Arriving in Pokhara

On arriving in Pokhara, unsure of what experiences where ahead of me, Anita met me in the hustle and bustle of the bus station and took me to my hotel. I was running on adrenaline after my long journey from England and straight away was blown away by the awesome views from my hotel room over lake Fewa. Maya Devi is just a short bicycle ride from my hotel and so I went along to meet Scott, the team and the birds! Maya Devi was, (and is!) a beautiful, tranquil place and I was greeted by warm people. Scott quickly introduced me to the birds and I knew I was going to have a great time. I was excited about working with Kevin and Bob because I had never worked with Egyptian vultures before and could quickly see they were both full of character and were going to be good fun. I also met Tango for the first time, she is a black kite and was rescued a short time before I arrived, I was pleased to hear that Scott wanted me to be mainly responsible for the first steps of her training (great to have a project!). I had arrived in Pokhara early in the season and the remains of the monsoon were clinging on, the birds were all just beginning their training and fitness work for the new season. After my first day at work greasing gloves and cleaning bow perches we all went into town for a steak meal! (I had been convinced I would be living on rice for months!) It was great to know everyone and everyone was very welcoming, I even got to see a bit of Pokhara night life as we visited the Jazz bar for a drink.

After a few days of manning and weight reduction with the birds Scott and I were able to take them for their first few fitness flights, we would begin by checking their responses on short flights to the glove in Maya Devi but then we needed to find some open space for longer flights. Of course Scott knew all of the local area so we would pack up the jeep and head off to the training ground. I was quite surprised on the first journey to the training ground the roads are not quite the same as in the UK! After 15 - 20 minutes very bumpy journey with a very patient Bob and Kevin we arrived at the training ground and the birds flew well over a longer distance. Tango was also coming on quickly, she was very nervous when I first arrived (as Scott had only just rescued her) I would spend all my time sitting with her and building trust with her. My time soon paid off and Tango became completely comfortable in my company and began to fly to my glove over a few feet.

I have been in Pokhara for over a month, already I have some great memories, have met many great people and seen the birds training progress to the point of flying with the gliders. I had my first Parahawking experience last week with Scott as my pilot, I can honestly say that it was one of the best things that I have ever done. We flew with Kevin and to see a vulture soaring so close is incredible.

Tango is now flying well, she is responsive over long distances and has begun her glider work, she is a lovely bird and I think I will try and take her home in my suitcase!!

Every morning Scott, Anita and myself weigh and check the birds before we head up to Sarankot in the jeep. This time we are going up for the first flight with Brad. We have strict procedures with the flights, my job is to stay on the take off site and with my radio I can keep in contact with Scott when he is flying and tell him where Brad is (sometimes Brad can fly above the clouds). Anita stays at the landing site and calls the birds in to a lure. When Scott has landed and Anita has the bird then I can drive back down. It took me a few days to get used to driving down from Sarankot, it is a long, narrow, steep and jumpy journey!. I enjoy the drive though because there is amazing views of the Annapurnas. So its been a great start to my new job with the parahawking team and I am looking forward to the next few months.

Tango’s first flight with a paraglider!

Scott and I had done many preparations for Tango’s first flight, we had done plenty of ground work getting her used to the gliders and monitored her weight closely. On the morning of the big day we had everything on our side for her first flight, good weather, plenty of time and Tango was the perfect weight, so we decided it was a good day. We began by packing up everything we needed, lures, telemetry and of course food for Tango. We loaded up the jeep with equipment and gliders and headed off to the training site for her first flight. Tango was not ready to fly all the way down from Sarankot and so we took her to an area that was perfect for a short flight to check whether she would fly into Scott’s glove whilst he flew down. The site was a dry riverbed at the base of a tall hill and so we hoped to walk up, take off, release Tango and hope she would follow the glider and come into the glove. The walk to the top of the hill was quite hard work! Scott carrying his glider and me with Tango and her flying equipment, when we reached the top the dry riverbed looked a long way below and both Scott and I were quiet with anticipation of how Tango would do. There was always a chance she would be nervous of the glider or perhaps spooked by another bird of prey.

Scott prepared his glider for the flight down. My job was to release Tango and watch her from the top of the hill and keep in touch with Scott over the radio, letting him know what she was doing.

