A new 4-wheel drive car was rented for our next trip. We left Lhasa early in the morning and headed for Kartse in Lundroop. This is an artificial lake with good amounts of waterbirds. Many familiar species of ducks were around, with the Eurasian Teal as the most numerous. Six Spot-billed Ducks mixing with a party of Ruddy Shelducks were actually new on my life list. A single Ruff feeding along the water-edge was the first record in the lake for Tsering. We spent several hours at the lake, and did also experience the heaviest hail-storm I ever witnessed. The landscape was suddenly all white of large hails, but went back to normal after a couple of hours of sunshine. The fields around Kartse were filled with larks and wagtails. We got our first Greater Short-toed Larks of the trip, a party of sixteen birds, but they only gave brief views. The Oriental Skylark was very common, as was Citrine Wagtails.
On our way further north, towards the Reting monastery, we also found two individuals of the stunning Tibetan Lark and a huge group of more than 50 Himalayan Griffon Vultures. We entered the monastery during the late evening, had a chat with the monks, ate dinner, drank butter tea and went to sleep (with dreams of many good birds in this new habitat, which is filled with fifteen meter high juniper).
Total list from today: Ruddy Shelduck (50), Mallard (10), Spot-billed Duck (6), Northern Shoveler (10), Northern Pintail (20), Gadwall (50), Eurasian Wigeon (5), Garganey (10), Common Teal (450), Common Pochard (2), Goosander (7), Hoopoe (common), Hill Pigeon (common), Oriental Turtle Dove (10), Common Moorhen (1), Northern Lapwing (6), Ruff (1), Common Redshank (3), Common Geenshank (20), Wood Sandpiper (2), Great Black-headed Gull (5), Brown-headed Gull (2), Himalayan Griffon Vulture (65+), Lammergeier (4), Common Buzzard (4), Common Kestrel (25), Great Crested Grebe (15), Black-necked Grebe (1), Grey-backed Shrike (3), Black-billed Magpie (10), Hume?s Groundpecker (5), Common Raven (6), White-throated Dipper (2), Black Redstart (4), White-winged Redstart (10), White-capped Water Redstart (4), Common Stonechat (5), Great Tit (5), Eurasian Crag Martin (25), Barn Swallow (1), Asian House Martin (5), Tibetan Lark (2), Greater Short-toed Lark (16), Oriental Skylark (150+), Horned Lark (50), Eurasian Tree Sparrow (common), White Wagtail (45), Citrine Wagtail (90+), Brown Accentor (5), Twite (300+) and unidentified small and large Rosefinches (many?).
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