James Lidster on his just-concluded tour to Mongolia

This year's Mongolia tour, our 9th to this fascinating country, was yet again amazing...from the drake Falcated Duck on the first day to a close range encounter with Black Woodpecker on the final morning. A 24-hour period in the Gobi produced a list of birds that would appear on many a bucket list including Lammergeier, Amur Falcon, Oriental Plover,

Oriental Plover

Pallas’s Sandgrouse, Siberian Rubythroat, three species of accentor, two of rosefinch, Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler, and Wallcreeper. And just a day later we were adding to that list with Swan Goose, Pallas’s Fish Eagle, Asian Dowitcher, Relict and Pallas’s Gulls,

Relict Gull

large flocks of White-winged Terns and Demoiselle Cranes.

We were looked after from start to finish by our brilliant ground crew, not only did we get three course dinners every night, washed down with red wine and Golden Gobi beer, with only the scenery and the birds to distract us from our food, but our tents were put up for us (new tents, with beds….ok that probably doesn’t even count as camping does it?).

Dinner in the Mongolian steppe

Our tents, this year with beds!

Of course the journeys can be long, and sometimes bumpy, but then that means that it doesn’t get too crowded with tourists, all the more space to enjoy White-naped Crane

White-naped Crane

and Siberian migrants heading north like this Pallas’s Leaf Warbler.

Pallas's Leaf Warbler

Mongolia really is my idea of the perfect tour: exotic, gloriously scenic, often thrilling, surprisingly comfortable, and chock full of superb birds. Only eleven months until my next one...

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