We waited for the perfect wind and then Scott took off, as soon as his feet had left the ground I slipped Tango straight from her hood and she took off with good motivation towards the glider. I was so excited that I babbled excitedly over the radio to Scott about every move she made. My heart sunk as Tango turned back towards the hill, she had left at first looking motivated and headed toward the glider but as Scott flew further away from the hill Tango turned back and just soared gently around the edge of the hill. I was convinced she was going to sit and give up, by now Scott was a distance from the hill, blowing his whistle and calling Tango as load as he could. Tango circled around the hill and then suddenly she noticed the glider getting further away and committed to flying away from the hill and towards Scott, she tucked her wings in to her body and stooped furiously towards the glider. Scott offered out his hand and Tango landed for the 1st. time on Scott’s fist while he was flying. Fantastic, Tango had done it! She received her first reward for flying with the gliders! On her first flight Tango came in to the glider two times before landing safely with Scott in the dry riverbed.

Fingers crossed her second flight goes as well!

It's now half way through September, this blog has taken me ages to write, I actually started it in back in April when we were winding up last season. But I'm not the most prolific writer and I'm very easily distracted. We left Nepal at the end of May for a much need break, since then we've been to India, UK and Norway, we are now back in Nepal and raring to go again.

In summary, last season was the best by far, I still get asked the same questions, "What's the point of Parahawkng?" "What do you hope to achieve?", well I suppose the answer has changed over the years. What started out as an experiment has turned into one of the best ways humans can interact with natures aerial experts and one of the most useful ways to highlight Vulture conservation on a global scale.

Anyway, here's a summary of last season's main highlights.

In sickness and in health

Kevin took a turn for the worse back in March. We'd flown in the morning, had a blinder of a flight, about an hour and a half in fact. He'd eaten a fair amount of food during the flight so had a bit of crop on him when we landed. As usual he was put out on the lawn to weather and chill for the rest of the day. The afternoon passed and he was fine then he jumped off his perched and begun to lie down on the grass. This was a bit unusual but not a total surprise as he'll often have a little lie down when he's basking in the sun, but it was now late in the afternoon and the sun was on it's way down.

He began to get really thirsty, that's when the alarm bells started to ring and we suspected something was wrong. Within minutes he deteriorated quite rapidly and was now convulsing and struggling to breath. We immediately thought he'd been poisoned so we began to massage his crop to encourage him to regurgitate which he did after a couple of minutes. After getting lots of fluid down him, we'd come to the conclusion that he had some kind of crop infection. Within a couple of hours he had livened up a little, enough at least to keep pumping him with fluids.

The next day we'd heard back from the Neil Forbes - our vet in the UK who had confirmed what we had suspected after all, a condition called Sour crop which is caused by food gone off in the crop, which then release toxins into the body and the reaction is much like poisoning. He was put on a course of antibiotics and within a few days he began to recover. Since it was almost the end of the season, we stopped flying him, giving him a chance to fully recover. A close call!

Vulture Culture
The proposed Pokhara Vulture Restaurant is still a project that is very much at the forefront of our plans albeit taking a little time to get off the ground. Over the past season we looked at a number of potential sites and even though many had some good things going for them, none ticked all the boxes. We're hoping to continue our search in September after the monsoon rains end, hopefully with a little more luck.

Once again, we lent a hand to the guys at the RSPB and BCN with their Vulture captive breeding program. This year they were only able to collect 4 White Backed Vulture chicks from the Pokhara Valley area for the program compared to last years 14. A little disappointing as this was a clear indication of the lack of number of breeding pairs in and around the valley. Even so, more birds were collected from other areas in Nepal bring the total number to 14.

Bob's progress

During the monsoon last year, we acquired a young Egyptian Vulture, since he had to be hand reared by us it wasn't possible for him to be returned to the wild. He was named Bob (after my Dad) and was trained for Parahawking. From his first step onto the glove it was only 4 short weeks before he was flying with me on short top to bottoms. Since then his flying has gone from strength to strength, taking on thermalling flights and flying alongside Kevin by early December. By the New Year we were able to take him for Tandem flights for over an hour at a time. But he really came into his own when Kevin was sick, Bob took over the tandem flying and went from rookie to rock star. Like Kevin, he has bags of energy, is super reliable and has a great personality but has definitely got more confidence than Kevin had in his first year and will sometimes be the more dominant of the two. I can't tell you how excited I am to see him fly this season, and to have the two of them flying with me truly is a spiritual experience.

