Bhutan Part 1

Saturday 14^th March

I booked on a Birdfinders trip to Bhutan, a small kingdom nestled in the Himalayas between NE India and Tibet. Due to the recent activities in the Middle East, our plans to fly via Qatar had been scuppered. Fortunately Birdfinders were on the case and their travel agents booked us a new route, although it did mean flying out a day earlier. We all met at Heathrow T4 for the overnight Malaysian Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur departing at 21.25, but one of our party had to be rebooked on an alternative route due to visa issues.

Sunday 15^th March

We landed at KL the following evening, with just enough daylight left to see a few birds from the terminal before boarding the 21.35 flight to Kolkata. It landed in India at 23.10 and we were soon through immigration and picked up our bags, apart from one which had failed to arrive. We jumped in a taxi for the short journey to our airport hotel for a much needed, albeit short, sleep.

Monday 16^th March

We had to be up early and I had asked reception to provide packed breakfast for us as we had to leave before breakfast started, however like all the packed breakfasts I've had in India it was barely edible. We got a couple of taxis back to the airport and checked in for our flight to Paro in Bhutan.

Leaving Kolkata

Approach to Paro through the mountains

Mountainside buildings

The final approach was rather hair-raising once we dipped below the clouds as we flew low through a valley with what seemed barely a wing’s length space to the mountainside. Arrived in Bhutan on time at 10am and stepped into bright sunshine and it felt much warmer than the actual temperature of 8 degrees. The airport was beautifully ornate, even the luggage carousels and we whisked through immigration and waited for our luggage, taking the opportunity to buy some local currency.

Even the luggage carousels were ornate and housed a model Dzong

We met our guide outside and waiting for us was our missing colleague who had to bypass India and take a flight via Bangkok. We were soon on our way and barely drove a mile outside the airport before stopping by the Paro River. 

Ibisbill winter along this stretch of river

Feral Pigeon made into our Bhutan list as our first bird seen but a few minutes later the quality ramped up as our target bird was found – Ibisbill. This was a key bird for many of the group and although I’d seen them several times before it’s always a special bird to see. Some of the birds here are resident breeders while some breed high up in the Himalayas and winter at lower elevations. We saw three birds here. There was also a variety of Redstarts seen with White-capped, Plumbeous and Hodgson’s, the latter being my only new bird today.

Ibisbill

Plumbeous Redstart (male)

Plumbeous Redstart (female)

Joining the waterbirds were several White Wagtails of two different races, Common Sandpiper and a Brown Dipper that shot past and then showed distantly. A flock of about 150 Plain Mountain-Finch flew over, a Rosy Pipit fed with the wagtails and a few Russet Sparrows perched in bushes or on overhead wires.

White Wagtail

White-capped Redstart

Paro Dzong - more on Dzongs in the next blog

Bridge to the Dzong

We drove into town and had lunch at a nice restaurant before carrying on and making another riverside stop. 

The main drag in Paro with typical buildings

Paro River

Here were six Ruddy Shelducks and a few other ducks as well as another Ibisbill. However, our main quarry was in the rocky hill on the other side of the path. Our driver was first to spot it – a Wallcreeper, another breeding bird of high elevations that winters down lower. We had prolonged views of one, a female and a bit further along was another pair.

Wallcreeper

Birds appeared all around us with River Lapwings on the shingle bed in the river, our first Oriental Turtle Dove roosting in a tree by the path, Hodgson’s Redstarts on top of the hillside, Rufous-breasted Accentor on the hill and the first of three Hoopoes sat on a pile of felled trees.

Grey-backed Shrike

Hodgson's Redstart

Hoopoe

River Lapwing

We drove further along by the river, pausing to get everyone on to a Great Cormorant roosting up on the hillside when someone spotted a Goral higher up. We all bundled out of the bus to watch it and a minute later someone else found a Himalayan Black Bear on the same hillside! It was very fortuitous that we had stopped for the Cormorant otherwise we would have missed both mammals.

Goral

Himalayan Black Bear

Our hotel was an hour’s drive away and we had time to relax before the log and dinner with plans made for an early start the following morning.