Khare (Nepal) Raptor Migration Final Update

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Raptor migration count was closed on 4th 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 3rd 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 2nd Dec weather. It was very cloudy (dark cloud) in the 2nd 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 already broken in 3rd Dec around 10:20 am.  In 4th Dec the number of eagles were very low and they were hanging around a lot, very low near to the village, So I decided to stop the counting for this season. Total count of the season is given below.
Species

Total
Oriental Honey-buzzard
381
Common Buzzard
180
Long-legged Buzzard
4
Upland Buzzard
4
Unidentified Buteo
3
Eurasian Sparrowhawk
107
Northern Goshawk
3
Unidentified Accipiter
9
Black Kite
324
Osprey
3
Hen Harrier
19
Eastern Marsh Harrier
0
Pallid Harrier
1
Unidentified Harrier
3
Steppe Eagle
6,597
Booted Eagle
155
Short-toed Eagle
2
Crested Serpent-eagle
26
Pallas's Fish Eagle
2
Imperial Eagle
0
Indian Spotted Eagle
3
Greater Spotted Eagle
3
Bonelli's Eagle
13
Mountain Hawk-eagle
1
Golden Eagle
7
Unidentified Eagle
8
Peregrine Falcon ssp. calidus
29
Saker Falcon
5
Eurasian Hobby
80
Amur Falcon
78
Lesser Kestrel
66
Common Kestrel
83
Unidentified Falcon
21
Egyptian Vulture
24
Himalayan Vulture
1,270
Cinereous (Black) Vulture
73
Griffon Vulture
85
Unidentified Vulture
3
Unidentified Raptor
79
Total
9,754

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