Put my foot in it
Maya Devi came to life this season with our renovated veranda, the new extended seating area and regular Sunday BBQ's. The annual Christmas bash was hosted at Maya Devi as usual with more people than ever taking part in the traditional Secret Santa pressie game. I have to say though that there was clear evidence that the current global economic downturn had effected peoples gift buying abilities, either that or the tight arses were out in force this year. Take note, next year it will be a MINIMUM of 500 rupees not UP TO 500 rupees, so start saving :)

I must admit, in the past I've been slightly accident prone when I've had a few too many shandies so I thought i'd take it a bit easier this year. Anita was in charge and was instructed to cart me off to bed when my behaviour started to get a little over exuberant. All was going well - according to Anita - we left the party in full swing at around 2 ish and retreated to our hut for some kip. I desperately didn't want to be hungover as I had flights booked the next day. I was in bed, safe or so it seemed. What happened next is all still a bit of a mystery to me. Fastfoward onto me lying on the floor of the hut swimming in a pool of blood. Apparently I got up about 2 hours later, stumbled down the stairs, tripped over my mountain bike and stood on the Schrader valve putting a 2 inch gash into the ball of my right foot. A trip to the local hospital and 8 stitches later soon sobered me up. But that was it, I was bed ridden for at least a week. Or so I was told. Not one to miss a good days flying, Ii was back up in the air after 3 days having perfected the one legged take off and landing technique (not recommended)

New aviaries finished

During the spring we sent out an appeal to raise funds to build a new rehabilitation aviary as part of the Raptor Re-homing project that we had just launched. We had planned to construct three 12ft x 8ft aviaries to house up to 6 birds, the location was just behind Maya Devi on a local family's land that we have agreed to rent. We were overwhelmed with the responses, by the end we had raised almost 1000 Euros - which was just shy of our target - but an enormous boost nonetheless. We were able to finish the aviaries and get the birds in before the rains came. Thanks to everybody that contributed both with donations and manual labour. To see the results go to - http://www.himalayanraptorrescue.org

Tandem success but not much solo flying
In a nutshell, we stormed the tandem flying this year with over 200 Parahawking tandems flown between November and April, that's 100% up on the previous year. Finally the word is starting to spread and Parahawking is quickly becoming the "must do" activity in Nepal. All the Parahawking birds were ready earlier which means that they are fitter and can fly for longer,  =  more airtime for everybody = happy birds, happy pilots and happy passengers. But when one thing goes well, something has to give and unfortunately it was my solo flying this year. Sometimes there's just not enough hours in the day. However with the promise of a new wing from Gin this season, they'll be more of an effort to get up there alone this coming season... well not completely alone, I'll have one of the birds with me of course!

Himalayan Raptor Rescue
As you know, in addition to Parahawking, we also run the Himalayan Raptor Rescue Centre in Pokhara, which is the only dedicated Raptor Rescue Centre in Nepal. We are regularly handed sick, injured and orphaned birds of prey which we attempt to rehabilitate and return to the wild where possible. Himalayan Raptor Rescue is a small privately run non profit organisation that relies on donations, funding and sponsorships. If you would like to get involved or help in any way then please head over to the new Himalayan Raptor Rescue website - http://www.himalayanraptorrescue.org . There is lots of info in there about some of the birds we've rescued plus info on the Vulture crisis. It's still a bit of a work in process but soon you will be able to become a member. There will be special club benefits such as discounts on Parahawking flights and activities in Nepal. Your membership money will go directly towards the running of the rescue centre. In the meantime you can sponsor one of the birds, this will help us to continue to treat and rehabilitate that bird whilst it is in our care.

Clive’s progress

You may remember that last year we rescued a Steppe Eagle who had suffered a fracture to his wing. Wing injuries in Birds of Prey can be extremely complicated, especially when there is not a specialist vet around to fix it. In the past we have had to choose euthanasia over treatment as the fractures have been too severe. In this case, the fracture looked fairly minor, the bird was young, strong and healthy so we thought we would try to fix it. As it turned out after about 6 weeks in a cast the wing looked like it had healed. I then began to train it with a view to getting the bird fit so it could be released. We called him Clive, I don't know why, he just looked like a Clive. Unfortunately the timing couldn't have been worse, he decided to start moulting and dropped primary flight feathers on the injured wing and 2 on the other side, pretty much rendering him flightless. So now he's is in a secluded aviary, away from the stresses of the outside world, where he'll replace his lost feathers. Hopefully I can start his training again soon so he can be returned to the wild. Watch this space.

