With less than a month remaining for the Black-necked Cranes to fly into the valley, preparation of a proper roosting area has been carried out as usual. Observations in the past years showed that the roosts maintained in the previous years couldn’t accommodate all the cranes in one spot, therefore this year a new spot was chosen for the roost with an area of approximately 40m x 50m.
Dasho Dzongrab and Representative from JICA inaugurate the community waste management in PhobjikhaThe Royal Society for Protection of Nature (RSPN) as conservation and development partner to the Phobjikha valley had initiated a Community based Solid waste management project in the valley. The project aims to keep Phobjikha valley clean and free from waste and to make the place environment friendly. The project was funded by JICA office in Bhutan.
Bumitsawa, Pho Chu, Punakha
It was hatched in captive breeding on May 7th, 201117th September 2011. At 7.58 am, a White-bellied heron weighing 5.6 kilograms was released from its flight pen at Bumitsawa in Pho Chu, Punakha. It was 134 days old at the time of the release from the research site. It was the first white-bellied heron chick hatched in a captive breeding.
The juvenile heron is tagged with a band numbered 32 on its right leg. It is also mounted with a 35gms Platform Terminal Transmitter (PTT) that will be useful in monitoring its whereabouts through a satellite data.
Members participated and visited the site
Jigme Tshering, RSPN’s Project Officer based in Phobjikha attended a month long training in Germany
The team with the 36th CraneCranes have been fascinating man since time immemorial not only for its elegance and beauty but also for its agile dancing, flight formations and loud trumpeting calls. These birds need large areas of forests, wetlands and barren land for feeding, roosting as well as for breeding. However, with increasing developmental activities around the world, forests are continuously being cleared and wetlands drained out.
Thousands of miles are covered each year during the migration. Some species even cover more than a dozen countries. Therefore it is important to know and understand even the temporary habitats used for stopovers and staging for necessary conservation of these habitats.