New Year

The new year dawned with a spectacular sunrise as the sun climbed over the mountains and hit Ulaanbaatar's pollution.
My main resolution is to spend more time birding,-last year i managed 199 species in Mongolia without really trying, if i make an effort how many can i see in 2009? 250, 275? ......

So far on 18 January i have seen 34 species,- winter birding is hard work here,the daytime max has been -11C, so its tough for the birds, and also for the birders. I started with two walks into the mountain forest to the north of UB, a short bus ride, then a walk-2km or so and i am into the woods. Highlights were three toed and black woodpeckers and bullfinches. One of the fun thing about birding here is that several species look completely different to those of the same species in england so the nuthatches here do not have any chestnut on the flanks as they do in uk, long tailed tits seem quite happy in the extreme temperatures whereas in the UK their numbers decline dramatically after a cold winter, and then the bullfinches look totally different, or some of them do. There are at least two races, one which has red or pink on the underparts as in England, tho there is less pink, and another which has no red or pink at all but is a grey bird, this is described either as a race of the Eurasian Bullfinch or as a separate species.

The last two weekends I have joined with Konchog, Abu (a visiting german birder) and Ishee to drive further afield, last weekend to the woods above Mansheer, this weekend 100om west of UB to Hustai.

On both trips mammals have been as interesting as the birds. Hustai is the main site where the Prewalzski horse has been successfully reintroduced to Mongolia and we saw several herds of the beasts. We also saw plenty of red deer, 10% of all Mongolian red deer occur here.But the most exotic mammal for me was the siberian flying squirrel we saw happily munching away on a larch tree. I did not know there were flying squirrels in the taiga, apparently they can be found from Finland to Kamchatka. Konchog has copied a picture onto his blog www.danzanravjaa.typepad.com

So here are some pics of our multi national team, Konchog an american,Abu german, Markus Brazilian and Ishee, Mongolian.


and my quiz for the day, what is this bird?

Travelling in the Gobi

A break for camel's milk and a distant herd of gazelle.

Arkhangai again

I returned to Arkhangai, some 450 kilometres west of UB in early December for a conference. It was my fourth visit to the region, so I feel comfortable travelling there, surprisingly temperatures were warmer than in UB.

The conference was on tourism development in the region and was organised by Mercy Corps, the Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism, and our NGO partner the Sustainable Tourism Development Centre Mongolia. The idea is to encourage tourism businesses, regional government and protected area staff to work together to both improve quality of tourism products and marketing.

Generally it went well, Gana from the STDC is an excellent communicator with a good experience of international tourism, and the regional governor was open to suggestions and ideas. As often here everybody poses for group photos. They show participants at the seminar, posing with the governer and with colleagues, and discussion group.

Monuments

The tomb of Chinghis Khan has never been found but there many modern statues in Ulaanbaatar and other cities. Lenin remains outside the UB hotel, Choibalsan was Mongolia premier and with Stalin's encouragement responsible for death of thousands of Mongolians. There are animals statues in UB, an argali sheep, and horses and camels in aimag centres. The most bizarre memorial was installed this year, a monument to the Beatles, reflecting the importance of their music to the independant movement in Mongolia.

Ovorkhangai

It was great to travel to the countryside again after a month in UB. The landscape has changed from the green of July to straw colour as much because of drought, it has not rained since July, as the increasingly cold nights. I travelled to Ovorkhangai to give advice to Mercy Corps clients establishing small tourism businesses. Also had a chance to visit the oldest Monastery in Mongolia Erdene Zuu whihc is Orkhon Valley Cultural herritage World Heritage Site

Birding around UB

On Sunday (7th Sept) I rented a car with Tom, another English birder who is teaching in UB, and we spent the day birding around UB. We started at the south side of Boghd Khan mountain at Mansheer. The south facing larch woodlands are less heavily grazed than those around UB and I always seem to see more birds here. Even so the density of passerines is low, tho nutcrackers, black-eared kite, great spotted woodpecker easy to see. Various phylloscopus warblers with tit flocks but only managed firm identification of yellow-browed and dusky warblers.