New tandem and stuff from Gin
I'm extremely lucky to have Gin Gliders as one of Parahawking's main supporters. Gin comes through pretty much every year with some new toys for me to use, in the past I've received Solo gliders, prototypes, harness's, clothing et etc. My old trusted Beetle that Gin sent me two years ago was starting to show it's age. One email to Gin and 3 weeks later a brand new Be Cool Tandem arrives in the post, now that what I call quality service. Kevin and Bob had to get used to flying with a blue wing, but they soon forgot about the old faded yellow Beetle. In addition, Gin has also promised to send me a Sprint, the new 1-2 rated glider from the Gin camp, I can't wait.

New stuff from Tinyloc
Tinyloc radio tracking are another one of Parahawking's sponsors, they produce the smallest lightweight radio tracking equipment. It's perfect for us as it means we can deploy the system and track the birds as we fly, which I've had to do a few times, like I don't have enough to do when I'm flying!. Tinyloc are currently developing a revolutionary new system that uses GPS. They have promised to send one as soon as it's compete.

New stuff from UK Airsports
UK Airsports have kindly given us a couple of the fantastic GoPro Hero wide cameras. We'll be putting these great little devices in all sorts of places this year to get some unique Parahawking footage. We'll also be using them for the filming flights so if you want your Parahawking flight filmed, you know where to come.

New stuff from Ben Long
During our brief trip the UK this summer we took the chance to go the the International Festival of Falconry in Reading. The festival brings together falconers from all over the world from as far as China, Mongolia, United States, South Africa, New Zealand and the Middle East among others. It's a fascinating insight into the world of falconry and a great place to meet people. I, on the other hand managed to spend the entire weekend catching up with old mates from my home town in the UK. However, it was great to see them and find out what everyone's been up to. I also got  a chance to catch up with a couple of our sponsors, The Identity Store, the people that supply us with our leather and of course Ben Long who donates all of our Falconry Equipment to us. Naturally I walked away with a sack of goodies from Ben's stall, Thanks as always Ben.

New Staff

I am pleased to announce 2 new additions to the Parahawking team this season. I am delighted to confirm that Claudio Mota is joining the team this year. You may know Claudio from the amazing Paragliding film by Sean White "Never Ending Thermal" especially the closing scenes from the breathtaking flight he did from Angle Falls in his home country of Venezuela. Secondly I'm pleased to welcome Emily Hammel to the team, Emily is a falconer and bird of prey enthusiast. She comes with lots of falconry and bird training experience having worked at a number of bird of prey centres. To find out more about this year’s team - Click here

Plans for next season
We are now only days away from getting the birds prepared for this coming season, so much to do but very excited to get going again. Bookings are already flooding in for Tandem Parahawking and Sky Safaris so it's going to be a very busy season. Maya Devi came to life last season with weekly BBQ's and group lunches. We'll be giving our presentations to groups throughout the season, a great chance to spread the conservation message and give people a hands on experience with one of the birds.

Facebook
Lastly, for all those that use Facebook, I have set up Facebook pages for Parahawking, Himalayan Raptor Rescue and Maya Devi Village. I'll be updating these pages fairly regularly with the latest news etc, don't worry, I promise I won't bombard with you with junk, just relevant info regarding our little projects. Please become a fan of the pages, suggest them to your friends if you think they'll be interested and spread the Parahawking love. The links are as follows:

http://www.facebook.com/Parahawking
http://www.facebook.com/HimalayanRaptorRescue
http://www.facebook.com/MayaDeviVillage

That's about it for now, I'm literally all blogged out.

Scott

[...]

Have you been on a Parahawking flight with us? if you have and you keep a Blog, then maybe you would like us to include it here.

If you're thinking about travelling to Nepal and experiencing Parahakwing you might find some useful info and travel tips in the Blogs listed below.

Thanks to all those who have written Blogs on their Parahawking experience.

Is your Blog listed here? if not then send me the link and i'll add it to the list.

