James Lidster on his just concluded tour of Mongolia

I have just returned from my 8th tour to Mongolia, and yet again the country never fails to amaze me! There seem to be so few places to visit nowadays where I feel the wilderness and isolation that I do in Mongolia.
We saw some great birds including Oriental Plovers, Pallas's Sandgrouse, Demoiselle and White-naped Cranes, Pallas's Fish Eagles, Amur and Saker Falcons, Swan and Bar-headed geese, Mongolian Ground Jays, Kozlow's Accentors, Wallcreepers, Lammergeier, singing Siberian Rubythroats, Black Woodpecker, Mongolian Lark, White's, Dusky and Red-throated Thrushes, Azure and White-crowned Penduline Tits, Godlewski's and Yellow-breasted Buntings, Long-tailed and Beautiful Rosefinches, we even found the 2nd Rosy Pipit for Mongolia among a whole suite of shorebirds and passerines that would have you running all over Gambell or Attu!
The scenery changes daily and blows me away every year, the ground crew we work with make camping a pleasure (we have now cut the total number of nights camping to just 4) and we even experimented with larger tents, beds and bedding. The latter saved us the need to carry sleeping bags, the beds were an absolute luxury and the tents were set up each time for us and were large enough to stand up in....sadly the Mongolian weather being what it is, meant they didn't stand up to the strong winds we had one day. And if there is one thing the ground crew are prepared for, it is the unexpected, so out came the reserve tents!
The food prepared by our chef from her tent is better than I could make in a kitchen, and can there be anything more delightful ending the day with a glass of red wine or a Golden Gobi beer reflecting on another great day's birding while looking over a vast Mongolian plain?

Oriental Plover

Demoiselle Crane

Bar-headed Geese

Mongolian Lark

Home away from home 1 

Home away from home 2 

Daurian Shrike