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Kazakhstan, Wanders in Central Asia (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Jos Stratford
- Start date
Yep, but I am definitely wimping out ...I had planned to spend the next six days in those there mountains, but the thought of playing cat and mouse day in, day out didn't really appeal too much ...so sat on a rock today, a posse of Himalayan Snowcocks trundling by, mixed adults and chicks of various ages, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to end it all ...the trip, not everything
...and so sent messages to good folk back home who then contacted my travel agent - tomorrow is now my last day. See if I can get arrested as a final fanfare :-O
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lewis20126
Well-known member
Yep, but I am definitely wimping out ...I had planned to spend the next six days in those there mountains, but the thought of playing cat and mouse day in, day out didn't really appeal too much ...so sat on a rock today, a posse of Himalayan Snowcocks trundling by, mixed adults and chicks of various ages, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to end it all ...the trip, not everything
I've got a spare place on a two centre birding trip to Helmand province and the Gaza Strip if you're interested? No flights included but you get a free flight to Cuba with an extended stay if you can grow a decent beard..
cheers, a
Says he going to Kashmir :t:
PS.in my early days of travel, briefly went to Gaza and Kandahar (next door to Helmand), don't remember either being exactly birding hotspots
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Jos, you're slipping - you could have said "helicopter gunship"!
cheers, alan
I'm not sure his helo ID is up to his wildlife ID standards, but if there's a pic then as a life-long spotter I'll give it a go!
John
Richard Klim
-------------------------
Bizarre! It's hard to understand that there's a credible threat to Big Almaty Lake from hikers or birdwatchers! Probably just a typically insecure post-Soviet state exploiting western paranoia/propaganda to justify ridiculous 'anti-terrorism' measures.
Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
Well, it is pretty close to the border with Kyrgyzstan. And a foolish consistency is the hob-goblin of a small-minded dictatorship.
But more likely you're right. Just paranoia.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Someone should tell them the Dambusters have not only left Afghanistan but disbanded!
John
Not bust, but had incredibly good luck in the first ten days, so didn't the point of staying longer to frazzle under the sun, do battle with military and see nowt new
And talking of the military, amazing spectacle today - over 100 soldiers doing exercises all around Lake Almaty, machine guns rattling away, smoke bombs ...maybe they are planning the invasion of Kyrgyzstan!
But absolutely fantastic birding today, in the midst of the war games, I managed to get the Ibisbill and earlier I had sneaked behind the military camp to get to the observatory area and, oh wow, it was amazing - White-tailed Rubythroat singing atop a juniper with White-browed Tit-Warbler zipping through the very same bush, White-winged Grosbeaks, everything...
And then tried to get up to the cosmostation again - it was a different guard on the military checkpoint, but he was equally adamant that tourists are not allowed up the road. 15 minutes refusing to turn back and eventually he accepted a bribe (not on first offer!) and so opened the magical gate ...and thus I got the Altai Accentor that I had missed yesterday.
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Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
Yeah, the observatory is just incredible. For the birds, not as a place to stay.
Glad you got all the targets.
Glad you got all the targets.
Trip now over, reports to follow soon ...
Yesterday, on route from Almaty to Kiev, I flew over eastern Ukraine for the second time in two weeks, surely not entirely safe for commercial planes I thought. 24 hours later, exactly same spot, seems a commercial jet has indeed been shot down, 295 dead. Gee, I am a little numbed.
.
Yesterday, on route from Almaty to Kiev, I flew over eastern Ukraine for the second time in two weeks, surely not entirely safe for commercial planes I thought. 24 hours later, exactly same spot, seems a commercial jet has indeed been shot down, 295 dead. Gee, I am a little numbed.
.
Richard Klim
-------------------------
It is indeed amazing that commercial airliners have continued to be routed over eastern Ukraine where several aircraft have been shot down in recent days, including an An26 Curl at over 20,000 ft.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
I'll tell you this: not only do you not pick up a long-range anti-aircraft guided missile system down at the market on the stall next to the Kalashnikovs, but without months in the simulator not to mention training in setting it up you wouldn't hit a barn door from inside the barn.
