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Waterfall Nature

contour road to a nearby dam produced
Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush,
White-bellied Yuhina, Rufous-faced
Warbler and Blue-throated Blue
Flycatcher. During the night it rained,
bucketing down, signalling an end to
the camping component of our trip. Fire-tailed Myzornis (DS) Himalayan Monal (DS)

Returning to higher altitude forests en
route back to Trongsa, our next target
bird was the Beautiful Nuthatch, surely
an appropriate name for this little gem
of the forests. A flash sighting of a pair
of the birds by other members of our
group was achieved but yours truly
was ‘elsewhere’ and dipped completely
(missed it). It took a 3-hour bus ride to
finally locate another specimen, one of
the best sightings of the entire trip.

Moving on from Trongsa via Pele La
(a pass of 3 420m) to Punakha, we
were impressed by a large flock of very Ward’s Trogon (male) (MA)
attractive Snow Pigeons flying overhead.
These were my first new species for
the day, as we crossed over the Black
Mountain range running north-south, Wangdue shop (RS)
marking our exit from the central our group of a male bird perched only
part and entry into west Bhutan. 10m away at eye-level. The male bird
has a maroon head, mantle, back and
Shortly thereafter we crossed the tail. The breast, vent and undertail is
Punakha Chu at Wangdue Phodrang, a salmon pink as well as the forehead
a quaint little town of tiny shops, and and bill. It has a blue orbital ring and
were confronted with dramatic views cere, large black wings with fine white
of the Wangdue Dzong, stretching barring on the coverts, while the female
along a ridge above the river. It was is brown rather than maroon, bright
built in 1632 and has commanding yellow where the male is pink, except
views of the valley below. Legend has for the bill which is horn-coloured.
it that 4 ravens were seen flying over in
4 directions, an auspicious sign of the After a successful search we found the
spread of religion to the 4 points of the next target bird, the Slender-billed
compass, which is why the Wangdue Oriole, at our Punakha hotel and then
Dzong was founded in that place. set off for the Jigme Dorji National Park
in search of the endangered Red Panda, Ward’s Trogon (female) (DS)
Passing through a moist forest of broad- which was unfortunately not home, to visit a conservatory on the town
leaved trees to our overnight stop in the and the White-bellied Heron, which had outskirts to view the Bhutan Takin
town of Punakha, we were very excited apparently departed 2 weeks earlier (national mammal of Bhutan), Sambar
to hear the unmistakeable call of Ward’s for summer breeding altitudes higher and Muntjac Deer. The seldom-seen
Trogon, arguably the most impressive up. Slaty-backed Flycatcher and Bay Takin is a shaggy and rather stocky
and beautiful of the Trogon family of 23 Woodpecker, however, provided some (150 - 350kg) bovine which can only
varieties. We immediately stopped and cheer for our rather disheartened group. be encountered in remote areas of the
alighted from our bus, assembled our Himalayas. In the wild, it feeds in the
spotting scopes and soon latched onto We continued on to the capital of grassland meadows, often well above the
the Trogons that were flitting from tree Bhutan, Thimphu (population <100 000), tree-line, so we were happy to enjoy the
to tree. Mind-boggling scope views were which was undoubtedly the busiest opportunity of observing these strange
eventually obtained by all members of part of the country. Here, we took time creatures, even if in relative captivity.

30 Waterfall Issue 9 2020