Tue, Arp 26 - Birding the Limithang Road ll

 

Today David led us down the Limithang Road, walking from our hotel down through farm land and scattered houses.  I would have loved to go all the way down to the river, but better birding is above us so Wangdi drove us several thousands of feet above our hotel and we started birding down, alternating driving in the van and walking.

 

Scaly-breasted Cupwing - voted favorite bird of the trip!  (D Alexander photo)

 We stopped for breakfast where our crew was camped, and continued exploring the road, picking up birds.  We encountered a group of monkeys and with the help of the Indian birders, finally saw the Ward's Trogon, one of the main goals of the trip.  Trogons are famously shy birds that sit very quietly on a branch and are very difficult to locate.  This trogon has a beautiful pink-coral breast and was sitting high in a tree-- we were all relieved to finally see it.  

Ugen, David Bishop,& Wangdi celebrating the sighting of the Ward's Trogon!

We had lunch at our crew's campsite - this time they served us bamboo shoot soup; the shoots of which they had gathered themselves.  Unfortunately the soup was very bitter and only a couple of us could manage to eat it!

We returned to our hotel and I retrieved our laundry - we will have no opportunity for laundry for the rest of the trip and so need everything clean to survive!  We rested and I painted another water color for one of the staff who had mentioned how much he liked my work and asked if I could teach him something about drawing.  I hope I run into him again before we leave.

Rufous-necked Hormbill

At 4 PM we climbed onto the bus again and headed up the towards the pass.  We birded as the light faded, managing to see a group of Capped Langur monkeys who strolled across the road and climbed into trees - very unafraid as they are not hunted in Bhutan.

Capped Langur

After it was completely dark, David sat on a window ledge of the bus with a large spotting lamp, scanning the roadside vegetation for eye shine.  He called a halt to the bus and showed us a large squirrel, Hodgeson's Flying Squirrel, curled up on a tree limb.

Hodgeson's Flying Squirrel (D.Alexander photo)

We returned to the hotel at 8 PM and finished off the buffet.