Black-necked Cranes of Hanle, Ladakh, India
Black-necked Cranes, Hanle, Ladakh, India Hanle is a beautiful and scenic village in Ladakh, India. It is well-known for the Hanle Monastery (dating back to the 17th Century). It is around 254 km from Leh, and takes around 7 hours by road. Soma was in Hanle in June with a group of bird watchers. I was very affected by a particular incident that Soma narrated, I am sharing it here, the pictures are courtesy Soma Jha: “On 16th June we arrived in Hanle and went for a spot of birding in the evening. While driving to Hanle we had seen two nesting Black-necked Cranes and now we saw the third one in Hanle. It's a very hopeful scene that promises the propagation of the species especially for a vulnerable bird like this crane. The next morning when we were passing by this site, we slowed down the car and lo and behold ! we found a furry head and then a second one, peeping over a mound. As we were quite a distance away we really had to make sure with our binocs and 50x zoom ...