Ghera Cliff- Ideal Place for Cliff Nesting Vulture in Nepal

Geographically Ghera cliff lies in 28°03.489' N and 83°05.253' E and altitude is 2250 m from sea level in Arghakhanchi district of west-central Nepal on the middle mountain range. It is around 390 km south- west from Kathmandu, the capitol of Nepal. This cliff is known to important for vultures where large number of vulture roost and breed since many decades. According to the information of local elderly people (75 years), now the population of vulture in the cliff has been decreased by more than 70% to their experience.  Little study has been conducted in this area. In 2010, Krishna Bhusal has conducted his MSc thesis in Ghera Cliff and found 28 nests of Himalayan Vulture, 3 nests of Egyptian Vulture and 2 nests of Bearded vulture. He has estimated total of 77 vulture use the cliff. Besides vulture Peregrine falcon, Common kestrel, Upland buzzard, Common buzzard, Bonelli’s eagles are the attraction of this cliff.

Recently we (Tulsi R Subedi and Krishna Bhusal) have conducted one field visit to the Ghera Cliff and observation was made from the nearest hill, where most portion of the cliff was visible. Total numbers of vulture seen were recorded and the cliff ledged were scanned using binoculars to find out the nests and breeding activity. We have considered nest either vulture seen on the ledge or presence of thick and fresh white dropping on the nest rim and nesting ledge, and the rock cliffs underneath the nesting sites.   

We count the total soaring, roosting vultures and other raptors seen from the front face of the cliff and nearest hilltop. Eleven species of raptors were seen in the cliff.  

SN	Raptor Species Observed	Total Number
1	Himalayan Vulture (Gyps himalayensis)	17
2	Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus)	3
3	Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus)	3
4	Red Headed Vulture (Sarcogyps calvus)	2
5	White-backed Vulture (Gyps bengalensis)	2
6	Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)	20 approx.
7	Bonelli's Eagle (Hieraaetus fasciatus)	2
8	Upland Buzzard (Buteo hemilasius)	1
9	Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo)	4
10	Black Kite (Milvus migrans)	5
11	Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela)	1

 Besides, this we found 39 nests of different vulture species. The nests were higher than the individuals we saw because most of them might be incubating as we couldn’t see inside deep nest rim however few were seen. We also observed the nest building activity of Bearded vulture into the lower edge of the cliff. The pair was seen repairing the last year nest. In the first day, only we saw an immature bearded vulture and one nest that was used last year. On the next morning when we reach on the top of cliff from the next side and saw something flying inside the thick cloud. We followed that object and finally able to identify. This was nice adult bearded vulture. After long observation we found pair of them carrying sticks on their beak. We followed the pair and finally they have landed over the nest.  We are very excited to see the suspicious nest of Red- headed vulture in the cliff. The nest was on the lower side of the cliff than Himalayan vulture nests. We did not see any nesting material on the nest because the nesting ledge was deep on the corner of two rocks. Only we saw the head of vulture that was sitting over the nest rim. It should be re-confirm again. For this we are going to conduct another trip very soon.  We became unable to take a good picture of red headed vulture nest because we didn’t have very good camera and we couldn’t reach close to that nest because of very steep slope.  Total nests of vultures seen were as follows.

SN                 Vulture Species                                           Nest

1                      Himalayan Vulture                                     37

2                      Bearded Vulture                                          1

3                      Red Headed Vulture                                   1???