Nepal 2013 - Part 1 - Katmandu and Phulchowky

Our holiday in Nepal with Birdfinders during the last two weeks of March  was a small group and we met Will at Heathrow when he recognised our yellow luggage tags. Getting to Nepal involved a 7½ -hour overnight flight from London to Delhi, a three hour stopover followed by a short 1½ hour flight to Kathmandu. Strangely, India is 5½ hours ahead of us and Nepal is 5¾ hours ahead!

Anyway, we got to Kathmandu at about 7 PM which was about 1.15 in the afternoon in London. I never really sleep on planes. I prefer an aisle seat so I can get up every hour or so and walk up and down.

Our guide, Suchit Basnet, met us at the airport and took us to our hotel. We also met Barbara, a charming Canadian, who was the fourth member of our party. After arranging to meet Suchit the following morning, we had a light dinner and went straight to bed.

Birdwatching holidays always involve getting up very early and this one was no exception. A call at 05.30 followed by a quick breakfast saw us on the road by 06.30 heading towards Phulchowky, a ‘hill’ near Kathmandu. Anything lower than 6000m in Nepal is a hill!

Although I had been to Nepal for a few days when I was a student, I had this idea that it was a completely mountainous country and that it would, therefore, be very cold. There are a lot of mountains, but most of the population live in the plains where, because of the latitude, the climate is tropical. We enjoyed temperatures of 25 – 28° C and sometimes into the early 30s. Suchit told us that even in December the temperature in the lowlands is around 25° C.

From the van we took in the essentials of Kathmandu. The roads were basic and not always complete. Some were very wide but only the centre third was paved. There were many, many motorcycles on the roads. Traffic was chaotic. There seemed to be no rules at all! Traffic drove more or less on the left, as in England, but there the similarities ended! No-one used their indicators. A car or motor-bike would just turn right in front of you without warning and you just had to stop!  On the other hand, the overall speed of traffic was low so drivers could stop quickly.

A great deal of trade obviously took place in the streets which were bustling with people. It was very interesting.




Typical Kathmandu street

 The mains wiring was also very interesting. This pole was typical:



Mains electricity cables, Kathmandu.

 The city was in the process of widening the roads. Problem was that many owners had built out beyond the building line in breach of the planning laws. This meant that the front part of many buildings had to be chopped off leaving some buildings with ugly scars or the front of the building exposed. The streets were also littered with piles of rubble from the buildings that had been partially demolished. You can imagine how dusty it all was.

Transport by scooter or motor-bike was fascinating. On any 2-seater you might have two people:

 Or two and a half:

 Then again, there could be three:

 perhaps four on a motor-bike:

or even on a scooter:

Five?  No, that would just be silly!

But, . . I digress.

On this particular outing to Phulchowky we picked up a policeman for protection. This surprised me and was mildly unsettling, but Suchit said there had been one or two incidents of muggings in the past and they didn't want to take any chances. We soon got into the swing of things. Because we haven't really been East before, many of the birds were completely new to us. While travelling through Kathmandu the most common birds were house sparrows, tree sparrows (yes we do have those) house crow and black kite. In Phulchowky we started with blue throated barbets, great barbets, whistling thrush, minivets, etc.

  

White-throated laughingthrush



Oriental turtle dove

 I snapped away with my camera and tried to make a note of the birds we saw. I knew something from previous experience; that if I didn't keep a note of the species I photographed I would get back home and start trawling through a few thousand photographs, forgetting which species they were. This would involve some very time-consuming consultation of the book. After a short while Lynne started making notes of the species we saw. In the lulls I read from the camera the time that I photographed each species. This would make it easy to match up photos with the names.


Green-tailed sunbird



Fire-breasted flowerpecker

 On the next trip I resolved to take a small voice recorder with me that I can hang round my neck. This will make taking notes even quicker.

Suchit proved to be a very experienced guide who spoke excellent English. Our two companions were also most amiable and it was clear that the trip was going to be very pleasant.

We made our way back to Kathmandu. After dinner we packed our cases, ready for the flight to Koshi the next morning.

TBC

A glorious weekend and 2 British ticks

We planned to go to the caravan at Chichester this weekend as we had tickets for 'The Pyjama Game'. Before that, on Friday, I went with David to see the red-rumped swallow at Beddington. I've never seen one in UK so it was an easy tick.

Red-rumped swallow

I haven't been trying very hard recently to build up my British list, preferring to spend my time abroad seeing and photographing new birds. Don't worry, my blog about Nepal is nearly ready!!

On Saturday, news came through of another nice bird, a European roller at Broxheath Common, which was only 36 miles from where I was. A quick trip there after breakfast found me looking at a lovely roller that was showing well, if a little distant. I had gone with a few others from the car park around 3 sides of a square instead of straight there and I had left my tripod in the car! This is the best at that distance with no tripod.

