We dubbed this 'day zero' because we all arrived the day before the official tour start.
Checking in to the Dibrugahr Gymkarna Club where we were given associate membership (I kid you not!) late morning meant we had some time for independant birding despite being knackered.
We headed out for a walk to the edge of the mighty Brahmapitra River which was only 10 minutes away. We were immediately the subject of much interest with the locals with numerous requests for selfies and people tagging on to our walk. Nonetheless we found some nice birds to start us off. The undoubted highlight was a single Greater Adjutant on a sandbank, an endangered species we were delighted to see so quickly. Also along the waters edge were Little Egrets, Little Ringed Plover, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, White Wagtails of 2 races (leucopsis and alboides), Common Tailorbird and the ubiquitous Tree Sparrow. In the urban setting of our accommodation Great Mynas, Jungle Mynas, Common Mynas and Asian Pied Starlings were common. A White-breasted Waterhen flew out of the top of a palm tree too!
After lunch at 'the club' we decided to get a taxi to the Maijan Grasslands a few miles away to the east. These weren't really a grassland, rather a couple of large lagoons straddling a road in a tea plantation with a scrubby margin. With the taxi waiting our walk yielded 2 Grey-backed Shrikes, Red-vented Bulbuls, Red-whiskered Bulbuls, a dashing Shikra, 2 Ferruginous Ducks, 20+ Grey-headed Swamphens, Little Cormorants, 3 Pheasant-tailed Jacanas, White-throated and Common Kingfisher, Rufous Treepie, Cinereous Tit, Rufescent Prinia, Citrine Wagtail and Chestnut-tailed Starling of note.