You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce who's at the bottom of this atrocity.
John
Tree Sparrow
Well-known member
Looking forward to hearing the reports.
Very relieved you weren't on the plane that was shot down but obviously thinking of all the people who were and what their relatives and friends must be going through now. :-(
And so the actual report begins...
Kazakhstan, Lands of the Pallas's Sandgrouse.
Background and Logistics.
Few independent birders visit Kazakhstan and fewer still do in mid-summer. Whilst a spring trip would certainly have cooler weather and would also coincide with the migration of northbound species, there are also advantages of a mid-summer trip - across the country, the breeding season was at its peak and it was a pleasure indeed to witness countless shrikes, etc, feeding young in the nest or recently fledged. Also, with the country far hotter and drier, I reasoned that certain species in the desert would be easier to find due to their greater dependency on the more limited water resources and to the simple fact that with juveniles also on the wing there would be greater numbers of birds to potentially find. This certainly seemed to be the case with Pallas's Sandgrouse in particular and various larks, buntings and finches in general.
Many birders visiting Kazakhstan also incorporate the northern steppes into their itinerary (Sociable Plover, Black Larks, etc), but I purposely decided against this - not only would it have required internal flights of over 1200 km, but moreover it is also relatively easy for me to visit these areas on a long weekend break from my base in Eastern Europe (especially as British no longer require a visa to visit Kazakhstan).
With relatively poor infrastructure and a total lack of English in most areas (signage and spoken), Kazakhstan is not the easiest place to visit independently. With public transport to most birding areas non-existent and understanding that hitch-hiking would be difficult, I chose to rent a car. This is not as simple as in many countries - many companies do not respond to e-mails, some (notably Europcar) have an unreliable reputation and do not turn up at the airport, while most of the others (eg. Caspian Car Rent) have restrictions on where the cars can be taken and have a limit of 150 km per day, far too low for a birding trip in such a vast country. After a little research, I found Dixie Travel - not only were they the only company to respond to e-mails quickly, but they also offered a daily allowance of 250 km and a fair price.
Once inside the country, the roads range from reasonable to poor (mostly asphalt, but deeply furrowed with numerous potholes), traffic police are numerous in populated areas and navigation in Almaty city would be a challenge indeed without satellite navigation. Away from the Almaty area, there are no hotels or other forms of accommodation at any of the main birding sites and I camped throughout.
DAY LOG.
4 July. Kiev, Ukraine.
Stop-over on route to Kazakhstan, only a couple of hours free, so I nipped out from the airport, incurred the wrath of a couple of local police by wandering around scrubland adjacent to the airport fences, but in the process notched up a few nice morsels to get the trip underway - I was primarily seeking out butterflies, but the typical east European mix of birds also included several Red-backed Shrikes, a Wryneck, one Marsh Harrier quartering adjacent to the runways, plus plentiful Whinchats, a couple of Northern Wheatears and a Black Redstart. Almost back in the airport terminal, a small patch of woodland produced one Syrian Woodpecker, one Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and several Spotted Flycatchers.
5 July. Almaty to Sogety Plains.
Touchdown in Almaty 3.30 a.m., let the adventures begin. Remarkably swift passage through immigration and a mere half an hour after landing, I was in my rental car navigating my way out of the city and heading east.
With Pallas's Sandgrouse high on my 'most wanted' list, my destination was the Sogety Plains, a vast expanse of semi-desert close to the Chinese border and a key locality for the sandgrouse. As dawn broke, with the snow-capped Tien Shan mountains cutting the skyline to the south, I was motoring through an arid farmscape, wheeling masses of pink and black lifted from fields as flocks of Rosy Starlings took to the skies, while regular blobs on the roadside wires transformed into European Rollers and Lesser Grey Shrikes, both surprisingly numerous. A little bleary-eyed, I pulled into a clump of trees for a break, Indian Golden Orioles yodelled and flew from poplars, a couple of Hoopoes flapped across and, most exquisite, my first Azure Tits of the trip came roving past, two stunning little bundles of sparkling white and blue-greys.