European roller

I didn't stay very long as I wanted to get back in time for the theatre. We were having dinner at the theatre before the show. 'The Pyjama Game' was most enjoyable.

David had told me he was going for the terek sandpiper at Rye. As the others don't usually get up until late, I decided to leave early the following morning, Sunday. Despite being almost the first one at Rye, there was no sign of the sandpiper after two and a half hours. Apart from the multitude of nesting black-headed gulls, Mediterranean gulls, common and sandwich terns, etc. there were two temminck's stints on a pool nearby. Three cuckoos were calling.

Temminck's stint

Little ringed plover

Oystercatcher

After our return to Sutton I picked David up to go to Lakenheath Fen, he for the Savi's warbler and I for the red-footed falcon. David got lucky but I dipped the falcon!

Nevertheless, the trip was worth it if only for the first thing we saw, a gorgeous male cuckoo hunting caterpillars in the enclosure near to us. It was the closest I had been to a cuckoo and it allowed good views.

Cuckoo - male

We moved on, scanning the reedbeds for the falcon but seeing only a few hobbies and myriad common swifts. I stopped to take pictures of the swifts and we then moved on slowly towards where the Savi's warbler had taken up residence. It is a bird that likes to sing at dusk so we were in no hurry. A gadwall had an aerial tiff with a hobby overhead.

Gadwall and hobby (below)

Common whitethroat

I lingered, ever hopeful of seeing the falcon while David went on. I got a text that the warbler was singing so I joined the throng of perhaps 45-50 people staking it out. The wind kept it down but, as the evening wore on, we glimpsed it first and then it showed several times, albeit not for too long. Even so, it gave far better views than the one I saw fleetingly at Lee Valley a few years ago. I was able to take a photo and film it briefly.



Savi's warbler

David stayed for more views and I went back for the falcon, taking pictures of several hobbies that were now joining the swifts hawking over the main reedbeds.

Hobby snacking on the wing!

Common swift

Finally, the cuckoo was still there when we made our way back to the carpark.

Common birds at Warnham in the sun. Lovely!

As the bank holiday was to be sunny, Lynne and I went to Warham Local Nature Reserve for a walk and so Lynne could try out her new camera. We did the circuit of the lake, the woods, the reedbed and we spent a good deal of time at the Woodpecker hide where the staff had obviously put out a feast of birdseed for the holiday! This attracted not only the common garden type birds but also one or two others.

Around the lake we saw herons at the nest with young high in a tree (quite far for photos), coots, mallard, pheasant and a mute swan that was chasing everything that moved!

Heron with 2 young

Heron takes flight

Don't cross this mute swan!

Coot clapping wings.

Mallard not quite sleeping.

Pheasant cock

 

All the common birds came to the feeding station. Was it bad of me to hope that the sparrowhawk would come down and take one of the chaffinches? It didn't happen.

Blackbird with juicy grub

Chaffinch - female behind

Chaffinch

Goldfinch

Great spotted woodpecker

Great tit

Greenfinch

Long-tailed tit

Magpie on the prowl.

Wood pigeon. Don't you just love them!

 There were also a few characters who do not normally go to feeding stations, such as:

Reed bunting - female.

Reed bunting - male

 The most surprising bird to appear was a Mandarin duck drake in a tree! Later he too came down to feed.

Mandarin duck - male

Mandarin duck - male

Elmley in a late start to Spring

Elmley, on the Isle of Sheppey, can be a marvellous place. Usually the drive from the road to the car park takes me 1-2 hours depending on what is there. Yesterday afternoon, it didn't take me so long, as I didn't see much on the way in. I walked down to the first hide. Almost immediately I saw, distantly, the Bonaparte's gull which promptly moved further away after a few short hops into the air.

A mute swan was nesting near the track.

Mute swan - female.

There were plenty of ducks, waders and marsh birds. The avocets were busy mating!

Avocets

The marsh harriers terrorised the whole marsh!! Some turnstones walked around the edge.

Turnstone

A female wigeon passed by with a large wound on the side of her head. Wonder what happened to her?

Widgeon - Female - with head injury!

There were quite a few pochards, especially lone females.

Pochard - female

Two common terns circled the Wellmarsh Hide. My first terns for this year. A male pheasant passed very near the path.

A gorgeous male pheasant

I started back to the carpark. I was the last to leave. I had nearly reached the exit when an oystercatcher came very close.

Oystercatcher

Shortly after that I passed a pair of red-legged partridges literally on the side of the road. I stopped and reversed but they had already gone further away. Anyway, this shot is handheld in poor light just before sunset.


Red-legged partridge