Katrina Keating - www.katrinakphotography.blogspot.com
Tadashi Tsuchida - www.tadashiphotography.blogspot.com
Chris Ammon - www.flyinghobogirl.com
Peter Bowyer - www.pbowyer.blogspot.com
Brad Sander - www.bradsander.blogspot.com
Darrel & Melica - www.darrelandmelica.blogspot.com
Sue - www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries
Goldielocks - www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries
Steve Lucocq - www.slucocq.blogspot.com
Alan Offord - hedoesdesign.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/flying-with-vultures -

[...]

Where to Start?

Ok, so the last blog I wrote was back in March last year, now I know what you're thinking, this is simply not good enough, well you're right. But I could say that having 16 hour a day power cuts makes simple communications a little tough, but I won't, it's simply because we've been flat out since October and well, you know how it is, things get left and before you know it, you're... into a new year.

New arrivals

So where to begin, well the season got off to an early start so Sept 2008 seems as good a place as any. It seems that the monsoon was a relatively dry one, no more landslides this summer thank god. All the birds were in tip top condition as usual, testament to the wonderful work that Bhupal and Nani do in my absence. We even had a few new arrivals, a juvenile female Black Kite with a wing injury, an Egyptian Vulture chick and a bouncing baby girl from Bhupal and Nani. The Maya Devi roost was expanding.

Due to the extent of the Kite's wing injury and the length of time she had already been in captivity I decided to train her so she could be fit enough to survive should she ever be released back to the wild, we named her Holly. The Egyptian Vulture chick had to be hand reared so could not be released. However, since Egyptian vultures are often seen flying in pairs, it would be fitting that Bob, as he was named, would eventually partner Kevin as the next Parahawking Egyptian Vulture.

Sadly, due to other commitments, James Irons, my right hand man of the last few years, couldn't make it back this season. So suffice to say the Parahawking team has had a bit of a reshuffle. Good luck James, you have been instrumental to the success of the project over the last couple of years and you're welcome back anytime. Tim Lowe, a falconer from the UK has come in to fill the void and is doing a fantastic job.

Spreading the word

All of the Kites were still moulting well into October so I decided to concentrate my efforts on Kevin an Bob, both birds were trained in record time, Kevin was back up with the gliders in around 4 weeks and Bob wasn't too far behind. After a few solo runs and a couple of practice tandems we were back in business with the first commercial Parahawking tandem taking place at the end of October. The following month we did 35 Parahawking tandems with Kevin alone, our best ever. I can't remember all of the flights but I certainly don't recall a single passenger being disappointed with the experience. In the last week we have just had our longest and best flight of the season, a short XC lasting an hour and 15 mins, not bad for January.

We also played host to a number of journalists during November and December, Chris Ammon came all the way from the US to experience Parahawking, she has since had articles published in DestinAsian, an Asia travel magazine and the Oregonian, an newspaper in Portland Oregon. Jeff Leeming a paraglider pilot and writer has written an article for Action Asia magazine, which I believe is out now. Christina Hauschildt and Eva Nitschke from Denmark came to research the subject for a new book on Falconry. Christina took some amazing photographs too which you can see in the photo gallery. I believe there is an article in Men's Journal which is due to be published in April so look out for that one.

Learning the ropes

Meanwhile, young Bob was progressing at an impressive rate, but like any young bird in Nepal's skies, he is a prime target for Eagle attacks. So rather than encourage Bob to be independent and find his own thermals, we are letting him develop his flying skills at his own pace. We have just just started flying Bob and Kevin together so hopefully some of Kevin's thermalling skills will rub off on the youngster.

With the continued success of Parahawking, more and more paragliding pilots want to try their hand at it. We have had an increased number of pilots sign up for the Parahawking solo experience this season, all have been a huge success. Thanks to all of the pilots, I hope you got as much out of the day as I did. Thanks particularly to the 3 Aussies, Peter, Mike and Craig for making it the best Parahawking day ever. Milestones were reached that day, we flew for nearly an hour and half with 3 tandems and Kevin, then in the afternoon myself and the 3 guys took to the skies with both Kevin and Bob for what turned out to be a glorious late afternoon flight, magical.

