Monsoon India Day 11

This was a day that exceeded all of our expectations as we set out on the drive to Tso Kar and the main purpose of this leg of the tour – to see Tibetan Sandgrouse. Our route took us east along the Indus River valley and then through numerous steep-sided valleys as we climbed ever upwards. Along the way we saw plenty of Chukar, and at one area we encountered the first of many Great Rosefinches we were to see today. 

Chukar

There was also a group of Red-fronted Serins present, Eurasian Crag-Martin, Blue Rock Thrush and Common Cuckoo before we got slightly further up the road and found Black-winged Snowfinch to be common. As the road zig-zagged up to Tanglangla Pass, Guldenstadt’s Redstart appeared with at least 4 males and 2 females, with one male along the road being particularly cooperative and there was also a superb Robin Accentor.

Guldenstadt's or White-winged Redstart - stunner!

What a simply stunning bird! There was also Golden Eagle, Brandt’s Mountain-Finch, and many more Black-winged Snowfinches as well. 

Robin Accentor

The pass was a whopping 17,582 feet and my altimeter read 5336m and this is apparently the second highest drivable pass in the world. We searched for Tibetan Snowcock here without any success and were 2 days late according to the roadworkers here! But a soaring Saker Falcon was a bit special!

It's high up here.....!

Great scenery on the drive to Tso Kar 

So we dropped down towards Tso Kar and the first birds we saw here were a pair of Ruddy Shelducks and a Hume’s Short-toed Lark, followed by yet more Black-winged Snowfinch, Desert Wheatear etc. 

Our first view of the fantastic scenery at Tso Kar

Driving into Tso Kar we were extremely fortunate to come across a pair of Tibetan Sandgrouse with 2 chicks right beside the road. They slowly walked away but from the car we had amazing views of this most-prized bird and the reason for coming here in the first place – and we had only been here 10 minutes! We watched as the chicks tried to shelter in the shadow of the parents bodies from the harsh midday sun and totally lapped up this amazing scene. How lucky were we? 

Tibetan Sandgrouse within 10 minutes of arriving....

At the Tso Kar Eco-Resort we were pleasantly surprised to see our rooms were en-suite and even more delighted to see a couple of male Great Rosefinches perched on the roof beside some colourful Tibetan prayer flags! 

Great Rosefinch was common

We had a nice lunch of fried rice before heading out into the plains where we found a family of Ground-Tits, flocks of Twite, many Blanford’s Snowfinch, an Upland Buzzard and what appeared to be a Long-legged Buzzard. A further search for sandgrouse wasn’t successful so we returned to the eco-lodge for an early finish to an extraordinary day.

Monsoon India Day 10

We said our goodbyes to the houseboat crew and headed to Srinigar airport, where David was flying back to Delhi and the rest of us were heading for the next leg of our adventure to Leh, Ladakh. We arrived around 11.10am and reached our delightful hotel some half an hour later. We enjoyed a nice rest and some of the best food of the tour before heading out to the River Indus to search for Ibisbill. The water level was very high due to snow melt and we searched various areas seeing Hume’s Whitethroat, Mountain Chiffchaff, Bluethroat and numerous Citrine and a few White (alboides) Wagtails. 

Spot the Ibisbill

At the last spot we could try we struck gold with great scope views of a pair of Ibisbills feeding on a shingle bank on the far side of the river where we watched them for quite some time in the early evening sunshine before returning to the hotel.

Monsoon India Day 9

We returned to Gulmarg this morning in our quest for Spectacled Finch but neither heard nor saw this invisible species! We patrolled the same area of forest where we had heard it on our previous visit without any joy and had to content ourselves with some perched Himalayan Vultures, White-cheeked Nuthatch,Black-and-yellow Grosbeak, Yellow-billed Blue Magpie and other common species. 

Himalayan Griffons

White-cheeked Nuthatch

We checked out an area of fields covered in flowers and some crop fields to see if the finches were coming down to feed and saw some Yellow-breasted Greenfinches but no other finches. The forest was on both sides of this nursery area and a pair of Variegated Laughingthrushes were seen. 

