Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Bollocks!

Bollocks!!!
Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks!!!

Despite 3 days of hard searching, we somehow failed to connect with Tigers at Corbett. What an absolute disaster. As Royal Bengal Tiger is the principal target species of the trip, it throws the rest of the itinery into question, as we simply have to see them. Current thinking is to spend a few days at Ranthambore NP, as it sounds like they have been fairly regular there. And if we do that at the end of the trip, then we cant inadvertently ruin the rest of the trip for ourselves by sacrificing too much time looking for them.
Aside from this obvious upset, our time in Corbett was very productive, with excellent views of some top quality mammals like Jungle Cat, Asian Elephant (wild). Golden Jackal, Wild Boar and 4 species of Deer, also some decent birds, with Hodgsons' Bushchat being the star (in terms of rarity), well backed up with Small Buttonquail, Brown Fish Owl, Pallas's and Lesser Fish Eagles, Himalayan Rubythroat and many more. Marsh Mugger and Gharial Crocodiles, along with some of the biggest freshwater fish i've ever seen provided even more interest. One of the highlights of the trip came from a dawn Elephant safari through the jungle and out into the grasslands, especially exciting as we could hear tigers roaring not that far away, alas not quite close enough.
Back in Ramnagar, a quick walk along the river this afternoon provided Long-billed Pipit, Bluethroat and Steppe Eagle, in some welcome hot temperatures to help us defrost from the freezing dawn and dusk safaris in Corbett.
One of the more amusing moments of our stay in the park came when JP realised that he had a problem controlling his language. During a stint in the Dhikala watchtower, a TGB (Thieving Gypsy Bastard) of a Rhesus Macacque mokey got a bit too close to an unattended packet of crisps, an eye-bulging scream of FUCK OFF!!!! soon sent it packing, but unfortunately also had the same effect on the very 'proper' American family who we were sharing the tower with. And you thought I was bad sometimes!!
Anyway, we're booked onto a train South from here (Ramnagar) tonight, getting off at the stinkhole that is Delhi early tomorrow morning, and then from there, well, it depends what trains are available, either out West to the Thar Desert, or down South to Gujarat and Goa, not certain yet.

Be sure to check back soon to find out just where the two Joes are off to next in the next exciting instalment of Joes Birding Blog!!
Dont know what the hell was about, just felt like pretending I was a TV presenter, the heat must be getting to me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear that Joe. How about trying Bandhavgarh if you can get there? That's supposed to be good for seeing Tigers.

Enjoying the trip reports so far - any photos?

Cheers
VB