PaudurHill (Nepal) Raptor Migration Update 19 Sept – Day 4

Oriental Honey Buzzard

September 19 became an important day in the watch site of Nepal. First it was a breakthrough of regular rain and secondly the first raptor crossed the migration boundary line. Whole day was mostly cloudy but we get the partly sunshine after 12:00 (noon). Before noon few Barn Swallows became a guest of our watch site. They were regularly feeding the small insects (mostly the different species of flies). Total of 11 Barn Swallows moved through the watch site. After 12:00 we got some blue sky over the watch site and towards the Southwestern edge however the cloud was peaking over Annapurna Himalaya range.  At the mean time (12:15 NST) two raptors were seen over the southern part of the watch site. First bird was Oriental Honey Buzzard and another was female Common Kestrel. After the few circle over the site, the Honey straightly headed towards Southwest and the Kestrel towards west. Few resident black kites were attending the watch site most of the time. Beside these few other raptors (Peregrine and Crested Serpent Eagle) also initiate their journey through our site.  Agonistic behaviour of Peregrine and Changeable Hawk-Eagle was really amazing to see. Black Kite, Changeable Hawk-Eagle, Egyptian Vulture, Red-headed Vulture were some of the local raptors of the day.