for the night. Driving through Bhutan, especially when having to
cover long distances, can be both exhausting and exhilarating.
Mountain roads are always a challenge and when most of them are being
repaired or widened, the journey becomes quite a painful one for
jostling passengers. But a look out of the window will keep you
engrossed till the next bump. Within a few hours, you can travel from
high altitude passes with snow laden alpine trees to lower altitudes
with verdant hillsides interspersed with creamy flowering magnolias
and rhododendrons. Lower still the flora changes to lacy pink cherry
blossoms and delicate mauve kachnars and at the floor of the valley
you will be amidst flowering mango trees and banana plantations.
Interspersed with beautiful dzongs, mountain streams, waterfalls, and
the occasional bird - by - the - roadside, the long drive passes. Our
journey to Bumthang was uneventful in birding terms, with both Tashi
and Alpa (who had visited Bhutan earlier) ruing the decline in
sightings and numbers. So it was with a little bit of trepidation that
we headed the next morning towards Sengor and our campsite, had we
left the best birding behind? And camping? Seriously? Wasn't that
something for teenagers?
Sengor
Sengor has the reputation of being one of the best birding areas in
Bhutan, if you are not looking for Blood Pheasants and Monals. As we
drove, a solitary Snow Pigeon pecked at the ground in a village and a
little further the rest of his flock - around 80 of them- roosted on
the rock ledges; an Alpine Accentor hopped about while his cousin
Altai posed on the edges of the rock face; a flock of birds alighting
on a tree turned into Red Crossbills, much desired lifers, and they
ripped into the pine cones with their unusual made-to-order beaks. We
had the crucial decision to make of where to have our picnic lunch and
a bend in the road next to a grove of Magnolia trees looked inviting
and we decided to stop there. What an inspired choice it turned out
to be! The place was abuzz with the sounds of chittering and chirping
birds, every branch seemed to have some movement on it. It was
difficult to focus on any one bird and the Tits, Warblers, Yuhinas,
Babblers, Fulvettas did not make it any easier by constantly moving
around and hiding behind leaves. Slowly our efforts paid off and we
were ticking Ashy-throated, Lemon-rumped and Broad-billed Warblers;
Rufous capped and Golden Babblers; Black-eared Shrike Babbler; Golden
breasted and Rufous winged Fulvettas; White-naped and Rufous vented
Yuhinas......We were just catching our breath and inhaling the gentle
fragrance of the Magnolias when Nikhil called out Broadbills, no
Parrotbills! A gorgeous flock of the cutest birds were right by the
roadside, feeding in the bamboo. They hung in the most awkward
positions, much as the parrots like to do, and we spent a long time
just watching their antics. What could possibly top having lunch with
Black-throated Parrotbills?
Namling
Sated after a fulfilling day of birding we reached our campsite, just
beyond Namling. We had been advised to camp lower and travel higher
for birding as the weather would be milder and that certainly was very
good advise. Having tea and drinks in the open, listening to the
sounds of White crested Laughingthrushes settling in for the night and
the Mountain Scops Owl just waking; having an Asian Barred Owlet sit
on a field post and a fire-fly lazily waft in the air - it was quite
magical and perfectly comfortable and we were all relieved to discover
we had not become old and crotchety and grumbly and non-adventerous.
In fact we were quite spoilt and pampered at camp by a very able chef
who even managed to bake a cake for us on the last day. So after a
good night's rest, we headed back up to Sengor to try and find the
prize - the Satyr Tragopan. We all really wanted to see this bird and
while Tashi had been reassuring about our chances, I was afraid that
this mission might end up like those endless tiger safaris where all
you see is a pug mark. We were driving up and it was barely light
before Nik yelled STOP! What? Where? Satyr on the left side. Can you
still see him? We scrambled to the side and tried desperately to get a
look from inside the van, too scared to even open the door in case we
spook him. After everyone had caught a glimpse, the door was slid as
gently and silently as possible, and still without stepping down, we
leaned out to get better views. The Tragopan obliged, he got onto a
stump by the roadside and sat while we whispered and admired and then
he flew into a tree. The van was rolled back in neutral, we jumped out
and went to look for him. He sat on a branch and let out a call, the
strangest call you've ever heard, like a wailing comic-book baby. He
ruffled and shook his feathers in some sort of display and then
disappeared. We were hooked, yeh dil mange more. The van was parked,
binoculars, cameras and scopes were taken out while we waited for the
light to get better and the Satyr to reappear. He kept teasing us. He
would keep calling and while we fixated on the spot where it seemed to
emanate from, he would silently creep to another spot and appear. He
kept us rooted with tantalising glimpses and we decided to stay put
and have breakfast, ready to share if he wanted a morsel. At one point
he appeared on the road and Nik chucked away his sandwich in an
attempt to quickly focus and get a picture but Wily Mr Tragopan was
gone again. He called, we waited. Finally when we were ready to move
on, he relented and came and sat back on the same branch. We ogled,
clicked and scoped while he wailed, displayed, walked on the branch,
turned and showed all sides........Nothing beats breakfast with the
Satyr Tragopan!
Our birding adventure continued for a couple of more days as we drove
on to Korila - where we added the Gold-naped and Scarlet Finchs- to
Trashigang where we finally got our wonderful monastery visit and so
on through to Guwahati and our flights back home.
Our much awaited, much anticipated, much planned visit, had been an
amazing experience- much as you would expect in wondrous Bhutan.
Happiness,
Sheila
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "delhibirdpix" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to delhibirdpix+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to delhibirdpix@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/delhibirdpix.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
No comments:
Post a Comment