The Deskbound Birder: Swan Goose

Showing posts with label Swan Goose. Show all posts

Friday, 19 May 2017

Mongolia - 19th May (Day 12) - Sangiin Dalai Lake, and Hustai National Park (Part 2)

Arriving at Bayan Nuur from Sangiin Dalai Lake it was immediately apparent that this lake was teaming with birdlife even though it was blowing a gale. Almost the first birds we picked up were a pair of stunning White-naped Crane on the far hillside with another pair closer in the reeds, we saw nine in all and had some very good views. Two pairs of Eastern Marsh Harrier patrolled the reed beds. Hundreds of Citrine Wagtail and Eastern Yellow Wagtail foraged within the vegetation occasionally giving good views while hundreds of Barn Swallow of the subspecies tyleri with a good number of the rufous race saturata, Pale Martin and House Martin foraged back and forth over the reedbeds.Waders and wildfowl included Red-crested Pochard, Swan Goose, Red-crested Pochard, Garganey, Long-toed Stint, Temminck’s Stint and Ruddy Shelduck. We had lunch sheltered from the increasing wind by the vehicles when Tumen announced that he had seen and photographed an Brown Cheeked Rail – a new bird for many of us including Jon. So, after downing our pot-noodles we waded through the reeds and mud to the spot where Tumen had seen the rail. The rail soon showed to us all and was somewhat unremarkable being barely distinguished from our Western Water Rail both in plumage and in voice - it was once considered a subspecies of Western Water Rail. Also here were Bearded Reedling of the race russicus which looked remarkably pallid, Yellow-browed Warbler, Pallas’s Warbler and Reed Warbler plus a male Japanese Sparrowhawk that regularly zipped through disturbing all the birds. Way too soon it was time to head off and as we drove north we ran into a significant sand storm stirred by the strong winds.

White-naped Crane - Bayan Nuur

Common Crane - Bayan Nuur

Swan Goose - Bayan Nuur

Citrine Wagtail - Bayan Nuur

Eastern Yellow Wagtail of subspecies macronyx - Bayan Nuur

Greater Spotted Eagle - Bayan Nuur

Eastern Marsh Harrier - Bayan Nuur

Eastern Marsh Harrier (female) - Bayan Nuur

Red-crested Pochard - Bayan Nuur

Horses - Bayan Nuur

Brown-cheeked Rail - Bayan Nuur

Bayan Nuur

Dust storm on the way to Hustai

Roadside village

We arrived at Hustai National Park in the early evening and after paying the park entrance fee, plugged the coordinates for our digs at the research centre into the sat-nav and headed off. We followed dusty tracks through rolling brown hillsides and then the tracks pettered out and we drove onwards, offroad trustingly following the satnav. A Woodcock was flushed a from roadside scrub as we drove but there were remarkably few birds. Barry and I gave a rolling commentary, 5km to go, 3km to go, 2.3km to go, it must be around the next hill, around the next hill still 2.3km to go, oh, so it must be around the next hill, we rounded the next hill and the satnav said 2.5km to go and then 3km. We had gone wrong and no sign of the accommodation. We turned around to check we hadn’t simply driven by but still no sign – not easy to miss a research centre on a barren hillside. Not only that but we had lost the other two vehicles and the support vehicle. We turned around and headed back in search of the other vehicles and too our relief found them after around 30 minutes of searching – the support vehicle having run out of fuel while one of the other vehicles having had a puncture. After repairing tyres and filling up the support vehicle from a jerry-can we headed to a nearby Ger and the residents pointed us in the direction of the research station. It was getting dark and we had been searching for almost two hours, with a local on board we headed into the park through the dark and eventually arrived at some ramshackle huts – we were only 6km from the park entrance where we started and now15km from the co-ordinates for the orginal research centre, still we were pleased to have found a roof and there were beds and we had vodka – all was good and today had been one of the best birding days of the trip.

