Qinghai 2023 - Photos from 2022, 2024

 An August Snow Leopard - found on the 5th and last day of a visit to Angsai, and at the very last hour when we driving out of the park.

 October brought these two well grown Pallas's kittens  

 Eagle Owls on the Qinghai/Sichuan border around Serxu - another species that benefits from the huge number of pika prey.

 Przewalski's Gazelle - once abundant and then that same old stoty of being hunted to near extinction - but now making a slow comeback with aid of local conservation and protection.

 Blyth's Mountain Vole - diurnal and easily mistaken for a pika, but this guy has a tail. Lives close to pika, very energtic diggers that can kick up a whole "fountain" of earth.

 Saker Falcon - with that rufous cap it looks almost like a Barbary Falcon, but spots insead of breast stripes are a cricial ID pointer.

 Tibetan Partridge - mainly found on the Tibetan plateau, it has a very characteristic call, like the vibrating teeth of a comb as its quickly dragged over a hard surface.

 Tibetan Grey Shrike - at time of writing not yet split to a species, but, being larger amd having more white on the wing, rather different than Chinese Grey, with which it is lumped.

 Toadhead Agama - a superb looking lizard from the arrid region around Golmud.

 Rufous-necked Snowfich - a very common bird of the high plateau.

 White-rumped Snowfich - a bird closely associated with pika colonies where it nests in pika burrows but benefits its hosts by acting as an early-warning and mobbing squad in the event of visits from preditors.

 Hill and Snow Pigeon side by side - easy to see the very different plumages but also a close family resemblence.

 Upland Buzzard - this is a dark phase bird (some can be almost black). The most plentiful Qinghai bird of prey, another species that benefits from pika.

 A lone Bull Wild Yak prowling the Kekexili - probably interested in rustling up a domestic female or two.

 Used to be call Glover's but now this pika has been lumped with Chinese Red.

#