Bhutan Part 2

Tuesday 17^th

We left the hotel at 5.45 for our first full day’s birding in Bhutan. Thirty minutes later we reached a mountain pass at 3,150 metres and started our birding just down the road with a Great Parrotbill, a particularly striking bird. Over the course of the trip we would see several more representatives of this Asian family.

Great Parrotbill

Black-faced Laughingthrush

As we carried on we started to encounter more of the birds of this region including several species of Laughingthrush – Black-faced, Striated and Chestnut-crowned as well as Sibias, Yuhinas and Rosefinches.

Black-throated Thrush

Hodgson's Redstart (female)

Russet Sparrow

Rufous Sibia

We took breakfast in the field, a crew of three followed us around for the rest of the trip, setting up a picnic tables and chairs and preparing breakfast and lunch every day. It worked really well as often we were in remote locations where there simply wasn’t anywhere to eat for miles around. We did find however that meals frequently got interrupted when a good bird suddenly appeared!

Breakfast in the field, this would become part of our daily routine

A purple primula, related to our Primrose

We visited Lampelri National Park after breakfast, a popular tourist spot but we were there before most people arrived. This gave us another selection of Asian birds including Alpine and Chestnut Thrushes, White-collared Blackbird, White-browed Fulvetta and two more species of Laughingthrush.

Spring was just starting in Bhutan with the first blooming Azaleas and Rhododendrons

White-tailed Nuthatch

Asian Thrush

Chestnut Thrush

White-throated Laughingthrush

Yellow butterfly sp, possibly a Clouded Yellow

Just down the road from the park we ran into a feeding flock which contained Green Shrike-Babbler, Yellow-browed, Yellow-cheeked and Black-throated Tits among others. 

Green Shrike-Babbler

Pygmy Blue Flycatcher

Prayer flags and roadside shrines were frequently seen on our drive

A scenic spot for lunch

Some of the rural houses had a great view!

After lunch we saw our first primates of the trip – a group of Assamese Macaques.

Assamese Macaque - the first of five species of monkey we saw

During the afternoon there was a large flock of Spot-winged Grosbeaks, as well as seeing Black Eagle, Pallas’s Fish-Eagle and Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler. 

Spot-winged Grosbeaks

Oriental Turtle Dove

Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler

We spent some of the afternoon Dzonging (yes I did make this word up). Dzongs are large fortifications that house both religious and administrative buildings that govern each region. Typically they contain several temples where monks follow the Buddhist teachings.

Dzong

Entrance to the bridge crossing to the Dzong

A steep set of narrow stairs takes you into the Dzong

There were various murals in the walkways

Walking through the courtyard

By one of the inner buildings firecrackers were let off to scare away demons

One of the temples, photography was not permitted inside

A procession of monks playing instruments after a ceremony in one of the temples

Back out in the main courtyard

View of part of the Dzong from the river crossing

We arrived at our hotel at 5.30.

Wednesday 18^th

We left the hotel at 6am and drove along the river valley where we saw some more Ruddy Shelducks, a group of Red-crested Pochard and some Pintail as well as Common and Crested Kingfishers. 

Ruddy Shelduck

Crested Kingfisher

River Lapwing

Even the corner shops are ornate!

Further along we found another Wallcreeper as well. A call of ‘martins’ from the side and front of the bus gave us a flock of Crag Martins flying beside us while up ahead on the rocks were two Yellow-throated Martens!

Yellow-throated Marten

After breakfast in the field we continued along the montane road up through rhododendron forests towards Lawa La pass at 3,350m. 

Prayer flags: the white ones are hung on 108 poles to mark a death 

Snow-capped mountains

We made several stops and walked along the road. There were plenty of birds in this habitat including woodpeckers (Grey-headed, Lesser Yellownape and Speckled Piculet), barbets (Great and Golden-throated) warblers (Blyth’s Leaf and Grey-hooded), Small Niltava and Spotted Forktail.

Grey-headed Woodpecker

Lesser Yellownape

Great Barbet - several would call to each other incessantly

Chestnut-bellied Rock-Thrush

Fire-breasted Flowerpecker

Golden-throated Barbet

Green-backed Tit collecting nesting material

Speckled Piculet

White-tailed Nuthatch

We stopped by a bee colony in a cliff overhang where there was a Yellow-throated Honeyguide. 

Yellow-throated Honeyguide

After lunch we continued birding the high elevations and saw our second monkeys of the trip – Grey Langur. The list of birds continued to grow during the afternoon with plenty of forest birds like Black-browed and Grey Crested Tits as well as raptors with Mountain Hawk-Eagle, Crested Goshawk, Himalayan Buzzard and Hen Harrier all seen.

Grey Langur

Large-billed Crow

Feral yaks

Half the group went shopping at the stalls on the pass

We arrived at our hotel in Phobjikha at 3,000 metres in the evening. After dinner we went for a short owling excursion and had good views of a Himalayan Owl. 

Himalayan Owl

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.