Our plan to leave for the mountains northeast of Lhasa has been delayed one day. Today we had to pick up Chitra from Nepal at the airport. He is going to join us the coming days. Delays and bad communication made us spend the day whole on the road back and fourth to Gonggar, as well as six hours waiting at the airport. Anyway, birding around Lhasa airport (Gonkar) was not bad at all. Finally I got to study the Oriental Turtle Dove well in the telescope (see the tailshot below: the characteristic dark smudging on the outer web of the outer tailfeather). Despite being common this species usually hide in dense trees, or just fly by. We also found a Grey Wagtail in a small waterdike along the fence of the airport - the first of the trip. The ride back to Lhasa did also give several new trip-species along the river. A nice group of about forty Ruddy Shelducks was an appreciated sight. When stopping to have a piss we flushed a flock of fifty White-rumped Snowfinches. The first snowfinches of the trip.
Total list from today: Ruddy Shelduck (40), Mallard (20), Goosander (25), Hoopoe (common), Hill Pigeon (40+), Oriental Turtle Dove (20), Green Sandpiper (2), Common Sandpiper (1), Great Black-headed Gull (25+), Brown-headed Gull (5), Common Buzzard (3), Common Kestrel (5), Greay-backed Shrike (15), Black-billed Magpie (10), Black Redstart (5), Great Tit (5), Eurasian Crag Martin (30), Dusky Warbler (2), Tickell’s Leaf Warbler (3), Oriental Skylark (4), Eurasian Tree Sparrow (common), White-rumped Snowfinch (50), Grey Wagtail (1), White Wagtail (50), Olive-backed Pipit (5) and Twite (25).
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