South India Wrap-up

Well i'm on my way to Thailand and some great birding in the dry season (it's definitely not the wet season as some people have suggested!!) & really should wrap-up the end of this tour. We finished our stay at Nagarahole National Park with 2 more jeep safaris and a boat ride. No Tigers this time, although we came pretty close and I feel that if you do maybe 6 jeep safaris then a Tiger sighting is pretty much guaranteed here. It would be a far more 'personal' experience than at one of the busier Tiger reserves in central India, where you might have to share your sighting with upwards of 30 or 40 other jeeps. Here at Nagarahole there are much fewer jeeps in the park and we had only 5 other jeeps at the Leopard we saw. 

Anyway, the boat ride along the Kabini River was very rewarding for sightings of Gaur, Spotted Deer, Sambar, Asian Elephants, Grey-headed Fish-Eagle, Western Osprey, Red-naped Ibis, Red-headed Vulture, and a flock of 250+ Small Pratincoles wheeling overhead at dusk. My particular favourite was the repeated views of a family of Smooth-coated Otters.

Smooth-coated Otter

Woolly-necked Stork

We moved on to Mysore and Ranginathittu Bird Sanctuary where a short boat ride got us up close and personal with Great Thick-knees, Eurasian Spoonbills and Spot-billed Pelicans. 

A real surprise was the nesting colony of Streak-throated Swallows that we sailed right beside and was a totally mesmerising experience.

Several Asian Openbills were also present and i enjoyed trying to get some action shots of this individual drinking the water and some fine breeding plumaged Little Egrets almost floated my boat....!