A couple of hours into my trip, the farmland came to an end and ahead lay a ridge of moderately low hills, markers of the start of the desert. Passing through Kokpek Pass, steep gullies fracturing off to either side, another short stop quickly revealed yet more good birds - two Golden Eagles drifting down the valley, several Pied Wheatears and Rock Buntings adorning rocks, a family party of Turkestan Shrikes. I however was looking for my first target of the trip and it did not take long ... singing from a rocky crag and requiring quite a bit of scanning before I suddenly noticed it far closer than I was expecting, the bird in question was a White-capped Bunting, a localised species and a very nice bird to start the trip.
And then onward, so I entered the lands of the enigmatic Pallas's Sandgrouse ...a stark world of subtle beauty, one of vast, open plains, hyper arid in nature and marked by stunted vegetation and bordered by low hills to north and west. A few kilometres after the village of Kokpek, Rosy Starlings in residence, the road splits and I took a route to north-east. Long-legged Buzzards sat on hummocks, Isabelline Wheatears became the default bird and, rather ominously, the sun was already beating down and the temperatures rising steadily. Short-toed Larks began to flit up from the roadside, a couple of Tawny Pipits too, Black-eared Kites circled overhead, I had arrived at my destination, the horizons shimmered in all directions.
Gazing out at the hostile landscape and beating off the dust that was already beginning to coat all, I understood that key to finding to the sandgrouse in mid-summer, and indeed many other birds, was to locate water. I had doubts that there would be any! At kilometre post 192, a small track meandered to the left, passing some old tumbled down buildings and leading to low hills beyond. In previous years, in spring at least, birders had identified this as a good site for the sandgrouse, a dripping pipe at the base of the hills providing a rare water source. Along the track I went, Isabelline Wheatears and Horned Larks about the only birds seen. Three kilometres after the buildings, a rough track led to the right and, low and behold, there was the pipe ...dripping precious water and creating a mini oasis measuring a grand two or three metres in total extend. But an oasis it was, flocks of birds were already dropping in to drink and it would be here that I would spend the next few hours - a pleasure indeed, relaxing and watching the comings and goings of many birds. Very common were Grey-headed Buntings and Short-toed Larks, but amongst the other visitors Mongolian Finches and Horned Larks dropped in with regularity, several Crimson-winged Finches visited on a couple of occasions, as did a Red-headed Bunting once and, unexpected bird of the day, a single Oriental Skylark.
Rather entertaining, a pair of Turkestan Shrikes were also nesting at the site, the adults often feeding a mere metre or so from my car, then flying up to feed the young in bushes just up the slope. Two Black-bellied Sandgrouse also visited briefly mid-afternoon, as did a Long-legged Buzzard a little later.
Towards evening, I made a little trip to the nearby Charyn River, but saw relatively little, so returned to km 192 in the early evening for my first hikes across the desert. No Pallas's Sandgrouse and, in fact, not very much at all ...looping across the open plains, then back via the edge of the low hills, the hike of some kilometres revealed only Desert Wheatears and a Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush as new species.
With the sun now setting, I returned to the waterhole in hope of sandgrouse coming to drink ...zilch. Having spent the previous night on a plane however, I was ready for sleep now anyhow, so with a European Nightjar hawking around the waterhole, I put up my tent and collapsed into it, day one in the lands of the Pallas's Sandgrouse over.
Kazakhstan, Lands of the Pallas's Sandgrouse.
Background and Logistics.
Few independent birders visit Kazakhstan and fewer still do in mid-summer. Whilst a spring trip would certainly have cooler weather and would also coincide with the migration of northbound species, there are also advantages of a mid-summer trip - across the country, the breeding season was at its peak and it was a pleasure indeed to witness countless shrikes, etc, feeding young in the nest or recently fledged. Also, with the country far hotter and drier, I reasoned that certain species in the desert would be easier to find due to their greater dependency on the more limited water resources and to the simple fact that with juveniles also on the wing there would be greater numbers of birds to potentially find. This certainly seemed to be the case with Pallas's Sandgrouse in particular and various larks, buntings and finches in general.