Himalayan Raptor Rescue

Since October we have rescued several birds of prey as part of the Himalayan Raptor Rescue scheme. Sadly none are able to be released back to the wild as yet. We currently have a Steppe Eagle with a broken wing, 2 Black Kites, one with a wing injury and the other with tendon damage to it's leg. Lastly we have just taken in a young Egyptian Vulture, found only this morning half drowned in the lake. Like most of the birds we rescue, it's hard to know the exact circumstances but in this case we suspect that he has eaten some poison whilst eating a dead fish down by the lake. Hopefully he/she will recover fully and be released in the next few days. With an increased number of birds brought to us every season, our overheads increase too so we are always grateful for any donations that enable us to continue to care for the less fortunate birds of prey. Himalayan Raptor Rescue continue to get the full support of Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN) - www.birdlifenepal.org - and Himalayan Nature - www.himalayannature.org -  who helped initiate the scheme in 2006.

Vulture News - "Share the sky"

The decline of the vultures is always at the forefront of conservation issues here in Nepal. We recently visited the Jataya Restaurant, the Vulture restaurant in Chitwan, the same one that Brad talked about in an earlier blog post, and was incredibly impressed with the results. In the last couple of years, breeding numbers have actually increased in the area, whereas everywhere else across India, Nepal and Pakistan, numbers continue to drop. We hope to be working closely with BCN to develop a vulture restaurant here in the Pokhara valley. In fact, I will be launching a campaign in the coming weeks, the campaign is called "Share the sky", it's an appeal to the international flying community to recognize Pokhara as important destination for flying with Vultures and to help save them. I will be looking to all areas of the international flying community, including clubs, associations, equipment manufactures and individual pilots to come together, make a donation to help fund the Pokhara Vulture Restaurant and save the vultures in and around the Pokhara valley. Together we as a community can make a real difference so in 5 or 10 years time, pilots can still come to Pokhara to fly with these majestic birds of prey. If you or your club or association would like to get involved, please email me as we really need your support. There will be more on this in an upcoming news item.

Maya Devi

As well as hosting a number of new arrivals this season, our home in Nepal, Maya Devi has seen a number of new changes and improvements. Graham has finally hung up his lawyer hat, well for the time being at least, and decided to spend more time out in Nepal and manage the restaurant business. We now have new paved outside seating areas, a newly built verandah and bar area and a cheery new waiter/barman, Raju. Sunday is now officially BBQ day and the social gathering of the week, with special weekly guest, Noris the barber.

What's next

As the parahawking season rolls on - we're still only half way in - and the spring flying conditions approach, there's a whole load more fun to be had including some real goals to aim for. So far, this season has been all about the tandem flying and being able to offer this amazing experience to as many people as possible. This will continue and as the days get longer, the flying conditions improve, the flights will simply get better and better. The flying partnership between Kevin and young Bob will no doubt strengthen as they are flown together more and more. We also have the new Black Kite that will hopefully partner Brad on his acro antics in the coming weeks. But XC is in Kevin's blood so thats what we will give him. Our first planned trip is a flight from Korchon, a 4300m takeoff in front of the 6900m Machapucharre but thats another blog entry.

Today is a non flying day, one of only a handful this season but the power is just about to go off for another 8 hours. I'd better post this before it's too late, otherwise before i know it, another season will go by.

[...]

Recently I had the opportunity to travel with Dr. Richard Cuthbert to visit a project of his in the south of Nepal. It provided me an amazing experience. If you've read my last post or done a google search of "vulture decline" you'll have a pretty good idea of the probability of extinction facing these amazing creatures. What you won't have is an idea of what is being done to provide solutions, well here's one.

The Problem- Vultures are being poisoned because they feed on  livestock that has been treated with the drug Diclofenac. So, make the drug illegal and provide a safe alternative medicine, ok, with governement help that's been done in India the Spring of 2006 and Pakistan and Nepal in the fall of the same year, there is a safe alternative called Meloxicam.  Problem is Diclofenac is still available, it's cheaper than the alternative and enforcement of a ban in these countries is difficult.

Vulture Restaurant Solution- Collect the old cows and ox in an area and give them a comfortable life until they die naturally without diclofenac in their system, then feed the vultures in the area a food that is positively safe. This has also been tried in one location in Pakistan but because Diclofenac was widely available in the surrounding area it had little impact and nest numbers continued to decline, the project has since been terminated. Richard's solution was multifaceted and he used locals to contact vets in the area, educate the vets and switch out their remaining stock of Diclofenac with Meloxicam.

