NEPAL BIRDING TRIP REPORT 17 DECEMBER TH JANUARY 2012

Transcription

1 NEAL BIRDING TRI REORT 17 DECEMBER TH JANUARY 2012 articipants:- Oscar J Campbell (UAE) & Chris H Mills (UK) Gillian Ensor (UAE) 30 th Dec 6 th Jan & Jacky Mills 18 th 31 st Dec Above: Dhaulagiri from near oon Hill, Annapurna region Getting there CHM took a flight from Heathrow to Abu Dhabi (AD), taking in five days birding in the UAE before heading with OJC to Kathmandu (KTMD). In principle, this is a regular and straightforward route to fly to KTMD even if you didn t want a stopover in AD. Most connections are around 2 hours in AD and on my return leg to the UK this is what I faced. We flew with Etihad whom were very good; we were fortunate both on the AD to KTMD & KTMD return to AD to get upgrades to business class by simply asking at the check-in desk. Even in economy service & food was good, plus there was a good choice of films, all from individual screens. Flights are generally cheaper prior to the mad Christmas rush from around 18 th Dec and after 3 rd January; this year it turned out to be around 150 cheaper: CHM paid London-Kathmandu return whereas JM whom joined up with us later was tied to the Christmas dates and paid over Flight timing is around 7 hrs to AD from London, then 4 hrs from AD to KTMD. Trekking & birding On the trip we did the following: 1. ulchowki mountain: Day trip from Kathmandu; next day we took an internal flight to okhara. 2. A 6-day trek on the oon Hill loop from okhara. After this we also had a day relaxing in okhara; where there is very good and easy winter birding at the delta on the lake and in the good forest behind Fishtail Lodge. After this we took a taxi (about 4 hours) to Chitwan. 3. Three days of birding at Chitwan National ark, based at Sauraha. We then took a bus (all-day trip on the Ibisbill express; see below) back to Kathmandu. 4. A 4-night / 5-day trek in the Sunderjal / Chisopani hills on the edge of the Kathmandu valley. Details of how we organized each part of this is outlined below:

2 1 Arranging to get to ulchowki mountain from Kathmandu is straightforward and makes for a very good day trip but we warned that a robbery and some other incidents had taken place recently in this area; we don t not recommend going alone. We did however have a trouble-free visit and saw a great selection of forest birds. 2 For our accommodation in okhara and our trek in the Annapurna region (where we spent 6 days on the oon Hill loop) we used Raju (the owner) did an excellent job of organizing transport to and from the starting point and set us up with a great guide and porter. 3 As in okhara, we pre-arranged our visit to Chitwan National ark by booking with Hem Subedi ( blackbaza@hotmail.com) of Mowgli s Eco Adventure Tours ( ). Hem is a great birder and we had a good time birding with him in Chitwan, although you may prefer not to use the accommodation he suggested (see below). 4 Organising trekking for the in the hills and mountains around Kathmandu is very straightforward; there are many different companies working from shop-fronts in the city, with a particular concentration in the main tourist area of Thamel. You could easily just turn up and organize a trek with one of these companies, and that is what we did. Many of these companies are able to organize treks all across Nepal and to Tibet as well. Using an agency right outside our Kathmandu hotel, we ended up with Chhiring Sherpa who guided us and made a very good job of the arrangements. Itinerary & Accommodation Date Location Accommodation Comments 17/12/12 18/12/12 19/12/12 Flight to okhara 19/12/12 25/12/12 KTMD Tibet Guest House We stayed here on 3 occasions during the trip. We started in the basic rooms. These are not great, noisy, not clean & cold; there was little hot water! But they only cost about 10 per night if there are two of you sharing a room. Deluxe & Super deluxe was much better, the latter with heating, hot water, comfy beds & clean en-suite bathroom. Great grub in the restaurant! We got an internal flight from KTMD to okhara with Yeti airlines. The flights are all similar & there are about 3 airlines. Cost was about $90.00 & Raju at North Face Inn organised our tickets for us. okhara North Face Inn Very nice place, with clean rooms, good breakfast & Raju the owner is an experienced ex-guide who organised our guides & porters for the trek, plus transport. All of this was done very quietly & efficiently. 20/12/12 Trek day 1 Nayapaul Ban Thanti 21/12/12 Trek day 2 Ban Thanti - Gorepani Tea-house (didn t note the name) Sunny Hotel Long 1 st day with final leg of 2500 steps up to Ban Thanti! lenty of choice of tea-houses in Ban Thanti; you can usually get hot water - ask beforehand. Basic room with toilet, no heating, so make sure you have a good sleeping bag; it is below freezing overnight. Hot shower, warm communal dining area, good food. 22/12/12 Trek day 3 Gorepani - Tadapani Fishtail Lodge Up very early 5am for oon Hill sunrise, personally I reckon sunset was much better, plus less people. However, the birding is obviously far better on the way down in the morning. Very basic rooms, no heating. Toilet & shower separate to rooms but clean & good hot shower. Food good.

