After last night’s howling gale it was a relief to find the wind had somewhat subsided this morning as we drove around 10kms from camp towards the impressive sand dunes. A cracking Asian Desert Warbler gave prolonged views and a superb Saxaul Sparrow was scoped, along with other sightings such as Asian Short-toed Lark, Isabelline Shrike,Long-legged Buzzard and a few Desert Wheatears before we returned for breakfast.
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| Asian Desert Warbler |
We had already decided to leave here and head to our wild camping site at Baga Bogd, a drive that took us until 5pm. The scenery was magnificent as we crossed desert, steppe, canyons and made numerous birding stops.
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| Not the greatest pic of a Saxaul Sparrow |
Our next stop was for a comfort stop and we saw another Saxaul Sparrow and a Cinereous Vulture. A few hours later on our journey we saw several Pallas’s Sandgrouse and enjoyed some fine views, along with more Mongolian Finches.
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| Grey-necked Bunting |
At lunch in a scenic valley we had amazing views of a Grey-necked Bunting that took some tracking down as we could here one singing but couldn’t locate it for ages, and our sighting of a pair of Lammergeiers at a nest was a tour highlight. Another wow! moment during this incredible tour.
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| A bit distant but these phonescoped images aren't too bad... |
Around lunchtime in this scenic valley we also found Pied Wheatear, Chukar, Golden Eagle and Common Rock Thrush. Approaching the valley where we were to camp gave us more sandgrouse close to the track and a really low flying Golden Eagle.
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| Pied Wheatear |
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| Loved seeing this Golden Eagle so low overhead |
Once we started into the valley and nearly at the camp we stopped and disturbed a Long-eared Owl from its day roost. We tracked it down to another tree less than 200 yards away and in doing so we also stumbled across a fine Eurasian Wryneck.
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| Long-eared Owl |
Unbelievably one of our ground crew managed to scope a distant Altai Snowcock, which was greatly appreciated by everyone.
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| Altai Snowcocks |
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| Baga Bond Mountain - where we saw the snowcocks |
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| Our campsite |
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| The forest near the campsite |
With the ground crew setting up camp not far ahead of us we had time to scan the surrounding area and came up with Upland Buzzard, many Rock Sparrows, a Northern Wheatear, and enjoyed some slightly closer scope views of 3 more Altai Snowcocks. Not too shabby huh?
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