Nagarjun NP, Kathmandu (Part 2)

Thursday 7th June 2012



Trail to Jamacho Gumba, Nagarjun NP

After a very pleasant Saturday morning spent at Nagarjun with BCN last weekend, I felt inspired to visit the park once again and waking early on Thursday morning, I just went for it. The entrance to the park is only 40 minutes walk from where I am currently staying in Kathmandu so I was at the gate for a little after 6am. However, it took 15 minutes or so for the soldiers stationed at the gate to find a park official who could sell me a ticket and let me in. At 250 Rupees (about £2), it's not too pricey in the grand scheme of things but it is 25 times the price a local pays! As a volunteer on a local salary this does seem a little unfair at times.



Scorpion - Nagarjun NP

Just inside the gate, on the right, is a trail that heads steeply upwards for a few hundred metres before reaching a military post where it joins a more gradual trail that winds its way to the peak. From the park gate to Jamacho Gumba summit is approximately 5 kilometres - it took me less than two and a half hours at a very comfortable pace. The birding was actually a bit slow on the way up though I did see both male and female Kalij Pheasant on numerous occasions, though it was this freshly dead scorpion that was the first sighting of the day.



Blue-capped Rock Thrush - male

Red-billed Blue Magpie, White-crested Laughingthrush and Grey Treepie were all seen well but the highlight on this section of the trail was a pair of mating Blue-throated Flycatchers. I arrived at the summit just after 9am and spent half an hour or so birding the shrubby slopes. First up were two birds I never mannaged to identify; obviously freshly fledged, I would guess at some type of flycatcher/niltava but unfortunately they didn't stay around for long. Next up was this cracking male Blue-capped Rock Thrush. I must say I was unaware that these birds have such a yellow gape.

However, the highlight for me was the first of 2 Nepali ticks for the day - Bonelli's Eagle. Even better, there were at least 3 birds, with a possible 4th. Two of the birds were an adult pair in full (but silent) display. The third bird was an clearly an immature and I'm pretty certain the fourth bird was an immature Bonelli's too, though I didn't get very good views of this latter bird. I did manage to get a couple of interesting record shots though, one of them highlighted against a smoggy Kathmandu.


Bonelli's Eagle - adult

Jamacho Gumba



Bonelli's Eagle - immature



Bonelli's Eagle - adult

One of my side-hobbies is to track all the trails I follow using GPS and then compile them into maps for later use. Since there was an access road to the Gumba, I decided to follow this back down to the gate - I'd already been along some of it the previous week with BCN but I had no idea how long it would be. In total, I walked more than 30 kilomteres over the day but I must say the road down provided good birding and I'd do it again - though with an extra bottle of water next time. Still fairly near the top, I had some goodies with White-tailed Nuthatch perhaps unexpected. This was followed by a pair of Orange-bellied Leafbirds, Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker, several Verditer Flycatchers, House Swift, Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush and a very close pair of Velvet-fronted Nuthatches working the lichen covered trees. A Great Barbet allowed me to take its picture - and for once the shot wasn't too bad.



Great Barbet

As I continued down the trail, other goodies were encountered. In particular, I had more raptors - quite unexpected really for the time of year. Of course Black Kite were everywhere but I also disturbed a perched Crested Serpent Eagle, again an adult with a massively impressive immature Crested Goshawk a little later. The goshawk came in very low around a corner of the trail and landed less than 10 metres from me. I would guess it was a female due to its size. Unfortunately, the process of aiming the camera at the bird scared it off but the memory will certainly remain. Much later on, a male shikra did almost the same though it flew directly towards me instead, getting larger and larger through the bins - just like a BBC wildlife documentary!

Other birds picked up along the trail were Large Cuckoo-shrike, Eurasian Cuckoo, Black-throated Tit (a personal favourite), Speckled Piculet, Maroon Oriole and to round off the day, Lesser Yellownape.

Other wildlife sightings of the day included fresh Leopard faeces packed full of fur, Barking Deer and numerous butterflies. Unfortunately, I don't have my butterfly book with me but one of them I've since discovered is a Grand Duchess. I think the yellow-striped one is a lascar of some sort but that's as good as gets.


Grand Duchess

Lascar?

Till next time - Mark.

A Day Out in Kathmandu

Sunday, 25th March, 2012

Over the next week or so, I’ll try to catch up on some of the trips I’ve done and birds I’ve seen over the last two months. I’m going to start with a great morning out in the Kathmandu Valley at the end of March with ‘resident’ Dutch birder Arend van Riessen. Arend has been doing the same walk along the Bagmati River from Chobar Gorge to Taudaha Lake every month for almost 10 years and kindly let me join him on his rounds. I knew I was ‘late in the season’ for many wintering birds but having read his reports over the last few months, I was anticipating at least a couple of Nepali ticks for my list.



