Blue Sky Picnic

Today we took the day off to go to the lake and have a picnic with the team. It was a great say of R&R for everyone. Lots of laughing, eating, singing, and even some swimming. What a fantastic way to finish out our season.

We have one more falconry lesson before the girls move over to Damu's and go on feed up.
Three days of parahawking left of the season!

We have to thank everyone who flew with us this year, it was an incredibly rewarding season.
I'd also like to thank Chris and Shea in advance, they are coming to take care of Emmy and Oscar, as well as Bob, Kev, and Brad while Scott and Anita go to India for their wedding.

As for me, I've got 5 days left in Nepal. Loads of gifts to buy, ends to tie up, and of course packing.

Em and Oscar on the move

Our babies are growing so fast! They've about doubled in size and are starting to stand pnon their own. They are eating a lot and are very healthy.

Scott has been building some aviaries so we have enough housing for all of our birds during the monsoon. Sapana and Goggles will be going to stay with Damu, one of our parahawking pilots. He and Scott have been puttng together a nice place for the girls to spend their moulting season.

In other news, we've been extremely busy this week. Being the last week of the season, we are overwhelmed with bookings and lessons. We've had very full days! All is well, and we are really happy to be able to continue to inform people about the vulture crisis and raise some money for conservation.

The babies are eating on their own!

The good news is that the babies can eat off of a plate by themselves. This means a smaller chance of imprinting them.

We pulled Sapana out of the falconry rotation and were trying to get her to surrogate the chicks, but she hasn't had enough time to get in the mothering mood. Typically she lays eggs in May, so she's just not interested in being a mother right now. Regardless, we are having her sleep with the chicks so they get used to having an older kite around.

They're eating four times a day, a mixture of buff, chicken, and fish.

Oscar and Emmy

Our newest rescues, see week-old black kite chicks were brought to Maya Devi today. The children who gave them to us said that the tree they were in had been cut down, and the nest destroyed. They also asked us for money, so there's a chance they took the babies out of a nest in hopes of getting paid for them. We won't support this behavior. We gladly accepted the chicks offering our gratitude as the only reward.

Winding down...

Not really,
With only two weeks left in the season, we are busier than ever. Lots of people wanted to fly before we pack up for the summer, as a result we are almost fully booked for the next two weeks. Definitely not complaining!

We also have a bunch of falconry lessons booked, which I'm pleased about.

Otherwise things have been going great, all of the birds are happy and for the most part, healthy. Weve had Brad on antibiotics and bandaged up his foot. It's healing really well! Crossing our fingers for a full recovery of that wound and he'll be good as new!

It's that time...breeding season

Lately we've been having some trouble with the wild Egyptian Vultures. They're all broody, pairing up and nesting. As a result, they don't really want our guys around and take to chasing them away. Kevin and Bob have been troopers, but it's still annoying.

Back at Maya Devi, Brad is feeling the need to build a nest, and keeps carrying this one stick everywhere,...so cute!

Release Day!

Today we released our rescued Steppe Eagle. She's been eating really well on her own, and was getting a bit stir crazy in her aviary.

We had some trouble in the car, which resulted in her being tired once we finally got to the release point. After a brief rest, she took off and never looked back. Good luck Monty!

You can see her release here

Monty's Rescue

Monty came to us in perfect feather condition, but on the skinny side. Seeing as she had no external injuries, we think she either accidentally ate something bad, or was poisoned. Currently we're feeding her and keeping an eye on her behavior.

Montgomery

After quiet a few days of not much to do, we had a very busy today. Shiva, our normal taxi driver who handles the birds, had a mandatory day off today and couldn't come up to release the birds. Therefore, I had to accompany Scott up to take off, leaving Anita to run after the baby and catch Kevin and Bob.

On the way up we got a phone call that an eagle had been brought into the Blue Sky office. They put it in a box and would like us to come get it. After I released Bob for the parahawking flight, I went to BlueSky fully expecting this "eagle" to be a kite, or small injured bird. It was actually a Steppe Eagle.

When we got him back to Maya Devi, Scott checked him over and he has no external injuries. He seems healthy, although thin and a bit stressed out.

I decided to call him Montgomery, and we put him in Kevin's aviary. We had to force feed him some food coated in a glucose solution, but hopefully he will begin eating on his own.

