Mongolia Day 12

This was mainly a travelling day. A long travelling day as we crossed more amazing scenery seeing a good variety of species, with our last views of Pallas’s Sandgrouse today. There was also Hill Pigeon, Demoiselle Crane, Lammergeier, Himalayan & Cinereous Vultures, Mongolian & Asian Short-toed Larks, Pere David’s Snowfinch, Citrine Wagtail, Richard’s Pipit, and others. Basically, just a normal day in amazing Mongolia!

 

However, we did have one major target in that we wanted more views of Oriental Plover. Our first views were fantastic but we wanted a repeat, so our excellent guide Puje recommended we try another area of vast open plains, seemingly like many others we had passed by each day. After checking various spots we eventually located a female in a shallow valley. 

More Oriental Plover action...

Moving the cars to a better position a male was found and then we watched in amazement as he took off in a crazy display flight, flying high overhead in long, sweeping circles around the plains. It did this several times and at one point a second male appeared to check out what was happening before flying away. We spent an hour with these plovers and although we couldn’t improve on our photos from the first sighting, it was a real privilege to be able to watch this stunning species for so long. Leaving here it took a couple of hours to reach a really great, modern hotel for the night at Arvaikheer. 

Mongolia Day 11

After a freezing cold night we walked up to the base of the mountains where we tracked down at least 4 pairs of White-throated Bushchat on the steep, rocky mountainside above the camp that was sparsely dotted with small bushes. The terrain underfoot was a little damp but it was the ruts and tussocky grass that made our trek upwards more difficult – let alone the altitude. 

Our camp is waaaaay down there somewhere

There's the camp...

Splendid scenery to look for bushchats

But the effort was very worthwhile to see this extremely localised species and Mongolia is just about the only place to see it these days. I saw a wintering bird in Corbett NP in northern India many, many years ago when it was semi-reliable but they don’t turn up there anymore. 

White-throated Bushchat

I was hoping for Asian Rosyfinch but didn’t get a sniff – seems above the traditional Kukh Lake campsite is THE spot for this species. Damn! However, we did get nice views of a few Altai Accentors and Water Pipits, along with yet another Lammergeier. We also scoped several Cinereous and Himalayan Griffons feeding on a carcass on a distant hillside. As we birded the mountainside the hairs on the back of my neck literally stood up as the distinctive call of several howling Wolves reached us. A magical experience indeed and made more so when the pack made their was closer towards us and seemed to be chasing another wolf off their territory and not too bothered about us.

Altai Accentor

With all our targets except the rosyfinch seen we decided not to camp here at just under 3000m another night so packed up and headed to the warmer lowlands. During our drive we found a Terek Sandpiper at a random lake in company with 2 Temminck’s and 11 Little Stints, 6 Avocets and an Eurasian Spoonbill in middle of nowhere! 

Lunchtime....

And finally, at the end of the day we picked a camping spot near a small town to spend the night where we managed to pick up a Corsac Foxin the thermal imaging camera to tend the day.

MONGOLIA DAY 10

Had a bit of a sleep in before leaving this wonderful area and it took until 3.45pm to reach Khangai Mountain. Along the way we saw several groups of Pallas’s Sandgrouse flying around, with a couple groups quite close to the front vehicle. Our lunch stop beside some small pools held a few common species before we continued our journey through ever more impressive habitat. 

A very chilly and windswept Kukh Lake

I did wonder if we could cross this... But we did!

Upon arrival we found another birding group at the usual camping site beside Kukh Lake so drove past them birded a steep scrub-covered hillside where we nailed Eversmann’s Redstart and Siberian Stonechat. 

Eversmann's Redstart

Then we drove back past the partially frozen Kukh Lake and up & around towards the bushchat site, eventually settling on a much more scenically spectacular camping location in the mountains. 

Our campsite tonight...

Cosy dining this evening...!

Here we were greeted by another low-flying Lammergeier. 

Look at that beard...!

Had another fine dinner, with copious amounts of beer & vodka before hitting the sack and suffering our coldest night of the tour.

