The nightjar and the pussy cat

It’s very late and tomorrow we have to be up at half past four for a twelve hour safari in Yala. Exciting though this evening has been, I shall have to be very succinct. In the afternoon we watched waders in the ponds and saltpans along the entrance road to Chaaya: wood, marsh, common and curlew sandpipers, little stints, Kentish plover and lesser sandplover, black-tailed godwit and lots of redshank (oh, and a glorious Indian pitta). Late in the evening we ventured out for a night drive along the same road: several Indian nightjars (including one singing, with a Jerdon’s nightjar heard singing nearby), four black-naped hares (with much blacker napes than they have in north India) and, most excitingly of all, a jungle cat. A very fine end to a fine day. Now to sleep.

This evenings’s superb new species

	Mammals
39	black-naped hare	Lepus nigricollis
40	jungle cat	Felis chaus
	Birds
370	little stint	Calidris minuta
	common iora	Aegithina tiphia multicolor
371	orange-breasted green-pigeon	Treron bicinctus
372	brahminy starling	Sturnia pagodarum
373	yellow-wattled lapwing	Vanellus malabaricus
374	marsh sandpiper	Tringa stagnatilis
375	curlew sandpiper	Calidris ferruginea
376	rose-coloured starling	Sturnus roseus
377	Caspian tern	Hydroprogne caspia
378	crested treeswift	Hemiprocne coronata
379	barred buttonquail	Turnix suscitator
380	Indian pitta	Pitta brachyura
381	Indian nightjar	Caprimulgus asiaticus
	Reptiles
10	mugger crocodile	Crocodylus palustris

2012 Totals

Mammals: 40

Birds: 381

Reptiles: 10

Amphibians: 3

Fish: 2