As for now, Kevin's sleeping in my room. I'll post pictures soon

Leap Day and Kev's BirdDay

I always love leap day, not for any particular reason but it's somewhat special and I feel the need to note that it happened.

In other news, Kevin's "hatch day" is listed as March 1st on his Facebook. Even though we aren't exactly sure when he was born, it's nice to celebrate a day for him. All of his Facebook friends sent good Birdday wishes and he had a great day, complete with an egg.

Happy Sixth Birdday Kevin, and many many to come!

Deadly 60 shoot

We had a great time with the crew. Deadly 60 is a children's TV show produced by the BBC. Originally Steve Backshall was tracking down the worlds 60 most deadly animals, but as the seasons progressed the show has added some other animals as well. This segment involves our vultures! So cool.

Everything went according to plan and we had some great flights and even better footage!

We can't wait to see the program, look for it in the summertime

Prepping for the BBC

As we couldn't fly during the comp, we've been fixing up around Maya Devi and preparing for the BBCs visit. We painted the aviaries, bathed the birds, and got the cameras ready! Its been a nice few days of DYI projects and lounging in the sunchair, winter is offically over and its nice to sit out in the sunshine.

Here's a photo of Bob post-bath:

Paragliding Comp

Today begins a 5 day paragliding competition, so we can't fly any commercial flights. Its a nice short holiday for us to focus on things that need to be done around Maya Devi, like coping the birds and fixing up the aviaries.
The BBC is coming next week, so we can't afford not to fly the birds. They have today off, but Scott will be flying solo with them to keep them fit.
Today we are working on some building projects, and going over to the British camp this afternoon.
The weather is finally beginning to resemble some season other than winter, and we've been having tons of sunshine!

New Roof!

It's taken quite a long time, but I finally have pictures of the roof before and after. The thatch roof has been replaced by a smart slate one. It's better for the birds, looks nicer, and will maintain longer.

Taking off the thatch

Back to square one...

Laying slate

and finished!

Happy Valentines Day

Nothing new to report from Maya Devi.
We've been busy with flights and the normal routine.
However it is Valentines Day and I couldn't help but post an adorable shot of one of my valentines...

New Roof

Scott and Anita went to Kathmandu yesterday, so it's just me and the birds. The builders were finally able to come out, and the slate roof they're putting on the aviaries looks beautiful. I'll post pictures of the transformation when the project is complete.

We had three flights today. The weather is beautiful, sunny and warming up. The birds are doing well, but we need to keep an eye on them because it's approaching breeding season and the wild birds are getting more territorial.

Nawalparasi

I haven't posted in a few days because I made a trip down to the vulture restaurant in Nawalparasi.
It's a beautiful little village just outside of the Royal Chitwan National Park. The hide is well constructed and the restaurant is maintained nicely. Bacause of the amount of cows, there are many oppertuntiies to watch the vultures feeding.
The feed I watched consisted mostly of white backed and Himalayan vultures, but I was so lucky to have seen TWO slender billed vultures and a cinereous vulture!

Adios Lucas

We decided to keep Lucas a bit longer than George because of his head injury.

Unfortunately, he was getting antsy and wanted to be released. He spent some time bouncing around the aviary and we knew it was time.

Because I picked him up, I wanted to release him. I let Scott catch him up because he's much better at casting birds than me, and Lucas is a fighter. Afterward he transferred him to me for the taxi ride and release. We brought him to the takeoff and he was ready to go.

Without missing a beat he took off into the sky to join the other birds

Goodbye George!

Because he wasnt injured, we let George eat a bit, rest, and decided today would be a good release day.

After the first flight, we took him up in the taxi and let him go. His immediate reaction was to run away from the people, which put him a little higher on the hill. After a few seconds he gracefully took off, joining the paragliders in the sky. We watched him for a while and then joined him on Scott's glider.

Lucas is doing well, his head is healing and he's much better than he was when he arrived. Because of his wound, we will keep him a few extra days for monitoring and care.

Updates with photos soon
Xxx

Vulture Resturant

It's been a busy day!

First thing this morning we woke up and went to the vulture restaurant. We got there early, maybe 8ish and by 8:15 we had close to 80 vultures on the carcass. We were incredibly lucky to have the company of a Red Headed vulture, and two Cinereous Vultures in addition to White Backs and Himalayans. Both cow carcasses had been devoured within an hour and we headed home.

