North-west China (Xinjiang) - 5th May (Day 15)

We were up at 05:00 after sleepless night due to multiple dodgy bellies and headed from Korlor towards Luntain with multiple toilet stops. Andy B and Volkert were feeling okay and we deduced that it was only they who had not eaten food on the aeroplane, a rather dodgy dish of chicken and rice so we blamed our upset stomach’s on Urumqi Air who we had flown with yesterday. Turning south off the main road we soon encountered our first of many police check points. We were taken from the car at every stop and Tang-jun was questioned about our motives for being in the area. This being exacerbated by recent political problems. After many police checks each taking at least 30 minutes and with multiple passport checks and scans we eventually got to our hotel in Luntain at around midday. After checking in to the hotel we were informed that the Police wanted to visit the hotel to check our passports and take further details, by now we had had enough of this as each time the same details of visa and passport number was being obtained, and each time we wasted another 30 minutes or so. We eventually headed away from the town driving south on “Desert Road” and yet more police checkpoints. In total during the course of the day we had spent around six hours at Police checkpoints.

We eventually arrived at the bridge over the River Tarim (41°10'14.886" N 84°14'12.6" E) just south of Lunnanzen and birded the woodland to the south of the bridge. The woodland was infested with mosquitos and was quite an unpleasant place to bird but we quickly notched up our first Azure Tit, Sykes’s Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat (of the subspecies minula and sometimes split as Desert Lesser Whitethroat) and Citrine Wagtail. We finished here getting good views of our main target in this habitat, White-winged Woodpecker with a bird showing well as it fed atop a tree. The species is very similar to Great-spotted Woodpecker (ws it once lumnped?) with far more white in the wing but a remarkably similar call as do most of the Dendrocopus woodpeckers. We then headed further south to Km 85-95 in search of our main reason for visiting the region, Xinjiang (or Biddulph’s) Ground-jay, this range restricted species is confined to the Taklimakan Desert in NW China. We spent some time walking in the desert in this area looking for the Ground-jay. The site seems somewhat post-apocalyptic with all of the mature trees dead or dying with their roots seemingly eroded by water and now left on islands of sand and thus dying due to dehydration. It would appear that these trees have died in historic times as the wood is now bone dry and disintegrating rather than rotting, a process that probably takes many years in such a dry environment. We spent some time driving up and down this road and walking and scanning the track at KM90 with no success, the bird life in this habitat is remarkably poor and we saw little but for Black Stork, Desert Wheatear, Lesser (Desert) Whitethroat, Saxaul Sparrow, Common Swift, Eurasian Buzzard and Long-legged Buzzard. We wrapped up the birding at around 21:00 with a quick look for Tarrim Hill-warbler just south of the Tarim Bridge but after getting eaten by mosquitos once again we saw little. Heading north again we got stopped at various check-points and held for some time and by the time we got back to our hotel it was around midnight, we were exhausted having had a long day of travelling and police checkpoints and little to eat other then bread and water.

 
Azure Tit of subspecies tianschanicus - Luntain, Xinjiang

Azure Tit - Luntain, Xinjiang

 Song of Azure Tit - Luntain, Xinjiang

White-winged Woodpecker - Luntain, Xinjiang

White-winged Woodpecker - Luntain, Xinjiang

Lesser Whitethroat of the subspecies minula, sometimes split as Desert Lesser Whitethroat was common in the area and seemed to be mainly in the canopy of the taller trees. The song is very different from the rattle of Lesser Whitethroat we here in the UK (listen here) - Luntain, Xinjiang

Citrine Wagtail of subspecies werae- Luntain, Xinjiang

The distinctive personata subspecies of White Wagtail - Luntain, Xinjiang

Sykes's Warbler - Luntain, Xinjiang

Song of Sykes's Warbler - Luntain, Xinjiang

Local children with ballon gifts from Volkert - Luntain, Xinjiang

Saxaul Sparrow - Luntain, Xinjiang

Saxaul Sparrow - Luntain, Xinjiang

 Song of Saxaul Sparrow - Luntain, Xinjiang

Black Stork - Luntain, Xinjiang

Habitat in the Tarim Desert, Luntain, Xinjiang

Habitat in the Tarim Desert, Luntain, Xinjiang

Habitat in the Tarim Desert, Luntain, Xinjiang

Habitat in the Tarim Desert, Luntain, Xinjiang

Habitat in the Tarim Desert, Luntain, Xinjiang

Habitat in the Tarim Desert, Luntain, Xinjiang

Martin scanning for Xinjiang Ground-jay with no luck - Luntain, Xinjiang

Luntain, Xinjiang

We began to see the funny side of passport checks - Luntain, Xinjiang

Another passport check in Luntain

At night when returning weary to  our hotel, we were followed from one checkpoint by Police who blocked us into the next checkpoint with their vehicle. Although they had already seen our documents they requested yet another scan of our passports, needless to say, we did not feel welcome in this area - Luntain, Xinjiang

Links to Other Days of the Trip (Click to View)
Day 1 and 2 – International flight and Dongtai.
Day 3 - Dongtai.
Day 4 – Dongtai and Magic Wood.
Day 5 - Nanhui then fly to Fuzhou.
Day 6 - Shanutan Island and Fuzhou Forest Park.
Day 7 - Fuzhou Forest Park then Emeifeng Mountain.
Day 8 - Emeifeng Mountain.
Day 9 - Emeifeng Mountain.
Day 10 - Emeifeng Mountain then Wuyuan.
Day 11 - Wuyuan.
Day 12 – Drive Wuyuan to Dongzhai.
Day 13 - Dongzhai.
Day 14 – Dongzhai then fly Wuhan to Korlor.
Day 16 – Taklamakan Desert then Urumqi.
Day 17 and 18 – Nanshan in the Tien Shan Mountains then fly Beijing. International flight.