3 23/12/12 Trek day 4 Tadapani - Jhinu Hot Spring Cottage Good rooms with comfortable mattress, toilet & shower in room. Dining area cold. Nearby hot springs well worth a visit, fantastic to lie in after a long day of trekking. The only downside they are about 25 minutes walk downhill from the accommodation. So it is uphill all the way back! 24/12/12 Trek day 5 Jhinu - Tolka 25/12/12 Trek day 6 Tolka Kande & then okhara Namaste Lodge North Face Inn Very busy & hot shower not working, but hot bucket of water provided. Only one room with toilet & not working properly. Dining area cold, so not great but maybe ok when there is less people & big camping group were staying & they struggled to cope with all the people. As above; excellent. 26/12/12 okhara North Face Inn Day spent recovering from the night before; easy birding on the lake, and we rented a bike and headed out for the afternoon at the delta of the lake. 27/12/12 okhara Chitwan We birdwatched in the morning around the famous Fishtail Lodge; there is a free ferry across. We then took a 4 wheel drive taxi to Chitwan, took around 4 hours. Rooms not great, dirty bathrooms, plus noisy & Chitwan Suaraha Resort uncomfortable beds. 28 & Chitwan Suaraha Resort We moved rooms but it wasn t much of an 29/12/12 improvement! 30/12/12 Chitwan Jungle Safari After a stomach upset & being less than impressed with Lodge Saurahu resort we moved next door to Jungle safari lodge which was much, much better. Nice & clean with hot water & comfortable beds. 31/12/12 Chitwan to KTMD Tibet Guest House Took a Super Deluxe double room! 20 for single occupancy, 30 for 2-person occupancy. Room even had heating, nice clean bathroom with hot water. 1/12/12 KTMD Tibet Guest house Organised our next trek into the edge of the Helambu district using the tour operator on the opposite side of the road to reception. We found out that he is affiliated to the Tibet Guest house! See details above for Chirring, the guide we used here; he was great. 2/1/12 Day 1 Trek Sundarijal to Chisapani 3/1/12 Day 2 Trek Chisapani to Thodong 4/1/12 Day 3 Thodong to Chisapani 5/1/12 Day 4 Chisapani to Nagarkot Teahouse in Chisopani Thodong Tea House Teahouse in Chisopani Hotel View oint There are 3-4 teahouses in Chisopani, all of a similar standard. The food was good, the accommodation is basic. The weather was brutally cold. A nice friendly place run by an Austrian guy married to a Nepalese girl. Food was very good. Rooms simple. Toilet & shower external to room. See above This area is full of more expensive lodges & this one was ok. It probably looks more glamorous & upmarket than it is. Showers were just about warm with a tiny sprinkling of water. Rooms clean, food ok, but no better than the teahouses 5/1/12 KTMD Around 15 got us a room in the Tibet Guest House to shower & pack etc in the afternoon.

