Pelling

Dropped into a little gem of a place quite by accident, I started off by heading past the Helipad towards the monastery on top of the hill, but I decided not to bother going up a 1 km one in one track! However I did notice another track going down into the forest, so I birded this until it came to a dead end after 1km and then birded it back up to Pelling again.
An excellent bit of forest with a few small houses dotted about, in the 4 hours I spent here I got 5 Verditer Flycatchers, 2 Oriental Turtle Doves, 2 Little Pied Flycatcher, 2 Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush, 3 Fire-breasted Flowerpeckers, 2 Striated Bulbul, 4 Olive-backed Pipit, 4 Great Barbet, 2 Grey Treepie, 6 Red-billed Leiotherix, 20 Chestnut-tailed Minla and a female Ultramarine Flycatcher.
Star birds though were 4 Yellow-cheeked Tits, having missed these at Neora Valley, I didn't think I would get another chance.
Had a quick look around the forest at Pemayantse in the afternoon, before a thunderstorm hit, and just had 2 Fire-breasted Flowerpeckers, 10 Chestnut-tailed Minla and 2 Great Barbets.

Yellow-cheeked Tit

Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush

Chestnut-crowned Warbler

Great Barbet

Grey Treepie

Little Pied Flycatcher

Oriental Turtle Dove

Ultramarine Flycatcher

Verditer Flycatcher

Lava Upper Jeep Track

Decided to give this track a go, as if it turned out to be crap, I could always drop back down onto the Lava-Kalimpong road. I needn't have worried. As this one was pretty steep, I concentrated on getting to the top as soon as possible, and then the plan was to bird all the way back down at a more leisurely pace. I reached the top after about 90 minutes and completely knackered and in need of a good rest. The top area is pretty flat and the loggers have noticed this too and have taken a fair few big trees out from there, on the up side it does make it that little bit easier to see the moss covered trees descending down the north slope.The first scan I did down the north slope and Bingo – Cutia, not one but four! They all put on a bit of a show for about 20 minutes as they climbed around the moss covered branches looking something like a cross between a Pitta and a Nuthatch.
The birds seen on the way back down were – 1 Great Barbet, 4 Blue-fronted Redstarts, 1 White-tailed Nuthatch, 28 White-throated Laughingthrush, 2 Broad-billed Warblers, 10 Chestnut-tailed Minla, 1 Brown-throated Treecreeper, 2 Striated Bulbul, 5 Red-billed Blue Magpies, 1 Slaty-blue Flycatcher and a female Rufous-breasted Bush Robin.

Cutias

Chestnut-crowned Warbler

White-tailed Nuthatch

The Upper Jeep Track