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Blood Pheasants and Speckled Piculets



No--I have not seen them around here, but may well see them when I go
on a birding/trekking trip to the Himalayas this summer. My goal is to
trek slowly through the mid elevation (4,000 to 12,000 ft) mixed
Oak-Rhododendron forests, and to bird them intensively. The
rhododendrons will be in full bloom in May and entire mountainsides
will be bright red against the backdrop of dazzling glaciers. The
birds will be defending territories and breeding. In a word-it will be
heavenly. 
	
	Does any of this sounds interesting to the members of this list? I am
writing to ask if any of you would like to join me in this Himalayan
venture. 

The Himalayas have the highest number of species of any biological
region in India, and the Central Himalayas (where I plan to go) are
even richer, for here the Palearctic and Oriental life-zones overlap.
In addition to birding I will also be looking at community-based
reforestation and sustainable forestry operations. Thus, I will be
talking with both farmers, and environmental activists to get a sense
of the conservation issues in the Himalayas. Finally, I will also be
looking at local wooden and stone architecture, for most of the
Central Himalayan region is criss-crossed by Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh
pilgrimage routes.

	Access to Himalayan national parks is often a bit expensive (jeeps
and guides may have to be hired). My goal in asking for
trekking/birding partners is, thus, two-fold: 
1. some of the expenses can be shared if more than one person goes and
 2. It is always useful to have three or four (but not more) eyes
peering into the underbrush (many of the Himalayan species are great
skulkers). The advantage you would have in coming is that I know the
lay of the land and the languages.
 
	No, I am not leading a tour. I am simply asking for interested
trekking/birding partners for a two to three week trek to one of the
most spectacular, but ill-studied, parts of the world. I plan to go
about the third week of May, for the treks have to finish by the third
week of June when the monsoons arrive and make the trails slippery. 

If there are any questions (or suggestions from those of you who may 
have birded this part of the world) please respond privately. 

JUST IMAGINE Red Breasted Falconettes hungrily eyeing Satyr Tragopans
in dwarf rhododendron thickets even as Speckled Piculets and
Racket-Tailed Drongos forage casually in mixed-species flocks to the 
trumpeting of wild elephants in valleys where Leschenault's Forktails
have always turned over the leaf-litter in stunningly cold streams.


Shantanu Phukan

Lecturer in Hindi-Urdu and Indian Literature
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill