At 12:30 AM I visited the toilet tent and a huge blast of wind almost took it down - That would have been an awkward situation! 1 AM we awoke to hammering as poor Nancy next door had had her side of her and David M's tent blown down and was trying to find the wooden pegs to set it up again. David A and Ben in the other tent were scrambling around as their tent had come completely down! I guess being in the middle blocked us from the worst and we were fine.
We were awakened by David Bishop at 4:45 to a Clear Day (!!) and assembled by the nice warm stove for cookies and hot drinks, before setting out to catch the first of the birds in the early morning. It quickly became obvious that the birds there don't get up before the sun, so we returned for cheese omelets and baked beans, packed up and drove back almost to the pass at 12,000'.
It was great to be birding in the sun and to see mountains (hills to the Bhutanese) surrounding us.
We got great views of the Fire-tailed Sunbird, a brilliant red small bird that was flying rapidly back and forth across a clearing. We walked east about three miles along this beautiful road that has not yet been disrupted by the widening project. There was very little traffic and we could bird with ease.
One great thing about Bhutan is that plastic bags have been banned! There is some trash, of course, but nothing like India , or most countries, in fact. It is such a pleasure not to see tons of plastic bags in every gutter and stuck on trees. At 1:30 we found our cooking crew and had samosas and several other dishes before continuing to work our way towards the Trogon Villa at 5000', where we will spend the next three nights.
At 3 PM David Bishop suggested that anyone who wanted, could be driven to the hotel right away - that sounded good to me so Wangdi delivered me to the hotel where I was greeted with a warm towel and a glass of juice. This lodge is very attractive but quite like a research station in that it is very practical.. Our room is huge with many shelves, hooks, and electrical outlets - a great place to re-organize our stuff and have laundry done - our last chance of the trip!
The hotel is right on a small dirt lane which also is part of the east-west highway - a few cars and some cows and calves passed as I was going over my notes. The others arrived about five and had seen some pretty terrific birds which I hope to add to my list in the next couple of days.
We had a delicious dinner of potato soup, followed by a good buffet.
RRZ's life list has increased by 88 birds so far!
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