March 8, 2023, Morning
Today morning we had the most sightings of rhinos in Kaziranga, and close sightings too.
Route
The Western Range in Kaziranga is relatively small compared to the Eastern and Central ranges. Visitors seem to frequent it less compared to the Eastern and Central ranges. However, unlike the other ranges, it offers close drive-bys of waterbodies, and it so happened that when we visited, there were rhinos in them. We entered the park around 8:30 after breakfast and spent around 3 hours inside the park. The road goes past the Dighali Beel (beel means lake) on the left, where the terrain is open and marsh-like on either side of the road, and then makes a loop around a large waterbody, as shown below. Towards the top portion of the loop are patches of more dense vegetation, seen as dark green spots on the map below. These wooded areas tend to have different birds in them compared to the open marshes.
Bird and Other Wildlife Sightings
A Hog Deer appeared to greet us just as we entered the park. Once we reached Dighali Beel, a Gray-headed Fish-eagle sat (or stood?) close by and offered an excellent photo opportunity. A short distance ahead was a rhino mother with her suckling calf on the right side of the road. I assume it was suckling and not being shy, you’ll see why in the photo 😉 We stopped here for a little while just watching them.
Moving on but still not past Dighali Beel (the lake is very large), we came across another rhino by the roadside on the left, grazing on the slope. Our guide figured it would want to cross the road. Mammal behavior is something our guide was very skilled at, so kudos to him to recognize what was going on. So our jeep pulled ahead of where the rhino was and waited, giving it ample room to cross behind us should it want to. It did approach closer to the road, though very slowly, and constantly feeding. By now a few jeeps behind us had caught on to what was about to unfold. Sure enough, the rhino made its approach to the road, and this time with some decisiveness and urgency. Just then, one of the waiting jeeps, wanting a better view, sped past this approaching rhino to get a spot beside us. That was quite a selfish move and put the animal at risk. Anyway. The rhino continued, now fully on the road between the two groups of jeeps, paused for a moment to watch the jeeps behind us, and then crossed over. Baba has a nice video of this. I was engaged in taking still pictures.
Further up the road, and now nearing the northern edge of the Dighali Beel, a Great Egret was seen faraway in the water. A Himalayan Griffon vulture flew high overhead, which our guide misidentified as Slender-billed Vulture. Driving on, a mother and baby domesticated Elephant carrying a load of leafy branches were walking towards us on the road, with a mahut sitting on the mother. That was an interesting and cute sight.
We reached the start of the loop, where an Indochinese Roller perched close by, again offering a good photo op. On the far (northern) side of the waterbody inside the loop was a large herd of wild elephants, including several young animals of various ages. They disappeared into the tall (really tall) grasses behind them. See the photo to get a sense of scale. In and around the waterbody were birds like Little Egret, Ruddy Shelducks, and a single Oriental Darter which all of us photographed. Driving by the wooded section at the north edge of the loop, we encountered a pair of Kalij Pheasants deep in the bushes.
Having finished the loop, we were now driving back the same way we came. It was fairly routine till we reached closer to the exit. A large monitor lizard was basking in the sun on a tree trunk. And close by was a small pool of water, by the roadside, with a feeding rhino and a few waterbirds in it. The birds accompanying the rhino were a White-breasted Waterhen on the ground, a Cattle Egret perched on the rhino’s back, and a Bronze-winged Jacana feeding by walking on the hyacinth(?) leaves on the surface within feet of the rhino’s mouth. Both rhino and jacana seemed to not mind each other. Also in the same pool was a Black-headed Ibis. Just as we were about to exit the park, we encountered a surprised duo of monkeys.
Here is the complete eBird checklist.
