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ROOF OF THE WORLD SANDGROUSE

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)

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MAASAI MARA SERVAL

Serval, Pose Plains, Maasai Mara, August 2022

Card No. 15 in the Brooke Bond ‘African Wild Life’ series, first published in 1962 was the Serval. Illustrated and described by Charles F Tunnicliffe it is a truly beautiful animal. With legs, even more out of proportion than Cheetah, in fact the longest of any cat compared to its body size that give it a stilted appearance. It shares a finely spotted coat too, ‘at one time much in favour with native chiefs for mantles, and even today its fur is used for that purpose by the European furriers’ wrote Tunnicliffe 60 years ago. When photographing wildlife I am often thinking of an image that looks like one of his tea card paintings - I might just have what I was looking for!

We had a couple of Serval encounters on the recent Wild Images Maasai Mara tour. The first was in very harsh late morning light and very nice, but it was more of a watching experience as it hunted in a sea of grass, so typical of the Mara plains. As we waited for it to show in the open, more safari vehicles arrived and made viewing space tricky and backgrounds far from ideal, so we abandoned it. Our next meeting with the ‘Delicate Cat’ was late one afternoon at sunset, when we received a call from our lodge’s other vehicles that a Serval was not far away. This time we had it completely to ourselves for about half an hour, on the prowl in the long grass, striking various poses and crucially a few times without a mesh of grass stems across its face as so often is the way. The low light was actually really nice and the Canon R5 performed. FAB-U-LOUS!

Thanks to my awesome Maasai driver guide Tinka Jackson, without whose expert help these photos would not have been possible.

Brooke Bond Tea Card no. #15, African Wild Life 1962 by Charles F. Tunnicliffe

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KELP GULL AT GRAFHAM WATER - first for Britain

Kelp Gull (third calendar year), Grafham Water, Cambs - the first for Britain

THE LEAST INSPIRING MEGA RARITY I’ve seen is how some people have described the Kelp Gull at Grafham Water but for me it’s been a very interesting ID lesson. I wonder how many of these have passed in the crowds of black-backed gulls in the past and I half expect that this one will eventually get gazumped from its first for Britain status. It was nothing if not very co-operative for a large gull, on view all the time along the dam wall of Grafham Water on the hot and sunny afternoon I visited it. A quick whizz through its identification features: jet eye; bulbous-ended bill; flat-headed profile (at times); black mantle and long jade(?) legs was all news to me having only seen them in South Africa and Argentina, where there is much else of more interest to look at. It loafed around in the water and later on the railings of the walkway to the valve tower. Aged as a third calendar year, it is in active moult with the six, old outer primaries retained and the inner ones regrowing. With so few gulls present it was also nice to see such a variety - Great Black-backed, Lesser Black-backed, Herring, Yellow-legged (2, one even giving the wings-closed long call) and Black-headed as well as the Kelp Gull all standing helpfully in line in a ready-made ID collage on the railings. Also here were five or six Yellow Wagtails and a few Common Terns. The last (and only) time I was here, was way back in the 80s for a Leach’s Petrel. It was unrecognisable with a bank of solar panels below the dam wall and tall trees all around the reservoir.

The bill can look really massive at times, especially when foreshortened

Six old, outer primaries with adult-type inner primaries already growing

Looking flat-headed at times.

Gasping for air in the heat

Jade legs?

Not the most inspiring location, the dam wall at Grafham Water.

Only fools and English men?

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TURKESTAN SHRIKE AT BEMPTON

Turkestan Shrike (male), Wandale Farm, Bempton

ANOTHER GRAND DAY OUT IN YORKSHIRE WITH MARK VARLEY. It’s been a long time since we were last on the east coast so the Turkestan Shrike at Bempton was just what was needed to tempt me over, despite the cost of petrol, busy desk at work, other commitments etc. Another reason was that I ‘lost’ all my UK isabelline shrikes, following the verdict that they are not identifiable in immature plumages. This was very disappointing after seeing quite a few from Portland to Eyemouth, Horsey, Nene Washes and of course the Buckton bird, which was most likely a Turkestan too.

As always, a day time drive across Yorkshire was not fun, with zillions of tractors and surprisingly lots of tourists on the A-roads. We eventually arrived and parked at RSPB Bempton Cliffs, miles from where the shrike was, in the small copse behind Wandale Farm. Yellowhammers sang from every hedge along the way and a couple of distant Corn Buntings ‘jangled their keys’, birds long lost from East Lancs. [Yellowhammer has declined by 58% 1967–2016 in the UK and it is red-listed but it still thrives along the East Yorkshire coast thanks to a good winter food supply.] I enjoyed the Yellowhammers just as much as the shrike! A Little Owl peered down from between the slates of the dilapidated old farm house, behind its 1960s successor.

It’s just flown back into the hedge 5 minutes ago’. Time passed by as it got colder under an overcast sky and eventually, more than two and a half hours later, the shrike finally reappeared, in the exact spot it was last seen, in a tangled hawthorn. It obviously disliked the colder spells when clouds covered the sun and it showed several more times until the evening. A Yellow Wagtail flew over calling, another one long lost from East Lancs. We walked past ripening barley fields, towards the fabulous Bempton Cliffs seabird show. As well as the noisy gannets and kittiwakes, there were many Razorbills as well as smaller numbers of puffins and guillemots and lots of comings and goings. Fabulous stuff, almost hypnotic. The Black-browed Albatross was an ‘also’ again today, sat in the gannet colony, far away down Staple Newk, where it has settled again this summer.

Yellowhammer male singing at Wandale Farm

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