The focus is on the western China (Friday 29th November)

Katerina made a loop in western China; she flies north from the mountains in the south of Tarim basin again; she's advanced about 280 kilometers since weekend and spent this night somewhere between Kashi and Aksu - in other words between places which we know the storks winterize at. It looks like she's getting back to Aksu where she'd stayed since the beginning of October. Remember that this area has usually very cold winters and the storks can live there on a few places only near warm springs (see older articles). All in all, Katerina's behavior and the existence of winter grounds raise many questions (Was Katerina the case of bad navigation? If so, was it this year - or when she traveled the first time and learned the trace to the winter ground? Are the birds spending winter in western China just occasional "losers" caught in the trap of Tarim basin, or is it more general phenomena of migratory path leading to a blind alley? Are the birds in Tarim basin really able to live through the whole winter? And so on...)