The speaker was the chairman, Tony Mainwood, on two bird-watching trips he and his wife had made recently to Nepal.

There were several reasons why Tony wished to visit Nepal. Apart from a trip to India, he had not been that far east before and there would therefore be birds with which he was not familiar.

One in particular, the ibisbill, he had only had distant views of on a trip to Kazakhstan when it was almost impossible to see without a telescope. It was on its nest site - a grey coloured bird among grey coloured boulders. In Nepal there was every opportunity of seeing one much closer to see just how attractive a bird it is.

Another reason was to see birds which are considered rarities in Britain - the kind that attract hordes of twitchers over here. Some of the likely species Tony had seen in Shetland and was looking forward to seeing them in greater numbers in their more normal surroundings.

The first trip, in February last year, was visiting the Chitwan National Park, exploring the varied habitats in the area.

One day the party came to a marshy area with long grasses in which little birds were flitting in and out. This made them difficult to see long enough to identify and Tony, a ringer of many years standing, commented to the leaders that it would be useful if one could catch the birds.

It turned out they were two of only a handful of people in Nepal with ringing experience. One of them, Hem Sagar Baral, had learnt to ring to be able to do research for his PhD awarded by Amsterdam University.

They had been using Dutch rings left over from this research project, but these were now coming to an end and they were looking for some way to get more. After some discussion it became clear that ideally they wanted their own ringing scheme. This could be run by Himalayan Nature, an organisation similar to the BTO in this country, but conducting research into various aspects of Nepalese wildlife and not just birds.

This would mean that any information resulting from birds ringed in Nepal would come to them. It would also mean that anyone wanting to ring in Nepal would have to get permission from them and use their rings, as happens in other countries who have their own schemes.

A spotted owlet – spotted in Nepal.

Tony described how he mulled over this idea and on returning home made enquiries as to cost and ease of getting rings to set up a new scheme. This turned out to be quite straightforward. With help with funding from various sources the first order was placed for 12000 rings.

The next problem was how to get the rings to Nepal without incurring additional expense. What better excuse for another holiday! Hem and the others were also keen for Tony to assess their ringing skills and give them further training if necessary.

January this year therefore saw Tony and his wife Helen heading for Nepal again, this time for Koshi where Hem had arranged for as many of those interested in ringing to gather as possible. There was great excitement when they saw their rings for the first time, with a Nepal address on them. Tony felt very privileged to be asked to put the first ring on the first bird caught - a fantail.

Over the next few days everyone practised putting up mist nets in various locations, catching and ringing a variety of species, measuring and weighing them. Following sightings of a Daurian redstart the previous week, an attempt was made to see this again and to try to catch it - this was a bird new to Nepal and those who had not yet seen it were keen to do so. After some searching the bird was found in the same area as before and it was netted, ringed and photographed to verify its identity.

Tony was even more pleased to learn there was a Siberian rubythroat in the same locality as this was one of the species he most hoped to see. A net was put up in a likely place, the bird was duly caught and Tony was able to ring it.

It was obvious from his account of his trips and from his photographs how much Tony had enjoyed his visits to Nepal and being able to help the people there to have their own ringing scheme added another dimension to the trips. And yes, he did get good views of several ibisbills.

The next talk is by an old friend of the bird group, John Love, whose topic is Darwin and Islands. The meeting is on Monday, November 30 in the lounge of Golspie Community Centre at 7.30pm. Superb photography is guaranteed.

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