Friday 11 July 2014

Back to Xining

Breakfast at a local restaurant was enlivened by a pair of Desert Finches coming down to a puddle beside the main road! Couldn’t quite believe it as we were in a built up area  and I assumed they were escaped cage birds but there was a male and female and their plumage was in pristine condition with no frayed edges indicating captivity…. A singing Eurasian Blackbird was also watched as well and interesting to note the subtly different song as well. We did indeed visit a different lake area this morning and our efforts were rewarded with quite a few Caspian Gulls being seen, plus there were also Black-headed Gulls, Little, Common, White-winged and Whiskered Terns, Paddyfield, Eurasian and Great Reed Warblers, Citrine Wagtail, many Masked Wagtails, Isabelline Shrike and a Chinese Pond-heron.

Yep it's a Desert Finch...

Then we set out on the long drive back to Urumqi, arriving 9.30pm. But along the way our driver decided to try a shortcut which led us into an arable area of lush, green fields and hedgerows where several pairs of Barred Warblers, Richard’s Pipits and Bluethroats were a nice surprise.

Barred Warbler

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