We rescued and released a young Egyptian Vulture earlier in the season. A fimiliar story, I am told of somebody that has an "Eagle", I immediately think it must be a Kite, Anything with claws and a hooked beak is an Eagle to the locals here. Most of the time birds are found not too far away, however this time it was a little closer to home.

I soon discovered that our next door neighbour had "rescued" this bird - that turned out to be an Egyptian Vulture - which he had chained to the corrugated roof of his house in the blazing heat. It soon transpired that he hadn't rescued it at all but bought it from someone else for 2000 rupees and now wanted me to pay him for it.

I have and always had a strict policy to never hand over money in exchange for a bird. If I were to do that, this would encourage opportunists to steal birds from the wild in the belief that they can sell them to me. In fact bird trading is illegal in Nepal and a recent case in Kathmandu saw a man sentenced to 2 years in prison for attempting to sell an Eagle Owl that he claimed he had found.

Anyway, I did what I normally do, try to explain that what they are doing is illegal and that the best place for the bird is initially in our care where we can give it the necessary treatment so it can be returned to the wild. The bird itself was in fairly good shape considering it had apparently been fished out of the lake. It was a little on the weak side but aprt from that generally ok.

We kept him for a few days, gave him lots of food and cleaned him up. Wild Egyptian Vultures are surprisingly calm and docile unlike other wild raptors. This makes it a lot easier when treating them as they rarely get stressed. Once he regained his strength we decided to release him as soon as possible. We took him up to Sarankot, waited for a nice thermal cycle to come through, then cast him away in to the sky, another successful release.

Himalayan Raptor Rescue has a strict policy of never handing over money in exchange for a bird, this is illegal in Nepal. If you find a bird that needs help, please rescue it for compassionate reasons not for financial gain as there will be none. The reward is knowing that by bringing the bird to us, you have given it a second chance.