Happy New Year 2017! And the past year of Birding and Trekking!

Dear Readers,

Happy New Year 2017!

May the year bring lots of happiness, peace and fun to all of us!
May we travel a lot!
May we get cheap air tickets and the train tickets whenever we want!
May we get packages that included everything we want to do!
May we get best compatible travel partners for our expense sharing journeys!
May we get ...

Common Sandpipers in action at Sunderbans National Park West Bengal

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Well, hoping is not bad :) While we hope for the best in the year ahead, let me look back at the year that just passed. Year 2016 was good if not amazing! I happened to make a resolution to photograph 1200 birds of India which is going on well. I started my Himalayan treks with baby steps with easier ones. Went on group outings essentially to reduce the cost of wildlife and birding safaris. Met few wildlife photographers and bird enthusiasts, number of Facebook friends has increased as a result. The additions to list of National Parks are- Manas National Park in Assam and Sunderbans National Park in West Bengal. 

My 1200 Birds of India project is going on well as I said earlier. I did 27 days of birding all together in 2016 to get about pictures of 274 birds. I will add bird pictures of any quality that I could make in the trips. When I get a better ones in the upcoming trips I will replace the not so good ones. But, I am not crazy about eye level shots or catch light in the eye or something like that. I aim to see most of the birds and record my sightings with considerable good pictures with the current equipment I have. Because I am a 'Traveler first' than a birder or a wildlife photographer. Birds and wildlife are part of my itinerary. This year I am hoping to cross 500 species of birds. And hoping to see some wildlife far outside of India too! Wish me luck :)

Changeable Hawk Eagle at Manas National Park Assam

Then comes my love for trekking. After a long gap I started my trekking, this time in Himalayas. Started with easier ones, Har ki Dun and Kedar Kantha. Did back to back treks and fell sick! So had to cancel two more treks that I had planned to do next :( Lesson learnt- give a gap of at least a week between treks. Himalayas are just awesome! I would wish to rent a house in Dehradun or Haridwar or in McLeodganj and keep trekking. Or may be a house in Guwahati to visit the beautiful forests and go birding. Hoping is good!

Last year I did visit another country, a little I must say! Bhutan- Royal Manas National Park for Golden Langurs! And I did sight and photograph one. Feeling very good about it.

Wish you all again a very happy new year! And also promise to update my blog often. Look for articles on some rare endangered species of birds and mammals!

Thanks for reading,
Kusum

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Scrapbook- A Travel Blog by Kusum Sanu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.