Mongolia Day 6

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

Pied Wheatear

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. 

Long-eared Owl

Unbelievably one of our ground crew managed to scope a distant Altai Snowcock, which was greatly appreciated by everyone.

Altai Snowcocks

Baga Bond Mountain - where we saw the snowcocks

Our campsite

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?

Mongolia Day 5

We had a 7am breakfast before setting out on the drive to our next Ger Camp at Khongor Els. Our first comfort stop gave us a few Rock Sparrows around an abandoned building, but the next stop at Bayandalai Plantation was a bit better. Migrants weren’t in abundance but we did get a Thick-billed Warbler, Pallas’s Warbler, several Dusky Warblers, Richard’s Pipit, 3 Little Buntings, a Black-faced Bunting and a flyby Chinese Pond-Heron. 

 

Driving for a few more hours across some pretty dramatic scenery and a random roadside stop got us a pair of superb Mongolian Ground-Jays. Another key target species and we just happened to bump into a pair at our first attempt. 

Mongolian Ground Jays

And shortly after we stopped for lunch beside a small group of trees and a pool and stream. A few Mongolian Finches were found, with at least 25 counted a little later beside a tiny stream. On the pond was a Little Ringed Plover and 2 Isabelline Shrikes, with a fast disappearing Richard’s Pipit here as well. 

This small plantation was choc full of migrants

Here's the guys looking for migrants...

We checked the trees out several times, and on each visit added something different, so birds may well have been arriving all of the time. Our initial inspection produced 3 Common Rosefinches and nothing else, but further investigation either side of lunch produced a Thick-billed Warbler showing well, Brambling, a few Hawfinches, more Common Rosefinches, and along the stream at least 2 Citrine Wagtails and a White-cheeked Starling. 

This male Brambling found the shadiest spot to shelter from the midday heat

Despite being rather common in Mongolia, I never really took a good shot of a Hawfinch

A last stop before reaching the Ger camp was for a pair of Steppe Grey Shrikes. And what a spot this was with amazing views of the Khongor sand dunes below us...

Our palatial residence for the night

Here's our view of the Khongor Sand Dunes from the balcony of our Ger

However, we decided this afternoon to just stay one night here, instead of the two we had booked, as all we needed in the vicinity was Asian Desert Warbler, Saxaul Sparrow and some decent views of Pallas’s Sandgrouse…. But we enjoyed the ensuite gers that proved to be very spacious, and I think we enjoyed the cold beers in the restaurant even more!

Mongolia Day 4

As the Ger Camp wouldn’t give us breakfast until 7am we had a bit of sleep in, but the buffet was pretty damn good tbh when we eventually were allowed in. We left quite quickly to drive over to the very scenic gorge and valley of Yolyn Am, one of the must-do places on any birding trip. Well, we quickly nailed Mongolian (Kozlov’s) Accentor before walking down into the valley. 

Mongolian (Kozlov's) Accentor

It was a very birdy site with lots going on, especially along the narrow stream where a large flock of Twite were feeding. Overhead both Lammergeier and Himalayan Griffons were seen several times and further into the gorge a flock of Pacific Swifts showed nicely. It was interesting finding several migrants in the low bushes and I always get a kick out of this. Highlights were a Brown Shrike, Two-barred Warbler, Dusky Warbler, Little, Black-faced and a female Pallas’s Reed Bunting, the latter looking particularly out of place. 

Dusky Warbler

We saw all these birds in between watching up to 6 Wallcreepers (yes 6!!) flying around the large cliffs and feeding on the rock faces but never really letting us get a photo. 

Brown Accentor

A couple of Godlewski’s Bunting proved more obliging, as did a few Brown Accentors, whilst numerous White-winged Snowfinches were ever present. The small stream running through the valley enticed a flock of Twite down to drink and this area was also good for Himalayan Beautuful Rosefinch, with one male in particular being extremely confiding. 

Himalayan Beautiful Rosefinch

It was a great morning’s birding and we’d been here a good 4 hours by the time we had returned to the vehicles. Our field lunch was taken nearby where our ground crew had prepared us some delicious dumplings and coffee. 

