Qinghai 2024 - Photos from 2022, 2023

 Two early August Snow Leopards - with Angsai closed for 2024 summer had to find our own site - it took over week's watching to find these! It's unusual outside main mating season to sight two cats at the same time - they acted like matture male and female.

 A March Pallas's Cat - a freezing early morning scene.

 That's not a kill that the female Pallas's Cat is carrying - look closely and you see a striped tail - its a mother cat relocating a kitten to a new den. Just before this happened we saw two adults meeting and a resultant chase - this could be the conclusion. Sights not often recorded!

Lammergeiers are a common site on the Tibetan Plateau - they are bone scavengers and have the ability to eat and digest bone tissue. To break bones into swallow sized portions they need to break them up by dropping from a height onto a hard surface like a rock. 

 Tibetan Fox - a pika hunting specialist. Usually quite wary this guy was surprisingly docile - which can happen in areas where the locals leave these animals in peace and even encourage them as natural pika eradicators, to keep a natural ballance.

 Same Tibetan fox showing those broad cheeks. I have a theory they are like that so the foxes can carry several pika during periods when they are feeding cubs.

 Same Tibetan Fox prowling - showing those show legs and characteristic body shape

 Tibetan Bunting - a rare endimic of the Eastern Plateau - Qinghai is its stronghold. This was one of at least 300 birds in a winter flock just on the Qinghai side of the Sichuan border.

 Tibetan Gazelle - a fairly common and local ungulate on plateau grasslands. Often see during the day it depends on speed to escape preditors like wolves or leopard. 

Tibetan Partridge - often, like this bird, rather tame

 Kessler's Thrush - common in moist grasslands or areas with good scrub cover - can nest on rocky ledges.