China - Qinghai Lake

---

Shane flew to Beijing in September as part of his new job with USGS (Patuxent Wildlife Research Center), working on a satellite telemetry project of waterfowl migration in Eurasia and Africa. By placing transmitters on the backs of ducks and geese using little harnesses, we can track the migration of individuals around the globe. A specific focus of the project is determining how wild birds may be contributing to the spread of avian influenza (bird flu), which spread prolifically from Southeast Asia and China into Western Asia, Europe, and Africa since 2005. We would be working at Qinghai Lake in Central China, which sits at over 9000 ft on the Qinghai/Tibetan Plateau and was the site of the largest outbreak of bird flu virus in wild birds (over 6000 birds perished in 2005).
I traveled with my bosses Diann and John and a fellow technician, Kyle, to Beijing and then on to Qining, where it was a 3-hour drive to Qinghai Lake. We worked closely with many Chinese biologists, including Hou Yuansheng, Li Yong-Dong, and Hu Xudong, as well as a Mongolian ornithologist, Nyamba, and it was a great crew. We did the majority of capture of birds at Hei Ma He, which was the site of a cool Buddhist temple. The entire lake is considered a holy site and pilgrims and tourists would come to the site every day, which was pretty neat to see. Many Tibetan monks would make offerings at the site and then stop over to speak with us and look through our spotting scopes. A day after I had my picture taken with a monk, in a quick role reversal, a group of monks stopped by and asked to have their picture taken with me, the tall, goofy white guy in chest waders. The area was beautiful. No trees but rolling hills and mountains in all directions. Lots of sheep and yak herders in the area, including large sheep herds all around the lake......really awesome.
Besides the fieldwork, which was successful, we also enjoyed the Autumn Moon holiday with the Reserve staff (lots of shots of Chinese Vodka) and took a long drive into the mountains to check out a captive breeding herd of Tibetan antelope and to look for griffons and other raptors in the rocky cliffs.

---