🪶 Shashwat Sapkota — Wildlife Photographer
Software engineer by weekday, wildlife photographer by weekend — tracking the birds, beasts and quiet light of Nepal, from the hills of the Kathmandu Valley to the grasslands of Chitwan.
somewhere above the valley ~
Field Notes
I am a hobbyist wildlife photographer, and Nepal is my whole studio. Being a software engineer, weekends are when I get to disappear into it — on Saturdays and Sundays I wander the outskirts of the Kathmandu Valley, looking for birds and small creatures in the light of early morning.
When the holidays come, I go further, to the national parks of the lowlands. Chitwan has always been my favourite — its grasslands and rivers never run out of surprises. The search for the Royal Bengal Tiger, though, is still on.
Featured Encounters
Milvus migrans
◍ Kathmandu Valley
Banking low over a glassy pond, prey clutched in its talons — a split-second of raw purpose caught at first light.
Rhinoceros unicornis
◍ Chitwan National Park
An armoured giant grazing the elephant grass of the Terai — Nepal’s great conservation triumph, back from the brink.
Melursus ursinus
◍ Chitwan National Park
A cub rides and clings to its mother through the grassland — one of the hardest, most tender sightings in the wild.
Anthracoceros albirostris
◍ Chitwan National Park
Berry flicked skyward and caught mid-air — the everyday theatre of a hornbill’s breakfast.
Athene brama
◍ Kathmandu Valley
Two amber eyes peering through the canopy — found only by holding still long enough to be found back.
The Collection
30 photographs