It was already 9.40am and we were at a loss what else to try for the pesky finch so a bit of inspiration came to me and we headed to the cable car. Fighting with throngs of people we eventually got into a gondola/cable car and headed up the mountain, which entailed a 2-stage journey but in pretty quick time we were at the top reaching an altitude of 3945m. 

Great scenery at the top of the cable car

Exploring the mountain top...

I had no idea what to expect and with mist covering the landscape to begin with we began walking away from the cable car station just as the mist began to slowly lift. The boulder field seemed devoid of birds initially until we heard something singing, which turned out to be a cracking male Himalayan Rubythroat. 

Himalayan Rubythroat

Over the next hour we saw 3 males and at least 1 female, all collecting food for their hidden young. Sat amongst the rocks we enjoyed watching them flying around and collecting food, with one male very bold perching on a rock right in front of us. What a bird! Our exploration of this area also produced Blue-fronted Redstart, Rosy Pipit, Plain Mountain-Finch, Alpine Accentor and Northern Raven. 

Plain Mountain-Finch

We then took the cable car down one stop and had some lunch before checking out the bushes where Keith spotted a male Pink-browed Rosefinch singing. We then walked 4kms down the mountain seeing Rufous-breasted Accentor, Tytler’s Leaf-Warbler, Eurasian Wren etc.

Pink-browed Rosefinch

 We returned to the houseboat in time to watch the sunset and enjoy a cup of chai.

Monsoon India Day 8 - Kashmir

Spent the day amidst the spectacular scenery of alpine meadows and forests of Sonamarg, whose lofty snow-capped peaks dominated the skyline all around. Our first stop was low down where we crossed a fast-flowing river into a nice forest seeing several Slaty-blue Flycatchers, a Brown Dipper showed well along a side stream, and we saw a few other commoner species including Hume’s Warbler. 

Brown Dipper

Driving higher up we arrived at an area of wide-open flower-filled alpine meadows where Yellow-breasted Greenfinch, Citrine Wagtails of the black-backed Tibetan race calcaracta were common, Eurasian Hoopoes were numerous, and a collection of really wacky-looking shrikes looked a lot like Heinz 47 hybrids..!! 

There sure was some spectacular scenery up here

Citrine Wagtail was a common sight throughout our stay

Eastern Goldfinch is now split from European Goldfinch according to HBW

Eastern Stonechat

Eurasian Hoopoe

Somewhere up here Spectacled Finch resides and it is still a mystery to me some weeks later! We explored side valleys, villages, meadows in all the places this species has previously been reported but the bird remained invisible and it was beginning to become our obsession to find this bird. We saw plenty of other species such as Eurasian Hobby, Himalayan Buzzard, 11 Himalayan Vultures soaring in the clear blue skies, Alpine Chough, Plumbeous and White-capped Redstarts, Common Rosefinch and others. 

Himalayan Buzzard

We ended the day after an abortive attempt to reach the high-altitude pass, at a little village hoping for finches to come into feed. All we saw were Common Cuckoo, numerous Russet Sparrows, Himalayan Woodpecker and several groups of Yellow-breasted Greenfinches.

Russet Sparrow

Monsoon India Day 7

We spent the day amidst the conifer forests of the hills around Gulmarg. At the base of the hills we encountered a huge party of Coal (Spot-winged) Tits and a few of the extremely localised Rufous-naped Tits, with Brown-fronted and Himalayan Woodpeckers, Rock Bunting, Western Crowned Warblers, Yellow-billed Blue Magpie, and a Dark-sided Flycatcher.

Driving up we began birding several kilometres higher where we hit a purple patch with a Chestnut Thrush, followed by a pair of Variegated Laughingthrushes that spent over an hour around us, followed by a cracking pair of Black-and-yellow Grosbeaks. 

Black-and-yellow Grosbeak

Variegated Laughingthrush

We ate our picnic breakfast here and scanned the clearing below us and were rewarded with Slaty-headed Parakeets, Scaly-bellied Woodpecker, Ultramarine Flycatcher, numerous Streaked Laughingthrushes, a Tytler’s Leaf Warbler skulking in the undergrowth, a Buff-barred Warbler, and several Lemon-rumped Warblers. Walking on we saw Bar-tailed Treecreeper, a very brief Indian Blue Robin and a Blue-capped Rock Thrush.

