Our first birding stop was actually a local park in Fuhai (福海). It looked pretty deserted to me, but the birds loved that its so scruffy! 🙂 Birds here chirped as loudly and merrily as ever, as if to say this playground belonged to them! Birds found in this park included Wrynecks (蚁鴷) -there were a few!; Greenfinches ( 欧金翅雀), Isabelline Shrikes (荒漠伯劳), Common Rosefinches (普通朱雀), Tree Pipits (林鹨), warblers, etc!

From left- Common Rosefinch, Wryneck

Isabelline shrike in Xinjiang

At the lake in the park, this animal swam across the lake which caught our attention! I am totally clueless on the ID, I think its a rodent…! >.<”

What is this?

Think it was another 2-3 hr drive from Fuhai to Beitun- not sure! But we didn’t have Lunch and that’s for sure!  While en-route to Beitun, our driver was determined to show us Horned Grebes (角鸊鷉). I was very excited as its a lifer for me! But getting close was a challenge! My shoes were drenched with murky water… Here’s a record handheld shot with my bazooka lens.

horned grebe

It was very windy by the time we arrived at a forest in Beitun area. We saw some chaffinches in the beginning but the wind was so “noisy” that we could hardly hear any sounds from our feathered friends! Rather than waiting for wind to die down, we decided to try another area while en-route to Altay for the night.

At a semi-desert area, trucks nimbled along the sandy track, but birds didn’t seem to be bothered by them! Highlights here included the Red-footed falcon (西红脚隼), Kestrel, Eurasian Curlew, Demoiselle cranes (蓑羽鹤), Pallas gulls and by the lake (mini one) we saw some grey Plovers (灰斑鸻) too!

red-footed falcon

demoiselle cranes in Xinjiang

kestrel in Altay, Xinjiang

Here’s a cool view of how this desert looked like! 🙂

Altay, Xinjiang