Birding at Wildgrass Resort

I proceeded on my annual leave on 1st october and after a long season it is a very welcome break. Since it is a long drive from Dibrugarh to Guwahati and our son being only a toddler on his first long trip we decided to break our journey at Kaziranga. Although the National Park was not yet open for the season, Kaziranga is just about halfway between Dibrugarh and Guwahati and being a tourism hotspot it has some decent accommodation for travellers.

To cut a long story short we decided to stay at Wildgrass Resort. The resort itself is quite basic and is obviously targeting the die hard wildlife tourists. No room service and no intercom so guests do have to walk a long distance for even basic requests.

After checking in, my first query was regarding the possibility for a short birding tour. The Resort organised a guide for me and we agreed upon a one hour tour considering my need to leave for Guwahati very early in the morning.

In short there are two birding possibilities, one through Kanziranga National Park itself while the other was through a mix of tea garden and open scrub areas. I had to choose the latter as the park was not yet open to the public. I was a little disappointed though as I lived in a tea garden and wanted a different experience.

We started at around 5:30 am for a two hour walk through a well established route. Some of the species seen were as follows:

1. Crested Serpent Eagle
2. Chestnut-headed Bee-eater
3. Common Mynah
4. Hill Mynah
5. Jungle Mynah
6. White-vented Mynah
7. Asian Pied Starling
8. Chestnut-tailed Starling
9. Indian Treepie
10. Grey backed Shrike
11. Cattle Egret
12. Black Drongo
13. Bronzed Drongo
14. Greater Racket-tailed Drongo
15. Rufous-chinned Laughingthrush
16. Oriental Magpie Robin
17. Striped Tit Babbler

Quite a disappointment!