Richard and I stayed at the home of D.B. Chaudry, a wildlife guide for Tiger Tops Taru lodge. Richard met D.B. several years ago and his help has been crucial in implementing the project. With some grant money an information and training center has been constructed as well as a shed to keep the cows, a bridge and a blind for visitors to watch the feeds. Old or terminally sick cows and ox are brought to the center for which they are bought for $3.When I visited 16 animals were being kept and since last  August 85 animals have been fed . We toured the area and after seeing the feeding site D.B. took us around to look at vulture nests in the area.  And here is the point, in every colony of White Backed Vultures being monitored in Nepal, India and Pakistan numbers of nests are dropping every year. Last year, near the vulture restaurant, 14 active nests were found, this year there are 28 active nests being monitored! This is the only site where nest number of Oriental White Backed vultures have increased in Asia!!! Of course the increase are adult birds moving in but this means there is a safe haven for vultures in one section of Nepal. The problem of course is that after rearing their young the vultures will travel far from this area and potentially could feed on poisoned carcasses in another part of Nepal or India.

For me it was incredibly exciting. My first thought was if it would be possible to have a similar restaurant near Pokhara, days after coming back a horse died near lakeside and for several days there was a huge increase in vultures around town and in the house thermal. Other pilots and even regular tourists really enjoyed seeing the big birds up close, they are primal and magical no doubt about it. The concern with the horse was that it could have contained diclofenac and those 80 vultures who had come to feed would soon being dieing all around town. That wasn't the case but diclofenac is still being sold in the area. Is it possible to establish more vulture restaurants and have them serve the locals in the area by providing a tourist attraction? Protect birds, help locals, and have more vultures showing where the lift is for pilots! hmmm.... 

[...]

The very next morning we received another phone call. A second Himalayan Griffon Vulture was found "injured" at the site of the horse carcass. Our initial fears of Diclofenac poisoning were beginning to become a reality. However when we arived at the place of rescue, the story of how these two Vultures ended up in the situation began to unfold. The birds were feeding off the carcass along with several other Vultures, with full crops they were probably unable to fly so they  would have hopped a few yards to the lake nearby to take a well earned bath. Their intention would have been to bask in the midday sun, digest thier meal then fly off to roost that evening.

Unfortunately, before they could settle into their afternoon bask they were harassed by some local kids then beaten with sticks until they were too exhausted to even stand. Fortunately the distressed birds were spotted by a local hotel owner and we were quickly informed. The birds were closely monitored and well fed before it was decided that it was safe to release them. The release itself was a less than dramatic affair (apart from Homes nearly getting his nose bitten off). They were driven to a local hill where they were released without harm or fuss.

The following day it was decided to release the Steppe Eagle too. We were unable to find out exactly the circumstances behind this capture. The bird had no signs of physical injury or ill health, however we felt that it was best to monitor him for a few days just in case. this morning he was driven up to the top of Sarankot, our local flying site where he was released.

We still have the little Black Kite in custody, we're hoping to free him in the next few days.

Scott

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It's been another hectic week at the Parahawking base camp. In the last few days we've rescued 3 birds, a young male Black Kite, found on the side of the road, hours from death, an adult male Steppe Eagle, handed in by a local hotel owner and a Himalayan Griffon Vulture. The Black Kite and the Steppe Eagle are in pretty good shape and should make a full recovery, their release back the wild is imminent. The Himalayan Griffon Vulture is unfortunately not looking so good. In fact the alarm bells started to ring as on initial inspection he is showing signs of poisoning by the dreaded Diclofenac. He was one of hundreds of Vultures feeding on a horse carcass only 1 km from our home. Whilst this was an amazing sight and one which we are always grateful to witness. We were somewhat concerned that the dying horse - seen here being rescued by Brad, Paul and Michelle the previous day - had been treated with Diclofenac prior to dying. If so the bird will last no more than 48-72 hours. Only time will tell, we'll keep you posted.

