Birding Islamabad

Dear Riaz Sir, I know it has been quite a while since Zahran asked me to share this account, but anyhow I am doing this now: I visited Aliabad (my hometown) on 15 May 2016. Thinking about my sighting of Black Kites and Booted Eagles during the previous November, I went to a ledge near the Hunza River in Aliabad. There I spotted two Booted Eagles. Ravens and Large-billed Crows were attacking them and both flew towards the high mountains, north-east above Karimabad. Next day on 16 May, I went to Karimabad to have a look at the Ultar area above Karimabad. There I saw a Golden Eagle, hovering quite high, but it seemed to have go up the valley. Luckily that night I was having a small party with some friends and we planned a three-day hike to Khuwhat top, a 4000+ m high alpine pasture above Altit village. So we hiked to the area on 17 May and returned on 19. It’s a continuous ascending hike starting from 2700m to an altitude of 4200m and the ascent took ...

Imran Shah has been visiting Borith Lake in Gojal Tesil for the last six years and he shares with us here some superb photographs of a selection of birds that he has observed. I’ll let Imran give us his account of this amazing location: Borith Lake is a small saline body of water in the Gojal Tehsil of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, measuring about 850m in length and 270m at its widest. The lake is located in a small depression in above main Gojal valley, at an elevation of about 2600 metres. Geographically it is interesting due to the fact that the lake lies between the Passu and Ghulkin Glaciers, on the northern and southern sides, on the west lies the great Batura Muztagh, with some of the 7000 metre peaks like Batura Sar (7,795m), Shispare (7,611m), Passu Sar (7,476m) Ultar Sar (7,388m) and Sangemarmar Sar (7,000m). It lies approximately 5 km to the north of Gulmit, and can be reached via a 2 km unpaved road from Husseini village, on the main Karakorum Highwa...

Hello Dear Readers, RMK reporting from Islamabad. The long awaited time has finally arrived with a few interesting winter birds visiting Rawal Lake and some birds from the Himalayas have arrived in the Margalla Hills.   Eurasian Bittern RMK The leaves of some trees have started turning into their autumnal hues and the weather is dry following the monsoon season. My colleague ZR and I have been searching the Margalla Hills trails and some of the wetlands surrounding Islamabad. However, it was mostly the more common species we encountered. Bar-headed Goose ZR Although and exceptionally, we encountered five pairs of Crested Kingfishers in the valleys, which is assurance that some wintering birds are around the capital city and the coldest season might be early this year. However, currently the temperature is still warm but that hasn’t halted migration. Juvenile Black-winged Stilt ZR Little Grebe ZR   Spotted...