The Deskbound Birder: Isabelline Shrike

Showing posts with label Isabelline Shrike. Show all posts

Thursday, 11 May 2017

Mongolia - 11th May (Day 4) - Travel from Ullanbataar to Dalanzadgad

Today was mainly a driving day 570km south from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad passing through the Gobi Desert with a few stops, mainly at lakes, en-route. The landscape was vast, stark and barren, mainly flat with a few rocky outcrops and dominated by gravel plains with sparse grass. The common birds here were Horned Lark, Lesser Short-toed Lark and Isabelline Wheatear and we also saw a good number of Pallas’s Sandgrouse (30+), eight Demoiselle Crane, two Upland Buzzard, Cinereous Vulture, Steppe Eagle and two Saker. Stops at three smallish lakes produced Shelduck, Ruddy Shelduck, Shoveler, Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Avocet, Temminck’s Stint, Long-toed Stint, Little Ringed Plover, Mongolian Finch, Rock Sparrow, Grey Wagtail and Citrine Wagtail.

At one small roadside lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi (45°55'34" N 106°20'30" E) the vehicles pulled up close to the muddy shore and we waited for Pallas's Sandgrouse to arrive to drink. Here there were Rock Sparrow, Lesser Short-toed Lark, Ruddy Shelduck, Common Shelduck, Teal and five Green Sandpiper while at least 15 Pallas's Sandgrouse dropped into drink although not close enough to the vehicle for good photographs - they were always very wary of the vehicles.

Pairs of Demoiselle Crane were scattered along the roadside

Horned Lark was one of the commonest roadside birds - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Horned Lark - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Pallas's Sandgrouse - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Female Pallas's Sandgrouse - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Pallas's Sandgrouse - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Green Sandpiper - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Eurasian Teal - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Ruddy Shelduck - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Lesser Short-toed Lark - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Demoiselle Crane - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

The Middle Gobi Desert

Steppe Eagle - Gobi Desert

The next lake we stopped at was at Luus (45°30'5" N 105°45'34" E) and was far larger than the previous lake. The cars drove opposite ways around the shores in order to cover the ground. It was quite a novelty driving through miles of vast desert to be confronted with a lake with teaming birdlife. Here there were flocks of Shoveler, Pintail and Teal in the open water while around the lake margins were Temminck's Stint, Long-toed Stint, Marsh Sandpiper, Avocet, Green Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper and Citrine Wagtail.

Temminck's Stint - Luus Lake

Citrine Wagtail - Luus Lake

Little Ringed Plover - Luus Lake

Long-toed Stint - Luus Lake

Marsh Sandpiper - Luus Lake

Avocet - Luus Lake

Time was running tight as we wanted some birding time around Delanzadgad before dark and so we left Luus Lake reluctantly and continued our journey south-west. The desert scenery was amazing with barren landscapes dotted with camels and as we continued eventually we saw the mountains of Gobi Gurvan Saikhan National Park with the town of Dalanzadgad situated at its northern base.

Camel - Gobi Desert

Gobi Desert

Gobi Desert with the mountains of Gobi Gurvan Saikhan above Delanzadgad coming into view

We arrived at our Guest House at Dalanzadgad at around 17:30. The guest house is owned by Tumen and we soon found our bed space and settled in, I opted for a bed on the landing for some unknown reason while others shared. We spent a couple of hours settling in and birding from the balconies before heading in to the adjacent habitat. We then spent the rest of the day birding the small lake and area of scrub opposite the guest house (43°33'7" N 104°25'1" E). Highlights included Hobby, Osprey, Long-toed Stint, Citrine Wagtail, Isabelline Shrike, Pale Martin, Pallas’ Bunting and Red-throated Thrush. Dalanzagad is a small town located close to a mountain range of the Gobi Gurvan Saikhan and within the middle of the Gobi Desert and as a result any small areas of scrub attract migrating birds. Tumen has put considerable effort into influencing the creation of habitat for birds on this edge of the desert, and hence the areas around the Guest House are a magnet for migrant birds and we enjoyed a fantastic couple of hours birding before the sun went down.

Isabelline Shrike - Delanazadgad

Ruddy Shelduck - Delanazadgad

Snipe species (Common Snipe?) - Delanzadgad

Isabelline Shrike - Delanzadgad

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 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 14 - Terelj National Park and Gachuurt Area
Day 15 and 16 - Gachuurt Area, Tuul River and International flight

Tuesday, 23 February 2016

Desert National Park and Little Rann of Kutch, India - 12th February (Day 5)

