Returned to the head of the
valley we tried yesterday morning and this time the rain stopped (almost)
during our field breakfast and we could head up into the mountains on our most scenic and adventurous
walk to date. We had just began walking when a Tibetan Grey Shrike was spotted on
nearby telegraph wires – what a great start. In fact we found another one
further along the path, sharing the fence posts with a couple of Common Cuckoos.
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| Looks like a long way up the mountain.... |
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| Amazing scenery up here.... Worth the effort! |
Once we reached the valley,
we quickly found our first Przevalski’s
Partridges scurrying up the hillside above us and we would see several more
during the course of the morning. The first of a couple sightings of Wallcreeper this morning was
particularly special for Chris. From the valley floor we hiked high up across a
ridge in a circular route from 3200 – 3700m and it was particularly hard going
but everyone ‘enjoyed’ it. We got off to a flyer with a pair of Tibetan Partridges seen well and higher
up a group of 5 Himalayan
Snowcocks flew right over us as they went from one ridge right away
across the valley to the other side. We managed to track them down and had very
nice scope views as they fed on a steep grassy slope.
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| Himalayan Snowcocks |
The scenery was
magnificent and well worth the effort. We also found Alpine Leaf-warbler,
Beautiful Rosefinch, and a Kessler’s Thrush mobbing a perched Northern Goshawk. Once we had returned to the
valley floor we spread out and managed flight views of 2 pairs of Daurian Partridges to make it a 4
‘chicken’ morning.
After a late lunch in Chaka
we drove to the desert east of the town and had our best view yet of a Mongolian Lark, but the rain that had
been threatening came in and we had a well deserved early finish and a nice
rest after our earlier exertions.
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