BIRD of the DAY: White-winged Duck
Today we were hoping to see another tiger. But the first thing on Shyam's agenda was the difficult-to-spot White-winged Duck. We heard stories of birders trying day after day to see it with no luck.
We got up early and walked into the area behind our cabin where we heard and saw several Capped Langurs high in the trees. They were feeding on leaves.
Soon everyone was up and we gathered in the dining shelter for masala chia tea / black tea and a snack as well as putting on our leech socks (for the second time). We would be having our full breakfast later on the banks of the Kameng River in Nameri National Park and Tiger Reserve. It was important to get to the White-winged Duck 's creek as early as possible. Just before we left, Bill spotted some birds moving in the huge tree near the gate. We got good views of the Great Hornbill on a nest right at the top. After a few quick photos, we were off in the vans with an armed park guard. We had an important mission.
Our group arrived at the river quickly. We did a bit of birding while we were waiting for a canoe and paddlers to be ready for us. It was good to see some birds were up just like us - Great Cormorant and River Lapwing.
It was a fun experience to travel across the river in a huge dugout canoe.
Soon we were hiking across a large beach to the park entrance.
Then we were off on a long walk, almost an hour. She was waiting for us - a beautiful female White-winged Duck, with her white feathers showing prominently. She was on the opposite side of the creek from us, so we got good sightings. A few other tourists were there too.
We were lucky to spot some other wildlife on our way back. No leeches.
Carol and Barbara demonstrated how a tiger had clawed a tree by the path.
More sightings...
We reached our "breakfast beach" where camouflaged birds were waiting for us to discover.
More wildlife appeared as we continued on our way back to the park entrance. Then we took a side trail which led to a lookout tower. Some of us were lucky to spot a Sultan Tit here.
We continued along this trail to get closer to the Sultan Tit, when our guard sounded the alarm to retreat quickly - we had heard elephant calls and potential danger nearby. He guided us back to the park entrance quickly, rifle at the ready. Soon a canoe came for us.
We had lots to talk about over lunch back at the Eco Camp. No tiger but an amazing White-winged Duck. In the early afternoon we birded around camp on our own.
The Capped Langurs entertained us again.
We captured them on video: https://youtu.be/Xy8q3fqEzCE
The Great Hornbill was in the same nest spot as this morning.
In the late afternoon, Shyam suggested a trip to the river to look for Wreathed Hornbills crossing the river to roost. We passed through the canoe paddlers' camp. One man was very industriously washing his shirt with a bar of soap by the river.
Laundry video: https://youtu.be/sGBjSKkUxHs
We hiked through an overgrown path. Neqiv worked very hard to find us a path close enough to the river to get a view of the Wreathed Hornbills. We did see a distant flyover. It was a bit disappointing, because we had hiked right to the spot where they had crossed yesterday.
And, as usual, our day ended with listing and dinner.
We celebrated our White-winged Duck sighting and the other colourful birds of Nameri.