Coming soon (the next week i hope!)…some news, birding, stag do, Bird Fair and my 5th Dutch tour this year….watch this space

Well it's been nights of bat work, followed by days of translating a Dutch website into English which has basically prevented me from telling you wild stories of fun and excitement!

Bird wise during the bat work i have seen Barn, Little and Long-eared Owls (and heard Tawnys), plus several Common Quail.

Common Quail_3

Last night i ventured onto the Veluwe where Eurasian Nightjars were fairly active, as well as Tree Pipit, Yellowhammer, Stonechats with young and lots of Common Swifts.

Eurasian Nightjar_1

I then finished the evening by listening for Corncrakes, successfully as you can probably tell from this recording, short and sweet (ok maybe not so sweet!)

Corncrake

And to end with a mystery photo…..it may be easy? but it looks like something else to me!

Not much else happening at the minute, and off to Scotland next week to do some work with Dan, where it will no doubt rain every day and we will eat vast amounts of cholesterol….

Well i think im back into a normal sleep pattern now, just in time for some bat work at 330 on wed morning!

Otherwise it's been the usual cleaning of washing, this time forgetting to take one of my passports out of my trousers….time will tell whether it's still acceptable at a border crossing?

Bird-wise have heard both Wood Warbler (Veluwe) and Marsh Warbler (between the supermarket and the John Frost bridge) which were both additions to the year list.

Im now home for several months, so if anyone heard of any work for me let me know. At the end of august i have the Bird Fair when i will be on Sunbird duty for 3 days again, followed by an autumn tour in the Netherlands, hoping for a wader extravaganza!

Later on in the autumn i have tours to the Gambia and then Ghana, before our 3 month Africa adventure starts, is it too early to start packing?

Our last day today, so thought i better wake everyone up early….and serve tea and coffee in my ger at 0500! Cosy with 12+ people in one ger….

We started by revisiting the White-naped Cranes, which never really came close to photograph. Afterwards we walked around the wet, grazing marsh.

Marsh Sandpipers were common 
and there were several displaying Eastern Black-tailed Godwits (split in Birds of East Asia) 
The place was full of singing Mongolian Larks 
 
And there were several 'eastern' Eurasian Skylarks 
Including one that was chased by an Eurasian Hobby, only to escape, before 2 Sakers tried to catch the same bird. I assume the Sakers were taking advantage of the fact the bird was in shock and tired from the first attack? The lark still escaped unscathed. 
 
 
Gun Galuut is a protected area where the locals work with the tourist camp to look after the habitat and wildlife. We saw Argali sheep here (the largest sheep in the world, which i somehow failed to photograph!) It does seem that there are a lot of livestock on the marsh, and how managed this is im not sure. The 2 Black Storks below doing their best to blend in with the yaks, cows, goats, sheep and horses. 
Following a record in Suffolk this year, Eastern Common Terns have become quite topical. 
 
 
Back at the camp the Blyth's Pipits were in full display flight.

 
 
 
Then Andy found a Chinese Bush Warbler, thanks to modern technology i managed to send an email to the Peter Kennerley and Brian Small (authors of the reed and bush warblers monograph) with photos to ask for confirmation. They replied so speedily that i could tell the group at breakfast the next day, brilliant isn't it!? 
 
On the way out we stopped at the lakes again, seeing more Stejneger's Scoters 
and a small flock of White-winged Black Terns (incl one bird in non breeding plumage) 
Large groups of Demoiselle Cranes were present 
On the way back to the city for one last night we stopped and had lunch by the huge Chinggis Khaan statue. It contains (or will contain) museums, an art gallery, restaurant etc and is quite amazing. Apparently they are going to plant 10,000 trees, and build an artifical lake….sounds promising!

For the time being there was one Black Kite type looking to steal peoples lunches, as you can see Chinggis doesn't look too happy about it, but i guess if you are one of the greatest barbarians of all time that you don't smile too much? 
 
Tomorrow morning we are flying home, after 2 weeks of great company, great birding, amazing scenery and lots of laughs.

Another 0430 wake up call, all cosy and snug in my sleeping bag i could hear Black Grouse 'bubbling' in the valley opposite the camp. A great way to wake up, followed by coffee and chocolate…..but we just couldn't pick the grouse up.

Back to the river valley where Dusky and Two-barred Greenishes were singing, as were Black-faced and Pine Buntings, Rubythroats, Eurasian Wryneck (still can't get my head around my singing september Wryneck in Holland – the last 4 weeks i have heard many Wrynecks, several Lesser spots and 2 Hobbys, and they always seem so easy to identify) Daurian Redstarts and Lesser Whitethroats (according to Sylvia warblers these should be nominate curruca, another good indication that you shouldn't believe all that is written in the books!) We also saw some cuddly fox cubs, unaware that the other side of the world people chase them and kill them, just for fun….and that in parts of London they have been stealing cars, robbing banks and may even have caused the financial crisis….. 
Anyway back to this morning, this was the view when i looked out of my ger. 
I was already in a good mood when an American tourist came over to me and asked what we were doing, and could i help him…..He had been hearing this strange bird, and it sounded like 'cuck-koo', 'cuck-koo'….erm, now let me think? No sorry i have no idea….. 
 