4 Weather, timing and birding overview Christmas is outside the main trekking season in Nepal (October November and March April). The main reason for this is that it is bloody cold at night. We had fantastic clear weather throughout apart from few days in and around Kathmandu; days were warm and sunny but it was brutally cold at night. You need some decent warm gear and a good sleeping bag if trekking at this time of year is not going to become a miserable ordeal. This is particularly true away from the oon Hill loop which is really popular and so the tea houses have often got very good facilities, as they are geared up to having dozens of guests every night. Chisopani and Thodong were not like this; it really, really was cold at night there and there wasn t too much to do between getting to the teahouse at late afternoon and going to bed at around 9pm. Nice warm fires that we had got used to on the first trek were distinctly harder come by. Himalayan birding is some of the most exhilarating and rewarding in the world. All the places we went forest birding were full of birds; the montane forests are really rich and relatively easy to work; nearly always we had at least something to see and we found some mega flocks as well. This was true of both the oon Hill and Chisopani treks, although there is a lot more pristine forest on the former. However, the scrubby terraced hillsides and bushy scrub and forest edge that predominated on the latter gave us a lot of good wintering species. To OJC, who trekked in Nepal in April 2010, altitudinal differences in bird distribution on the oon Hill loop were very obvious. The upper forests, above about 2800m were much quieter, having been vacated by many warblers. However some of the specials such as parrotbills and White-browed Bush-Robin were still there and we also were compensated by some monster wintering species that you would never find in spring; redstarts were abundant and we were also lucky with seed-eaters such as Gold-naped and Spectacled Finches, amongst many others. See the species lists below for the breakdown. Above: a few of the many species we enjoyed on our oon Hill trek. Clockwise from top right: Little Forktail, Blue-fronted Redstart, ink-browed Rosefinch and, best of all, Spectacled Finch.

5 Left: not bad for a non-birding day! Chitwan was warm and sunny when were there. It was also very birdy indeed, although some of the tough specials such as Slender-billed Babbler and Bengal Florican eluded us; after two trips to Chitwan I would say that these are very tough for the short-term visitor to get to grips with. Hem tipped us off that it was sometimes possible to get Ibisbill from the bus between Chitwan and Kathmandu. OJC went back a day earlier than the others and scored; the others coming next day dipped. You go along some fantastic rivers on this otherwise long and uncomfortable journey but it would not be much fun trying to spot an Ibisbill a moving bus. Instead, what you need to do is get your bins handy for the lunch stop. We cannot remember the name of the stop that you want to make but pull in on the left with a café / restaurant beside (and, beyond, a steep slope down to the river beyond) and there is an old, grubby swimming pool just behind (and over to the left a bit as you get off the bus) you could be in the money: go through restaurant area (restaurant on right, pool on left) and get down the steep slope on the track that leads to a large sandy beach on the river edge (about a 5 minute walk). OJC easily found two Ibisbills here and had 30 minutes to enjoy them whilst all the other travelers had lunch. However, there a number of possible lunch stops on this route, and it is luck of the draw which one you end up at. Fingers crossed!

6 Species List for ulchowki Mountain, Kathmandu Visited on: December 18 th We walked up the hill after being driven halfway up the hillside by our driver, a car cannot go much further than halfway up, a 4 wheel drive would get you higher. But the birding was good from here. Although we had no issues, we were told later that some robberies from tourists had taken place in this area earlier in the year so probably best not to go alone & to be vigilant when in this area. = resent, not counted c = heard only Species Number Comments Speckled iculet 2 Grey headed Woodpecker 2 Lesser Yellownape 1 Greater Yellownape 2 Little swift 10 Asian House Martin 20 Asian Barred Owlet 1 Black Kite Himalayan Griffon Booted Eagle 1 Steppe Eagle 2 Accipiter sp. 1 robably Sparrowhawk Feral igeon / Rock Dove Wedge-tailed Green igeon 2 Long-tailed Shrike 1 Large-billed Crow House Crow Jay 2 Marron oriole 1 Spangled Drongo Long-tailed Minivet White-throated Fantail 2 Yellow-bellied Fantail 2 Blue Whistling-Thrush 2 Red-flanked Bluetail 3 lumbeous Water-Redstart 3+ White-tailed Nuthatch 5+ Grey Tit 3 Black-lored Tit 5+ Green-backed Tit 5+ Yellow-browed Tit 3+ Common Myna Mountain Bulbul Red-vented Bulbul Black Bulbul c 20 Himalayan Bulbul Oriental White-eye 10+ Buff-barred Warbler 10+ Ashy-throated Warbler 2+ Lemon-rumped Warbler 6+ Hume s Warbler? Grey-hooded Warbler 10+ Chestnut-crowned Warbler 2 White-throated Laughing-Thrush 10+ White crested Laughing-Thrush 25+ Black-eared Shrike-Babbler 1