This was to be a long driving day travelling from Jaisalmer to the Rann Riders Hotel to the east of Dasada ready for some time birding in the Little Rann of Kutch. We were to cover around 500km which was to take approximately 10 hours. Just outside of Jaisalmer we stopped at the Akal Fossil Wood Park, the park is designated for its fossil trees from the Jurassic period the largest being a tree trunk that is 13 meters in length and has a width of 1.3 meters. The park is meant to be site for Plain Leaf-warbler but we failed to see this species. Highlights here were Desert Lark, Isabelline Shrike, four Blyth’s Reed Warbler, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, White-throated Fantail and a female Variable Wheatear, unbelievably the first female we had seen despite having recorded in excess of 50 males. After an hour or so we returned to the car and relaxed into our journey watching the Indian lives and landscapes pass. The landscape changing from parched barren desert to lush acacia scrub and well irrigated fields. We added a few new birds from the car including Black-winged Stilt, White-tailed Plover, Common Crane, Jungle Babbler pus the usual range of egrets and herons. Eventually arriving at around 19:00 we checked into our hotel, Rann Riders, emptied our room of mosquitos and headed for our dinner of curry but to find that Gujarat is a dry state and there was no Kingfisher beer to be had – disaster!

Desert Lark

Akal Fossil Wood Park

Blyth's Reed Warbler

White-throated Fantail

Variable Wheatear

Striolated Bunting

Isabelline Shrike

Links to the other days of the trip:
Day 1 - 2 - Background and Travel
Day 2 (Part 1) - Desert National Park
Day 2 (Part 2) - Desert National Park
Day 3 (Part 3) - Desert National Park
Day 4 - Desert National Park and Jaisalmer Fort
Day 6 (Part 1) - Little Rann of Kutch
Day 6 (Part 2) - Little Rann of Kutch
Day 6 (Part 3) - Little Rann of Kutch
Day 7 - Little Rann of Kutch and Travel Home

Thursday, 18 February 2016

Desert National Park and Little Rann of Kutch, India - 10th February (Day 3) - Part 1

We were up at 05:15 and after a fine breakfast of fruit, baked beans and hashed browns were on our way to Desert National Park. A delay as we left Jaisalmer was as a result of the return of an army training exercise on the outskirts of the town. We passed through scrubby desert habitat dotted with acacias, dusty towns and sand dunes scattered with camels at Sam, well known as a party town. We picked up a few birds including Indian Spotted Eagle, Bimaculated Lark, Large-billed Crow and more Variable Wheatear from the car. We then turned south on the road to Desert National Park and the pace slowed as we began scanning for Great Indian Bustard on the approach road to the park, two male Pallid Harrier showed briefly and the fields contained thousands of Bimaculated Lark, Greater Short-toed Lark and House Sparrow. A smart Southern Grey Shrike (or race lahtora sometimes known as Indian Grey Shrike) perched atop a telegraph pole and more Variable Wheatear (all of the morph piccata, some treat the three morphs as races or others as two species but HBW treat these as morphs of the same species) but there was no time to stop as we needed to head for the park and the best chance of the bustard. At the gate we paused to pay the entry fee and speak to the park guards on the most recent sightings of the bustard and the news was positive, one of the guards knew of a location where a pair were seen yesterday, still, these are flighty birds that can fly for several kilometres after being flushed and they could have moved a long way since the sightings from yesterday. We headed south and after around 5km turned south-west (just after the observation tower) on a dust track and headed through the scattered scrub and grassland. We stopped at a rocky pinnacle and scanned the landscape, we could see for approximately 5Km and it was evident from here that while we were in a park there was a great deal of cultivation and cattle, goat and sheep grazing and therefore much disturbance. We headed a little further seeing many more Bimaculated Lark and Greater Short-toed Lark often in large mixed flocks of several hundred birds and smaller numbers of Black-crowned Sparrow Lark. We reached another larger hillock and drove up this to scan once more, a perched Indian Spotted Eagle, two Griffon Vulture and then, through the scope, I picked up two distant Great Indian Bustard picking their way through the grassland – a male and female and looking very stately. Around them were cattle and sheep and people not too distant. We watched for a while and then after speaking to the park guard who was accompanying us we headed, in the car, along dirt roads and sandy tracks until the birds were around 400m away and were showing well as they fed in the grassland. Without any closer approach the birds took flight but only flew a short distance and so we approached a little closer and we had better views but these wary birds kept their distance and slowly walked away. We saw the male pick at some vegetation and feed the female and then again the birds flew (probably due to the fairy close approach of a Shepard, see image below) and headed around 400m east to an area of native desert scrub and away from the cultivated land that they were feeding on. We decided to leave them in peace.

Pair of Great Indian Bustard, the male in the foreground the female to the rear

Male Great Indian Bustard

Female Great Indian Bustard, note the cattle and Shepard in the rear of the image

Great Indian Bustard pair

Great Indian Bustard pair, note the heavy wing moult in the male

We then headed back towards the entrance gate where we could walk an area of grassland to the east of the entrance gate to a site where Ganesh had previously seen Red-tailed Wheatear. We walked the track and then headed through knee high grassland to an outcrop of gravel and rock. We added Long-billed Pipit, Desert Wheatear, Cinereous Vulture, Common Babbler and Black-bellied Sandgrouse to the list but there was no sign of the Red-tailed Wheatear.