Many birders visiting Kazakhstan also incorporate the northern steppes into their itinerary (Sociable Plover, Black Larks, etc), but I purposely decided against this - not only would it have required internal flights of over 1200 km, but moreover it is also relatively easy for me to visit these areas on a long weekend break from my base in Eastern Europe (especially as British no longer require a visa to visit Kazakhstan).
With relatively poor infrastructure and a total lack of English in most areas (signage and spoken), Kazakhstan is not the easiest place to visit independently. With public transport to most birding areas non-existent and understanding that hitch-hiking would be difficult, I chose to rent a car. This is not as simple as in many countries - many companies do not respond to e-mails, some (notably Europcar) have an unreliable reputation and do not turn up at the airport, while most of the others (eg. Caspian Car Rent) have restrictions on where the cars can be taken and have a limit of 150 km per day, far too low for a birding trip in such a vast country. After a little research, I found Dixie Travel - not only were they the only company to respond to e-mails quickly, but they also offered a daily allowance of 250 km and a fair price.
Once inside the country, the roads range from reasonable to poor (mostly asphalt, but deeply furrowed with numerous potholes), traffic police are numerous in populated areas and navigation in Almaty city would be a challenge indeed without satellite navigation. Away from the Almaty area, there are no hotels or other forms of accommodation at any of the main birding sites and I camped throughout.
DAY LOG.
4 July. Kiev, Ukraine.
Stop-over on route to Kazakhstan, only a couple of hours free, so I nipped out from the airport, incurred the wrath of a couple of local police by wandering around scrubland adjacent to the airport fences, but in the process notched up a few nice morsels to get the trip underway - I was primarily seeking out butterflies, but the typical east European mix of birds also included several Red-backed Shrikes, a Wryneck, one Marsh Harrier quartering adjacent to the runways, plus plentiful Whinchats, a couple of Northern Wheatears and a Black Redstart. Almost back in the airport terminal, a small patch of woodland produced one Syrian Woodpecker, one Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and several Spotted Flycatchers.
5 July. Almaty to Sogety Plains.
Touchdown in Almaty 3.30 a.m., let the adventures begin. Remarkably swift passage through immigration and a mere half an hour after landing, I was in my rental car navigating my way out of the city and heading east.
With Pallas's Sandgrouse high on my 'most wanted' list, my destination was the Sogety Plains, a vast expanse of semi-desert close to the Chinese border and a key locality for the sandgrouse. As dawn broke, with the snow-capped Tien Shan mountains cutting the skyline to the south, I was motoring through an arid farmscape, wheeling masses of pink and black lifted from fields as flocks of Rosy Starlings took to the skies, while regular blobs on the roadside wires transformed into European Rollers and Lesser Grey Shrikes, both surprisingly numerous. A little bleary-eyed, I pulled into a clump of trees for a break, Indian Golden Orioles yodelled and flew from poplars, a couple of Hoopoes flapped across and, most exquisite, my first Azure Tits of the trip came roving past, two stunning little bundles of sparkling white and blue-greys.
A couple of hours into my trip, the farmland came to an end and ahead lay a ridge of moderately low hills, markers of the start of the desert. Passing through Kokpek Pass, steep gullies fracturing off to either side, another short stop quickly revealed yet more good birds - two Golden Eagles drifting down the valley, several Pied Wheatears and Rock Buntings adorning rocks, a family party of Turkestan Shrikes. I however was looking for my first target of the trip and it did not take long ... singing from a rocky crag and requiring quite a bit of scanning before I suddenly noticed it far closer than I was expecting, the bird in question was a White-capped Bunting, a localised species and a very nice bird to start the trip.
