Today we would head up to the Sela Pass, a high montane area about two hours drive from our lodging in Dirang. Today was forecast to be cold, and so it transpired with fresh snowfall upon our arrival. These perishing conditions were combined with fog for much of the day, although once we passed into the north side of the pass the sky was clear blue and much of the snowfall had already cleared.
The first part of the morning was spent exploring the
conifer woodlands on the south side of the pass, where there was a nice
covering of snow and infrequent patches of fog moving through. There were three
game birds we wanted to see here, and we started well hearing Blood Pheasant in
the woodlands but ultimately failed to locate them. While we were stalking
these pheasants, a male Himalayan Monal flew over us calling, allowing time for
a few quick record shots but nothing more. Dissapointingly this was our only
Monal of the day! Finally there were the Snow Partridges. These too were heard
only for a good hour, as they refused to approach us, but eventually we were
able to track down a group of four individuals right by the side of the road,
and they performed extremely well.
In addition to the gamebirds we also had a few other goodies
here. Our mornig started with a Large-eared Pika on the side of the road, which
was a mammal species we had hoped to find and were extremely relieved to do so
this early in the day. As we moved up the mountains we picked up a few more
birds along the way, including Himalayan Buzzard, Himalayan White-browed
Rosefinch and finally, for me, Alpine Accentor! One of the European birds I had
still never connected with until this morning. Despite the difficulty with
finding the galliform targets, other species were slowing being found and that
meant it was time to pass over the mountain and down the other side.
It was already late morning when we went through the pass,
and we had a few species we wanted to find here. First was Solitary Snipe, for
which we headed to a small boggy area not far from the pass. Fortunately it did
not take us long to pick out the snipe and we had some brilliant views,
although we found out that the bird was not at all approachable. Despite this
early success, we found this area generally quite birdless and hard going, with
a flock of around 40 Snow Pigeons and two Red-billed Chough, as well as a few
Eurasian Wrens being all we could find.
Around midday we headed up a U-shaped valley leading off
from the main road to track down some of our remaining targets. Although it
looked like the lack of birds would continue, we had a burst of form and
managed to find all the remaining passerines we wanted. First a female
White-throated Redstart, followed by three very showy White-browed Tit-Warblers
and finishing off nicely with some Plain Mountain Finches. Before descending
back down the mountain we also had a quick look at the garbage dump in the village
of Sela Pass itself, where we found around 15 quite confiding Alpine Accentors,
and another Large-eared Pika.
Our descent back down the mountain was hampered badly by
thick fog, and the stops we made felt more like gratuitous effort by our guide,
who was doing his best to find us the Blood Pheasant, despite the conditions.
Still we persevered and we were ultimately rewarded at almost the same location
on the mountain that we had started our mornings birding. Here a pair of Blood
Pheasant responded to our tape and then came up to check us out, giving
brilliant views. After all our effort, we managed to leave the mountain with
all of our targets.
Sadly the altitude and the sun had taken its toll on a
couple of our party and after a late lunch at 14:30, we decided to spend the
rest of the afternoon recovering. We returned to our hotel at 16:00 ready to
sort ourselves out for the continuation of our trip!
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