Raptor migration count was closed on 4 th Dec. in the last days we had very pleasant weather in the migration watch site. The days were mostly sunny with little cloud over the Himalayas. Bird activity was started late than usual starting from Dec 1. Not a single bird flew before 10 am so it was a feeling like migration is over. Activity was observed around 10:15 am towards the north lookout and the migration trend was totally different than previous days. Around 70% of the eagles were passed before 12 noon. In 3 rd Dec, there was a lot of activity between 10:30 to 12:00 noon. I guessed the lot of activity in the early hours was due to the 2 nd Dec weather. It was very cloudy (dark cloud) in the 2 nd Dec afternoon that stocked some eagles close to the watch site. Due to this they started early flight today.   After the noon the migration was very slow unlikely the peak of previous days.   That trend showed the migration is towards the end. 2003 record from Surya Gurung   is a

Cinereous Vulture (one of the late migrant in Khare-Nepal Now the weather is changing since 25 November. It is more cloudy to the north Himalayas therefore the birds are passing directly overhead. This is the time of late migrants therefore we have less diverse species. The migration of Steppe Eagle is continuous going on and which is the common migrants in this time beside this we also have a migration of Himalayan Vulture, Cinereous Vulture and Griffon Vulture. Yesterday we observed the first migration of Bonelli’s Eagle; total of 11 birds including different age class. We hope to get the good migration for few days in this part.    

Migration counting is still going on and   weather is going variable from few extremely sunny to cloudy days. We are still having the good migration of Steppe Eagles and hope it will be continuous for many days. Other migrants includes Himalayan Vulture, Griffon Vulture, Cinereous Vulture and few other raptors including Golden Eagle and Pallas’s Fish Eagle. Species Total Oriental Honey-buzzard 380 Common Buzzard 179 Long-legged Buzzard 5 Upland Buzzard 4 Unidentified Buteo 3 Eurasian Sparrowhawk 101 Northern Goshawk 3 Unidentified Accipiter 8 Black Kite 288 Osprey 3 Hen Harrier 19 Eastern Marsh Harrier 0 Pallid Harrier 1 Unidentified Harrier 3 Steppe Eagle 5,470