Mongolia Day 9

Enjoyed a full day around the lake heading out at 5.30am after coffee & cookies - and what a day this proved to be! Heading down just a few minutes to the lake shore, we spent a couple of hours sifting through the multitude of birds seeing all the same species as yesterday.

Greylag Goose was very common

After breakfast we birded the river seeing many more Caspian Terns & Pallas’s Gulls before we spotted a very distant Pallas’s Fish Eagle, so drove around to get a better view, crossing the river twice in order to get decent scope views of what proved to be a pair. 

Whooper Swan

After lunch we had a rest, although Keith and I walked down to the marsh where we added Little Tern, Ruddy Turnstone, Curlew Sandpiper and Eurasian Skylark to the list. Many shorebirds were passing through and we saw 25+ Greater Sandplovers, 20+ Broad-billed Sandpipers, numerous Kentish Plovers, 80+ Little Stints, with a huge flock of White-winged Terns, a couple Gull-billed Terns and Black Terns amongst many other species.

White-winged Tern

Whiskered Tern

The late afternoon session saw us driving to a different marshy area of the lake where a Common Kingfisher was a surprise find. And after birding the lake area quite hard our reward was in the form of a superb rare drake Baer’s Pochard in company with 5 Ferruginous Ducks. This species hadn’t previously been seen here and by uploading the observation onto eBird, other birders and tour groups were able to twitch it. 

The best I could do of Baer's Pochard - phonescoped

The sheer number of birds in this area is quite phenomenal and makes this one of the top sites for birding in Mongolia, although photographic opportunities are not great as most species are a little distant.

Mongolia Day 8

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. 

Bar-headed Goose was pretty common here

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.  

Pallas's Sandgrouse

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!

Mongolia Day 7

We had a comfortable albeit cold night and were out and about at 5am scanning the opposite mountain where several Altai Snowcocks were picked up easily. We didn’t expect to get better views than yesterday evening but how wrong can you be? For those of us that didn’t walk higher up the valley, an unexpectedly aggressive and inquisitive male flew over our heads twice and gave gobsmackingly unbelievable views for over half an hour, calling away from the hillside opposite and behind us, sometimes at eye-level. Wow!  

Altai Snowcock

We also enjoyed close Common Rock Thrush, Brown Accentor, Pied Wheatear, more Rock Sparrows, Common Rosefinch and a Dusky Warbler.

The unmistakable Lammergeier

And it's joined by a Cinereous Vulture

After another delicious breakfast in camp, we packed up and walked down through the open forest seeing at least 3 Eurasian Wrynecks, Daurian Shrike, Pallas’s Warbler and Barred Warbler before getting picked up and heading off to our next camping site at Holboolj Lake. 

Pallas's Warbler

Along the way we stopped for a group of raptors that proved to be a Lammergeier, Steppe Eagle and Cinereous Vulture all circling low over the steppe. And what a cracking sighting this was.

 

A magnificent Steppe Eagle

We arrived at Holboolj Lake in the late afternoon and what another amazing site this proved to be. Walking south we scanned the vast throng of birds out on the water, picking up a few Pallas’s Gulls, Black-headed and a single Brown-hooded Gull, a flock of White-winged Terns, with a single Black and a Whiskered Tern amongst them. Our major finds were a superb drake Baikal Teal and a female White-headed Duck, with a fine supporting cast of Swan Goose, Bar-headed Goose, Garganey, Red-crested Pochards, 4 Asiatic Dowitchers and the icing on the cake being a female Yellow-breasted Bunting! Not bad eh? 

White-winged Terns showed well today

There were many regular wildfowl, Whooper Swans, shorebirds included a smart looking breeding-plumaged Ruff and Pacific Golden Plover, Citrine Wagtail, as well as Asian Brown Flycatcher and Red-throated Thrush looking out of place on the grassy marsh edge. With fabulous scenery all around, blue sky and a fabulous sunset, watching all of these birds took on an extra dimension and we particularly enjoyed the fine views of the White-winged Tern flock feeding inland of our camp in fabulous light. That night we managed to locate a xx in the thermal camera and subsequently spotlight one at close range.