14th December. Roaring success!
The whole day was spent exploring Orang NP with Philip, Pauline and ourselves in a 4x4 jeep following Peter, Sudesh and Rofic as they bounced in the back of a pick-up truck. We again had to travel with an armed guard to protect ourselves from wild beasts that lurked in the tall grasses. First up was a large flock of weaver, and we had a great time picking out the Yellow Weavers from amongst the large numbers of Bengal Weavers. One of the many highlights was a pair of Chestnut-capped Babblers showing incredibly well feeding amongst the elephant grass close to the vehicles. Another of our target birds in this area was the Marsh Babbler. Our initial attempts drew a blank so Peter decided we should get down from the vehicles and enter the tall grasses. Our armed guard looked rather nervous at this idea but Peter was insistent we should take the plunge, so we waded into the 8 foot high grasses which closed in all around us as we searched for the Babbler. We hadn’t gone very far when loud snorting grunts erupted close by. Our guard immediately swung his rifle off his shoulder and cocked his weapon loudly several times. An Indian Rhino was close, very close! We hastily retreated to the relative safety of the vehicles, but Peter hadn’t done with the Babbler. Undeterred, he decided we should try the grasses on the other side of the track, so off we went again deep into the vegetation. This time the unmistakeable loud guttural roar of a Tiger erupted from the grass just ahead of us. This was getting scary! We again hightailed it back to the track as the Tiger continued to roar behind us. Marsh Babbler was destined to stay as a ‘heard only’.
Bird species total: 4221
The Biggest Twitch website will remain online in 2009 to keep you up to date with our birding adventures and let you know how we settle back into normal life, if we do!! We will also share more of our adventures and lots of photos from The Biggest Twitch.