Well last night I lay awake listening to cranes calling, and a various assortment of calls from gulls, wildfowl and waders. Up at 5am and enjoying a coffee whilst scoping the lake before walking along the shoreline noting many of the same species as yesterday before having breakfast.
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| Bar-headed Goose was pretty common here |
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| Holbooj Lake |
A Tibetan (Lesser) Sandplover and some Pallas’s Sandgrouse were found shortly before we left and headed out on the drive towards our next base at Böön Tsagaan Nuur.
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| Pallas's Sandgrouse |
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| Last night's Pacific Golden Plover was still present this morning.... |
We stopped for lunch beside a wetland but had to take shelter behind the vehicles due to the extremely high winds, but we still managed to scope some Garganey, Red-crested Pochards and other common wildfowl.
Once we reached Böön Tsagaan Nuur, a vast Ramsar Wetland, we decided to stay in some cabins rather than camp, a relief for us all as the wind was howling. We drove straight down onto the shoreline to the 2 storey viewing platform and what an incredible number of birds we encountered. All were distant and a scope was required but the spectacle was impressive with a conservative count of 1000+ Great Cormorants, 75 Eurasian Spoonbills, 100’s of White-winged Terns etc etc …. Highlights were a couple Slender-billed Gulls, 30+ Caspian Terns, 4 Falcated Ducks, and at least 9 superb Broad-billed Sandpipers. There were so many birds to scope through but alas no Relict Gull. But lots of great birds and big numbers of common species. Such fun!
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