Upon arrival at Maya Devi, we had a phone call from Jess saying she saw a bunch of people crowded around a vulture. Scott had gone up for a flight, so I went to go see what was happening.

Although the story was unclear, there was a wet vulture laying down by the lake with a few men surrounding it. One had a kayak paddle and told me he hit the bird with it. "Lucas" was pretty out of it, and basically laid his head in my hands and didn't object to me carrying him away from that location. I wasn't sure if he'd be okay, he had a gash on the top of his head and wasn't struggling or showing any effort to resist me casting him.

The people on the other hand, followed me back to Maya Devi and wanted the bird back. They also brought the slingshot they used to hit the birds, which Scott broke. We had a bit of an argument, but we kept the bird.

Lucas's head wound:

George

A horse died close to Maya Devi. The carcass attracted some vultures, lots of White Back vultures and some Himalayans. After having such a large meal, the birds often have a hard time getting airborne. The weight of the food makes flight difficult, so they will typically sit around the site for a few hours or until the next morning. This behavior is fine in remote locations, but so close to humans it can be harmful for the birds.
It's common for children to use sling-shot/captipult toys to hit birds with stones. This obviously results in numerous injuries and can often kill the birds (if the rocks break a wing, they cannot fly to find food).
This evening, a local man saw a bunch of children throwing things at a vulture, he called us and we picked him up. We called the bird George, and he seemingly has no injuries and is doing well.

Photoshoot with Brad

We've been flying daily, the weather is amazing and the flights have been long and great for the passengers and the birds.

Down on the ground I spent some time with Brad yesterday and here are some photos from that session:

We are a bit slower this time of the season, so yesterday we went into town to distribute flyers to promote paragliding. Hopefully we can get some more bookings that way.

We also were given news this morning that two cows have died, which means we are also scheduling a trip to the vulture restaurant sometime in the next few days

Kevin Speaks Out

Here's a photo of Kevin looking intelligently at the camera. As if he's pondering something way beyond my grasp.

Nice one. However, recently Kevin, who has always been more quiet than Bob, has begun to vocalize. As far as we can tell, there's no apparent reason for this. Bob has been known to make noise when he's unhappy (if you wake him in the night, trying to put telemetry on), but this doesn't seem to be the case with Kevin. He starts talking to me the moment he can see me from his aviary. Then chattering to Scott on the way up to take off. He also does this when we are just around when he's in the weathering yard. It almost seems, if you were to anthropomorphize this, that he's looking for attention.

In other news, we've had some nice flights lately and we have a group coming by today. As it's colder at night we expect a cow to die soon, which would mean another visit to the vulture restaurant!

Videos

Here are some links to videos everyone should watch!

This first one is the EVCv4,Bob flying with Scott

Here's a video from the vulture restaurant

And lastly, a video that sums up Parahawking perfectly: here

EVCv4

On Sunday Scott pulled out the Egyptian Vulture Camera version 4, or EVCv4, and we did a short test flight from the hill behind Maya Devi down to the landing. It needed a few adjustments, but that's what test flights are for.

Yesterday was horrible weather, rain, fog, the whole bit. Of course with the sun missing, it was freezing. We couldn't test the EVCv4 again, and without flights, we hid inside for the day doing a whole lot of nothing.

Today Scott and I went up to the takeoff early to officially test out the EVCv4 with Bob. The footage turned out really good, there's parts when his face comes into view that are really funny (the camera is a backpack style attachment). Hopefully we can use this and more footage in the future. I'd like to also try the camera out on Kevin, but he's a little more sensitive to things like that.

We had two flights with Kev in the afternoon that were perfect! The conditions were great and the long flight properly tired him out.

Great trip to the Vulture Restaurant

We got up quite early and were on the road before the sun even broke over the mountains. It was bitterly cold, but we got some fresh cinnamon buns on the way there, so I was pretty satisfied with that.

Seeing that my previous visits were a little short of successful, I was a bit skeptical that this trip would be any better.

I was pleasantly surprised.

We arrived around 7:30 and the cow carcass was placed in front of the hide. Within minutes crows had begun to gather and call to each other, alerting friends of their incredibly good luck. The crows attracted the vultures, and around 8:15 we had our first interested Himalayan Griffon come sit close by in a tree.