And then onward, so I entered the lands of the enigmatic Pallas's Sandgrouse ...a stark world of subtle beauty, one of vast, open plains, hyper arid in nature and marked by stunted vegetation and bordered by low hills to north and west. A few kilometres after the village of Kokpek, Rosy Starlings in residence, the road splits and I took a route to north-east. Long-legged Buzzards sat on hummocks, Isabelline Wheatears became the default bird and, rather ominously, the sun was already beating down and the temperatures rising steadily. Short-toed Larks began to flit up from the roadside, a couple of Tawny Pipits too, Black-eared Kites circled overhead, I had arrived at my destination, the horizons shimmered in all directions.
Gazing out at the hostile landscape and beating off the dust that was already beginning to coat all, I understood that key to finding to the sandgrouse in mid-summer, and indeed many other birds, was to locate water. I had doubts that there would be any! At kilometre post 192, a small track meandered to the left, passing some old tumbled down buildings and leading to low hills beyond. In previous years, in spring at least, birders had identified this as a good site for the sandgrouse, a dripping pipe at the base of the hills providing a rare water source. Along the track I went, Isabelline Wheatears and Horned Larks about the only birds seen. Three kilometres after the buildings, a rough track led to the right and, low and behold, there was the pipe ...dripping precious water and creating a mini oasis measuring a grand two or three metres in total extend. But an oasis it was, flocks of birds were already dropping in to drink and it would be here that I would spend the next few hours - a pleasure indeed, relaxing and watching the comings and goings of many birds. Very common were Grey-headed Buntings and Short-toed Larks, but amongst the other visitors Mongolian Finches and Horned Larks dropped in with regularity, several Crimson-winged Finches visited on a couple of occasions, as did a Red-headed Bunting once and, unexpected bird of the day, a single Oriental Skylark.
Rather entertaining, a pair of Turkestan Shrikes were also nesting at the site, the adults often feeding a mere metre or so from my car, then flying up to feed the young in bushes just up the slope. Two Black-bellied Sandgrouse also visited briefly mid-afternoon, as did a Long-legged Buzzard a little later.
Towards evening, I made a little trip to the nearby Charyn River, but saw relatively little, so returned to km 192 in the early evening for my first hikes across the desert. No Pallas's Sandgrouse and, in fact, not very much at all ...looping across the open plains, then back via the edge of the low hills, the hike of some kilometres revealed only Desert Wheatears and a Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush as new species.
With the sun now setting, I returned to the waterhole in hope of sandgrouse coming to drink ...zilch. Having spent the previous night on a plane however, I was ready for sleep now anyhow, so with a European Nightjar hawking around the waterhole, I put up my tent and collapsed into it, day one in the lands of the Pallas's Sandgrouse over.
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6 July. Sogety Plains, Kegen Pass & Borogai Lake.
5.00 a.m., light flooding across the plains, I poke my head out of the tent. Very little happening at the waterhole, so I decided to relocate a couple of kilometres to the east and resume the strategy of simply logging up the kilometres and hope that sooner or later I would bump into a Pallas's Sandgrouse.
Meandering between flat stony areas and shallow wadis, the land resounded to the sharp yelps of Great Gerbils, burrows of the critters pockmarking almost sandy areas in all directions and beady little eyes watching from near and far. In the cool hours of dawn, a lot of bird activity too - abundant Short-toed Larks and Horned Larks, Isabelline Wheatears on virtually every tussock, a total of four splendid Asian Desert Warblers, little melodies of song rattling out from the vegetated wadi beds. An hour and more, I'd been wandering, the bubbling calls of a couple of Black-bellied Sandgrouse floating across the skies, but not a peep of a Pallas's Sandgrouse.
Already the heat was beginning to build ...but then, 6.20 a.m., an hour or so after sunrise, a call overhead, not totally dissimilar to the Great Gerbils. Presuming the gerbils hadn't learnt to fly, I spun round and scanned ...and there, heading directly towards me, one slightly daintier sandgrouse, pale underwings, no darker flight feathers. Wa hoo, incoming Pallas's Sandgrouse! And straight overhead he went, flying fast and direct, veering slightly to the west. Seemed to be heading for the hills, but not towards the drinking pool. A few minutes later, another flew over ...then another, then two more! Over the next 15 minutes, in pairs and threes, eleven more went bombing over, simple calls chirping out, all tracking to the same direction.
