minute but if you will PM the links to me, I'll insert them as soon as I get back. Newt]

[lutra]

Top read even without photo,s

[Newt]

Technical difficulties delayed posting the photos by a bit but they were well worth waiting for.

 

Great write-up Norma and thank you.

[lutra]

But even better with photos 10/10

[Clifftop]

Good read and a great photo of the Common Tinsel

[nick]

Thank you very much indeed Norma, a lovely write up of what sounds to have been a really terrific trip.

 

I can fully empathise with the comments regarding the traffic, you have captured exactly the experience I had of indian traffic on my one and only trip there several years ago.