White-winged Snowfinch

Twite

Our afternoon was spent at another picturesque valley where a pair of Barred Warblers were on territory and showing amazingly well. We also found a migrating Pallas’s Warbler, another Two-barred Warbler and scoped a female Saker feeding her young on an old Ravens nest. The male did a food pass to the female at one point as well. 

Saker - phonescoped of course

Barred Warbler - phonescoped

That's better...!

As we headed back to the camp, we saw a few Citrine Wagtails and scoped a couple of Pied Wheatears to round the day off nicely. We were back in camp by 5pm and had a couple of hours off to relax, take a hot shower and rest before dinner.

Mongolia Day 3

Left the Mongolica Hotel at 6.45am and headed out on the loooong drive to the Khanbogd Tourist Camp near Dalanzadgad. In fact we drove all day and arrived at the tourist camp at 7.10pm but we made plenty of birding stops along the way starting at a seasonal lake where Pete found our first Pallas’s Sandgrouse stood near the shoreline. The next stop to stretch our legs added a few Small Snowfinches in attendance at a Brandt’s Vole colony. Other species seen on our journey included Stejenger’s Scoter, 3 Citrine Wagtails, and some common wildfowl. Then we drove for a couple more hours until pulling off the road for lunch in the desert, where we were entertained by 5 Demoselle Cranes flying over, 2 Shore Larks, a Dusky Warbler, a Dusky/Naumann’s hybrid and an Isabelline Wheatear.

Isabelline Shrike

Red-throated Thrush

Once in Dalanzadgad we filled up with fuel at a gas station where a Lesser Kestrel and Desert Wheatear were spotted. At a small plantation we had a fine time with 2 Dusky Warblers, Isabelline Shrike, 2 Pallas’s Warblers, 2 Arctic Warblers, Naumann’s Thrush, Dusky thrush, Asian Brown Flycatcher, Taiga Flycatcher, 40+ Hawfinch, 3 Common Rosefinch and a female Beautiful Rosefinch.

Nice views of Arctic Warbler today...

Asian Brown Flycatcher

female Beautiful Rosefinch sp....

The late afternoon was spent in search of Oriental Plover amongst the absolutely awe-inspiring wide-open steppe. We actually found a male plover quite easily after just a couple of ‘stop and scan’ sessions and then manoeuvred the vehicles to get reasonably close views of this stunning bird. 

The one and only mega..... Oriental Plover

And what a bird! It’s one of the world’s iconic species and we found it hard to drive away from, but we had to in order to get to the camp for dinner.

Mongolia Day 2

The day started at 5.30am with coffee and cookies in the dining tent before we walked a few hundred metres into the forest once again where we witnessed up to 8 displaying male Black-billed Capercaillies. When I say the day started at 5:30am, it started a bit earlier as I lay awake in my tent after a decent night’s sleep as I was woken by the clicking capercaillie display that sounded like it was right beside me. Amazing! Anyway, we spent another 2 hours marvelling at these behemoths of the forest, as they displayed at various spots maybe 20 metres away from us. 

Black-billed Capercaillie

It’s not a lek like Black Grouse, but each individual male calls from allocated territorial spots that do seem fluid and can be encroached upon by other males. We moved slowly and quietly from male to male, perhaps within a radius of half a kilometre or even less. The male could obviously see us coming and continued to call, not blinking an eye at our approach. Sometimes he’d walk a little away but continued to call. It was an utterly brilliant experience and it’s very rare to spend so long on just one bird. But everyone was in agreement at how utterly fantastic this was. A male Taiga Flycatcher was also seen, along with Red-flanked Bluetails and Olive-backed Pipits. We returned to camp for an excellent breakfast after which the camp was packed up by our excellent ground crew, whilst we sat looking at the view, or wandered around the nearby hill where Blyth’s Pipits were occupied in their parachute display songflight.  

