pbjosh
missing the neotropics
I've just had a very enjoyable trip to Georgia and Armenia, joining DMW and his friend Phil in the mountains Georgia which they had already planned, then adding a brief two days in the Georgian steppe prior and a few days in Armenia after. There's plenty of gen out there for these sites but I wrote up a bit of up to date info with some GPS coordinates and details on where to scan for Snowcocks and the like. Also, I have detailed how to arrange a 4WD and where to go to on Mt Gndasar for Caspian Snowcock, and how to arrange access to Armash Fishponds. It's short and to the point if anyone is interested: https://www.cloudbirders.com/be/download?filename=BECK_GeorgiaArmenia_0405_2022.pdf
The key bits about Gndasar and Armash I'll reproduce here so that the information is more readily findable!
To arrange a visit to Mt Gndasar, contact Arpa Protected Landscape via Facebook. They responded quickly in English, thankfully. I was able to arrange a 4WD to take me up to scan for Caspian Snowcock (my rented 4WD Renault Duster would NOT have made it up) for 35000 AMD (about US $75). Two rangers / Arpa employees picked me up from my guesthouse (Areni Wine Cellar - nice place, got an early breakfast, recommended) at 5:45 and we set off for about 1:15 of driving. Eventually we arrived to nearly 39.8396, 45.1689 before the 4WD truck could not get up the last 100-200m of grassy slopes to crest the last hill, so we walked the last 400-500m to a good grassy ridge to scan the rocky peak in front from. (The tracks up the mountain are present in Open Street Maps data, I use the Maps.Me application when travelling to access Open Street Maps which is an excellent alternative to Google, particularly for trails and dirt tracks.) We heard Snowcock all morning but it took three of us scanning for hours to find a single extremely distant Caspian Snowcock (2+ km but ok looks all things considered with a decent scope and the cold / still morning air). We never could find birds that were clearly calling from closer, frustratingly. While scanning though I saw stacks of Bezoar Ibex including some terrific males, but much more exciting was multiple sightings of at least four Brown Bears including a mother with two mostly grown cubs. A few raptors passed over, a few Fire-fronted Serin were flying about, we were serenaded by Wood Lark all the while, but the birding around the area were were scanning from was not terribly exciting beyond the Snowcock and mammals.
To arrange a visit to Armash Fishponds, contact Karen Aghababyan (note that Karen is a man’s name in Armenia) on +374 95 544405. He doesn’t use WhatsApp so you’ll need to call or text but he speaks good English and was very responsive and helpful, I really appreciated his assistance. He will coordinate your visit. You will need to make a photocopy of your passport(s) to give to the gate guards upon arrival, then you will need to somehow pay Karen 5000AMD (about $10 EU / 11 USD) per person. I tried to cross paths with him in Yerevan on my way back to town / the airport but he was stuck in traffic so I left it for him at a hotel reception, I hope he got it without any problems. I stayed at B&B Sunrise House Aygavan in the town of Ararat. It was dusty, smelled of cigarette smoke (the hosts smoked inside while I was there, unfortunately), the bed not terribly comfortable, and the dinner was really salty and mediocre. Breakfast was better but basic. For all this it was the most expensive guesthouse / meals I had in either Georgia or Armenia, so I would fairly strongly recommend against this guesthouse. There aren’t many places to stay down there but an extra 20 minutes drive in the morning for a decent place to stay would be a good tradeoff!
Hope this helps if anyone is planning an independent visit in the future, cheers
The key bits about Gndasar and Armash I'll reproduce here so that the information is more readily findable!
To arrange a visit to Mt Gndasar, contact Arpa Protected Landscape via Facebook. They responded quickly in English, thankfully. I was able to arrange a 4WD to take me up to scan for Caspian Snowcock (my rented 4WD Renault Duster would NOT have made it up) for 35000 AMD (about US $75). Two rangers / Arpa employees picked me up from my guesthouse (Areni Wine Cellar - nice place, got an early breakfast, recommended) at 5:45 and we set off for about 1:15 of driving. Eventually we arrived to nearly 39.8396, 45.1689 before the 4WD truck could not get up the last 100-200m of grassy slopes to crest the last hill, so we walked the last 400-500m to a good grassy ridge to scan the rocky peak in front from. (The tracks up the mountain are present in Open Street Maps data, I use the Maps.Me application when travelling to access Open Street Maps which is an excellent alternative to Google, particularly for trails and dirt tracks.) We heard Snowcock all morning but it took three of us scanning for hours to find a single extremely distant Caspian Snowcock (2+ km but ok looks all things considered with a decent scope and the cold / still morning air). We never could find birds that were clearly calling from closer, frustratingly. While scanning though I saw stacks of Bezoar Ibex including some terrific males, but much more exciting was multiple sightings of at least four Brown Bears including a mother with two mostly grown cubs. A few raptors passed over, a few Fire-fronted Serin were flying about, we were serenaded by Wood Lark all the while, but the birding around the area were were scanning from was not terribly exciting beyond the Snowcock and mammals.
To arrange a visit to Armash Fishponds, contact Karen Aghababyan (note that Karen is a man’s name in Armenia) on +374 95 544405. He doesn’t use WhatsApp so you’ll need to call or text but he speaks good English and was very responsive and helpful, I really appreciated his assistance. He will coordinate your visit. You will need to make a photocopy of your passport(s) to give to the gate guards upon arrival, then you will need to somehow pay Karen 5000AMD (about $10 EU / 11 USD) per person. I tried to cross paths with him in Yerevan on my way back to town / the airport but he was stuck in traffic so I left it for him at a hotel reception, I hope he got it without any problems. I stayed at B&B Sunrise House Aygavan in the town of Ararat. It was dusty, smelled of cigarette smoke (the hosts smoked inside while I was there, unfortunately), the bed not terribly comfortable, and the dinner was really salty and mediocre. Breakfast was better but basic. For all this it was the most expensive guesthouse / meals I had in either Georgia or Armenia, so I would fairly strongly recommend against this guesthouse. There aren’t many places to stay down there but an extra 20 minutes drive in the morning for a decent place to stay would be a good tradeoff!
Hope this helps if anyone is planning an independent visit in the future, cheers
