The Deskbound Birder: Black Stork

Showing posts with label Black Stork. Show all posts

Saturday, 5 May 2018

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

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

Song of Saxaul Sparrow - Luntain, Xinjiang

Black Stork - 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.

Thursday, 18 May 2017

Mongolia - 18th May (Day 11) - Barig Mountain to Sangiin Dalai Lake

We were up at 05:15 to the sound of screaming Saker Falcon, packed our bags and after a quick coffee headed back up Barig Mountain at 06:00 for a last try for Hodgson’s Bush-chat. After climbing the steep grassy and rock strewn slopes of the mountains in the vehicles we parked at the summit and spread out to look for the bird. The wind had dropped since yesterday and there were evidently migrants coming through and I recorded Black-faced Bunting (6), Little Bunting (1), Ortolan Bunting (1), Pallas’s Bunting (2), Blyth’s Pipit (1), Olive-backed Pipit (4) and Siberian Rubythroat (1), plus breeding species such as Mongolian Lark, Horned Lark and Water Pipit. These birds were largely sheltering amongst the rocks as there was no scrub cover. We met back at the vehicles at 08:15 to the news that half of the group had seen a male Hodgson’s Bush-chat but despite further searching for at least one hour we could not relocate the bird. At 10:00 we descended the mountain for breakfast and departed – gutted for missing the Bush-chat.

Water Pipit of subspecies blakistoni - Barig Mountain

Horned Lark - Barig Mountain

Siberian Rubythroat - Barig Mountain

Tibetan Lark - Barig Mountain

Tolbagan Marmot - Barig Mountain

Barig Mountain

I assume this is a Primula species or maybe a Saxifrage - Barig Mountain

As the dusty track to Barig Mountain met the asphalt road of the A201 Arvaikheer to Bayankhongor Road, just before joining the tarmac we stopped at a small gully which held Small Snowfinch, Daurian Redstart and a nesting Saker. Once on the road the landscape became a little lusher with horse and goat grazed plains. A short roadside stopped produced two Himalayan Griffon and a Cinereous Vulture feeding on goat afterbirth.

Small Snowfinch - Near Barig Mountain

Saker - Near Barig Mountain

Cinereous Vulture and Himalayan Griffon - Along the A201

Cinereous Vulture - Along the A201

Himalayan Griffon - Along the A201

After approximately 70km we stopped for lunch beside a small lake (45°48'17" N 101°59'3" E) between Nariinteel and Khairhandulaan. While the crew were preparing lunch we birded around the lake. This was very birdy and we recorded the following Whooper Swan (3), hybrid Swan x Bean Goose (1), Bar-headed Goose (c.40), Ruddy Shelduck (c.50), Shelduck, Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Mallard, Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler, Teal, Garganey (c.25), Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Temminck’s Stint (100’s), Long-toed Stint (10’s), Sanderling (1), Curlew Sandpiper (1), Asian Dowitcher (1), Spotted Redshank (1), Black-tailed Godwit (15), Pacific Golden Plover (11), Kentish Plover (35), Common Swift (7), Pacific Swift (4) and Citrine Wagtail (20). A flock of around 100 Common Tern (of the subspecies longipennis) dropped out of nowhere onto the lake shore to preen and bath and before long took flight and after circling to a high altitude headed west into the desert. While having lunch we enjoyed the site and sound of Blyth’s Pipit, Mongolian Lark, Horned Lark and Lesser Short-toed Lark displaying overhead.

Ruddy Shelduck and presumed Bean x Swan Goose although in this image it perhaps looks more Bean Goose like - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Pacific Golden Plover - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Curlew Sandpiper, Long-toed Stint and Temminck's Stint - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Black-tailed Godwit and Asian Dowitcher (centre bird), the latter was remarkably difficult to detect amongst the godwit - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Black-tailed Godwit and Asian Dowitcher - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Curlew Sandpiper - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Whooper Swan and Avocet - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Asian Dowitcher and Pacific Golden Plover - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Garganey - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Bar-headed Goose - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Pochard, Pintail, Shoveler, Ruddy Shelduck, Black-tailed Godwit, Wood Sandpiper and Avocet - - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Black-tailed Godwit and Asian Dowitcher in flight, the latter very like a Bar-tailed Godwit - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Flock of Common tern heading off over the desert - - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Flock of Common tern heading off over the desert - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Tibetan Lark - Unnamed lake alongside A201

Lunch stop

Black Stork alongside the A201

We arrived at Sangiin Dalai Lake (46°41'17" N 103°17'6" E) at around 18:30 and left the support team erecting the tents and preparing our food while we went off birding around the lakes. There are four lakes here, one large lake with many diving duck, two smaller shallow lakes with waders and a shallow scrape. These are surrounded by tussocky rushes and horse grazed grassland. This mix of habitats made for some great birding. I concentrated on the three smaller lakes and spent a great couple of hours and saw White-winged Black Tern, Black Stork (4), Mongolian Gull (14), Citrine Wagtail (many), Mongolian Lark, Sky Lark, Lesser Short-toed Lark, Blyth’s Pipit, Pallas’s Bunting (12), Long-toed Stint, Temminck;’s Stint, Common Crane, Demoiselle Crane and Whooper Swan. Back at the campsite for dinner at 20:30 we sat outside and enjoyed the sites and sounds of the lakes. In our tents for around 22:00 we went to sleep to the sound of calling Demoiselle Crane and Common Crane.