Daurian Jackdaws were particularly numerous. Last year Christian Brinkman told me about the pied plumage of juvenile Daurian Jackdaws, and i then read the same in Nils van Duivendijks book….but im still none the wiser as to whether i have seen this plumage…Could the pied bird in the photo below be a juv? Or are the others juvs that have already moulted out of a pied plumage? Or are they 2cy birds? 
I had one real target for this morning, a species that makes some birders salivate just at the thought of. I happen to be one of those dribbling birders when people mention Azure Tit….it took some doing but we finally found at least one, which saved us trawling the parks of UB to find another… 
 
After breakfast we birded ur way along the valley, seeing more of the same and having our picnic lunch sat in the bus, sheltering from the wind and rain whil 8 Amur Falcons fed outside! 
 
 
We ended the day at Gun Galuut with White-naped Cranes (the last pair at this site?)

Another 0430 start to make sure we could make the most of our day driving towards Jalman meadows (another of my favourite sites in Mongolia!) The day started well with a pair of Amur Falcons and Rufous-tailed Rock Thrushes, before it got even better….a dead sheep! Ok so Yann will tell you that a live sheep is better than a dead one but for us this was just perfect! It was surrounded by vultures, with Steppe Eagles and Black/Black-eared Kites for company. 
 
 
The Black Vultures were really close! 
 
 
As some field guides tell you, sometimes it's easier to see the shadow of a raptor than the bird itself! 
The ID of Griffon type vultures in Mongolia is open to some debate and i think this is an Eurasian Griffon Vulture. 
And there were various Steppe Eagles 
 
 
And this one sharing its airspace with a Black Vulture. 
And then the kites, which are extremely variable in Mongolia 
 
It was difficult to drag ourselves away from this scene, but it was time to move on. There were other things waiting for us, like Oriental Cuckoos, Yellow-browed Warblers, Red-throated Thrush, White-backed and Grey-headed Woodpeckers, Olive-backed Pipits and Pine Buntings. 
We also saw a pair of Common Buzzards, now just a bit of research is needed to see whether these are within the range of japonicus and thus split by The Birds of East Asia. 
We also saw some really fresh Camberwell Beautys…. 
More Brown Shrikes 
and the local race of Long-tailed Tit, caudatus like but dirrrty. 
After arriving at our ger camp there was time for proper coffee, mars bars, and a spot of raptor watching from the comfort of our gers. 
After a bit of relaxing there was just time for an hour in the field with more Pine Buntings, Olive-backed Pipits, Dusky and Two-barred Greenish Warblers, Long-tailed Rosefinch….oh and this beast, grrrr! 

Although yesterday was a great day, i knew it could still be better. So we got up at 0430 again and made our way back to Yolyn Am. What a difference, glorious blue sky, sunshine and stunning mountain scenery! Yesterday lunchtime i had felt myself really lucky to have picked up the head and shoulders of an Altai Snowcock, but this morning, as we ate our picnic breakfast, there were 2+ birds on top of the ridge. Their calls were faint, but still very atmospheric. At first you could see the head being thrown back and then the noise would drift across the valley, magic!

The rest of the morning we spent seeing Lammergeier, Himalayan Vulture, Kozlov's, Brown and Alpine Accentors, Great, Beautiful and Common Rosefinches, Twite, Eastern Black Redstarts, Water Pipit, White-winged Snowfinch, Wallcreeper, Pacific Swift, Crag Martin and mammals such as Pallas's Pika and Siberian Ibex. The pikas are highly entertaining, the one below determined to grab more bedding and then run home before a Saker or Upland Buzzard saw him! 
 
 
Siberian Ibex 
 
 
 
 
After the above performance from a Himalayan Vulture we were then treated to a couple of Lammergeier fly-bys. 
 
 
After a lazy lunch we then headed to Daladzadgad airport. We were half an hour early so we decided to check the stadium trees. This small cluster of trees (c.30) within a walled stadium produced a Dusky Thrush, some Thick-billed and Pallas's Warblers, 5+ Hawfinch and an Asian Brown Flycatcher!

That evening we were back in UB, very aware of the amount of people, traffic and how the roads in the city feel worse than those of the desert!

Im always excited about this day, as Yolyn Am is one of the best sites in Mongolia. It can be full of birds, and mammals and about 15 years ago a birding group stumbled on a Snow Leopard here!!

There was one slight hitch in my plans….the weather. We arrived early, drove through the mist and low cloud as we approached 2500 metres. It seemed like we would be in luck for scanning for Altai Snowcock…and then the mist dropped, the rain started and the visibility reduced to about 5 metres….oh sh*t! We sat on the bus for half an hour, everyone in surprisingly good spirits. Once the stories and jokes started to dry up i decided we should risk a walk. Pretty quiet to begin with, but after an hour or so the mist lifted just enough to make birding possible. All of a sudden the singing Wallcreepers were becoming visible, Rosefinches appeared, and accentors, and Lammergeiers….turned out nice again! I would of course like to show you photos of all these great species, but after my recent camera experience i decided to leave it save and dry in the bus! Mike got a picture of the Great Rosefinch though. 
I had managed a photo of a female Oriental Plover on this mornings journey. Potential confusion with an autumn Caspian Plover? Check the leg colour, underwing and size. 
Once back at the camp it was time check the trees again. The local Isabelline Shrikes have probably eaten more Pallas's Warblers than i have seen…. 
Desert Wheatear also breeds but Asian Brown Flycatcher, Rosy Starling and Dusky Warbler were all migrants. 
 
 
 
Just outside the camp this Isabelline Wheatear was holding territory in a pile of vodka bottles. It's response to me coming close was to call, then fly up and hover, thank you very much!