2008 Tour Narrative
There is something so exciting about birding in Mongolia. The feeling that no other birder has visited any of the sites since our last visit always adds to the anticipation and the sense of adventure. This year’s tour started close to Ulaan Baataar, where we had views of Black Woodpeckers feeding chicks, White-backed Woodpecker, Spotted Nutcracker, Brown Shrike, Northern Goshawk, Demoiselle Crane, and the ever popular Azure Tit, in addition to a small passage of Phylloscopus warblers including several Arctics, Two-barred Greenish, and Dusky.
Our flight to the Gobi went very smoothly, and after a first night of camping we were on the move towards Boon Tsagaan Nuur. In the course of the morning we bumped into displaying Oriental Plover, a species we would see on four days, twice in amazing stiff-winged rocking display; we also encountered Kozlov’s Accentor. By mid-afternoon we had seen Pallas’s Fish Eagle and Swan and Bar-headed Geese. The evening demonstrated to our satisfaction how well our Swedish tents coped with wind and rain.
A full day around the lake produced a great selection of birds, with Long-toed, Temminck’s, Red-necked, and Little Stints offering nice comparisons; we also tallied Greater Sand Plover, Baillon’s Crake, Oriental Reed and Pallas’s Grasshopper Warblers, Lesser Kestrel, Red-crested Pochard, Ferruginous Duck, and Garganey.
Our real adventure started the next day, when rain forced a two-hour break on us, during which our only Oriental Honey Buzzard of the trip passed over! The next day we passed through the Gobi Altai, which allowed us extra looks at Henderson’s Ground Jay, Saker Falcon chicks at the nest, and spectacular views of Golden Eagles. The saxaul scrub played host to Asian Desert Warbler and our first Saxaul Sparrows—later on we were to see several pairs visiting nest holes, but rusty pipes aren’t as aesthetically pleasing as saxaul bushes. And more than 1,000 Pallas’s Sandgrouse wasn’t bad either.
On the way to our next Ger camp—each one different, but all offering nice beds, fires, and space to spread out—we saw more Lammergeiers, Mongolian Finches, and Black Vultures.
We scoured the camp’s trees for migrants. There were no new birds for Mongolia this year, but still some surprises: Eye-browed Thrush, Chestnut-eared Bunting, two Hawfinches looking very out of place on the sandy desert floor, a couple of Amur Falcons among a small group of Lesser Kestrels, a dark-morph Booted Eagle, a second-calendar-year Daurian Jackdaw, two Carrion Crows, six Common Rosefinches, and Asian Brown Flycatcher, as well as the “usual” Dusky, Pallas’s, and Pallas’s Grasshopper Warblers. It’s always worth checking those trees, as the birds seem to turn over every few hours!
Yolyn Am is always a treat, and during two full days of terrific weather we found three Altai Snowcock. In fact, on a single day we saw Altai Snowcock, Oriental Plover, Lammergeier, Wallcreeper, Great and Beautiful Rosefinches, Pallas’s Sandgrouse, Himalayan and Black Vultures, Steppe Eagle, Golden Oriole, Kozlow’s and Brown Accentors, and Blyth’s Pipit. Could it possibly get any better than that?
Leaving the Gobi behind we headed north. The birding heated up with Oriental Cuckoo, Red-throated Thrush, Taiga Flycatcher, Olive-backed Pipit, Black-faced Bunting, Siberian Stonechat, and Gray-headed Woodpecker. The following day we had brief encounters with Hazel Hen and a very obliging Chinese Bush Warbler.
Our ground agent’s camp at Jalman meadows produced Siberian Rubythroat, more Azure Tits, Gray-headed Woodpecker, more Red-throated Thrushes, Oriental Cuckoo, Two-barred Greenish Warbler, and Yellow-breasted Bunting. It was here that we were treated to the most amazing display by half a dozen Amur Falcons—quickly acclaimed “bird of the trip” and one of the all-time highlights of my own birding! To see a male Amur against blue sky so close that we couldn’t focus binoculars was breathtaking.
We ended our tour at Gun Galuut, where not only did we see Asiatic White-winged Scoter, flocks of Marsh Sandpipers, Citrine Wagtail, Red-necked Phalarope, Brown-headed Gull, White-winged Tern, White-naped Crane, and Slavonian and Black-necked Grebes—but we also pulled an eleventh-hour Relict Gull out of the bag. What a bird!
Special mention has to be made of our ground crew. Our driver in the Gobi was again excellent, and our translator was always on hand to offer up his boundless knowledge of all things Mongolian. The chef fed us and fed us and fed us, and still we left nothing on our plates! Thanks to them we had an adventure as comfortable as any in Mongolia could be. Here’s to 2009!
- James Lidster
Updated: June 2008