October started with Annapurna Circuit leading a mountain bike tour and ended in the Everest trail working as a wilderness first responder for an ultra-marathon race. Two different regions with a vast amount of natural resources and terrain changes, October was bound to be an adventure.  

 Annapurna Circuit has always been a pleasure to be in and the amount of flora and fauna I get to discover every time I’m there makes my trip worthwhile. Everest, on the other hand, was my second time and I had a lot of expectation of the flora and fauna I wanted to see. This was a  work-related trip, as a first responder I was on standby most of the time but the places I was able to travel did leave me spellbound.

As I walked up from 2413m through the mixed forests listening to the calls of songbirds, observing bees and butterflies hovering over flowers, seeing different types of flora slowly gave way to Birch. Rhodendron forests dotted with flowers like Gentiana depressa which ultimately gave way to alpine grasslands as I reached 4800m above sea level.

This beautiful region in the Solukhumbu District falls under the protected area, namely Sagarmatha National Park which encompasses an area of 1148 sq km. During my stay in the Solukhumbu region, I was mostly stationed in Gokyo where I could observe some birds and insects. This has created an insatiable appetite to explore more so  I will defiantly be back in the future to document what this national park has to offer.

For now, following are the flora and fauna, I could observe during the month-long trips to two different regions of Nepal.

Birds:
Tibetan Snowcock, Robin Accentor, Common Stonechat, White-browned Fulvetta, Goldcrest, Rufous Sibia, Red-billed Blue Magpie, Yellow-breasted Greenfinch, Ruddy shelduck, Yellow-billed chough, Red-billed chough, Himalayan vulture, etc

 Plants:
Cassia fistula, Oxytropis williamsii, Gentiana depressa, Luculia gratissima, Campanula pallida, Roundheaded Pastureweed etc

 Reptile:
Garden lizard, Skink, unidentified green lizard.
…. and

Various mushrooms and lichens.

 This month due to the travels I have been very late in posting the monthly segment “What I saw” and I would like to apologize for this delay. Thank you all for supporting the blog for all these years and hoping to continue posting more contents in the future. Please feel free to message me or comment on posts with your valuable suggestions.

With regards,

Ajay Narsingh Rana