Birdlife Nepal (Bird Conservation Nepal) and the publication of “Birds Of Ghoda-Ghodi Lake”) November 23rd 2012Booklet Cover

Booklet Cover, a photo by complicado on Flickr.

Greetings again from Sauraha, Chitwan National Park, Nepal. I began this blog last time I was here in April this year, and now I am back again… Volunteering (also again) at the National Trust for Nature Conservation’s “Biodiversity Conservation Centre At Sauraha. I have made some good progress with the finding, collating, cleaning and analysis of more than ten years of bird monitoring data from Barandabhar Corridor Forest, collected by skilled technicians at NTNC, (mostly by Kapil Pokhrel). More than 700 surveys, 9,000 bird records and some 288 species make it a substantial dataset, but haphazard data management, computing and power failures have made it a challenge to locate and collate the data…

It is finally taking shape however, and from preliminary analyses it looks like there will be some interesting results. It is early yet to draw conclusions (and interpretation is complicated by changes in survey methods over the years) but a worrying trend appears to be a decline in winter visitors, dominated by wetland species. This may be the result of ongoing degradation of the Beeshazari Tal or 20000 lakes area, an important staging point for birds in transit between Siberia and Northern India. The importance of supporting long term, systematic biodiversity monitoring such as that undertaken in Barandabhar Corridor Forest by NTNC is clear.

Cape York Biodiversity and Indigenous Knowledge October 2012

Morelia viridis, a photo by complicado on Flickr.

This year I have had been fortunate to have once again the opportunity to work with KULLA land trust, this time on a series of expeditions with the aim of scoping potential for walking tracks in the remote McIlwraith Ranges. The expeditions build on previous collaborations with the twin goals of biodiversity survey and Traditional Knowledge exchange. In September and October I joined Traditional Owners from the Umpila language group, based from Coen and Lockhart, on two expeditions into their Traditional Lands. The first to the Rocky River, north of Silver Plains, and the second to the Leo Creek mine, in the middle of the McIlwraith Uplands, Northeast of Coen. Both expeditions encountered a stunning array of wildlife, including a number of endemic and threatened species, set against the spectacular landscapes of Cape York. Birding highlights included Eclectus Parrot, Palm Cockatoo, Magnificent Rifle Bird, Red-cheeked Parrot, White-faced Robin, Tropical Scrubwren, other species included Green python, Cape York Green-eyed Tree Frog, Long-nosed Tree Frog, Common Spotted Cuscus…

Both expeditions also encountered frequent sign of Southern Cassowaries, an iconic species believed to have recently declined on the Cape. The expeditions were also enriched by the traditional ecological knowledge of the indigenous participants. It is my hope to be able to build further on these efforts, with future trips planned that will further enhance capacity in these communities for biodiversity monitoring, ecotourism, and conservation land management. Future Expeditions will also include the opportunity for guests to join in. If you have an interest in Cape York Wildlife, and would like an opportunity to experience these remote and hard-to-access landscapes in the company of their traditional owners, with a chance to help in important biodiversity and conservation research, please contact me.

Birding Trek in Tamang Heritage Area and Langtang National Park

Danphe, Impejan Pheasant or Himalayan Monal), a photo by complicado on Flickr.

Part 1: Tamang Heritage Trail
The next series of posts concern a trek in the beautiful Tamang Heritage Region and Langtang National Park of Nepal. While the attractions of the Tamang region are primarily cultural and scenic (the area preserves the traditional way of life of a Tibetan ethnic group close to Nepal’s northern border with Tibet) there were also pockets of good habitat with rewarding birding.  Highlights included Himalayan Monal, Golden Throated Barbet, Mountain Hawk Eagle, Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler, Whiskered Yuhina, Scaly Laughingthrush, Orange-bellied Leafbird and Chestnut-tailed Minla.  Minimum ten days is recommended to do both these “Teahouse treks”, with extra days for acclimation and side trips….

Kathmandu-Gatlang 07/11/2012:  We set off from Kathmandu early on November 7th, for a tortuous 7-8 hour drive by jeep (having taken advice of a friend that the journey by bus was “horrendous”).  We headed first East through heavy traffic along winding roads to exit the Kathmandu valley via the Mahendra Highway, then North along narrow, winding, and precipitous stretches pocked by landslides, high above the Trisuli River, enroute to Syaphru Bensi.  Our last leg was the even steeper and more winding track from Syaphru Bensi up to Gatlang, negotiable only by jeep (this was to give us a head start, as ten days was shortish for attempting both Tamang and Langtang).  We arrived around 5pm, a little weary from the more white-knuckle stretches of road (and driving techniques) in beautiful, sleepy Gatlang (2057m), a Tamang ethnicity village. Birding was relatively quiet in the surrounding terraces and fields, with only species habituated to agricultural land in evidence (Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Blue Whistling Thrush, Common Kestrel).

Recent weeks have seen me thinking more about open research, open data, open source, and finally, open hardware.  I am interested in the potential for open-source systems like the Arduino as control systems for logging much-needed climate data in remote locations. 

In brief: the Objective:  cost-effective logging of critical environmental data in remote locations and under canopy or in buffered environments.

Design challenges:  The system must be cost effective, to allow roll-out over broad environmental gradients and in developing communities globally.  System must be maximally automated, to allow deployment in remote locations where data retrieval must be remotely accessed.  System must be flexible to allow deployment of a range of sensors.  System must be flexible to allow inclusion of mini-sensor arrays into buffered locations where a full array is not possible…

For more info see my new page about the ideas.

Please comment below, or join the Arduino forum discussion on this topic…

here is a sketch (not produced in sketchup) of how it might look…

reSCIEcling: reduce, reuse, research, rejoice!

Kapil-Dai birding hard in Parsa Wildlife Reserve, Terai region Nepal. Would greatly appreciate support in the form of binoculars and GPS for training wildlife monitoring technicians.

Sometimes it seems that it is growing ever harder to do the research we need to do.  Costs are mounting, and funding is difficult to come by.  Rest assured though, it is even harder in developing countries…  resources are even more limited, and the same economic pressures can drive environmental degradation and impacts that conservation workers must struggle to monitor and mitigate on shoestring budgets.  Now, ever wondered what to do with that pile of seemingly obsolete equipment? Digital cameras that no longer seem to have enough megapixels to do the task, 5 year old laptops that won’t run fast enough for the latest operating system, old binoculars, microscopes, scales, gps units, field guides, text books, technical manuals…. Our labs are cluttered with them…  I would like to offer a solution.  It is one that finds a home for unwanted gear while also helping struggling researchers and research projects in developing countries to carry out much-needed monitoring and conservation research.  In recent months I have made contacts with researchers in Nepal, India and Bhutan, and also in developing communities in Australia, all doing great work, in need of basic equipment and support, and who would gladly accept such donations.  Please contact me if you or a colleague has any equipment that you think might be of use to someone else, and if suitable I will try to arrange pick-up (and if you have something you are not sure about, contact me anyway!).  Gear will then be distributed to worthy projects and researchers here and abroad, in the fields of environmental science, conservation biology and environmental education, via registered in-country NGO’s.

Greetings from Chitwan National Park, Nepal

This is the first post to my new homepage, which is intended to be an entry point and repository for my professional web presence. thanks for visiting, and stay tuned for more entries, new publications, links etc.