To say I was happy is an underestimate, this was my main target on this Kazakhstan trip ...but where were they all going I wondering, they had to be heading for water. Rapidly returning to my car, I bumped along a few rough tracks following the same general direction and dropping over a ridge, I happened upon an abandoned shepherd's corral...and directly above this an absolutely fantastic find - gushing water flooding out onto a little pocket of green grass! Oh wow, this had to be the spot that the sandgrouse were coming to! And indeed it was ...within minutes, I was surrounded by Pallas's Sandgrouse - birds in the air, birds waddling across the grass, birds drinking at the pool! Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see so many Pallas's Sandgrouse ...at a very conservative estimate I would say that a total of at least 65 birds dropped in to drink by 9.30 am., with a few last birds lingering another half an hour. And with them, a couple of dozen Black-bellied Sandgrouse, one Cuckoo, one Hoopoe and an assortment of small passerines, including a Bimaculated Lark and my only Corn Bunting of the trip.
By mid-morning, with action at the waterhole dwindling to almost nothing and temperatures steadily climbing towards 40 C, I decided to depart and head for the relative coolness of the higher altitude Kegen Pass, a fairly remote locality a mere 80 km from the Chinese border and about 40 km form Kyrgyzstan. One Steppe Eagle on route, a few simple villages along the road, some rather puzzled locals wondering what a foreigner was doing trying to buy milk in a store that wouldn't have looked out in place in a century long gone by! Saw my first Oriental Turtle Dove as drove along this road, plus my only Crag Martins, but the best birding was certainly as the altitude began to increase and the road began to zigzag - Pied Wheatears joining the Isabelline Wheatears, Rock Sparrows here and there, Common Rosefinches sitting atop shrubbery, one more White-capped Bunting and, best of all, a superb colony of Lesser Kestrels near the top of the pass. About thirty pairs in all, the birds were breeding in a rocky road cutting, dozens of little chicks clearly visible peering out of little holes and loads of adults wheeling about over the slope, hovering over adjacent meadows and generally giving superb views. A lot of Common Swifts too.
From Kegen, I had thought about returning to the Pallas's Sandgrouse site to camp again, but instead decided to head for Lake Borogai, a fairly high altitude lake just short of Kokpek Pass. Not a bad decision ...though the general birding was not outstanding, the lake merely holding a few Ruddy Shelducks and a few other common waterbirds, the site did provide my only sighting of a Saker Falcon on this trip - a stunning bird, it came storming in from the adjacent plains and immediately provoked a Ruddy Shelduck to fly up from the lake and start mobbing it. My final sight of the pair were duck and falcon vanishing off over the far side of the lake! On the shores of the lake, I put my tent and waited sundown, two Black-bellied Sandgrouse came to drink at dusk.
5.00 a.m., light flooding across the plains, I poke my head out of the tent. Very little happening at the waterhole, so I decided to relocate a couple of kilometres to the east and resume the strategy of simply logging up the kilometres and hope that sooner or later I would bump into a Pallas's Sandgrouse.
Meandering between flat stony areas and shallow wadis, the land resounded to the sharp yelps of Great Gerbils, burrows of the critters pockmarking almost sandy areas in all directions and beady little eyes watching from near and far. In the cool hours of dawn, a lot of bird activity too - abundant Short-toed Larks and Horned Larks, Isabelline Wheatears on virtually every tussock, a total of four splendid Asian Desert Warblers, little melodies of song rattling out from the vegetated wadi beds. An hour and more, I'd been wandering, the bubbling calls of a couple of Black-bellied Sandgrouse floating across the skies, but not a peep of a Pallas's Sandgrouse.