We continued our walk into the afternoon but were beset with low cloud and rain that came in waves so we headed to a chai stall and took shelter, seeing Russet Sparrow along the way. Another attempt at birding the same productive area proved to be futile, apart from our first Kashmir Nutcracker perched in the mist and gloom and where we heard its harsh rasping/grating call, so we headed to a great restaurant for lunch and whiled away a couple of hours as the rain continued unabated seeing a few Citrine Wagtails as we drove along. Eventually we had to leave the restaurant after a great lunch and headed again to the same area as this morning where this time we nailed much better views of several Kashmir Nutcrackers in the scope. A few Black-and-yellow Grosbeaks were also seen, along with some commoner birds and by now we had pretty much cleaned up all the targets for Kashmir. The drive back to the hotel was enlivened with views of a few Jackdaws – an Indian tick for yours truly! Also seen on the drive into the city were Spotted Forktail, Himalayan Bulbul and Common Starling. What a day!

Monsoon India Day 5 -6

Day 5 was mainly a travelling day as we returned to Delhi during the first rain of the tour to date.

Day 6: After an uneventful flight from Delhi to Srinigar in Kashmir we were met by our local guide Deepak and drove to our base for the next 4 nights. This was a houseboat moored at the edge of Nigeen Lake and a very different experience from the normal hotel. After lunch we headed to the hills just outside of Srinigar and spent a very enjoyable few hours notching up a pair of Kashmir Flycatchers that proved tricky to get a decent view of but after persevering for a while everyone managed decent looks at what can be a tricky species! 

Blue-capped Rock-Thrush

We were amazed at the number of Rusty-tailed Flycatchers here and we saw many, as well as Western Crowned Warblers, Blue-capped Rock-Thrush, Oriental Turtle Dove, Slaty-blue Flycatcher, Black Bulbul and a cracking Himalayan Woodpecker. 

Oriental Turtle Dove

Himalayan Woodpecker

We saw many Rusty-tailed Flycatchers

Black Bulbul

Black-eared Kites

Not a bad start to our Kashmir adventure.

Monsoon India Day 4

After a later than usual start we headed to an area of acacia forest and rolling hills, which turned out to be particularly productive. The habitat was excellent and we found several pairs of Marshall’s Iora showing very well. I love this bird and seeing the male in breeding plumage was very nice indeed, having only seen them in winter before today and we had numerous sightings as well as hearing them sing. 

Marshall's Iora

Our other major find of the morning was watching a pair of White-naped Tits at their nest hole, which we found just by chance. Again, this is a very special bird and one we were keen to find, so to see them nest-building was a huge bonus. 

White-naped Tit

We followed this at a different site with yet another great bird and more good views of the simply stunning White-bellied Minivet. We saw 2 males and a female, with another male later on during our walk. 

White-bellied Redstart

Other good birds this morning included a pair of Black-headed Cuckooshrikes, Crested Bunting, Grey-breasted Prinia, several Common Hawk-Cuckoos, White-bellied Drongo, Plum-headed Parakeet, Small Minivet, Coppersmith Barbet and a hepatic female Grey-bellied Cuckoo.

Grey-bellied Cuckoo

 After a long rest over midday we headed to a lake not really knowing what to expect and were thrilled to discover it was full of birds. We added over 20 species to our list here with a flock of nearly 190+ Lesser and 3 Greater Flamingo’s, 6 Great White Pelicans, Painted Storks, Indian & Great Cormorants, Oriental Darter, 79 Eurasian Spoonbill, many River Terns, 2 Little Terns, 13+ Ruff, Green Sandpiper, Pied Avocet, Little Stint, White-browed Wagtail and others. Another section of the lake produced Little Stint and a whacky record of Sykes’s Warbler watched for quite some time in a small marshy area. We were left wondering if these shorebirds had left their breeding grounds early, were failed breeders or hadn’t gone north at all?

We ended up beside a small pond amidst dense thorn forest where a pair of Painted Sandgrouse flew over and an Indian Nightjar flew past us to round off a surprisingly good day.