13th April 2013 Kazaringa Nature Reserve by jeep safari

After an early breakfast, at 7:15AM we met our bird/animal guide for the park, Somnath Borah, and got into our jeep, which had space for four in bench seats in the back. We filled this space up since we let our driver Bishal join us, as he was such an enthusiastic birder. It had started to rain so they put up a canvas top as we drove to the park entrance for the central area of the Park, but luckily it stopped once we started into the park, so we removed the canvas and stood up as we drove along.

Our Jeep with us and Birding guide

We immediately saw two Crested Serpent Eagles perched in trees just above the road, and the day went very well for bird-watching.  At the bottom of this posting is a listing of over 70 different species seen, which excludes those we could not reasonably identify or considered insignificant, like sparrows.

The Park is most famous for having the world's biggest concentration of Indian Rhinos, over 2,000 of them, and we saw a number without really trying.  We also saw deer, wild buffalo, wild boar, mongoose, and a 10-foot King Cobra that was sunning itself beside the road.

King Cobra

We left the center part of the Park before noon, visited an ATM that was empty and a weaving school and shop that was very good, had quick set-menu lunch at the hotel, and set off again in our jeep for a tour of the western part of the Park.  

The weaving school was for training local women in weaving with a jacquard card reader so that their hand woven cloth would be faster. The proprietor of Village Weaves asked Leslie if she would like to try her hand at the table cloth fabric that was being woven and she was delighted to try. 

A weaving discussion

Here we added about another twenty or thirty bird species, the additions coming more slowly because it was later in the day and also because we had seen most of the more common species. We left the park at sunset as we had a two-hour limit that we probably went over.

Indian (one-horned) Rhino

We had organized a trip on elephant in the central part of the park for 5AM next morning, so we rose early and got dressed in minimal light because the electricity was off. Meeting our guides at 4:30 AM, we were the first in line and got the first elephant, a large male 15-year-old with tusks, getting on to our seats from a raised platform.  About 8 other elephants loaded after us, some including whole families of Indian tourists, but luckily they were quiet except for one crying child.

Crested Serpent Eagle

Just before we mounted, a disturbance occurred in which three local dogs ran into the park to chase a baby sambar (large deer) which was near to their homes. Shouting guards did not deter them, and one ran off after them with a 12 gauge shotgun.  We watched the mother try to keep the dogs at bay, chasing one at a time, but her faun became separated, and then we heard a shot which almost stampeded the elephants. Only two dogs came back, but the faun never made it back to its mother, which stayed in the area for more than an hour calling for it. We surmise that the dog got the faun and was shot for his infraction of park rules.

Baby rhino nursing

The elephant ride was interesting as we were off the road and could get very close to the rhinos, sambar, hog deer, and one wild elephant, without causing them too much concern. By 6AM we were being unloaded onto another platform a couple of miles away, and this was a relief for David as his hips were not used to this stretching.  Altogether, the Park was a nice way to spend a day after all the time travelling from town to town.





Bird List from the Park

1. Bengal Bushlark

2. Yellow-crowned Woodpecker
3. Lineated Barbet
4. Red-breasted Parakeet
5. Red-headed Vulture
6. Red Collared Dove
7. Changeable Hawk Eagle
8. Common Woodshrike
9. White-throated Kingfisher
10. Grey-headed Fish Eagle
11. Purple Heron
12. European Turtle Dove
13. White-tailed Stonechat
14. River Tern
15. Pallas's Fish Eagle
Comments : saw several including one with a nest
16. Cinereous Vulture
17. Black-necked Stork
18. Greater Painted-snipe
19. Little Cormorant
20. Common Redshank
21. Common Greenshank
22. Common Sandpiper
23. Swamp Francolin
24. Rock Pigeon (Common Pigeon)
25. Ruby-cheeked Sunbird
26. Bar-headed Goose
Comments : migratory
27. Mallard
28. Spot-billed Duck (Indian Spot-billed Duck)
29. Asian Koel
30. Lesser Adjutant
31. Greater Adjutant
32. Saker Falcon
33. Oriental Magpie Robin
34. Common Hoopoe
35. Paddyfield Pipit
36. Spangled Drongo (Hair-crested Drongo)
37. Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker
38. Black-headed Ibis
39. Jungle Myna
40. Common Myna
41. Alexandrine Parakeet
Comments : at sun down large groups coming to eat fresh grass stalks near the lake. land like a helicopter.
42. Grey-backed Shrike
43. White Wagtail
44. Yellow Wagtail (Western Yellow Wagtail)
45. Kalij Pheasant
46. Chestnut-headed Bee-eater
47. Coppersmith Barbet
48. Rufous Treepie
49. Chestnut-tailed Starling
50. Yellow-footed Green Pigeon
51. Red-wattled Lapwing
52. Barn Swallow
53. Woolly-necked Stork
54. Grey Heron
55. Spot-billed Pelican
56. Black Drongo
57. Large-billed Crow
58. Indian Roller
59. Bronze-winged Jacana
60. Slender-billed Vulture
61. Green Imperial Pigeon
62. White-breasted Waterhen
63. Spotted Dove
64. Stork-billed Kingfisher
65. Pied Kingfisher
66. Intermediate Egret (Yellow-billed Egret)
67. Little Egret
68. Asian Openbill
69. Rose-ringed Parakeet
Comments : lovely group at dusk eating grass shoots with alexandrite parakeets
70. Red Junglefowl
71. Crested Serpent Eagle
72. Asian Pied Starling (Pied Myna)
73. Spotted Owlet
74. Asian Barred Owlet
75. Greater Coucal