We've also been testing the The Kev Cam Mk II and the results are more than impressive. The results from the first camera setup were a little disappointing, it was a wireless device that was relying on a strong direct signal with the receiver. This was really difficult to achieve, since the paraglider and the birds are moving around all he time. There were moments when the signal was strong and the picture was clear but these were fleeting moments, not enough to get a real impression of the flight and Kevin's behaviour. We then switched to an altogether different device, a camera that records directly onto an SD card, removing the need for external receivers and video recorders, The camera is called the Flycam One V2 and was designed for model airplanes, it was a revelation. After a few minor adjustments and alterations to the harness it works perfectly. Kevin does find it a little irritating when he's not flying but as soon as he's in the air he forgets all about it and performs as normal. To see a movie clip, click here .

We'll give you an update on the rescue birds situation as soon as it happens.

Scott

[...]

I wish the 11 hour a day powercuts and the on going fuel strikes were our only problems, but today, Kevin nearly died. He was grapped by a Steppe Eagle whilst flying but somehow managed to free himself. The Steppe Eagle flew off and Kevin miraculously lived to see another day. A full report on this almost tragic event will follow shortly, along with new and incredible footage of the new and improved Kev Cam.

Dr Richard Cuthbert from the RSPB is currently in Pokhara doing some valuable research work on Vultures. Last week we trapped and successfully satellite tagged two White Backed Vultures, and real achievement. Full story and pictures will follow shortly.

The Himalayan Raptor Rescue project successfully released a rare White Tailed Sea Eagle. These huge Eagles are winter visitors to Nepal feeding in and around Nepal's many rivers and lakes, they then migrate south to breed. Jeff, as he was briefly named was found trapped in a fishing net on a nearby lake. He was rescued by a local fisherman who unfortunately kept him for a week with his legs tied together whilst on a diet of rice and dhal.

 

When he arrived at Maya Devi, he was weak from hunger and could barely stand, probably from being immobilized for so long. After around 2 weeks of regular feeding he was ready for release. We took him to the highest point of the Toripani ridge, around 1600m and waited for a good thermal. Before I could fully open the box, he burst out, spread his wings and took off. Without looking back he hooked into the first thermal and climbed out. Brad was flying at the time so we had planned to release him while Brad was positioned overhead. The timing couldn't have been better, as Jeff climbed up, Brad went to join him. They thermalled together then after only turns Jeff disappeared towards the big mountains. Amazing!

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I left Pokhara recently to go trekking with a friend. On the ride up we came across this site. A vulture staring at his dead companion while he himself becomes listless and faces the ineveitable. Another case of Diclofenec

poisioning? Quite possibly the posturing is characteristic of this type of death. For those who don't already know the situation is dire for Asian vultures in just the areas I love to fly, Nepal, India and Pakistan.  But what is the situation? Check out www.vulturerescue.org for an overview.  Also www.peregrinefund.org has some good info; a quote from their site "Once considered among the most abundant raptors worldwide, the Oriental White-backed, Long-billed, and Slender-billed Vulture are now classified as critically endangered species and face imminent extinction unless remedial action is taken."

 

You'll probably be as shocked as I was once you learn more, this is the biggest decline of any bird species since the Dodo.. and there aren't any of those left.

Lucky for us Dr. Richard Cuthbert, a scientist and conservationist is coming to town and we'll have the opportunity to learn more about the problem and what is being done to protect these amazing animals. Richard is also a paraglider pilot so we'll have a lot to talk about.

During the rest of my trek I was inspired by awesome images of vultures soaring in the big mountains. I've made a video from a flight in North India from last March to leave you on a more positive note. We can't lose these amazing animals! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn2-4xvEfwk

[...]

After much work and procrastination the Kev Cam has arrived. This tiny remote video camera, normally used for security surveillance, was kindly provided to us by Pakatak. The idea was to attach the camera to Kevin's back using a harness, giving him the ability to film us as we fly and call him in to the gliders. The only real problem we encountered was with the harness itself: it needed to be a snug enough fit for the camera to give a steady shot, but not so tight as to impede Kevin's flight. It was also important to ensure that the mount for the camera had no edges for the glider lines to catch on. Scott came up with a slick-looking camera housing, with sponsor bling and all. The harness straps came in the form of a bra, two in fact. We used braided nylon for the first two thirds of the harness, around Kev's wings and chest, then used the clasps and a few inches of elastic from the bras to complete the tight but flexible harness for the Kev Cam. Needless to say, we needed a girl to buy the bras, as the male team members feared for their masculinity asking a Nepali shopkeeper for such a garment. Let it be noted: Scott appears to be more adept at doing a bra up than taking one off.

[...]