Northeast India; Day 17 - Namdapha National Park

  Having met our new guide the previous evening, we set off from Tinsukia at 06:00 and made our way to our next and final destination: the Namdapha National Park. This was a journey of a few hours, and with a logistical stop for supplies and the necessary paperwork to enter the Arunachal Pradesh state, we did not reach the park entrance gate until 10:30.

  Fortunately our first stop within the park was not far from the gate, as we walked a stretch of river hoping to find the Blyths Kingfisher. While we failed to find this main target, we still had some enjoyable birding with four different species of Forktail on just this short stretch of river; Little, Black-backed, Slate-crowned and finally White-crowned. Much of our time here was spent photographing the multiple species of stunning butterflies frequenting the riverbank whilst we were there. And just as we were leaving we had a small group of Assam Macaque on the other side of the river, although they did not show well. This was our most achievable mammal target for this site, so was a good to see so early into our time here.

  It was almost midday when we left the river but we continued to search for targets as we drove along the road towards our lodging deep in the camp forest. First a fruiting tree proved very productive with common species, but also plenty of Pin-tailed Green Pigeon, one of the few Green Pigeon species we needed for the trip and a tricky one to connect with. A little further along the road, at a known spot, we tried and succeeded in finding the Austen’s Brown Hornbill, although they were always distant and never showed well. And finally, just before the camp, we had a pair of Western Hoolock Gibbon.

  Our camp, the Deban Forest Camp, was very nice, situated right on the border of the river where we would search for our main target; the White-bellied Heron. Unfortunately the strategy for this bird was not very exciting, and so we spent the rest of our afternoon staking out the river just around the corner from the site. We did not find the heron, but we had allowed three full days to see it so all was not lost on this first evening failure. We did have our first Crested Kingfisher of the trip, as well as two distant flyover Wreathed Hornbills.

  At night we had a fantastic time exploring the camp. We knew that there was a good probability to see Giant Red Flying Squirrel in one of the trees near the lodging, but when the time came we were absolutely not prepared for just how well we would see the animal, as it licked sap from the tree, at times as low as eye-level, whilst being completely unfussed by the light we were shining on it. In the end we were able to spend around half an hour with it, before we left it to its own devices. Although Tiger was undoubtedly the best animal we will see on this trip, this was arguably a better mammal encounter, watching it so close feeding on its own accord and without dozens of vehicles causing chaos around us.

  That was not the end of the excitement for the evening, as we also found another Giant Red Flying Squirrel at the top of a nearby tree although nowhere near as well. In the same tree we had a hyperactive Particolored Flying Squirrel which was much more difficult to get on to and not possible to photograph well. And then later, once again in the same tree, we found a Masked Palm Civet which showed very nicely as well. A brilliant end to the day, leaving us very excited for the next few days in this National Park would hold.