Tibetan Sandgrouse on the Kalang Tar Tar 5330m ASL, southeast Ladakh, March 2023 (Mike Watson)
Tucked away in a far-flung corner of northwest India lies the newly created Union Territory of Ladakh. It is a winter mountain island, as all roads to it are blocked by snow until late into the spring and when you take off in Delhi you might as well be heading into outer space towards another planet. That’s how it feels to descend through the clouds and enter a world of endless snowy Himalayan peaks. Even the Indus Valley has an other-worldly feel to it, the barren high altitude mountain desert landscape, Leh’s spartan military air base and then the outdoor-gear-clad locals in the airport would not look out-of-place in Star Wars. Following the sacred River Indus upstream, eventually the jagged uplifted peaks give way to a more open landscape of rolling hills, deceptively high and it is sometimes easy to forget this when stepping out of the vehicle, until you breathe the thin air of course.
Tibetan Sandgrouse, shuffling across the barren mountain desert landscape foraging for tiny seeds (Mike Watson)
To a birder (and mammal enthusiast) everything with the word Tibetan in its name is interesting, and none more so than the sandgrouse. It is also one of the highest dwelling bird species, quite at home at more than 5000m ASL. This time we were lucky to see a flock of 42 birds at 5330m! They flew over, calling while we were watching a small group of Tibetan Gazelles on the Kalang Tar Tar, a very special high grassland on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, near the village of Hanle in southeast Ladakh. The weather changes quickly up in the clouds, one minute the sun is shining, and the next snowflakes fill the air. In winter there is not much evidence of grass, unless you look closely at the ground, but herbivores like the gazelles and sandgrouse still manage to eke out a living up here. In fact, Ladakh is probably the easiest place in the world to see the latter, there’s even no need to leave the vehicle unless you want to get closer. Foraging for tiny seeds, the sandgrouse shuffled across the high-altitude desert and were, as usual, remarkably confiding for birds of their family. A spiritual experience indeed.
Tibetan Sandgrouse - words of advice, always approach from downslope, this has worked for me so far (Mike Watson)
Another ‘road less-travelled’ on the Kalang Tar Tar (Mike Watson)
The Tibetan Plateau, where the deep blue sky is almost black (Mike Watson)
The rolling landscape of the Kalang Tar Tar, it is easy to forget you are up at over 5000m ASL here (Mike Watson)