Nameri

It was with great regret that we left Wild Grass in Kaziranga and set out for our next destination. The road to Nameri from Kaziranga is not long, about two hours journey non-stop, across the Brahmaputra at Tezpur, through the Tezpur cantonment area and on down the road to Bomdila and Tawang until you turn off and make you way into the degraded forest of the park's buffer zone. Near the end of the road is the Eco Camp – a circle of thatched tents and rooms on stilts around a clearing just by the forest department office where you get permits, and the enclosure of the pigmy hogs – some of the world's most endangered mammals – that have been bred in captivity and will one day, hopefully, be successfully re-established in the wild. The camp is next to an Assamese village complete with "namghar" or temple and plots of areca palm with betel vines growing up them.

The Eco-camp resounded to the calls of brown hawk owls and barred owlets as dawn approached. It was overcast and grey. As we took the boat across the river the rain started and by the time we had marched over the silver sand banks and marshy area to the camp we were all drenched. Luckily a chula was burning and we warmed ourselves around
it and were about to have some tea when our new guard returned with news of w.w. duck. We set off regardless of the rain still falling and did the best part of a circuit – but if there were ducks they had flown leaving just moorhen behind.

The most easily seen woodpeckers in Nameri are the greater flameback. Golden fronted leafbirds were common, singing from exposed perches at the top of trees, either in pairs or flocks. Jungle and hill mynahs were everywhere. The most common dove was the spotted and the most common pigeon the imperial green.

When we crossed back to the Eco camp we found a jubilant Anand Arya – who had decided to walk the road between the Eco Camp and the river. While we had been battling leeches and route marching, he had drunk tea and read until the weather cleared at eleven o'clock and then found five black bazas in one tree mid-way between the camp and the river.

The next day we rafted down the river from a spot about 17 kms upstream. There are very gentle rapids and it was a very pleasant trip indeed, especially as we saw the last two of this season's ibisbills. There were a little flighty – perhaps because they were about to migrate but gave excellent views beside another colony of lesser praticoles, river lapwing and one pair of river terns. The river lapwings had young chicks and many of the pratincoles did their broken-wing display as we approached. Greater thick-knees flew across the river and ran along one bank, greater cormorants flew downstream To the right were a group of three crested grebe, which are also a new record for the park.

The right bank was clearly very much deforested. The range officer for Patasoli forest area himself told me that in the monsoon the forestry department was not in a position to stop illegal felling, and others told us this was not just a seasonal activity.

Walking back along the road to the Eco Camp we came across a Siberian Rubythroat taking a bath in a puddle and then shaking the drops off in a bush, and a Durian Redstart hunting from a perch just above the level of the road. Lineated barbets and Blue-throated barbets called around us.

We dined with Bikram, Sumit and Bittoo Sehgal at a newly renovated tea garden bungalow a forty minute drive away. The next morning we planned to walk the road to the river, which we did. However the weather was again overcast and bird activity very low, although a roller rolled for us and a dollarbird displayed the so-called dollar signs on its underwings. Black and yellow common birdwing butterflies and blue tigers fluttered by. We saw what we could and then bade farewell to Ranesh Roy, the manager of the camp – a very fine man and wonderful company.

We had, in less than perfect conditions, seen well over 200 species.