Yuksom Day Four

Another day on the forest trail out of Yuksom - 2 Great Barbet, 2 Oriental Turtle Dove, 6 Spot-winged Grosbeak, 1 White-capped Water Redstart, 2 Little Pied Flycatcher, 1 Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike, 2 Small Niltava, 1 Black-capped Monarch, 1 Himalayan Bulbul, 7 Verditer Flycatcher, 2 Mountain Tailorbird, 1 Pygmy Wren-babbler, 2 Black-throated Sunbird, 1 Golden Spectacled Warbler, 1 Slaty-blue Flycatcher, 2 Broad-billed Warblers, 2 Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike, 4 Oriental White-eye, 6 Short-billed Minivet, 1 Asian Barred Owlet, 1 Large Niltava, 1 Blyth's Leaf Warbler, 1 Long-tailed Thrush, 1 Black Eagle and 4 Robin Accentor - not a bad day, after 13 hours in the field.

Blyth's Leaf Warbler

Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike

Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike

Little Pied Flycatcher

Blue-tailed Jester

Common Leopard

Yuksom Day Three

Another day around Yuksom - highlights were 1 Hill Blue Flycatcher, 2 Red-flanked Bluetail, 1 Large Niltava, 2 Small Niltava, 1 Golden-spectacled Warbler, 2 Blue-winged Minla, 10 Chestnut-tailed Minla, 2 Red-tailed Minla, 4 Olive-backed Pipit, 5 Oriental Turtle Dove, 6 Red-billed Leiotherix, 6 Verditer Flycatcher, 1 Siberian Stonechat, 1 Little Pied Flycatcher, 2 White-crowned Water Redstart, 2 Nepal Fulvetta and most stunning of all - a tricolor Long-tailed Shrike.

 

Chestnut-tailed Minla

Little Pied Flycatcher

'tricolor' Long-tailed Shrike

Red-billed Leiotherix

Red-flanked Bluetail

Small Niltava

Siberian Stonechat

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 - The Pipeline Trail

I did start off to do the lower Jeep trail, but to get down to it involved a one mile 45 degree path and if I climbed down that way I would only have to come up again later in the day, and I’m not sure that I could have made it! I did go down the first few hundred steps and then I came across the pipeline trail so took that instead.
Birding was pretty slow but steady with a perched up Black Eagle, 2 Little Pied Flycatchers, a sizeable flock of around 140 Himalayan Swiftlets, 6 Short-billed Minivets, 2 Blue-fronted Redstarts, 2 Red-billed Leiothrix, a huge feeding party of 400+ Whiskered and Rufous-vented Yuhinas, 2 Blue Whistling Thrushes, 14 Striated Bulbuls, 10 White-throated Laughingthrush, 1 Verditer Flycatcher, 1 Fire-tailed Sunbird and a Red-flanked Bluetail. But 'bird of the day' must go to a White-gorgeted Flycatcher that was doing it's thing in some really dense undergrowth, it was fly catching like a typical Flycatcher, but it all took place less than a foot off the ground and it's catching jaunts were sometimes just a matter of inches.
The only other thing of note was a single Indian Muntjac.



Black Eagle

Indian Muntjac

Little Pied Flycatcher

Short-billed Minivet

Whiskered Yuhina

The Pipeline Trail