7 Red-billed Leiothrix 1 Whiskered Yuhina 10+ Rufous Sibia 10+ Nepal Fulvetta 2 Fire-breasted Flowerpecker 2 Mrs. Goulds Sunbird 5 Black throated Sunbird 3+ Rufous-gorgetted Flycatcher 2 Olive-backed ipit 20 Grey Wagtail 1 Species List for Annapurna area trek Route: Nayapul / Ghorepani / oon Hill / Tadopani / Jinhu / Landruk / Tolka / othana / Kande Dates:- 20 th 25 th December 2011 = resent, not counted c = heard only See for a trip report detailing OC s visit here in April 2010 for more details and some additional comments and suggestions. Day Additional comments Species Common Kingfisher 1 Great Barbet c c 4 Golden-throated Barbet 1 2 Scaly-bellied Woodpecker 1 By teahouse at Banthanti Grey-headed Woodpecker 1 Darjeeling Woodpecker 2 Himalayan Swiftlet Slaty-headed arakeet 2 White-rumped Vulture 1 1 Himalayan Griffon Lammergeier 2 1 Bonnelli s Eagle Steppe Eagle 1 1 Hen Harrier 1 Eurasian Sparrowhawk 1 Common Kestrel eregrine 2 Collared Owlet c Calling from summit of oon Hill Oriental Turtle Dove 1 Snow igeon 1 On rock face by river at c1400m Grey-backed Shrike 1 1 Long-tailed Shrike 1 Nutcracker 2 Distant flying at oon Hill Yellow-billed Blue-Magpie 8 1km below Ghorepani Large-billed Crow Grey Treepie c 6 10 Bronzed Drongo 2 Long-tailed Minivet 4 20 Bar-winged Flycatcher-Shrike 1 White-throated Fantail 1 Yellow-bellied Fantail 3 4 Brown Dipper 4 Scaly Thrush 1 Grey-winged Blackbird 10 3 Two flocks in moist forest

8 White-collared Blackbird 12 At Tadopani teahouse Chestnut Thrush 2 At Tadopani teahouse Chestnut-bellied Rock-Thrush Blue Whistling-Thrush Red-flanked Bluetail were 2-3km below Tadopani White-browed Bush-Robin 1 1km above Deurali Grey Bushchat Siberian Stonechat 2 White-capped Water-Redstart lumbeous Water-Redstart 15 1 White-throated Redstart 2 air, oon Hill Blue-fronted Redstart Blue-capped Redstart 2 12 Common on treetops, oon Hill Little Forktail Slaty-backed Forktail 1 Wallcreeper 1 White-tailed Nuthatch Rusty-flanked Treecreeper 2 1 Eurasian Treecreeper 1 Grey Tit Black-lored Tit 8 4 Green-backed Tit Rufous-vented Tit Grey-crested Tit Yellow-browed Tit 15 3 Black-throated Tit Eurasian Crag Martin Nepal House Martin Striated Bulbul 1 Black Bulbul Mountain Bulbul 6 4 Himalayan Bulbul Common Tailorbird 1 Buff-barred Warbler 6 2 Ashy-throated Warbler Grey-hooded Warbler 6 Chestnut-crowned Warbler 1 Grey-sided Bush-Warbler 1 Striated Laughing-Thrush 2 2 White-throated Laughing-Thrush 50 Just below Tadopani in large flock Chestnut-crowned Laughing- Thrush Black-faced Laughing-Thrush 12 oon Hill only Variegated Laughing Thrush 3 1km above Deurali Green Shrike-Babbler 2 Not far above Banthanti Black-eared Shrike-Babbler 1 Black-chinned Babbler 3 2 Golden Babbler 1 2km above Tolka Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler 1 White-browed Fulvetta 8 Rufous-winged Fulvetta 50 Nepal Fulvetta 8 Whiskered Yuhina Stripe-throated Yuhina Rufous Sibia 10 15

