India 2015 | Part Two: Dimapur

This is the second of several posts I've been writing about our trip to India in late April. The first post can be found here, India 2015 | Part One: Kolkata.

We landed in the mid afternoon at the not-so-bustling Dimapur Airport. We were greeted by many Asian Palm Swifts and other unidentified swifts swirling around.

Landing in Dimapur

Once we arrived at our host's house I popped outside to see what I could find. It was hot and there was little to see in the middle of the afternoon, but I did find some of the more common species such as Red-vented Bulbuls, Common Tailorbirds, and  Oriental Magpie-robins.

A loudly chirping Red-vented Bulbul.

 These somewhat annoying bulbuls (they sound like this) were ubiquitous everywhere we went in India.

Typical village scene

Asian Palm Swift

This is currently my best digibinned photo of a swift, by a very large margin.

In contrast, here is a wretched real-camera pic I snagged of a fly-by probable Grey-hooded Treepie. These corvids reminded me a lot of our jays and magpies back home with their loud, grating calls.

Photography was quite challenging due to the prevalent low light, (we arrived at the beginning of the monsoon season) so please excuse the poor photo quality in these posts.

Grey-breasted Prinias were quite common in Nagaland. This individual was singing loudly, a trill reminiscent of Chipping Sparrows.

I saw a few other interesting species (full list here ) including a White-throated Kingfisher and a White-rumped Shama (amazing birds) the next morning before leaving for a village deep in the hills of Kohima state.

And with that, stay tuned for the next installment; From the Village of Tseminyu.

Joseph