Rustom is the guy. One really sweet and wonderful Bodo who has the finest eye for them birdies. But, before I get to Rustom….
Rustom on the right
The Kingfisher flight from Mumbai to Guwahati gave us some splendid views of the himalayas. Rahul who was sitting next to me, mentioned that one of those peaks visible on this splendidly clear day was the Mount Everest & the Kanchanjunga. We sent a note to the captain and he promptly announced when we flew past the Mount Everest. That was our first sighting of the trip and, it bode very well indeed !
View from the flight
Landing at Guwahati, Shishir Adhikari (shishir.adhikari07 a t gmail) our majordomo, was waiting for us to take us to the Brahmaputra Jungle Resort. A relatively new but comfy resort with, some amazing river fish curry and food !
The next day morning , we set off for Koklabari, Manas via Rangia & Pathshala. Our base for the next few days would be the Manas Eco Camp.
Room @ Manas Eco Camp which is run by the Manas Maozingendri Eco Tourism Society ( MMES )
The camp is conveniently located right outside the park entrance. We dumped our bags and set out to find the “critically endangered” and extremely shy, Bengal Florican. The Florican is a grassland bird that needs quality grassland to survive which are rapidly diminishing. It has been extensively hunted for its meat. The Bengal Florican is now restricted to one or two areas in the North East and its numbers are estimated to be well below a 1000. We were told that about a half a dozen or so birds are found in the Koklabari area. Spotting these gems were high on the priority list. And spot them we did, inside of twenty minutes into our first foray at Koklabari, thanks to Rustom. The bird was a male in heavy moult. The light was’nt too bad but dipping fast. I had my D2X with the 600VR + TC17 with which I worked the subject. For such a rare and, almost on the verge of extinction species, any pic was priceless. We had a cool twenty minute very good sighting. We also spotted a bunch of Northern Lapwings, all these a first or “lifers” for me.
The Bengal Florican
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