New Year trip!
I had nice start this year. I went to Samsing and Suntaley Khola. Pretty nice places at Himalayan foothills. Me, my parents, and my aunt, uncle and my cousin, that was the team.
The whole trip was full of fun. We ate a lot, wandered a lot, saw a lot of bird and insects (unfortunately identified very few of them), and made jokes all the way.
I cannot narrate them whole story right here at the blog, but I can give you a few experiences in small packages.
Me and my father had a lot of great time together watching birds. I could identify very few. I think I should give you the list of birds we saw and identified (a lot more we didn't notice)
3rd January:
- Streaked Spiderhunter
4th January:
- White Browed Wagtail
- White Capped Water Redstart
- Plumbous Water Redstart
- Indian Pond Heron
- Red Whiskered Bulbul
5th January:
- Yellow Bellied Fantail
- Bronzed Drongo
- White Capped Water Redstart
- Plumbous Water Redstart
- Scarlet Minivet
- Blue Rock Thrush
- Red Whiskered Bulbul
- Intermediate Egret
6th January:
- Scarlet Minivet
- White Capped Water Redstart
- Indian Peafowl
- Ashy Drongo
- Aberrant Bush Warbler (Not sure!)
- Yellow Bellied Fantail
- Racket Tailed Drongo
- White Crested Laughing Trush
7th January:
- Rufous Treepie
- Crested Bunting
- Racket Tailed Drongo
- Greater Yellownape
- Blue Whistling Trush
- Bronzed Drongo
- White Capped Water Redstart
- Scarlet Minivet
- Greater Racket Tailed Drongo
- Long Tailed Sibia
8th January:
- Slaty Backed Forktail
- Scarlet Minivet
- Black Baza
- White Crested Laughingthrush
- Blue Whistling Thrush
- Plumbous Water Redstart
- White Capped Water Redstart
- Aberrant Bush Warbler (Not sure!)
- Grey Treepie
9th January:
- Slaty Backed Forktail
- Scarlet Minivet
- Spangled Drongo
- Black Crested Bulbul
- Blue Whistling Thrush
- Red Whiskered Bulbul
I wish I could gather more details.
We were walking on the road at Samsing in the evening while I caught a big glow beetle. It is very much bigger than what we find in our neighborhood, it was about one inch in length.
At Suntaley Khola, me and my father also tracked down a grasshopper. It was humming a engine like sound, I also captured a video. While we released it after our study, the cat ate it. Bad Cat!
[youtube=http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=Obsh53f2Wfs]
A Blue Whistling Thrush was getting on our nerves as we tried to see it, it was flying out of reach everytime. On the day we were leaving I had a lucky snap.
Had a lot of fun in the forest. It is the second most dense forest I ever saw.
And I had to cross Murti River many time, the Hard Way.
You can see more photos at,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/xenoargento/sets/72157612336582471/
And the post I wrote about New Year Resolutions, those things are pretty useless. So no post on that.