Bhutan

April 9-25, 2006

Trip Report and Wildlife List

Bhutan - a lot has been written lately about this beautiful part of the world and many travel magazines seem to be featuring articles about the country's pristine beauty and culture. It's even on the travel calendar of many of the world's birding tour companies - and boy, did we ever run into them. It was quite a contrast from no birders on my last visit in the autumn.

Everyone except Paul met in Bangkok where we enjoyed a tour of the city, birded a little around the hotel grounds and sweltered in the heat and humidity of the city. Thankfully it was not for very long and we were soon winging our way on Druk Air's new Airbus to Paro International Airport. However, a brief stop in Calcutta did produce both Common Myna and Indian House Crow! After messing around with visas, meeting Pema and Paul, we were soon on our way to the hotel and our first taste of Bhutan. Aside from a lot of Red-billed Choughs and a Peregrine circling over the Paro Museum, we did not see many birds, but did enjoy a fair amount of culture, including spending some time at the Paro Festival which was just beginning to start. Chele La is always a good start to the trip and we scored with almost all of the pheasants: 20+ Blood, 6 Kalij and 4 Himalayan Monals. Good start! After birding all morning, it was good to get down to the heat of the valley floor after shivering in the cold mountain air, but as well as the pheasants we had our first Gold-billed Magpies, Scarlet Minivet and a host of other typical Bhutanese mountain birds.

The roads in Bhutan are narrow and often with rather steep drops along the roadsides. Travelling takes a little courage, especially when trying to look for birds on the way - our drive to Thimphu was just that, although with some good birding stops en route. Best were the Ibisbill along the river in Paro, a nest of Brown Dipper chicks en route, and a blizzard of water-associated Redstarts. Not to forget a great mammal - Common Goral on the steep, rocky cliffs. It's always difficult to come up with a list of "Best Birds" of the trip, but as we drove east we had great views of Yellow-rumped Honeyguide at the honeycombs, a very nice selection of waterfowl at the Thimpu WWTP (even if the river was a bit grim), very noisy River Lapwings, and some somewhat elusive Scaled Laughingthrushes at Jigme Dorji National Park early that morning.

The hike downhill through the rhododendrons at Dochu La was wonderful. Yes, it was a bit rocky in places, but the birding was excellent. We flushed a Eurasian Woodcock, watched a pair each of Darjeeling and Rufous-bellied Woodpeckers competing for territory, tried to catch up with some elusive flocks of thrushes and watched a pair of immaculate Ultramarine Flycatchers. While looking for a shady lunch spot, we luckily came upon the now infamous "birding wall" where we had lunch in the shade (the sun went in -such timing!) and watched a parade of birds go by, including several Verditer Flycatchers and some very agile Cutias.

Punakha Dzong sits at the confluence of 2 rivers and is extremely impressive. Equally impressive (well, almost - to us anyway!) were the 3 species of kingfishers that we found there - Common, White-throated and Crested. A small flock of swallows was unusual as all are best considered uncommon passage migrants through the country. As we drove towards Pele La, I was looking forward to our first night of camping (well, I was anyway!) especially in such a wonderful spot. As well as finding a very nice location for our campsite, our road crew had gathered fresh rhododendron blossoms that they decorated the camp with - very attractive. It was chilly that night, but with the quantity of blankets in the tents, no-one should have been cold (or was that the whisky before we went to bed?) An early morning hike along the old road bed did not produce the much requested Satyr Tragopan, although we did one calling downslope in the bamboo. We had to be content with a Red-flanked Bluetail, many sunbirds and a campsite full of yaks! Trongsa Dzong is also spectacular and sits atop a cliff overlooking the river valley. Surrounded by cool broadleaf forest and steep winding roads, it's a very attractive small town. Walks along the nearby roadsides produced the very uncommon White-naped Yuhina, Rufous-necked Laughingthrush and flocks of warblers, minivets and minlas and 3 female Satyr Tragopan (at last!) that gave most of us adequate views. Then it was off for more camping - this time at Tingtibi. This was a wet and soggy experience as we had watched a large front move in from India the previous night. Thankfully the birding was good with an excellent selection of bulbuls, Blue-bearded Bee-Eater, Asian Barred Owlet, the near-endemic Rufous-necked Hornbill and a troupe of Golden Langurs along the roadside. After the storm the weather had certainly closed in and it was cloudy and rainy the whole of the next day (little did we know at this stage how bad it would become!) We had missed the Beautiful Nuthatch on our first day, but I still felt somewhat relaxed about looking for it our last morning in the Tingtibi area. After getting the lay of the land and checking in all of the "regular" spots for the nuthatch, I thought it probably best to look for mixed species and hope to find our bird. Well, we now know what the result was - scope views of a pair of Beautiful Nuthatches, Sultan Tit, Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo and so on. Yes, despite the rain, Tingtibi was a great birding spot. As we traveled east from Trongsa and across the Yutong La Pass, the fun really started. With a steady, albeit cold, drizzle at breakfast when we were trying to sort out a flight flock of Altai Accentors, the weather got worse and worse. By the time we reached the pass, it was snowing heavily and it looked like we may have to turn back. But traffic still seemed to be coming over the pass, so we sat back (?) to enjoy the ride and enjoy the spectacle of a white snowy blanket on the rich red rhododendron blossoms.

The next few hours were most interesting as we watched cars and vans slipping around on the snow, vehicles suspended over the precipice and people generally milling around. It was a great relief to get into the Bumthang Valley where the snow was beginning to melt (obviously it had been snowing since the storm hit the higher elevations the day before). There was also some migration going on as we ran into a flock of Rufous-gorgeted and Ultramarine Flycatchers trying to feed in the snow.

Apparently this storm had caused quite a few treks to be cancelled as camping in the snowy conditions had proven to be quite hazardous. After some shopping in Bumthang (Jakar) for the beautiful Bhutanese textiles and hearing from another birding group about a male Satyr Tragopan on the roadside - pure luck of course, we continued east towards Ura (yes, it was raining again). Thankfully our campsite at Sengor was so muddy-looking that we continued on down the very steep and somewhat unnerving Lingmethang Road to Yongkola - certainly a good move. Three nights atop this little ridge, under the shadow of the stupa, was very enjoyable. We birded down along the Lingmethang Chu (River) where Rinchen had a Tawny Fish-Owl staked out - wonderful stuff! If only all birding was this easy. We birded the roadsides up past Namling (the home of the "flying" or was it plummeting chickens?); watched a small flock of Grey-headed Parrotbills feeding on leaf miner; and endless species of fulvettas, babblers and warblers. A special evening was put on for us with all of the folks from the local village coming for dinner. There was singing (from Chris and Lorraine as well as the local Bhutanese) dancing and a fair amount of drinking. A very nice ending to the camping and the trip- now it was 2 long days back to Paro and out.

Thailand Report (Enroute to Bhutan)