Lhasa
In early April I asked if anybody had any information about birding in Lhasa.I got no replies although over 200 people looked at the post!
Anyway I thought some of you might be interested in the day I had two weeks ago at the Xiongshe Nunnery,a site mentioned in a few trip reports by the commercial bird tour companies that visit Lhasa.
The Nunnery lies at over 4000m. high up in a side-valley some 30km. south of Lhasa, and off the motorway to the airport. The road has been relatively recently tarmaced all the way up to the Nunnery so access by car is very easy.In the early morning the upper end of the valley was full of birds,but by mid-day bird song had ceased,and almost everything had disappeared into the bushes.
About 1km. short of the Nunnery I stopped the car as an interesting bird flew over the road.This turned out to be a Giant Babbax,and one of many seen and heard later in the day.While photographing this I noticed 2 Tibetan Eared Pheasants away up on the hillside.From past experience with Himalayan pheasants,which tend to be skulking and difficult to hear/see,I was delighted to find these,and duly photographed them.However on stopping the car a bit further up the road within 30 seconds I was surrounded by 3 others looking for food! In all I probably saw over 20 of these magnificent birds.Interestingly they were all in the valley below the Nunnery,and there were none actually around the buildings. The valley was also full of Brown-cheeked Laughing Thrushes,again like the Babbax very approachable. Round the Nunnery itself there were Brown and Rufous-chested Accentors,Oriental Turtle Dove,Tibetan Blackbird,Great Rosefinch,and Tibetan Partridge as well as the ubiquitous Tree Sparrows.All in all a great morning's birding with crippling views of the two target species.
Tom Lawson.
