This was an important day for us; we were going up to Sela Pass, where many of my most wanted birds for the trip are found. The distance from Dirang to Sela Pass as the crow flies isn't that far, but the road is crazy with many, many switchbacks. The Lonely Planet Guide to India calls it the most perilous road in Arunachal Pradesh. It is mostly used by army vehicles and other trucks and can be very slow going when traffic backs up. It is also prone to landslides. We left very early, at 4AM I think, maybe earlier. (My mind sometimes blocks out unpleasant memories.)
I need to back track a bit. The day before we had run into another birding group. The guide and Mike chatted about the group's trip to Eaglenest, where we were heading in a few days. He then commented that it is so hard to know what the weather was going to do as there were no forecasts for Sela Pass. He was able to check on the weather in Tawang, which is past the pass, and it was supposed the rain. The following day was forecast to be sunny, so they were going to drive Mandala Road and go to Sela the next day. I asked Mike what he thought and he said we would go ahead and go. We had a second day scheduled for Sela in case things didn't go well.
I purposely turned my phone off as I wanted to take things in without any distractions. I had put my camera bag in the back of the car. The weather was glorious! After the sun came up we stopped and had amazing looks at a male Fire-tailed Sunbird. I deeply regretted leaving my camera in the back. I also noticed my phone was gone. Mike said he remembered me having it when we got in the car, and I was sure I had it, too. We looked under the seat and couldn't find it. We couldn't call it because I had turned it off. DOH! Willie said he bet it had fallen out of the car, but we hadn't stopped. I said if need be I would buy a burner phone when we got back to Dirang. I wasn't going to let it ruin my trip.
We drove on and the driver screeched to a halt, pointed, and said "Monal!" Himalayan Monal was one of my top target birds. I could see its orange tail sticking out behind a small structure on the side of the road. It then proceeded to cross the road and slowly go up the hill, giving us great views! Luckily I had gotten my camera bag out and was able to get a mediocre shot. As I put my camera back in the bag, guess what I found? Stuck at the bottom was my phone. Of course I was glad, but seeing the monal made me far happier. We then had a little bonus of seeing a Himalayan Pika, a very cute rodent.
We went on and stopped at another spot which was sometimes productive. Dorjee walked down a path that I was a little uncomfortable with. It was narrow, a little slick looking, with a rather steep hill going down from it. I wondered if it was worth it. Willie was in front of me and he didn't seem very enthused about it either. Then I saw Dorjee motion us on and mouth the words "Blood Pheasant!" All fear left me and, if I recall correctly, I pushed past Willie and then told him what it was. We got to Dorjee and there was a pair just down the hill. The male was spectacular! I was shaking so badly I could hardly take any pictures. The pair strolled down the hill and we lost sight of them. This was my most wanted bird in India and one I didn't think we would see well. A lot of stories I had heard involved seeing them distantly on a cliff at best. I told Mike I would be happy if we didn't see a single other bird on the rest of the trip.
We then drove up to the pass itself. It was still sunny, but the wind was howling and we were very cold. It was a bit of a change from the leech packed, hot, humid forest from the day before. We stopped at a tiny place for breakfast. We huddled around a little tin stove and drank tiny cups of hot tea. Our breakfast consisted of an omelet on top of maggi noodles. Maggi noodles are very popular in this area, which is really weird, as they are just "cup-o-noodles." But the omelet was great!
We drove on to the other side of the pass. We checked a lake, but it was empty other than a single Brown-headed Gull. A side road across from the lake proved more productive. A Bearded Vulture, ask Lammergeire put on a great show flying overhead.Mike and Dorjee found a male Tibetan Blackbird, which we were thrilled about, then we found three more. We also had a Mountain Weasel, adding to our growing mammal list.
Our next stop was a spot where Solitary Snipe are often found. The hill down to the spot was very steep so I decided to watch from the road. Dorjee and Mike stomped around below us trying to find one, but did not have any luck. I watched a White-capped Redstart carrying nesting material to a rock crevice. As I was standing there a bird flashed past. I thought "That looks like a chubby Sabine's Gull." I then realized it was a Snow Pigeon, a bird I didn't think we were in range of. (My book was wrong.) Mike and Dorjee came back up and we hit another side road, which was productive.
The altitude at Sela is almost 14,000 feet, so we were starting to feel it. We headed back over the pass when we saw a group of Belgian birders photographing something, so of course we stopped. They had a small group of Grandalas. Mike got a bright blue male in the spotting scope. This was another of my target birds. Unfortunately, they were high up and my photos are crap.
We decided to go down slope for lunch and come back after we warmed up a bit. The weather started to deteriorate, which seemed to be a pattern most days at higher elevations. We found a spot to get momos, Tibetan dumplings, which I really loved. It was foggy, and then drizzling. I hoped we would get above it if we got higher up. We started back up to the pass and I noticed a little bit of snow along the side of the road. I commented that I didn't remember seeing snow on the way up. Mike said it probably had been there. We got a bit higher and there was more snow. I knew I would have noticed. By the time we got to the Blood Pheasant spot it was snowing pretty heavily. We stopped for a few minutes and decided to cut our losses and head back before it got any worse. This was fine with me. The day had gone better than I would have ever expected!
Photos for the day: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sngcanary/albums/72177720299041537
Bird list for the day:
1. Blood Pheasant *
2. Himalayan Monal*
3. Snow Pigeon
4. Oriental Turtle-dove
5. Blyth's Swift *
6. Brown-headed Gull
7. Bearded Vulture
8. Himalayan Buzzard *
9. Eurasian Kestrel
10. Peregrine Falcon
11. Gray-backed Shrike
12. Red-billed Chough
13. Large-billed Crow
14. Coal Tit
15. Blyth's Leaf-warbler
16. Black-faced Laughing-thrush *
17. Grandala *
18. Tibetan Blackbird *
19. White-collared Blackbird *
20. Golden Bush-robin
21. Blue-fronted Redstart
22. White-capped Redstart
23. Fire-tailed Sunbird *
24. Alpine Accentor
25. Altai Accentor *
26. Rufous-breasted Accentor *
27. Russet Sparrow *
28. Rosy Pipit
29. Himalayan White-browed Rosefinch *
30. Dark-breasted Rosefinch*
31. Plain Mountain Finch *
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