Hustai is a pretty barren looking National Park

Its that way

Time for Vodka

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 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, 16 May 2017

Mongolia - 16th May (Day 9) - Ikht Bogd Uul and to Kholboolj Lakes near to Jinst

After a good nights sleep in our tents beside Orog Lake we had an earlier breakfast at 06:30 overlooking the lake with its breeding colony of Spoonbill and Grey Heron and to the sound of booming Bittern and singing Lesser Short-toed Lark. After loading the car we headed up the valley behind the campsite and towards Baga Bogd Mountain. The climb up the mountain was a long a rocky river bed flanked by shear mountainside where Pied Wheatear, Northern Wheatear and Chukar were common. After weaving through the gorge and bumping along the river bed for around 1.5 hours we rose onto the plateau, a wide expanse of yak and goat grazed grasslands with spectacular view over the surrounding desert and steep snow covered peaks and rocky crags. Steppe Eagle, Lammergeir and Himalayan Griffon soared overhead while Horned Lark, Brown Accentor, White-winged Snowfinch and Black Redstart foraged on the grassland. After a short play of the recording our main target appeared on a nearby crag, a superb Altai Snowcock which showed well (although a little distant for photographs) as it called from its chosen crag. We spent another two hours on the plateau but saw none of our other targets (Altai Accentor, Hodgson’s Bushchat, Asian Rosy-finch). We never made it to Baga Bogd mountain instead birding Ikht Bogd, this looked to be too far to drive to in the time we had and so it was probable that we didn't get high enough to see these species - I was quite gutted as these three species were high on my want list for the trip. Still the views were spectacular as we looked back down to Orog Lake and last nights camping site. Another plan was hatched and Tumen had a site where all three species were possible but it was a days drive, so in a rush we descended and headed for our new site.

Chukar - Ikht Bogd

The road to Ikht Bogd

Altai Snowcock - Ikht Bogd

Himalayan Griffon - Ikht Bogd

Isabelline Wheatear - Ikht Bogd

Brown Accentor - Ikht Bogd

Lammergeier - Ikht Bogd

Chukar - Ikht Bogd

View back to Orog Lake from Ikht Bogd

Ikht Bogd with Baga Bogd in the distance

Ikht Bogd

View from Ikht Bogd

Meeting the locals

Scanning for Snowcock

We skirted around the flanks of Orog Lake and back to the small town of Bogd where a short stop produced the treat of ice creams! It was then that we hear that the plans had once again changed and we were back to the original itinerary and I wished we had given Ikht/Baga Bogd a little more time.

Driving a short way north through the desert we came to Kholboolj Lake, a large and well vegetated lake where we spent the next three hours birding. Highlights were Long-toed Stint, Common Tern of the subspecies longipennis, Gull-billed Tern, Bar-headed Goose, Swan Goose, Red-crested Pochard and Demoiselle Crane. Barry picked up two distant Asian Dowitcher in summer plumage – our main target here. But they were a little too distant, so off came the trousers, boots and socks and some of us waded across the lagoon to get better views, the going was good but occasionally one would sink to waist height. At around 50m from the birds they looked alert and flew, our views were still not as good as I had hoped as summer plumaged Asian Dowitcher was one of the main targets for me.

Swan Goose - Kholboolj Lake

Wading out to the Asian Dowitcher

Censored! From left, Rod, Barry and Richard

Bit deeper here!

Gull-billed Tern - Kholboolj Lake

Common Tern of subspecies longipennis - Kholboolj Lake

Asian Dowitcher, they look remarkably like Bar-tailed Godwit - Kholboolj Lake

Black-winged Stilt - Kholboolj Lake

Bar-headed Goose - Kholboolj Lake

We headed to our campsite alongside the lake at 18:30 and had dinner overlooking the lake and the surrounding desert. A short walk before sunset produced Pallas’s Bunting, Little Bunting, more Common Tern of the race longipennis, 50+ Pallas’s Sandgrouse, Slavonian Grebe, Demoiselle Crane and many breeding Avocet.