A birding trip to Ladakh – Part 2 – Leh, Shey, Chushul, Nyoma

Posted by Shreeram on Nov 3, 2009 in Blog, Uncategorized | 4 comments

Read the first part of the Ladakh trip here.

Day 5 – Aug 4 – Leh:
With the travel/altitude sickness behind us, we set off towards Khardung-La early in the morning. The views of Leh from this road are truly breathtaking.

Along the way, we came across three flocks of Chukar. At South Pullu, we stopped at the small tea stall to get some breakfast and tea. The garbage dump behind it proved to be amazing. Robin Accentors, Güldenstädt’s Redstarts (White-winged Redstarts) and Alpine Choughs (Yellow-billed Choughs) came very close and allowed us to get some great photographs.

Beyond South Pullu, we came across our first Himalayan Marmots. Huge ground squirrels, their first reaction to threat is to lie down flat as if they were sunning themselves. If the threat is substantial, they-scurry into their burrows.

Another lifer, Red-fronted Rosefinch was searching for food near the road. Güldenstädt’s Redstarts were seen all along. We turned back before Khardung-La and headed to the hotel.

In the afternoon, we went to Choglamsar Bridge. We were awarded with fantastic views of a Common Tern hovering over the river very close to the bank. A Common Rosefinch made a brief appearance, as did an unidentified warbler. We then drove to Shey to try our luck with the Eurasian Hobby. White Wagtails and Mountain Chiffchaffs were very active in the shrubs close to the road. A little distance into the marshes and we had another big lifer – Carrion Crows. The shyest of the 7 species of Corvids that we saw on this trip, these large crows were feasting on a piece of bone.

Day 6 – Aug 5 – Leh to Chushul:
This was one amazing day. We reached the Shey marshes by about 6:45am. The Mountain Chiffchaffs were very active hunting and feeding their juveniles. It was great to sit about 5 feet from them and enjoy the view.

And then we got third-time lucky with the Eurasian Hobby. It started its sorties around 7AM and was vigorously hunting dragonflies over the marshes. It was a revelation to me that a bird of prey hunted dragonflies! Some amazing flight displays later, it decided to land on a lone stump in the middle of the marshes. Barefoot through ice-cold water, we waded slowly towards it ensuring that it didn’t get unduly scared of us. And it sat there like a model and posed for us. What an experience!!

Getting into Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary meant passing through Chang-La, the third highest motorable pass in the India after Khardung-La and Rohtang. Along the route, we saw Fire-fronted Serins, Chukars and a lifer – Twite. We also saw a Pika scurrying away. We stopped at a beautiful stream after Chang-La for lunch. It was an awesome experience to just dip the vessel into the stream and use the water to make food. Wish we could’ve managed our water sources well everywhere.

Our next stop was at an army post. They were very kind to offer us tea and biscuits. When we showed them the photographs that we’d taken, they were very fascinated. They shared with us stories of a huge raptor (Golden Eagle) picking up a stray dog and how they had to chase it away with stones (too sad!). We told them that it was a very rare bird and it’s good for the eco-system to let it eat whatever it gets. Someone also mentioned having seen a “safed ser” (Snow Leopard). It was real fun interacting with them.

Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary was a huge treat. A White-throated Dipper was busy searching for food in a stream. It seemed to be dipping itself into water at one point and emerge at another with prey in its mouth. 3 species of gulls (all lifers) – Pallas’ Gull, Brown-headed Gull and Black-headed Gull – were flying near the water.

Changthang also offered some awesome scenery, with the mountains, the plains, the sun and the clouds.

A group of Common Mergansers, all females, was floating close to the bank. Ruddy Shelducks were resting on the banks at yet another place. Another big lifer was Great Rosefinch, which we spotted close to Chushul.

And then we saw that more graceful of wild asses – the Kiang. Almost looking like a horse, they seemed all over the place.

An awesome day!!! Definitely the highest point of our trip.

Stay: We reached Chushul in the evening and stayed at the PWD rest house for the night. There is no mobile phone connectivity at Chushul. ITBP allows civilians to make phone calls for a fixed duration during the day.

Day 7 – Aug 6 – Chushul, Chushul to Nyoma: After such an awesome day, who thought we’d run into such adventures and push ourselves towards trouble.

The day started off great. We first saw a Common Redshank close to Chushul. A little ahead, a small brown figure started running away from us. Our cameras revealed a Red Fox. We were surprised at its agility on the rocky ground and the speed with which it climbed up a slope to get to its burrow.

And then, a flat tyre. It’s a really scary experience, especially when the closest place to get a flat tyre fixed is 6 hours away. We changed the tyre and moved on. A sighting of 4 Black-necked Cranes in the midst of a Potassium Nitrate dotted lake bed drove us into a frenzy. With the idea of getting close to them in the car, we veered off the main road and drove ahead. A minute later, our front wheels were stuck in the loose mud.

By then the cranes had moved further away. So, we decided to try and get some help. Our eyes shone when we saw a White Gypsy driving towards us. An ITBP officer got off and asked us for our permits. After inspecting them, his first question was “Do you know how far you are from LOC?”. We were a bit taken aback and told him “May be a 100km away??”. He said “Less than 100m away” and pointed to a ridge on the other side of the lake. He offered to find some help and went away.

Meanwhile, we managed to halt a passing envoy of Army vehicles. When we apologized for the mess that we’d gotten ourselves into, they said that there was nothing to be sorry about. According to them, we weren’t the first ones in this mess and would certainly not be the last. They pulled our car out with their Gypsy, accompanied us to the main road and continued on their journey.

We decided that we’d had enough adventures for the day and set off towards Nyoma (enroute to Hanle) to get our flat tyre fixed. We were also running out of fuel.

The journey wasn’t as great as the previous day. We came across a group of stray dogs that had killed a Kiang foal. The parents were trying to keep the dogs away from the foal’s body. They also seemed to have broken one dog’s leg.

We saw a few Common Mergansers and Hume’s Short-toed Larks enroute.

Stay – Nyoma has a PWD rest house. We spoke to the caretaker and he graciously let us stay there for the night. And it’s one town beyond Leh with a lot of STD booths.

As we went to bed that night, little did we realize that the adventure was only beginning .