India July - August 2011, Tso Kar

After doing some research I found out that Tso Kar, one of the three largest lakes in Ladakh, might yield some very good species. Local people confirmed this, so we tried to set out to this site. This is a very remote site and we therefore tried to find other backpackers to join in, but since Pangon Tso is much more popular with the "normal" tourists we failed to find anybody wo was interested. In the end we had to rent a van for two days for the price of roughly $100. The price is this high, because it takes four to five hours to get there and the worlds second highest pass is on the route, making it not the easiest way to drive.

We birded the area for an afternoon and a morning and this yielded some stunning and rarely seen species including the rare Black-necked Crane and the seldom-seen Tibetan Sandgrouse, which turned out to be rather common here! Other species included Ruddy Shelduck, Brown-headed Gull, Upland Buzzard, Lesser Sand Plover (in breeding plumage and performing the famous broken-wing strategy to distract me from its nest!), Hume´s Lark, Spotted Great Rosefinch (split from Great Rosefinch in the Caucasus)  and Hoopoe.Tibetan Snowfinch and Tibetan Wagtail were surprisingly common. Waders were also common with Red-wattled Lapwing, Common Redshank, Green Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper and Temminck´s Stint amongst others. Apparently Groundpecker can also be seen in the area, but we did not find them unfortunately. We however did see some very large larks flying in the distance, but the were to far away to indentify them. This site is also an interesting site for mammals. Kiang, or Tibetan Wild Ass, is common in the area. The site is apparently also good for Grey Wolves.

A pair of Black-necked Cranes (Grus nigricollis) with a single chick

Male and female Tibetan Sandgrouse (Syrrhaptes tibetanus)

Tibetan Sandgrouse (Syrrhaptes tibetanus) in flight

Lesser Sand Plover (Charadrius mongolus)

Male Spotted Great Rosefinch (Carpodacus severtzovi)

Kiang (Equus kiang)

This site is truly spectacular. The numbers and the tameness of the Tibetan Sandgrouse alone make this place worth visiting. Beside that a lot of other good birds and mammals can be seen here. However when visiting this site, be prepared to either camp out or sleep in a very basic hut, which, in my opinion, makes the entire experience even better.

A swamp and lake lined by 7.000+ mountains, what more does a man want? (picture taken by Guido Bonthond)