I had a big debate with Bruce about whether a painted stork could count as my third duck. On balance it has a much bigger beak and much longer legs but I reckon as far as Indian equivalents go; it’s the best I’m going to get on this adventure.

This particular massive bird was hanging upside down from a tree with it’s legs tangled in a branch. As a troop of monkeys looked on, Narender scaled the branches like a pro whilst I literally had to drag myself up a tree. I’m sure the monkeys were not the only ones who had a good laugh about it as crowd gathered round. Somehow Narender managed to balance on a branch no bigger than my wrist about 20ft about the ground, I was about the ten foot level on a much bigger platform but between us, we got the bird down like a slick tree climbing bird rescue team. Narender to me, me to a special friend on ground level. It was a four month old chick but if you stretched it out, it would be almost four foot.

The bird had a few nicks but was fine and we got it in the nick of time. Karuna have a shelter for the painted storks and fix up about 200-400 chicks each season. Those that get abandoned, fall from their nests, get blown off the trees or tangled up. The nest site for these birds is incredible – right in the middle of a village and including chicks there are approx 9000 of them. The villagers think they are lucky so put up with the deafening noise and huge amounts of bird droppings that rain from the sky!

Rest of the day – great. Couple of big interviews about the shelter animals, Adam had some fun filming us from the back of an ox cart! Easier said than done but he managed it- much better balance than my efforts climbing the tree, that’s for sure. Marc is definitely cheering up as we are getting a handle on the cases and Bruce is feeling a bit better. All in all, a winner.