Qinghai - The End

Our last morning’s birding was at a lake near Urumqi where we arrived quite early and straight away got our bins on a  male White-headed Duck! This is a rare bird in China and many country listers have visited this spot over the past 4 – 5 years to tick this bird here. 

The duck site...

White-headed Duck

There were also Red-crested Pochard, Ferruginous Duck and other commoner wildfowl, along with Northern Lapwing, Common Sandpiper, many Pale Martins, Pied Wheatear and Isabelline Shrikes. We drove around to the other side of the lake and walked down towards the water’s edge where we had much better views of a male, female and immature male White-headed Duck. It was a nice setting with hills all around, beautiful blue skies and plenty of birds but eventually the time had come to turn around and head back to the hotel and pack. But we weren’t done yet as we saw a family of Chukar on a hillside to bring our tour list to 245 species seen.

After lunch we drove to the airport and flew back to the UK via Beijing, arriving the following day. It had been a great tour and was very enjoyable to be able to spend time watching birds and really appreciating them without having to be tied to a fixed and tight agenda. And I must thank a really great group for their excellent spotting, camaraderie and good humour. 

Next up is our second tour to Namibia this year......