Luckily I made it to the summit of Poon Hill (3200m - and it's only called a hill) during the only morning without clouds in over a week, so I managed to get satisfying views of the Annapurna mountains. To top it off I racked up about 100 species for my Nepal list - including at least 50 lifers.
The hike followed a dirt road along a river for the first part:
There was evidence of many recent landslides along the slopes down towards the river:
There were many small villages along the route - they rely on agriculture (mostly rice) and income from trekkers for their livelihoods:
Eventually the route leaves the road and begins to ascend very quickly - generally the trail followed small rivers - disappointingly I only saw 1 kingfisher during the entire hike:
A glimpse of some of the mountains from the summit of Poon Hill:
One of the more common species was the Plumbeous Redstart - oddly, all the ones I saw were females or hatch year birds. They frequently bob their tail and flash their white rumps similar to a wheatear:
More to come!
