Our final day birding ahead of a long day travelling home tomorrow.
Leaving Dirang we made our way slowly along the NH13 towards our final destination of Nameri NP in the lowlands. En-route we made prolonged stop near the village of Jameri to look for some specials. At a site known only to Lobsang (because he found it by accident!) we scored with some major views of Sikkim Wedge-billed Babbler (now split from Cachar Wedge-billed Babbler that we saw in the Mishmi Hills) in between much scouring of the rocky river for Blyth's Kingfisher which ultimately ended in failure! Nevertheless we did find 3 Slaty-bellied Forktails plus 3 Chestnut-bellied Nuthatches, Small Niltava, Short-billed Minivet, Scarlet Minivet, Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike, White-naped Yuhina, 5 Silver-eared Mesias, Black-throated Sunbird and a new bird in Lemon-rumped Warbler. Lobsang called a Green Cochoa which was calling and after a good 30 minutes of trying to locate the call I finally got onto it on the opposite side of the road from where we'd been looking. Just before we left the area 3 Scarlet Finches showed beautifully in roadside bamboo as the rain started to fall.
After a rather spicy lunch in a roadside cafe we continued on to Nameri where we checked in to the nice Nameri Baligora Camp and headed out to get a boat over the river into the national park for the afternoon. While waiting for our armed guard to arrive we had a Black Eagle then small group of Himalayan Swiftlets overhead which contained a single Asian House Martin. When we got off the boat after the short river crossing we had 2 River Lapwings, Little Ringed Plover and Common Sandpiper on a small pool before we walked through grassland to the trees. By the only buildings in the NR we were entertained by a pair of Oriental Hobbies nest building in the top of a huge tree as we set off on a walk along the edge of the forest. Common Iora, Green-billed Malkoha, Ruby-cheeked Sunbird were followed by a distant Indian Thicknee on the shingle, c150 Little Cormorants, 2 Ruddy Shelduck and c50 Little Egrets in a feeding frenzy. Just as we reached some pools in the forest we had a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo but we could hear Elephant activity ahead so our guard wouldn't let us go any further. Sadly this scuppered us for seeing our main target of White-winged Duck. On the trudge back Indochinese Roller, Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Red-breasted Parakeet, Rufous Treepie, Yellow-browed Warbler, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, Golden-fronted Leafbird and Verditer Flycatcher were all seen showing how 'birdy' the place was. As we walked back through the grass to the boat for the last bit of birding c4 Small Pratincoles flew over as did a Sparrowhawk, several Green Imperial Pigeons and 2 Oriental Turtle Doves. Reaching the sandy beach just before the boat a small pale bird flew in and proved to be a Sand Lark, the last tick of the trip. Luckily we were able to re-find it further along for the others.
Back on the other side of the river 2 Capped Langurs gave some great views then at the camp while chilling c12 Long-tailed Broadbills flew into adjacent tree as a fitting finale to the best of trips.
All that remained was the long trawl home the following day starting with a 5 hour drive to Guwahati.
My total triplist was 408 of which 150 were lifers
16 Mammal species were seen
