We had already spent 2 days at Kaziranga. The morning was spent in the Eastern Range watching new winter arrivals, the Bar-headed Geese. We also got a feeling of how huge the Bramhaputra river is and I can now imagine how the entire place would look when it floods during the monsoons. The evening safari was mostly to enjoy the sunset at Kaziranga. We headed back to the western range this time again for the evening safari. We finally got a decent sighting of the Water Buffalo in the water. A Common Kestrel was sitting just off the road and we had failed to notice it and got to see it only when it was taking off. There wasn’t much of wildlife to see around, the evening light was already setting in. The Alexandire Parakeets were getting back to their nests. We also spent some time at the water body watching the Assam Roofed Turtle (Kachuga Sylehtensis). These turtles would just come on to the dead branches of the tree and sun themselves.

Common Kestrel

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Sometimes, things can be very unpredictable. Last saturday, when we went to Nandi Hills we hardly saw any regulars. Until a few weeks ago, we had kept wondering on why the warblers and the Indian Blue Robins were still around. But this time, they had all gone back. There were Indian Scimitar-babblers in groups calling out loudly, the active Oriental White-eyes and of course, the Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher. Other than these, there wasn’t much to see. We decided to head back early and we just decided to stop at a point to see if there were any birds. We were just generally chatting around that place when we saw a raptor sitting on top of a rock and watching us. We quickly reached out to our binocs and looked carefully. It was a Shaheen Falcon, the fastest bird of India. I couldn’t believe that I was seeing a Shaheen Falcon that close, but it didn’t look anything other than the Falcon.

After a while, we observed something creeping in the back of this bird. It was another Shaheen Falcon. This time, it was the female. We were thrilled now. Both the male and the female sitting on the rock and while we were watching these two excitedly, we see the baby falcon coming out again. I will probably never get to see this bird like this again. It is certainly one of the best birding moments. The baby falcon went back and hid itself again, while the adults just flew out to nearby rocks. We observed them for a while and headed back.

I feel in love with the butterflies of Assam. I clicked as many I could and here is a commoner from Kaziranga National Park. And thanks to Karthik for helping me with the identification.

We were trekking to the Tadiyandamol peak. It was hot and we had trekked a bit. It was thick everygreen forest everywhere. Suddenly we see a large raptor soaring. From one look, it looked like a Booted Eagle. We watched it for a while and went ahead with the trek. After a while, on the same path we saw the same bird taking off from the ground. We had failed to notice it on the ground. It was just above our head soaring and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I didn’t even need my binocs to see the bird. It is easily one of the best sightings of the bird I’d ever had.

Right above me

This was really the bird which I badly wanted to see. Malagar Trogons are not early morning birds. So we finished our breakfast after our first round of birding and walked back mainly looking for this bird. We looked around in the wooded area carefully but didn’t yield any success. For a while we heard the Trogon calling but we were not able to locate it. We kept walking and after a while, our guide Pankaj just walked off the track looking for it. And after a while, he was back and he pointed his digiscope at the bird and show us this beautiful bird. It was there for a while in the thicket and then flew away.

During the last 2 visits to Nandi Hills, I have found this bird hopping around in the nursery area. They are so restless. They don’t seem to be bothered by people around. They continue with their business while we sit and watch them at work.

Indian Blue Robin (Female)

Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher is all around the place at Valley School. It is their nesting time, so mostly we found them carry nesting material.

Pallas’s Fish Eagle is probably on everybody’s wishlist. It is also not a very difficult bird to see there. But we were quite unlucky to get a good luck at this majestic raptor. We had multiple sightings but nothing very close. At one point it was just sitting behind us and none of us noticed it until it took off. The pics here are from the eastern range of Kaziranga. We saw this bird sitting over a tree and then it came down after a while but there was thicket.

here is another one guarding its nest.