Already the heat was beginning to build ...but then, 6.20 a.m., an hour or so after sunrise, a call overhead, not totally dissimilar to the Great Gerbils. Presuming the gerbils hadn't learnt to fly, I spun round and scanned ...and there, heading directly towards me, one slightly daintier sandgrouse, pale underwings, no darker flight feathers. Wa hoo, incoming Pallas's Sandgrouse! And straight overhead he went, flying fast and direct, veering slightly to the west. Seemed to be heading for the hills, but not towards the drinking pool. A few minutes later, another flew over ...then another, then two more! Over the next 15 minutes, in pairs and threes, eleven more went bombing over, simple calls chirping out, all tracking to the same direction.
To say I was happy is an underestimate, this was my main target on this Kazakhstan trip ...but where were they all going I wondering, they had to be heading for water. Rapidly returning to my car, I bumped along a few rough tracks following the same general direction and dropping over a ridge, I happened upon an abandoned shepherd's corral...and directly above this an absolutely fantastic find - gushing water flooding out onto a little pocket of green grass! Oh wow, this had to be the spot that the sandgrouse were coming to! And indeed it was ...within minutes, I was surrounded by Pallas's Sandgrouse - birds in the air, birds waddling across the grass, birds drinking at the pool! Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see so many Pallas's Sandgrouse ...at a very conservative estimate I would say that a total of at least 65 birds dropped in to drink by 9.30 am., with a few last birds lingering another half an hour. And with them, a couple of dozen Black-bellied Sandgrouse, one Cuckoo, one Hoopoe and an assortment of small passerines, including a Bimaculated Lark and my only Corn Bunting of the trip.
By mid-morning, with action at the waterhole dwindling to almost nothing and temperatures steadily climbing towards 40 C, I decided to depart and head for the relative coolness of the higher altitude Kegen Pass, a fairly remote locality a mere 80 km from the Chinese border and about 40 km form Kyrgyzstan. One Steppe Eagle on route, a few simple villages along the road, some rather puzzled locals wondering what a foreigner was doing trying to buy milk in a store that wouldn't have looked out in place in a century long gone by! Saw my first Oriental Turtle Dove as drove along this road, plus my only Crag Martins, but the best birding was certainly as the altitude began to increase and the road began to zigzag - Pied Wheatears joining the Isabelline Wheatears, Rock Sparrows here and there, Common Rosefinches sitting atop shrubbery, one more White-capped Bunting and, best of all, a superb colony of Lesser Kestrels near the top of the pass. About thirty pairs in all, the birds were breeding in a rocky road cutting, dozens of little chicks clearly visible peering out of little holes and loads of adults wheeling about over the slope, hovering over adjacent meadows and generally giving superb views. A lot of Common Swifts too.
From Kegen, I had thought about returning to the Pallas's Sandgrouse site to camp again, but instead decided to head for Lake Borogai, a fairly high altitude lake just short of Kokpek Pass. Not a bad decision ...though the general birding was not outstanding, the lake merely holding a few Ruddy Shelducks and a few other common waterbirds, the site did provide my only sighting of a Saker Falcon on this trip - a stunning bird, it came storming in from the adjacent plains and immediately provoked a Ruddy Shelduck to fly up from the lake and start mobbing it. My final sight of the pair were duck and falcon vanishing off over the far side of the lake! On the shores of the lake, I put my tent and waited sundown, two Black-bellied Sandgrouse came to drink at dusk.
We were up there with a guided tour in May. And yes, the guide and our translator had permits along for us all. Our "hotel" - or hostel - was at the observatory. Despite this, the gate guard first did not let us pass, called his superior, and then said we could use the steep (for a minibus at least) back entrance. As we were backing up for that road, a soldier showed up, presumably the superior, and after a brief explanation and looking at our permit, we were allowed to use the front entrance. We had no further problems, but were always a bit wary and made sure our translator was along, just in case. The daytrip to the Cosmos station was then no problem either. And when we went for the Ibisbill on the lake's delta, we also were not molested. In fact, we were wondering about all the hikers we encountered, including families. So we started making jokes whether this was the new way to smuggle drugs across the border. That drug problem is at least the claimed reason for the tightened regime.
Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
That makes more sense than Kyrgyz terrorists.
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