9 Red-billed Leiothrix 1 Chestnut-tailed Minla Hoary-throated Barwing 3 In mossy forest well below Ghorepani Great arrotbill 3 1km above Deurali Fulvous arrotbill 12 2km above Deurali Fire-breasted Flowerpecker 2 2 Black-throated Sunbird 4 Mrs Gould s Sunbird 5 Fire-tailed Sunbird 20 Green-tailed Sunbird 1 15 Rufous-gorgetted Flycatcher 4 2 Olive-backed ipit Grey Wagtail 1 ink-browed Rosefinch 1 6 Dark-breasted Rosefinch 10 2 Commonest around Tadopani Beautiful Rosefinch 5 Common Rosefinch 10 Spot-winged Rosefinch 1 Female by last teahouse at bottom of oon Hill Brown Bullfinch 8 In moist forest well below Tadopani Red-headed Bullfinch 3 At Tadopani Yellow-breasted Greenfinch 2 Scarlet Finch 6 In group 1km above Tolka Spectacled Finch 4 In gorge just below Deurali Crimson-browed Finch 4 At bottom of oon Hill Tree Sparrow 8 Russet Sparrow Species List for okhara area Day One: 19 th Dec North Face Inn, okhara lake south shore only + hillside to eace agoda. Day Two: 26 th Dec okhara Lake east shore & marshes. Day Three: 27 th Dec Fishtail lodge grounds & forest edge. = resent, not counted Num = numerous Species 19th 26th 27th Additional comments Day Ruddy Shelduck c50 Gadwall c20 Wigeon 1 Mallard c150 Shoveler 2 Teal c30 intail c60 Ferruginous Duck 6 urple Swamphen c100 Coot 15+ Great crested Grebe 2 Great Cormorant Grey Heron Little Egret c10 Intermediate Egret c10 Cattle Egret c20

10 Indian ond Heron 100+ Woolly necked Stork 3 Smyrna Kingfisher 5+ Common Kingfisher 2+ Great Barbet 2+ Rose-ringed arakeet 2+ Fulvous Breasted Woodpecker 1 drumming Asian Barred Owlet 1 Himalayan Swiftlet Num Num 100+ Little Swift 1 White-breasted Waterhen 1 Bronze-winged Jacana c15 Little Ringed lover 1 Green Sandpiper 1 Common Sandpiper 2 Black Kite Num c25 White-tailed Eagle 1 White-rumped Vulture 1 Himalayan Griffon Egyptian Vulture 4+ Booted Eagle 1 1 Steppe Eagle 1 1 Red-billed Blue-Magpie 1 Grey Treepie 2 Large-billed Crow House Crow Grey Treepie 2 Ashy Drongo 1 Black Drongo 50+ Long-tailed Minivet c10 Yellow-bellied Fantail 2 ied Bushchat 1 Grey Tit 5 Black-lored Tit 2 Jungle Myna Common Myna Nepal House Martin lain martin Barn Swallow Red-vented Bulbul Himalayan Bulbul 2 Common Tailorbird 3+ Slaty-bellied Tesia 1 Seen well & definitely this scarcer species. Very dark grey underparts, + velvet green nape & lack of eyestripe. Aberrant Bush-Warbler 1 Ashy-throated Warbler 1 Hume s Warbler 10+ Grey-hooded Warbler 3+ Crimson Sunbird 1 5+ Small Niltava 1 Rufous-bellied Niltava 1 lumbeous Water Redstart Stonechat 10+ Brahminy Starling 1

11 Rosy ipit 12 addyfield ipit 1 Richards ipit 1 White Wagtail 2 10 Grey Wagtail 2 1 Barn Swallow Species List for Chitwan N area December 27 th M December 31 st AM. Guided birding was led by Hem Subedi. December 27 th 2 hours late afternoon around the river & entrance gate area at Suaraha December 28 th Day s walking in the ark from the river & then walked around 3 kilometers along the track December 29 th Morning in the ark this time heading much further into the ark by jeep with several stops. Afternoon boat ride along the river & evening & overnight in Tower hide in the buffer zone December 30 th Afternoon at Bishagar lakes, visited by jeep; secondary forest with lots of lakes December 31 st early am only before catching bus to Kathmandhu, only new birds for area, listed. See comments at the bottom concerning Ibisbills! = resent, not counted C = heard only Bird Species 27th 28 th & 29th 30th Black Francolin 1 Red Junglefowl 3 8+ Indian eafowl Ruddy Shelduck Mallard 2+ Goosander 4 8 Wryneck 1 5+ Grey capped ygmy Woodpecker 1 3+ Fulvous Breasted Woodpecker 1pr 2+ Rufous Woodpecker 2 Speckled iculet Grey headed Woodpecker Greater Yellownape 2+ Lesser Yellownape Black-rumped Flameback 2 Greater Flameback c6 3+ Himalayan Flameback 1 Greater Yellownape Greater Flameback Great Barbet 2+ Coppersmith Barbet 1 Blue-throated Barbet 2+ Lineated Barbet 4+ Great Hornbill 2 Oriental ied Hornbill 3 1c Blue-bearded Bee-eater 3 Green Bee-eater 1 Stork-billed Kingfisher 2+ 2 Common Kingfisher ied Kingfisher 1 4 Smyrna Kingfisher Green-billed Malkoha 2 Rose-ringed arakeet 2+ 4 lum-headed arakeet c100 31st