Mongolia - 21st May (Day 14) - Terelj National Park and Gachuurt

After a great nights sleep in a bed at the Ulaanbaatar Hotel 2 in Terej National Park we were up at 05:00 to a very cold and frosty morning. Birding the woodlands near to the hotel it was quickly evident that most of the migrants from yesterday had departed and largely we were left with the breeding species. A quick check of the bushes near the rubbish dump produced no Siberian Rubythroat unlike yesterday but a single male Common Redstart showed well. Waking into the forest a pair of Goosander fed along the river. A bit of pishing near to some willow scrub produced a few Willow Tit and then a call which I knew immediately was an Azure Tit, I called Barry and Jon over and we were soon getting great views of this fantastic bird. The rest of the morning produced a range of nice species but no hoped for White-backed Woodpecker, we saw Grey-faced Woodpecker, Lesser spotted Woodpecker, Wryneck, Lesser Whitethroat and Brown Shrike.

After breakfast at 08:00 we birded an area of Birch forest a short way up the road but it was fairly slow going and we saw only Two-barred Greenish Warbler, Pine Bunting, Taiga Flycatcher and a singing Red-flanked Bluetail.

Azure Tit - Terej National Park

Azure Tit - Terej National Park

Azure Tit - Terej National Park

Azure Tit - Terej National Park

Great Tit - Terej National Park

Willow Tit - Terej National Park

Grey-faced Woodpecker - Terej National Park

Wryneck singing from the top of an Ash tree - Terej National Park

Wryneck - Terej National Park

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - Terej National Park

Brown Shrike - Terej National Park

Goosander - Terej National Park

Goosander - Terej National Park

Red Squirrel - Terej National Park

Carrion Crow of race orientalis - Terej National Park

Chough - Terej National Park

Redstart - Terej National Park

Birch forest at Terej National Park

Birch forest at Terej National Park

Bird's-eye Primrose Primula farinosa, or a species similar to this - Terej National Park

Siberian Chipmunk - Terej National Park

We then drove back towards Ulaanbataar and up the valley to Gachuurt where we visited earlier in the trip for a final look for Siberian Jay. As we drove through the valley we stopped for Rook which here is of the subspecies pastinator and a potential split as Eastern Rook, other than a feathered face in Eastern Rook the differences between the two appear very marginal. A short way up the road a pair of Stonechat were eventually identified as Stejneger's Stonechat but they were not especially obliging.

Rook of subspecies pastinator - Gachuurt 

Stejneger's Stonechat - Gachuurt 

We arrived at our campsite and found the tents already erected and after dropping our bags to the tents we spent a little time birding the clearing and the adjacent area of damp scrub. Here were a few Black-faced Bunting, Yellow-browed Warbler and Two-barred Greenish Warbler plus a rather spectacular dark Red Squirrel.

Campsite at Gachuurt

Campsite at Gachuurt

Pasqueflower Campsite - Gachuurt

Pansy - Gachuurt

Red Squirrel - Gachuurt

Our optimism that we may see Siberian Jay due to a GPS reference that Tumen had obtained soon dwindled as we realised that the positioning was from last year! Regardless, we drove up through the forest to the conifers and slogged up the hill to the GPS reference and there were no jays. In fact, it was extremely slow going with just Siberian Chipmunk, Pallas's Pika and Willow Tit to keep us interested - our enthusiasm soon wained. We decided to cut our losses and head back to the campsite, a jay-like call as we defended produced some excitement but lead us to a stunning Nutcracker which showed extremely well in the evening light.

Siberian Chipmunk - Gachuurt

Pallas's Pica  - Gachuurt

Nutcracker - Gachuurt

 Pine Forest - Gachuurt

 Pine Forest - Gachuurt

Rod enjoying the view at Gachuurt

Back at the campsite a beer was very welcome as was a stunning Ural Owl which showed well at dusk around the clearing. The temperature dropped and a session on the vodka warmed the body and facilitated sleep in the now freezing temperatures.

Ural Owl around our campsite at Gachuurt

Ural Owl around our campsite at Gachuurt

Links to Other Days of the Trip (Click to View)
Day 1 and 2 – International flight then Ulaanbaatar to Mungum Sum
Day 3 -  Mungunmorit and Gachuurt area
Day 4 - Drive to Dalanzadgad
Day 5  – Gurvan Saikhan National Park
Day 6 - Gurvan Saikhan National Park
Day 7 - Gobi Desert and Khongor Sand Dunes
Day 8 – Gobi Desert to Bogd
Day 9 - Baga Bogd Mountain and Kholboolj Lake
Day 10 - Kholboolj Lake and Barig Mountain
Day 11 - Barig Mountain and Sangiin Lake
Day 12 (Part 1) - Sangiin Lake and Bayan Lake
Day 12 (Part 2) - Sangiin Lake and Bayan Lake
Day 13 - Hustai National Park and Terelj National Park
Day 15 and 16 - Gachuurt Area, Tuul River and International flight