India July - August 2011, Spiti Valley

Ladakh can be reached by three ways. The easiest way is to fly straight to Leh, but there are two other much more interesting ways to travel to this remote corner of the world. Both ways lead through even more remote areas and both deserve some attention. Coming from Delhi, the most logical choice is to travel over land via Manali to Leh, but we took a detour through the incredible Kinnaur and Spiti valleys in Himachal Pradesh. We did not spend much time in the Kinnaur valley, which is probably just as interesting as the Spiti Valley, but the extreme remoteness of Spiti was unresistable, so we spent roughly a week in what turned out to be my most favourite part of this wonderfull country so far.

We based ourselves in Kaza, which was a small and very quiet town back then, but I´m afraid that the area has been discovered by backpackers and will soon be a bustling tourist town. We did some birding just outside of the town. To the east of the town flows the majestic Spiti river, which looked like a perfect site for Ibisbill and Solitairy Snipe, but despite intensive searching we did not find them, probably due to the overkill of suitable habitat (the river is more than two km broad with hundreds of riverbeds). However we did observe some interesting birds in the direct vicinty of Kaza. Amongst them were Himalayan Griffon, Tibetan Wagtail (or calcarata subspecies of Citrine Wagtail), Mountain Chiffchaff, Hooded Wheatear, Booted Eagle, Plain and Brandt´s Mountain Finch.  

Tibetan Wagtail (Motacilla (citreola) calcarata)

Mountain Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus sindianus)

After some days in Kaza, we went to the high altitude villages of Ki and Kibber (both are above 4.000 MASL), mainly to enjoy the Tibetan culture (which is absolutely breathtaking here), but we still saw some nice birds including Red-billed and Alpine Chough, Fire-fronted Serin, Rock Bunting, Hill Pigeon and abundant Tibetan Snowfinches.

Fire-fronted Serin (Serinus pusillus)

Tibetan Snowfinch (Montifringilla adamsi)

The best site for birding we visited in Spiti Valley was however the area around Dhankar village and Dhankar lake. We spent two days in this area, also mainly to visit some Gompa´s and to stay at local houses, but we saw a lot of interesting birds, including Lammergeier, Desert Wheatear, Twite (ssp. montanella), Himalayan Snowcock, Sulfur-bellied and Tickell´s Leaf Warbler. On Dhankar Lake we also found some early migrants like Temminck´s Stint, Black-winged Stilt and Garganey, which were all a bit of a surprise. Some mammals were also recorded in this area like a cute Royle´s Pika.

Temminck´s Stint (Calidris temminckii)

Lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus)

The cute Royle´s Pika (Ochotona roylei)

All of these sites are fairly easy to access by public transport. Starting from Shimla, take a bus to Rekong Peo, Kinnaur Valley and then take a bus to Kaza. Both busrides can take between 12 and 20 hours and are not for the faint hearted. A wheel or two hovering above a 500 meter vertical drop happens more or less every five minutes. On the other hand the scenery is absolutely breathtaking. Visiting Ki and Kibber can be done by bus or taxi. A taxi can also drop you of at the begin of a trail leading to Dhankar from the main road. The hike up to Dhankar takes about two hours and another two hours to get to Dhankar Lake. Be prepared for high altitudes and the possible problems that comes with the altitude. I highly recommend visiting this area, even if all species that can be seen here, can be seen somewhere else. It is an absolutely stunning and remote area and maybe some discoveries are waiting to be made.

Birding near Kaza with the typical Spiti scenery in the background (picture taking by Guido Bonthond)