Sunday, March 7 - Along the Doi Lang Road

Sunday, March 7 - Up and onto the vans at 5 AM. We drove up and up 5500’ to 6750’ and parked by our faithful cooks’ van on a bridge and ate breakfast as it gradually got light. Bob and I along with Mary and Frances drove further along the road in David’s van. The road narrowed and we saw no traffic. Bob’s GPS said we were 0.4 miles into Burma! The woods were lovely with huge white orchids emerging from epiphyte mats high in primary trees.

We saw wonderful birds until about ten when the outrageously loud cicadas started their buzzing and clicking and the birds quieted, so we turned our attention to butterflies and saw the Cruiser and the Dark Glossy Tiger.

We came to an overlook and could see two Shan hill tribe villages atop small hills in the distance and at least four fires burning, one of which was rapidly consuming the wild bananas and shrubs on a slope next to us. There don’t seem to be any grazing animals or crops grown here so it is a mystery why all these fires are burning, maybe it’s just tradition, but is certainly fouls the air and obscures the views.

We met with Dion’s group and had a delicious lunch, spicy soup, crab rolls in chili sauce and wok cooked veggies. We were too far from our hotel to return for a siesta, so we just napped in the vans until 2:30 when we set off again to bird. We met a group from the Bangkok Bird Club who were camping out at a army checkpoint and had set out meal worms and fruit which enabled us to have some easy views of several birds including the really cute Spectacled Barwing.

We started back and reached the hotel by 6:45, showered and got together for the List, dinner and several beers. Tomorrow is a big transfer day so we have to be ready and packed by 5:15.