12 Alexandrine arakeet c20 Red-breasted arakeet White-rumped Needletail c10 Lesser Coucal 1 Eagle Owl 1c Jungle owlet 1 Large-tailed Nightjar 1 Lesser Whistling Duck c30 Himalayan Swiftlet Little swift 1+ Nepal House Martin 2 Spotted Dove Collared Dove Emerald Dove 2 2 ompadour Green igeon 5+ Yellow-footed Green igeon 2+ White-breasted Waterhen 2 1 Ruddy-breasted Crake Brown Crake 2 1 Moorhen Redshank 1 Greenshank 3 Red-wattled Lapwing 2 River Lapwing 2 Green sandpiper 1 2 Temminck s Stint 1 Little Ringed lover 3 2 Kentish lover 1 Stone Curlew 6 Bronze-winged Jacana Asian Barred Owlet Black-shouldered Kite 1 1 Black Kite 3+ Hen harrier 1 r/t Shikra 1 Oriental Honey Buzzard 2 2+ c10 Himalayan Griffon Vulture 5+ Booted Eagle 1 Steppe Eagle Osprey 1 1 Crested Serpent eagle 1 1 Accipiter sp. Kestrel 2 Great Cormorant c Darter Little Egret 2 Intermediate Egret Great Egret 3+ Grey Heron urple Heron 1 Indian ond heron 1 Black Ibis Asian Openbill c10 Wolley-necked Stork 2 2 Black Stork Lesser Adjutant c12 3 Brown Shrike Long-tailed Shrike 2+ Grey Treepie Rufous Treepie 2 2

13 Large-billed Crow House Crow Maroon Oriole Black-headed Oriole 8 2 Ashy Woodswallow 5+ Large Cuckoo Shrike 2+ 8 Scarlet Minivet c6 2 Long-tailed Minivet Black Drongo 2 Ashy Drongo 2 White-bellied Drongo 1 1 Black Drongo Ashy Drongo Greater racket-tailed Drongo 2 Blue Whistling-Thrush White-throated Fantail 2+ Yellow-bellied Fantail Taiga Flycatcher Grey headed Canary Flycatcher Verditer Flycatcher Small Niltava Common Iora c25 Red-flanked Bluetail Siberian Rubythroat 1f Himalayan Rubythroat 1m Oriental Magpie Robin 1 White-rumped Shama 2 Common Stonechat c10 White tailed Stonechat 1f 2 ied Bushchat 1 2 1f Asian ied Starling 1 2 Jungle Mynah c20 Common Mynah Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch Velvet-fronted Nuthatch 3+ 3 Grey Tit 2 2+ lain martin c Barn Swallow 10+ Red whiskered Bulbul c20 Red-vented Bulbul c30 Ashy prinia 2 Grey breasted rinia c20 Common Tailorbird Smoky Warbler 1 Grey-sided Bush Warbler 1 Thick-billed Warbler 1 Blyth s Reed Warbler 2 5 Tickell s Leaf warbler 1 Blyth s Leaf Warbler 2 Hume's Warbler C 5 Common Chiffchaff 1 Greenish Warbler c25 Whistler s Warbler 1 Chestnut capped Babbler 2 Yellow eyed Babbler 1 Striped Tit Babbler c20 uff-throated Babbler 4 Jungle Babbler Fire-breasted Flowerpecker Crimson Sunbird 1