 

Leaving here we drove to Gun Galuut Nature Reserve, a series of lakes that were full of birds. We could not find the previously reported Relict Gull but had a fine time sifting through all of the birds present. The first and largest lake held a great assortment of widespread wildfowl such as Ruddy Shelducks, Garganey, Gadwall, Eurasian Teal, Eurasian Wigeon, Common Pochard, Tufted Duck, Common Goldeneye and even a female Smew. More importantly, several Stejneger’s Scoters were present and looked mighty fine in the scope. A pair of Whooper Swans were here too, along with both Slavonian (Tufted) and Black-necked (Eared) Grebes, and groups of Demoiselle Cranes were stood at the shoreline. Shorebirds were not numerous and only a few species were present, although 8 summer-plumaged Spotted Redshanks looked rather sexy! A flock of 30+ White-winged Terns suddenly appeared and a Black Tern was spotted amongst them. The next lake was only a couple of hundred metres away and had many of the same species as well as Common Shelduck, many Pied Avocets, Temminck’s Stint, and our first Mongolian Lark. 

The third lake was very different, hosting some dense tussocky vegetation and muddy margins. This is where White-naped Crane nests and we enjoyed fine scope views of a pair, with one on the nest. Puje picked up 2 Asian Dowitchers amongst a group of Black-tailed Godwits and we spent a while admiring them in the Swarovski scope. 

We enjoyed better views of Stejneger’s Scoter here, as well as seeing Northern Pintail, Shoveler, Eurasian Wigeon, Little Ringed Plover, Terek Sandpiper, Vega Gull, Common Tern, 6 Eurasian Spoonbills, Citrine Wagtail and Asian Short-toed Lark. We enjoyed lunch here before walking a few hundred metres across to a smaller lake where a drake Falcated Duck posed beautifully. All too soon it was time to leave and we had a drive of several hours back to Ulaanbaatar and the famous Mongolica Hotel, where we arrived at 5.15pm. This gave us just enough time to see a couple pairs of Amur Falcons, which had recently arrived and were nesting in some old magpie nests nearby. A flock of White-cheeked Starlings were pretty impossible to miss, as were the numerous  Hawfinches. We keyed in on our two main targets of Azure Tit and Siberian Long-tailed Rosefinch and had fine views of both, whilst other notable sightings included Bar-headed Goose, Daurian Jackdaw, Asian Brown Flycatcher and 2 female Common Rosefinches. What a day!

Mongolia Day 1

After a stupidly early arrival time of 02:30am we were on the road with our excellent guide Puje after having coffee and snacks at the airport. Our route took us towards Terelj NP and we stopped along the way to check out a huge statue of Genghis Khan, seeing our first Daurian Jackdaws and Shore Larks before continuing our journey east to a picturesque campsite at the edge of the Larch forest. The drive was enlivened by a pair of Cinereous Vultures feeding on a carcass. Once at the campsite we walked a couple of hundred metres into the forest where we were privileged to witness several male Black-billed Capercaillies displaying close by . 

Our camp...

The one and only... Black-billed Capercaillie

Terrelj National Park

Even though it was after 8am they were still in full disply, producing a cacophony of weird clicks that echoed around the forest. We also had several singing Red-flanked Bluetails, a Taiga Flycatcher and a few Olive-backed Pipits on territory. After lunch back at camp we drove a short distance to another valley where we searched in vain for Hazel Grouse but did see some cracking Pine Buntings, a brief Arctic Warbler, Daurian Redstart, Isabelline Wheatear, and more OBP’s, with a Marmot spotted on the drive back to camp.

Pine Bunting

Red-flanked Bluetail

After lunch and a siesta we walked further into the forest from camp and found a surprising number of thrushes. There were many Red-throated Thrushes, a few Naumann’s, a couple of Eye-browed and a few Dusky Thrushes. Red-flanked Bluetails and OBP’s displayed and sang everywhere, a male Daurian Redstart appeared, at least 4 Little Buntings showed, and there were more Pine Buntings, a Willow Tit was excavating its nest hole in a tree stump, and Steppe Eagle and Great Spotted Woodpecker were also found. 

Red-throated Thrush

Wow, what a day!