In the afternoon we visited the gravel pits to the west of UB. Small numbers of waders and waterfowls with distant kites and other birds of prey soaring in thermals. Again low densities of passerines.


Overall a very enjoyable day with some good birds but as always the birds we did not see equally interesting. No migratory thrushes yet, and the number of waterfowl and wader species disappointing, and overall density of birds was low.


Here is the list of what we saw: (not very different to what I would expect to see in western europe)


DATE
Sun 7 September 2008 0700 to 1700
LOCATION
Woodlands around Mansheer and gravel pits west of Ulaanbaatar
OBSERVERS
BW, Tom Jenner, Samina
Podiceps nigricollis Black-necked Grebe 2
Phalacrocorax carbo Great Cormorant 4
Ardea cinerea Grey Heron 100 Roosting on gravel pit
Cygnus cygnus Whooper Swan 1
Tadorna ferruginea Ruddy Shelduck 120
Anas platyrhynchos Mallard 200
Anas crecca Common Teal 200
Anas acuta Northern Pintail 8

Aythya ferina Common Pochard 4
Aythya fuligula Tufted Duck 30
Bucephala clangula Common Goldeneye 5
Mergus merganser Goosander 12
Pernis ptilorhyncus Oriental Honey Buzzard one bird possibly this species south of Mansheer
Milvus migrans Black Kite 50 Several thermals to west of UB
Accipiter nisus Eurasian Sparrowhawk 1
Buteo hemilasius Upland Buzzard 5
Buteo buteo Common Buzzard 2
Hieraaetus pennatus Booted Eagle 3 1 Pale phase at Mansheer
Aquila nipalensis Steppe Eagle 1
Aegypius monachus Cinereous Vulture 1
Falco cherrug Saker Falcon 3
Falco tinnunculus Common Kestrel 2
Fulica atra Common Coot 4
Charadrius dubius Little Ringed Plover 1
Tringa ochropus Green Sandpiper 1
Tringa glareola Wood Sandpiper 2
Tringa nebularia Common Greenshank 1
Tringa totanus Common Redshank 1
Tringa erythropus Spotted Redshank 1
Philomachus pugnax Ruff 4
Gallinago spp Snipe 3 unidentified snipe in distance not heard to call
Numenius arquata Eurasian Curlew 5
Larus ridibundus Common Black-headed Gull 15
Larus (vigae) mongolicus Herring Gull 10
Sterna hirundo Common Tern 4
Columba rupestris Hill Pigeon 5
Streptopelia orientalis Oriental Turtle Dove 1
Upupa epops Eurasian Hoopoe 1
Dendrocopos major Great Spotted Woodpecker 4
Eremophila alpestris Horned Lark 2
Anthus richardi Richard's Pipit 1
Motacilla citreola Yellow-headed Wagtail 1
Motacilla cinerea Grey Wagtail 10
Motacilla alba White Wagtail 8
Pica pica Common Magpie F
Nucifraga caryocatactes Spotted Nutcracker 10
Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax Red-billed Chough A
Corvus dauuricus Daurian Jackdaw 150 flying to roost UB in evening
Corvus frugilegus Eurasian Rook F
Corvus corone Carrion crow F
Corvus corax Common Raven F
Phylloscopus fuscatus Dusky Warbler 2
Phylloscopus inornatus Yellow-browed Warbler 2
Ficedula parva Red-breasted Flycatcher 5
Muscicapa latirostris Asian Brown Flycatcher 2
Saxicola torquata Common Stonechat 1
Oenanthe oenanthe Northern Wheatear 5
Parus montanus Willow Tit F
Parus ater Coal Tit F
Parus major Great Tit F
Sitta europaea Eurasian Nuthatch F
Certhia familiaris Eurasian Treecreeper 1
Passer domesticus House Sparrow F
Passer montanus Eurasian Tree Sparrow F
Emberiza leucocephalos Pine Bunting 2
Emberiza pusilla Little Bunting 1

Pictures from journey in august