Bagmati River at Chobar Gorge, Kathmandu

The first challenge of course was getting across the city (at 6am) without much in the way of language skills or money. Struggling to find a reasonably-priced taxi, I gave up and walked through the old city to the southern ring road, where I eventually found a very decent cabbie who 1) knew where I wanted to go, and 2) wasn’t going to rip me off (too much). So bang on time, if not a little early I met Arend at a little tea shop right at Chobar Gorge – a very impressive sight (if not smell) to start the day.
 
The Bagmati River is absolutely stunning… in all the worst ways! Catch it in Shivapuri National Park near the source and, yes, I’d probably drink from it but as soon as it reaches habitation (and that’s before it passes through Kathmandu) it becomes an open sewer and repository of rubbish. As I said, the foaming water through the gorge was impressive (due to the detergents) but the stench was… just that!



Green (back) and Wood (front) Sandpipers, Bagmati River

Anyway, back to the birds because that’s what it’s all about. Freshly equipped with my new camera, I was keen to not just see some goodies for the valley but also, if possible, get off a picture or two for the record. Before I got to taking pictures though, my first Nepali tick – a Thick-billed Warbler – gave itself away by chacking as we walked by.  This was swiftly followed by a couple of superb Grey-headed Lapwings –another local tick for me. A female Black Redstart was just the first of the day, and along with a Eurasian Cuckoo, was an indicator of spring passage.


Green Sandpiper, Bagmati River

After a lovely male Hodgson’s Redstart, we started to see a few waders foolishly sampling the water quality, with Common Sandpiper and Common Snipe (the latter another tick) being the first of the morning. However, to kick off the photo record I managed to get these Green and Wood Sandpipers posing together for comparison as well as this lone Green Sandpiper giving a little more detail. With Grey-backed and Long-tailed Shrikes already bagged, I had my fourth Nepali tick of the hour with a couple of (not red) Red Avadavats. Many more were seen later in the day but none in their resplendent breeding plumage.




Steppe Eagle, Bagmati River

Steppe Eagle, Bagmati River

More snipe were flushed as we proceeded along the ever-deteriorating river bank. At one point we had to scale a crumbling and eroding mud bank poised above the sludge of the river – it did however provide the inspiration to hold on! It was at about this point that the other bank, of course, revealed 8 Steppe Eagles feasting on ‘something’ dead. They were a bit nervous of us and as we clambered over and along the river’s edge, they gradually moved on. I managed to get off these few shots though before they all left.

A few more waders were ticked off before we reached Bosan Khola, a small stream heading up to Taudaha Lake. These included another Nepali tick (the last of the day) Temminck’s Stint, as well as Little-ringed Plover and Greenshank. We also added White and White-browed Wagtails along the river’s edge as well as a distant 47 Yellow-breasted Greenfinches perched high up in distant trees.

Just before heading up the stream we came across a recent Christian burial, right on the edge of the river, with home-made cross and piled stones/sand. I can only wonder how long it will be until the jackals and then raptors get to work. Further upstream, at Pashupatinath for example, many Hindu cremations take place, but this was the first Christian ‘use’ of the river I’d come across.

Taudaha Lake, Kathmandu

After a brief rest along the stream, we came out at Taudaha Lake having added Ashy Drongo, Hume’s Warbler, Rufous Treepie and a calling Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-babbler. As predicted the number and diversity of birds on the lake was lower than in mid-winter. However, I was surprised and disturbed by the ‘commercialism’ of the site – the lake is regarded as sacred but this has been interpreted as a need to build up the banks with stone walls, fill the lake with catfish, sell fish food, and serve tea at numerous ‘Lakeside Restaurants’ around this surprisingly small last wilderness. For some reason (disappointment?) I didn’t even try to get any shots of the wildfowl. However, we did clock a couple of Ferruginous Ducks amongst the numerous Teal, Wigeon and Gadwall.



Rosy Pipit, Bagmati River

Arend back at Chobar Gorge, Kathmandu

Cutting across the fields, we got back to the river by a shorter route and returned back to Chobar Gorge in no time at all. Being now midday, bird sightings were less than in the morning, but we did add this cracking Rosy Pipit along the way.

Himalayan Bulbul, Chobar Gorge

After a quick look around the impressive Jal Binayak Temple, situated on the western bank of the Bagmati River, we went back up to the road bridge where Himalayan Bulbul was seen, with a pair of Shikra on the ridge above the bridge and yet another Steppe Eagle in the pine woods higher up. Arend kindly invited me back to his house for a cold drink before sending me in the right direction to catch a 20 rupee bus ride back into town. In total, I recorded 66 species that morning – Arend may well have recorded more, and he certainly keeps a more detailed account of numbers.

All in all, a great day in the valley and one I’m looking forward to again on my return to the capital. Thanks Arend!

Mark.