The Wandering Cloud I See

This is a story of the journey undertaken by a birder.  The bitter-sweet journey that brought him closer to himself.  The journey that will be his forever! Himalayan red crossbills, the elusive bird that has never been studied in the history of man-kind. Red crossbills are being studied all over the world but not in Himalayas... Why? Why is no one studying them in Himalayas? This question hounded me, day in day out, until I gave in and said I want to study Himalayan red crossbill for my Ph.D. dissertation. We all decided that I needed to do pilot trip to check the feasibility of the project. One and half a month to cover Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh. Starting from central Himalayas to the Eastern Himalayas. Lets do it! I started the journey from Kathmandu. I had barely reached Kathmandu and I was hounded by various tour guides and tour companies asking me to go on a tour with their companies. Finally I decided to take a cab to the loca...

 It was a beautiful morning, perfect day for birding! North West Arkansas Audubon Society field trip! We had decided to go looking for the Brown-headed Nuthatch at Shores lakes- Fern. Later we were to go to Frog Bayou and look for the shorebirds along with various ducks that we could find over there.  The row of binoculars carefully examining the canopy cover and suddenly turn east in a frenzy as the Brown-headed nuthatch would fly east and be lost again in the canopy of the short-leaf pine trees! Everyone was determined to have a good look at the bird.  The spirit of a birder! While looking for our elusive bird, we would often hear an excited call- Look a pine warbler! and everyone would be lost in the beauty of the pine warbler. Pine warbler, Downy woodpecker, Hairy woodpecker, Northern flicker, Red-bellied, Water thrush, Turkey vulture, White-breasted nuthatch and Pileated woodpecker excitedly welcomed us to their abode! Driving over a stream, w...