SCILLYSPIDER: Ghandruk, Nepal

Sunday, 24 January 2016

Ghandruk, Nepal

This is my home for the next month. Annapurna South, Nepal, is the tenth highest peak in the world and is part of the Annapurna massif in the Himalayas in north-central Nepal.

I was hoping to update the blog on a daily basis, but where I'm based at Panorama View, Ghandruk, section 4, the net can be very hard to come by. Also, electricity goes off now and then. I'm here doing bird and butterfly surveys with another four volunteers. Camera traps are also involved to hopefully catch a Common Leapod, but all we've had of interest so far is Barking Deer and Kalij Pheasant. My first two hours of arriving at Ghandruk on the 11th, I managed to see Wallcreeper, Lammergeier (over the house) and Long-billed Thrush. Later on in the week I had another of the latter species at a different site and another Lammergier. Every morning in the garden there is Olive-backed Pipits, Oriental Turtle Doves, Lemmon-rumped and Grey-hooded Warbler, Blue-whistlering Thrush and Blue-fronted Redstart. Himalayan Bluetail, Dark-breasted Rosefinch, Ashy-throated Warbler pop in once and a while. Overhead you will very often see, Steppe Eagle and Himalayan Vulture. Most of the birds I observe have been seen just a few minutes from where I'm living.

As I can't update my blog as much as I would like to, I've uploaded photos of most of the birds I've observed in the area of where I'm based. Most were taken in or a short distance from the garden.