Nepal - Poon Hill Trek Part III

One last post for all the photos from the Poon Hill trek!

I kinda like these gloomy photos of the clouds/fog creeping in around the trees:

At Poon Hill I was above a few layers of clouds:

More mountain pics:

Rosefinch:

A Yellow-bellied Bush-Warbler/Hume's Bush-Warbler - a lot of taxonomy still has to be sorted out in this region especially pertaining to warblers:

Tourist plane flying by the mountains:

Spotted Laughingthrush:

Yellow-breasted Greenfinch:

Large-billed Crows were common near the summit of Poon Hill:

Himalayan Bulbuls are pretty much everywhere in Nepal except in the busy parts of Kathmandu:

Monsoon rains often forced me to retreat into villagers homes to wait for the rain to subside:

Ashy Drongos:

Nepal - Poon Hill Trek Part II

The easiest/best birding was when I was walking downhill because I could see into the tops of the trees below me without having to strain my neck. I only saw 4 forktails and 1 White-throated Kingfisher on the hike - I had hoped for more considering that the majority of the trek follows rivers and streams:

Rufous-vented Tits were common:

Bar-throated Sivas/Chestnut-tailed Minlas were very common above 2000m elevation:

Many clouds throughout most of the trek obstructed views of the birds and mountains, but they offered their own form of scenery:

This dog followed me for 2 days of trekking...

I reached Poon Hill on my second day and stayed in the area for the morning of my third day:

Yellow-breasted Greenfinches were common: 

Clouds covered the nearby hills and mountains on my first ascent to Poon Hill:

There were many spectacular flowers along the route:

 Finally, on the third morning I got more-or-less unobstructed views of the mountains:

Here's a view of the Annapurna peaks: 

There was also a more distant series of peaks in the other direction.

Village below the mountains with many rice fields surrounding it:

Rufous Sibia was one of the many lifers of the hike:

 Stripe-throated Yuhinas were very common above 2000m:

Striated Prinias were common below 1500m:

Nepal - Poon Hill Trek Part I

Back in Kathmandu now after a 4-day trek to the popular Poon hill near Pokhara, Nepal. In the right season this place offers spectacular views of the nearby himalayan mountains. At this time of year the mountains are often shrouded in clouds and it is raining for the majority of the time (monsoon season is really kicking in now).

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!