Having had two days of very successful drives in the Kaziranga National Park, we had one more morning in the area before we moved on. Although we had another drive booked, in the end we spent the morning exploring the adjacent tea plantations trying to find the Blue-naped Pitta here. Although we heard a couple of different individuals in the bamboo remanents between the tea, we failed to get any of them to show before we left at 10:00.
That is not to say that we did not have a pleasant morning
birding, as we were able to get a few interesting species. The highlight was certainly
a nice White-browed Piculet, which showed well for short periods. Otherwise we
had great views of two flyover Great Hornbill, a group of three perched up
Blossom-headed Parakeets, a very tidy Black-backed Forktail on the small stream
there and a nice White-throated Shama. All pleasant enough birding but sadly
missing the key species we had hoped to find.
Much of the rest of the day was consumed by a six hour drive
to the town of Tensukia where we spend the night. However, at dusk we made a
slight detour to the Maguri Wetland just north of the town, as we had a
long-shot hope of finding Eastern Grass Owl here. That did not transpire,
despite our best efforts, going out on the marsh in a wooden canoe after dark,
which was certainly an experience to remember even if we only saw a Black-crowned
Night Heron, an unidentified snake and a lot of shrimp! Before dark we saw many
common wetland species, but this was supplemented by a cracking male Pied
Harrier, as well as an Eastern Marsh Harrier. A pleasant but late end to an
otherwise very uneventful day.
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