I spotted nine (9) birds at about 09:15 circling above a rocky mountain outcrop adjacent to the river and the national road. I understand that the local name, in Dari, is Kargas.
The frog was hanging on the rough rock wall of the hydropower inlet canal in a shaded part of the canal.
The bird was sitting atop a pile of rocks in a farmer's field.
I saw two tortoises within a few kilometres of each other whilst travelling in the Chal District, south of Taloqan. The first was a specimen approximately 18 - 20 cm in length which was being held by some children who were playing in the road. The second looked much smaller, say 10 - 12 cm in length. This one was walking across the road and was narrowly missed by the driver who straddled the tortoise with the wheel tracks...
I spotted three birds circling above the Kokcha River and the main road to Faizabad and one bird on the ground on a hillside next to the road. I tried climbing up towards the bird on the ground but it took off before I could approach. I took the photo as it passed overhead. Unfortunately the photo is backlit and so no details are visible...
I looked up into the sky from a courtyard in Taloqan at about 13:00 to look at some kites and saw the bird gliding and circling slowly about 80m above the ground. I could clearly see the white wings with black tips and rear sections... very beautiful. It slowly drifted out of view and I did not see it again. A colleague confirmed that he had seen it independently when we met up later in the day.
I spotted one individual fox on the side of the road against the mountainside at approx. 19:30 alongside the Salang Pass road on the southern side of the tunnel. There was approx. 1 metre of snow on the ground.
I spotted one individual at about 18:30 (approx. an hour after sunset) on the side of the road next to the Kokcha River, Badakshan Province. The road was icy and there was about half a metre of snow on the ground.
I saw a vulture, not sure of the species, at about 10:30 on Tuesday 7 February flying at an altitude of about 20 meters above ground level in a north-easterly direction over the road from Fayzabad to Keshim in North-eastern Afghanistan. I have assumed that this was a Himalayan Vulture but it seems that it could also have been the Eurasian Black Vulture - Aegypius monachus. I would be very interested to have any further info or confirmations of the species distributions in this location.