14 House Sparrow c150 White Wagtail Citrine wagtail 1 2 Grey Wagtail 2 2 White-browed Wagtail 2 Sand Lark 2+ Rosy ipit 1c Olive-backed ipit 1 C 5+ Bayar Weaver c10 Scaly-breasted Mania c20 Common Rosefinch 2 Mammals at Chitwan Mugger Crocodile 3+ One Horned Rhino 1 Gavial Crocodile 1 Languor Monkey 2 Wild Elephant 1

15 Species List for Chisopani area trek Route: Kathmandu / Sunderjal / Chisopani / Thodongo Darda / Chisopani / Nagarkot January 2 nd 6 th 2012 = resent, not counted c = heard only Species Day Additional comments Khaleej heasant 2 1 air right outside Thodongo Darda at dawn Great Barbet c 20 2 Golden-throated Barbet 3 Speckled iculet 1 Himalayan Swiftlet Black Kite Himalayan Griffon 4 Black Eagle 1 Booted Eagle 1 Steppe Eagle Mountain Hawk-Eagle 1 Eurasian Sparrowhawk 2 Buzzard sp robably all Common Common Kestrel Oriental Turtle Dove Feral igeon / Rock Dove 3 Grey-backed Shrike 1 Long-tailed Shrike 1 Orange-bellied Leafbird 2 3 Yellow-billed Blue-Magpie Very obvious and easy at dawn Large-billed Crow House Crow 10 Grey Treepie Ashy Drongo 1 1 Long-tailed Minivet 1 1 Large Cuckoo-shrike 2 White-throated Fantail 1 Yellow-bellied Fantail 4 Black-throated Thrush 1 1km from Chisopani Blue Whistling-Thrush Red-flanked Bluetail 1 1 Both in good forest Golden Bush-Robin 1 1 Both in scrubby terraces Grey Bushchat Siberian Stonechat 1 2 White-capped Water-Redstart 4 lumbeous Water-Redstart 1 Blue-fronted Redstart Spotted Forktail 2 At Sunderjal White-tailed Nuthatch Grey Tit 2 4 Black-lored Tit Green-backed Tit Yellow-browed Tit 4 2 Black-throated Tit Common Myna 2 10

16 Red-vented Bulbul Black Bulbul Himalayan Bulbul Oriental White-eye Aberrant Bush-Warbler Grey-sided Bush-Warbler 1 Buff-barred Warbler Ashy-throated Warbler Hume s Warbler Grey-hooded Warbler Chestnut-crowned Warbler 1 Whistler s Warbler 1 In good forest c5km above Sunderjal Goldcrest 2 Blyth s Reed Warbler 1 Common Tailorbird 2 Striated Laughing-Thrush 20 White-throated Laughing-Thrush 30 Chestnut-crowned Laughing-Thrush 8 2 Streaked Laughing-Thrush Black-chinned Babbler Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler 2 In scrubby terraces c4km above Sunderjal Whiskered Yuhina Stripe-throated Yuhina 2 Rufous Sibia Chestnut-tailed Minla Red-tailed Minla 1 In good forest c5km above Sunderjal Blue-winged Minla Nepal Fulvetta 1 Rufous-winged Fulvetta 4 Rufous-breasted Accentor 8 Altai Accentor 150 On ploughed terrace c1km above Thodongo Dardo Yellow-bellied Flowerpecker 2 c 2-3 km from Chisopani towards Nagarkot Fire-breasted Flowerpecker 8 Crimson Sunbird 1 Green-tailed Sunbird Fire-tailed Sunbird Rufous-gorgetted Flycatcher Small Niltava 1 Above Sunderjal Rufous-bellied Niltava 1 Above Sunderjal Verditer Flycatcher 1 Olive-backed ipit Grey Wagtail 1 Barn Swallow 6 Dark-breasted Rosefinch Common Rosefinch 3 Yellow-breasted Greenfinch 50 Gold-naped Finch 2 c 2-3 km from Chisopani towards Nagarkot Little Bunting 30 In terraces on steep descent below Chisopani

17 Below: A collage of mountains, sunsets a, sunrises and skies from the oon Hill trek:

18