Adventures in Mongolia
The vast steppes of Mongolia have long held an allure to birders and those who like the road less travelled. This, WINGS first tour to the east of Mongolia following 16 years of running tours through the centre, proved that not only can you go and find a brace of northeast Asia’s most sought-after bird’s, you can do so while enjoying a hatful of Siberian migrants and the relative comfort of our tented camps. We were to travel approx. 2800km, much of it off-road on (mostly!) smooth tracks, enjoying the all too rare feeling of being the only people for as far as you can see. Jankowski’s Bunting and Baer’s Pochard topped the list of specialties, but we also found Mongolia’s first Blue-fronted Redstart as well as mouth-watering migrants such as Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, Siberian Thrush, Siberian Rubythroat and Siberian Blue Robin. Throw in Great Bustards, White-naped Cranes, Eastern Imperial Eagle, Asian Dowitchers, Pallas’s Sandgrouse, Ochre-rumped Bunting and vast steppes full of Mongolian Larks and Mongolian Short-toed Larks, then this really was a special sort of adventure for all.
