Bird Watching in Pokhara Lakes

• Three Lakes in Two Days: Phewa, Begnas and Rupa, by boat and on foot, with the Annapurnas behind them.

• Around 480 Recorded Species: Water, marsh, river gorge and mid-hill forest within half an hour of each other.

• The Easiest Birding in Nepal: No permits, no early flights, no leeches, and a hotel with a hot shower every night.

• Pame Marsh at Dawn: The western end of Phewa, which is the most productive hour of the whole trip.

• Pairs with a Trek: Slots either side of an Annapurna trek without any extra travel.

Day one works Phewa Lake — the Pame marshes at the western end at dawn, which is the single most productive spot in the valley, then the lake itself by boat for grebes, cormorants and kingfishers, and the Rani Ban forest on the World Peace Pagoda ridge in the afternoon for babblers, barbets and flycatchers.

Day two moves east to Begnas and Rupa lakes, quieter and more agricultural, with reed bed and marsh that hold jacanas, bitterns, warblers and wintering ducks, and the forested ridge between the two lakes for mid-hill species. If time allows, the Seti river gorge in the middle of Pokhara is worth an hour for wallcreeper and forktail in winter.

Every trip in this region runs with a specialist bird guide rather than a general naturalist — someone who birds for a living, knows the calls, and can put you onto a skulking warbler rather than pointing at a raptor. Groups are kept to six or fewer, because a line of twelve people does not see anything shy.

We do not use call playback to draw territorial birds, except sparingly and never for a threatened species in the breeding season; it stresses the bird and it is increasingly restricted in Nepal's protected areas. Nests are not approached, flash is not used on roosting birds, and habitat is not cut or moved for a photograph. If your guide asks you to stay on the path, that is why.

November to March is the best period: wintering waterfowl on all three lakes, clear air, comfortable temperatures and the Annapurnas visible behind the water. March and April bring resident breeding activity and altitudinal migrants moving up through the forest, with fewer ducks but more song.

A good two days yields a hundred and twenty to a hundred and eighty species. This is not the biggest list you can make in Nepal — Chitwan and Koshi Tappu both beat it — but it is the most comfortable way to get a substantial one, and the setting is unmatched. The monsoon is warm, wet and green, with fewer birds and no mountains.

Easy. The walking is a few kilometres a day on level ground and lake paths, with one optional forest ridge climb of around 300 m on each day which can be skipped or driven to. It suits any age and any fitness, and it is one of the few trips in this catalogue genuinely workable for someone with limited mobility — tell us and we will plan it around the boat and the vehicle.

Bring binoculars, a field guide, comfortable walking shoes, a hat, sunscreen and a light layer for the dawn starts, which are cold on the water in December and January. The guide carries a scope. Nothing else is needed — you sleep in a Pokhara hotel and eat in restaurants, so this is birding without any camping at all.

• Bird Watching in Nepal: 880 Species in One Small Country — Nepal holds around 880 bird species in an area the size of England, because it runs from 60 m to 8,848 m.