Bird watching ON KHANKA LAKE
Mid march- april
End september-october
Location: Khanka Lake (about 200 km north from Vladivostok)
Rating: Strenuous, requires some wilderness experience. The tour involves some trekking in the wilderness during the day. All nights are spent in reasonably comfortable local hotels and homes. However, note that the best time to watch most birds is a few hours before sunrise and just before sunset.
Comments: This tour is designed specifically for avid enthusiast birders. This is how it works: we
accept your request and send out our ornithologist scout in the field to look for bird
nests of a specific species of your interest or for the “big six” rare bird species of
Eastern Russia: the eagle owl, the green heron, mandarin duck, reed warblers,
Sparrow Hawks, and bittern.
Some facts about Khanka Lake:
Surface: about 310000 ha
Average depth: 4,5 m
Prevailing flora: meadow vegetation (ling, bluejoint), reeds and aquatic vegetation
Migratory birds: up to 300000-350000 species of ducks; 100000-130000 species of geese;
3000-5000 species of swans.
Nesting birds: Japanese crane (20-25 pairs), Daurian crane (several pairs), Far Eastern white
stork (10-15 pairs), Baer’s pochard and reed parrotbill.
In 1990 the Khanka National Nature Reserve was formed, comprising the wetlands of
Eastern and Southern Khanka shores. The lake is included in the list of specially protected
water territories of international significance.
DAY |
CITY (location) |
ITINERARY |
MEALS |
Day 1 |
Arrival in Vladivostok |
Meeting at the Vladivostok airport, transfer to the hotel. |
- |
Day 2 |
Khanka |
Breakfast followed by an early departure to Khanka Lake, the biggest lake on Asia Pacific. Its marshy shores are the nesting place of little crake, green heron and a number of other species. Afternoon transfer southwest to watch marsh warblers. Overnight in guest lodge |
B hotel L lodge D lodge |
Day 3-4 |
Khanka |
Breakfast. Watching the birds in the company of an experienced Reserve specialist. Lunch and dinner in the Reserve. Overnight in guest lodge |
B lodge L lodge D lodge |
Day 5 |
Gaivoron Spassk Vladivostok |
After breakfast we go to the Gaivoron village near Spassk to visit the zoological research center (studying tigers) to meet a tiger family and talk to the researcher from the Institute of Biology and Soil Sciences (of the Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences). Lunch in Spassk. Transfer back to Vladivostok (4 hours by car). Dinner and overnight in Vladivostok. |
B lodge L cafe D hotel |
Day 6 |
Leaving Vladivostok |
Transfer to the airport and departure. |
B Hotel |
To see a full list of birds of Khanka Lake please click here
Contact us for departure dates and special offers.
Lucky Tours Co., Ltd.
1 Moskovskaya Street, Vladivostok, 690106 , Russia
Phone: 7 (4232) 449944 (5 lines)
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