EAGLENEST WILDLIFE SANCTUARY- A BIRDERS PARADISE This Puja vacation, I got an opportunity to visit Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary situated

in the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. The sanctuary was in limelight due to the discovery of a new bird species Bugun Liocichla by Ramanna Atreya in the year 2006. I heard about the sanctuary from many and dreamt of visiting the place at some point of time. But much to my surprise, I didnt have to wait for long in order to fulfill this dream of mine. On October 22, 2012 I made my journey to Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary- A birders Paradise. My journey to Eaglenest was unlike my previous tours. The trip was totally unplanned and sudden. Earlier, I planned to visit Mishmi hills this vacation and accordingly all my arrangements were made. Ranjan Kumar Das, Associate Professor, Tinsukia College and Porag Jyoti Phukan, employee of OIL, Duliajan were to accompany me on my Endeavour. But, on October 17, 2012, Das sir informed me that the road to Mishmi is in terrible condition and the two bridges connecting Roing with Myodia were washed away in the recent flood making it impossible to visit the place for the next 2 to 3 months. Therefore, we had to cancel our program and search for some other alternatives to utilize our holidays. We had the options of visiting Namdapha National Park, Nameri National Park or Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary. We decided to opt for Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary. Das sir made all the travel arrangements along with obtaining Inner Line Permit (ILP) from Mohanbari Office. In order to reduce the budget we decided to include another member to our group and accordingly approached Mr. Dilip Panging, Sr. Food Safety Officer, Government of Assam. He expressed his willingness to join the group. We were to make our journey by Das sirs 22 year old Maruti 800 but in the last minute we decided to hire a Mahindra Bolero. DAY-1/October 22, 2012 On October 22, 2012 at 5.00 am we started our journey. We picked up Panging Da from Jorhat and headed towards our destination. At 2.50 pm we reached Bhalukpung where our ILPs were verified by the competent authorities. The roads were terrible and we discussed among ourselves what would have been the condition if we had to travel by the 22 year old Maruti 800? We show a number of White Capped Water Redstart during our journey. From Sessa Wildlife sanctuary the road was quite good although narrow. We reached Tenga Town at around 6.30 pm where we decided to spend the night at Hotel Dzing Kho and start our journey to Lama Camp early the next morning.

DAY-2/ October 23, 2012 We had some bitter experiences at Hotel Dzing Kho. Although our team mates got ready by 4.30am the next day i.e. on October 23, 2012 but could not leave the hotel as because there was no hotel staff to open the locked doors for us until 5.00 am in spite of our repeated reminder the last night. At around 5.10 am we started our journey to Lama Camp, which is situated at a distance of around 17km from Tenga and at a height of 2500 meter from sea level. We had our first bird sighting after a travel of 20 min; a common buzzard resting on a tree top. Then we got some good pictures of a grey Minivet. We reached Lama Camp at 6.30 am and immediately after informing them about our stay for the next 3 days returned to Bugun Galli to photograph our prime target Bugun Licichla but could not locate the species. However we photographed dark sided flycatcher, greenish babbler, and beautiful sibia at that site. After returning to our camp, we unloaded our baggage and asked our driver Huntu to prepare the lunch for us as there was no cook available at the camp due to puja. There we met Rohan, a youngster from Pune who is planning to do his Ph.D on Attitudinal Migration of Birds under Ramanna Atreya. I was asking myself, if a boy from Pune can come to such a remote place to do his research work then why our boys cant? Rohan told us about some potential spots where there were chances of sighting our targeted species. After taking advice from him we trekked upwards and photographed chestnut tailed minla, beautiful sibia, broad billed warbler, greenish warbler, golden fronted warbler, schumpiter babbler, pigmy blue flycatcher, strip throated yuhina, green shrike babbler and black eagle. After returning to the camp we had our lunch and again left for birding. The day proved successful as I photographed 20 species, the highest ever on a single day in my short birding career. At around 4.00 pm we returned backed to our camp. Das sir brought his own tent that was set inside the dining hall, which was under construction. Panging da and Das sir decided to share the tent. Porag and I rented a double bedded tent that was quite comfortable with the basic amenities like a battery operated lamp, two no. of beds, one plastic table, and two good quality sleeping bags. The toilets were also very hygienic. I prepared the meal along with Huntu for the night at the fire place provided by the camp staff. We took our dinner at 6.30 pm and went to bed at 7.00pm to wake up early and get prepared the next day.

DAY-3/ October 24, 2012 I woke up at 4.50 in the morning and immediately got ready for my next adventure. Show a pair of red billed blue magpie within the campus but could not manage to take good photographs due to poor lighting conditions. Our prime target for today was to try out Bugun Liocichla at Bugun Galli where we have to reach before 7.00am. We decided to track to the spot which was about 2-3 km downhill. On our way we show a big flock of Striated laughingthrush but could not manage to photograph as they didnt came out of their hides. We reached our spot at around 6.30am and took our positions so that we dont miss the chance of photographing this rarity. Meanwhile, I photographed a common rosefinch (female), and a red throated flycatcher (female). After a while a flock of lughingthrush (?) came to the spot where we expected our prime target. I was trying to identify these lughingthrush through my camera view finder when I saw a Bugun Liocichla among that group. Immediately I pressed my shutter at burst mode and then the bird flew away. But much to my disappointment, my camera was set on manual mode due to which the photograph was over exposed. Panging da also clicked the same but his subject was out of focus. Das sir and Porag didnt manage to locate the bird. I was quite satisfied although I could not photograph this rarity because personally I didnt expect to see Bugun Liocichla at my maiden trip to Eaglenest. After that Porag and Panging da headed to another spot as described by Rohan to locate the bird. I and Ranjan sir decided to explore the present spot. I managed to take some good photographs of a yellow bellied fantail that was playing at a naked tree branch. Then I heard an unfamiliar whistling sound. I immediately recorded the sound with my Olympus LS-3 recorder and replayed the sound. The bird immediately responded to my player but I could not manage to locate it. After a couple of try I saw the bird- a Rufous throated pygmy wren babbler but could not focus my lens as it was in between the shrubs and in spite of my repeated effort it didnt came out of its hide. After some time Porag returned to the spot. He was quite disappointed because while photographing a bird Bugun Liocichla came so nearer to him that he could not focus his camera and failed to photograph it. However, he succeeded in photographing a striated bulbul and a green tailed sunbird. After this unsuccessful trip to bugun galli we returned back to our camp. I decided to explore the hillocks near our camp and other team members followed me. We were astonished to record the number of species that were available near the camp. Black faced warbler, scarlet finch, white bellied nuthatch, greenish warbler, verditer flycatcher, pale chinned flycatcher, grey crowned warbler, chestnut tailed minla, crested tit, olive back pipit, grey chinned bush warbler, green back tit, beautiful sibia, etc. are to name a few. I then decided to explore the backyard of the camp.

Porag followed me. We photographed a pair of beautiful Sibia near our tent. I decided to move forward but Porag stayed there as his phone rang. The lighting condition was not very good due to the canopy. I was photographing a grey headed canary flycatcher when suddenly noticed some short of movements in the shrubs in front. I was totally surprised to see a Bugun Liocichla about 25 feet away from me. My hand started sacking while I tried to photograph the bird. I was trying to be as calm as I could so that the bird dont get frighten and leave the spot. and at least give me few seconds to photograph it. But the beauty gave me ample scope to click 20-25 shots and then hide itself in the nearby bush. It is worth mentioning that last night we heard the songs of Bugun Liocichla near our campus but never expected to see it so easily.