Birding Tibet: Namtso and Damxung

The Reting monastery was left in the afternoon on 6 October, and we headed for the city of Dam Chong. The night was spent there, a really cold night in fact, and we turned towards the famous Namtso ("Sky Lake") in the morning. This is a salt lake and the largest lake in Tibet. Namtso is regarded as one of Tibet's most important holy lakes, often called the "Heavenly Lake". Pilgrims believe that visiting the shores, offering prayers, and leaving sacred items like Mani stones or prayer cloths can purify negative karma and generate spiritual merit.

When closing up to the Nam Tso there was a huge wetland along the road. I really had good hopes of spotting the Black-necked Crane, but intense binocular scanning did not give any positive results. The lake Nam Tso did not really offer any numbers of birds, but several Great Crested Grebes were feeding outside the shoreline. However, on land there were more feathered animals to watch. The most numerous were Horned Larks, Tibetan Snowfinches and Plain Mountain Finches. We tried hard to identify some eastern larks within the parties of Greater Short-toed Larks, but unfortunately with no luck. While watching four soaring Upland Buzzards above the hills, a female plumaged Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush showed well - a nice addition to the list. Also more common than before on this trip were White-winged Redstarts, being common all over the Nam Tso area.

An appreciated and kind of cooperative adult Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) posed just 100 meters beside the road some kilometers west of Dam Chong this morning.

Once again we had to experience a rather bumpy road, but with stunning scenery when driving over a mountain pass reaching 5120 masl. On these elevations we saw lots of snowfinches, including both the Tibetan and White-winged Snowfinch. Also very present were Horned Larks, being common all through the day.

Male White-winged Redstart (Phoenicurus erythrogastrus)

Female White-winged Redstart (Phoenicurus erythrogastrus)

On our return from Nam Tso we checked the large wetaland again. Ruddy Shelducks were common, and we also spotted our first group of Bar-headed Geese. Further scanning produced the awaited Black-necked Crane. Five birds were feeding in the middle of the wetland, on a distance of several kilometers from us. When closing up a bit one of the cranes turned out to be a Common Crane - a good bird in this area. Our forth species of snowfinch was also identified here, the Rufous-necked Snowfinch.

Today was mainly spent in the car, travelling back to Lhasa. We counted the birds at the wetlands outside Dam Chong before the return in the morning. There were lots of nomads here, and thousands of Yaks. Ruddy Shelducks were the most common species, but several Common Buzzards and Common Kestrels were hunting for Pikas. A nice male Hen Harrier hunting near the marshes was our only new species today. A total of 19 Black-necked Cranes were feeding among the Yaks, and a couple of family groups of the Hume's Groundpecker were around.

Ruddy Shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea)

Total list from these days: Bar-headed Goose (8), Ruddy Shelduck (150), Hill Pigeon (common), Oriental Turtle Dove (20), Black-necked Crane (23), Common Crane (1), Great Black-headed Gull (12), Lammergeier (15), Himalayan Griffon Vulture (25), Hen Harrier (1), Eurasian Sparrow Hawk (1), Common Buzzard (10), Upland Buzzard (5), Common Kestrel (common), Great-crested Grebe (15), Black-billed Magpie (20), Humes Groundpecker (13+), Red-billed Chough (50), Common Raven (6), Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush (1), White-winged Redstart (30), Black Redstart (3), Common Stonechat (5), Eurasian Crag Martin (20), Winter Wren (2), Greater Short-toed Lark (30), Oriental Skylark (25), Horned Lark (150+), Eurasian Tree Sparrow (common), White-winged Snowfinch (25), Tibetan Snowfinch (100+), Rufous-necked Snowfinch (10), White Wagtail (45), Himalayan Accentor (1), Robin Accentor (45), Brown Accentor (15), Twite (50), Plain Mountain Finch (55), White-browed Rosefinch (2), Beautiful Rosefinch (10) and Great Rosefinch (20).

Nomads had settled on the vaste grassland outside Dam Chong, and the area was filled with Yaks.

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