Corbett National Park, River Birding (North India - Day 12)

A third gypsy, and a third driver, collected us and we headed to the local temple, the best spot in the area for Ibisbill. A lone Jungle Myna was amongst the Common and Bank Mynas there:

We got to the bridge linking the main road to the temple and started scouting around. The local temple man spotted the birds and excitedly pointed them out to us; our guide quickly interposed himself between the temple man and Helen, rudely dismissing the poor chap, much to her annoyance. It's fair to say at this point we were both getting very, very bored with the bird guide. An expert, yes. A royal pain, yes.

Anyway back to the Ibisbill, what a bird!

Also there Blue Whistling Thrush:

The temple man refused the tip we offered (uniquely), and only in fact took the money when we agreed he'd use it to pay towards the food he was putting out for the birds and dogs.

Mission accomplished we headed from the temple to another river, this one some 20km away from Tiger Camp to the East. The road becomes a rough track and we descended in the gypsy, stopping to quickly snap a White-crested Laughingthrush, another of my target birds for the trip:

Down in the river valley, we were looking for Brown Dipper. I looked down river, the guide looked up river. Neither of us bothered to check the big 'poo rock' right in front of us. Helen said, 'hang on, isn't that a Brown Dipper right there?' She was right:

It soon jumped into the river, emerging now and then:

This image is for context and show the up river view:

As well as the Brown Dipper we were delighted to see a Spotted Forktail, though at some distance:

You can see from this guide-taken picture we'd taken to huddling together to avoid the complications being imposed on us, still it is a good picture:

From the river it was time to head back for lunch at Tiger Camp.