Over the next 5 minutes more vultures began circling, and it was actually a White Back that came down to the carcass first.
This brave solider paved the way, and almost immediately close to a hundred vultures were fighting their way towards the middle of the group. We could not see even the slightest bit of cow carcass.

Within a half hour, 90% of the carcass had been eaten, those were some hungry birds!
We continued to watch the birds try to find any remaining scraps, but all that was left were bones. The sun was growing stronger and many of the birds were stretching out their large wings to catch as much as possible. Sunning is good for feather condition, but also helps to warm the birds up on such a cold morning.

In all, we counted close to 100 Himalayan Griffon vultures, about 15-20 White Back vultures, and we also observed two Red Headed vultures. The White Backs and Red Heads are threatened species, so as much as we'd like to have seen more of them, seeing the birds was a wonderful addition to the feed.

This weeks update

Nothing too exciting has prompted me to write soo erm but all is well here inNepal.
We've been flying lately and we have both happy customers and happy birds. The birds know their routines now and anticipate their flights.
We also have been working more closely with the other BueSky pilots, putting more time into teaching them about the birds. It's nice to have people interested in the birds and wanting to work more closely with them. Hopefully in this way, the pilots will all become more familiar with birds of prey, allowing them to fully understand and appreciate the conservation aspect of Parahawking.
As for our recent personal adventures, Friday evening we all went over to Visit friends for a nice BBQ. Then one of the motorbikes died and Scott, John, and I had to cram onto the other one.
Saturday Anita, Talo, Scott, John, amd I went out for breakfast. We sat by the lake and had a nice slow morning to wake up. Later we walked from town back to Maya Devi. The weather is comparable to a fall day in the states, the warm sun makes the cooler temperatures just tolerable, the wildlife also seem to enjoy these days. There are many birds in Nepal,and walking slowly allows you to notice just how amazing the biodiversity is.
Yesterday was Maya Devi's BBQ day (most of our evets seemingly revolve around food). The sun was shining and it was a beautiful afternoon to sit around, listen to music, and enjoy the company of friends.

Vulture Restaurant

Yesterday we went to to visit the vulture restaurant. When we arrived there were close to one hundred vultures feeding on a carcass just outside of the site. Although it was an awesome thing to witness, this meant we weren't going to see many vultures on our carcass.

We sat in the hide anyway, pulled out a bird identification guide, and got to it. We saw a magpie, some warblers, and watched the sky and thermals for any hungry vultures.

After a few hours the clouds started moving in. We had seen some birds thermaling, but none were keen enough to come down. Slowly two Egyptians made their way to the carcass, followed by a Himalayan Griffon. We were also fortunate to see some White Backed Vultures that had moved closer, but hadn't come down to feed.

Overall a success, it's always beautiful to go out to the village.

Happy New Year!

I'd like to wish everyone a very happy New Year with lots of love for the year to come. I hope all my friends and family enjoyed this holiday season and I'll see you all in the spring!
As 2011 comes to a close and 2012 opens new doors and opertunities I'm incredibly grateful for the path I've been able to follow so far. At 22 I feel so lucky to have visited so many amazing places and learned not only about birds, but about people and culture. Traveling has changed my life in so many ways, and the knowledge I've learned on my trips wouldn't have otherwise been available to me. 
Ive started the year off in such a great place, not just my physical location but my career as well. I think I'm in a minority when I say I absolutely adore my occupation; I can't imagine living any other way. Being able to have worked with different species of birds and contribute to their conservation is such a great opportunity. I am hopeful for the future and that perhaps my efforts will effect the overall larger picture. Who knows where I'll be in 2012, but itll be best if I can keep contributing to this field.

As for our celebration, the Maya Devi bunch packed up and drove to Tiger Mountain to meet our other friends and spend the night. It was a beautiful resort with individual lodges. We sat around a large, circular indoor fireplace  talking and laughing, as it should be. We had an amazing dinner at 9:30, which was perfect timing and allowed all of us the extra energy to make it to midnight. Even Talo woke up for the occasion.
 
In the morning we were treated to tea in bed, followed later by a nice brunch. We slowly packed up and headed back, but the short trip was a great time and the best way to ring in 2012.
 
Today we are getting back into the routine and loving every minute of it :)