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Today's the last birding outing with the group. Enjoyable trip in spite of the challenges of weather and illness that affected more than half our group! The food, the germs in spite of diligent use of hand sanitizer, it seems like stomach distress just keeps popping up. I definitely was laid out the worst, but we are now back into a large reliable hotel so should be good for the duration.
Our excursion this morning at 7:15 takes us an hour's drive to Sultanpur Jheel, a remaining bit of wetland. Traffic moves along, the sun peaking through the haze, but as we get to our destination, the fog socks in again. Hoping a meadow might make it easy to see larks, we try that area but it's nearly impossible to make out a small brown bird in a field of brown grass in the fog. We wander seemingly in a circle. Good thing there's a local guide with us; we'd be lost trying to find our bus.
Giving up after an hour, telling ourselves weather was improving, we tried the Sultanpur wetlands again. This time we could see further than our hands; the fog started to break up shortly after hitting the trail. Soon the sun allowed for shedding of layers. There were Nilgai grazing in the water, ducks galore, egrets, herons, song birds, flamingos, raptors, even cows followed us along the trail. What, no macaques?
Back to the hotel at 2:00; three of the group leave even before dinner. One person supposed to fly China Airlines has changed her flights because of the coronavirus. Most of the group leaves tonight, allowing four hours although we're close to the airport. The rest of us have a nice final dinner. We hear that Nainital is closed down by a foot of snow they got while we had rain. No matter our distress with rain, being unable to leave Nainital would have been worse!
Nevertheless it's been a good trip; compatible group, good wildlife, great leaders. One more day for us before leaving for home.
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