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2015-12-01 - 6:35 p.m.
I realize I have been absolutely terrible about posting my pictures here but you can see them on Instagram @peachfront... :-) Nov. 16, 2015...Chitwan In the course of the long drive to Chitwan, I made the decision that I would no longer engage with the unpleasant person. All I can say is, some people are lucky they live in a gun control state, and they should probably never leave home...as it was, I'm fairly convinced that they had never previously left home, as they appear to have been brought up in a barn. Be that as it may, after lunch there was much (pleasant!) excitement, as the unpleasant person was nowhere to be found when our glorious leader discovered a nearby Changeable Hawk Eagle. What a charming bird, and what a wonderful look. It was trying to hunt the river behind the lodge, causing two Bronze-winged Jacana to experience much distress. Ultimately, the Jacana were too alert to get caught though...
I posted this tweet before but I wonder if anyone noticed that the wing hit a twig, which is probably why both of those Jacanas lived to see another day. It seemed to throw the Changeable Hawk Eagle completely off its game, and eventually it slunk away without any prey. A quick stroll over the bridge gave us what I have to assume is one of the rarest animals of our visit -- a huge Gharial sleeping on the riverbank. There were many and many "marsh muggers" or "mugger crocodiles" (two names for the same animal) to be seen but that was to be the one and only Gharial, which I believe is highly endangered. Our first Spotted Deer... tons and tons of those. No wonder the crocs are so fat. We took a boat ride to check out the scene from the water. There was apparently a weight issue so, as the smallest person in the group, I got the front seat of the boat. Brilliant! There were some special moments. There's nothing like getting your life wild Indian Peafowl from the water -- and it's a beautiful male peacock. A lovely Greater Flameback pair, an assortment of Wagtail species, the purr of the Ruddy Shelducks. A very large wild boar. However, the best sighting of the cruise had to be the One Horned Rhino. A mother and baby pair slowly, ponderously approached the river -- not to drink, but to actually walk slowly across to the other shore right in front of us. Absolutely astounding.
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