After the eventful first day, our expectations went high for the second day as well where we were planning to cover Eastern zone in the morning and Central in the evening.
Eastern is quite different from the vegetation and habitat perspective where there is good forest and a long shoreline of the mighty river Brahmaputra. The habitat is very interesting and at places quite beautiful.
We were expecting some owlets to show up along the track where we were heading. 'Jungle owlets and barred owlets are pretty common at that place' is what Konwar had been telling us last day. But for the spotted owlet in the morning, quite high on a tree we did not have luck with any other.
A Pallas fish eagle was guarding its nest high up on a tree. The screeching call of its was resonating in the woods beneath and could be heard from quite far. It is a huge bird. A pleasure to watch and treat for the eyes.
On the next water body we saw quite a good number of migratory guests - Bar Headed Geese. More and more of them were coming from nearby water bodies. They were there along with another migratory flock of Gray Legged Geese. We saw couple of beautiful Northern Lapwing flying far. Gray lapwing was another specie which marked its presence.
After having our packed breakfast in the gypsy we moved on. The next interesting sighting was the master of camouflage - Long Tailed Nightjar.
A bird so well camouflaged that it is virtually impossible to find it among the dry leaves unless it flies once! But if you spot its place once then there is high probability of finding it again there at the same place the next day as well. It has so much of confidence on its ability to camouflage that it doesn’t bother to even move when you approach it quite close - as close as very few feet away. I had seen it in Bharatpur last year and had spent almost 2 hours with it! Its a true master of camouflage.
As we moved on we started approaching the shoreline of Brahmaputra. We all had heard about its might but never in my dreams I had thought that it would be so huge and vast! The breadth of the river was so long that the other end of the shore was almost not visible! By looking at it it is hard to believe that this river will cause so much of havoc during monsoon in this part of the country! If in the normal days itself its so vast and huge then how does it look when it gets flooded!
As we moved on we encountered the markings made by the Tiger on the barks of a tree. Tigers do these markings to sharpen their nails. As we moved forward there was a tusker in musth just beside the jeep track. As the tuskers during that time tend to be quite aggressive and can do mock or actual attacks Konwar became a bit alert. As it was high noon he might have been going for the water body to cool himself.
As we headed towards the gate there were Indian Rollers (sub species which are specific to NE, with distinguishing dark throat) and a Brown Fish Owl to bid adieu for the morning safari.
The evening was decided to be spent in the Central Zone. After having our lunch at the resort we started at around 2.00 PM.
The light was getting better and better and turning quite red.
We are hoping for some drama which would make some really amazing images. But the dreams and wishes remained as they are and no drama or no real good sightings as well.
But the distant herd of elephants and the just rinsing moon gave a nice opportunity to make few images.
We went up to the place where I had made the images of turtle and from there we headed back. On our way back we saw a lone Red Headed Vulture sitting at the top of a tree. That was my first sighting of that specie.
As the Sun set behind the far mountains and as the horizon started turning reddish pink mixed with yellow and a tint of blue, we were at the watch tower near the lake in the Central park.
The geometrical shape of the structure of the tower was looking interesting in the background of the colorful sky. I decided to try some image of those formations.
So there the day ended. A day with not many activities. It was certainly not as dramatic as the last day.
But as they say – every day cannot be Sunday! :)
Cheers,
Ash
