Adult Bearded Vulture, Erdenesant Village,

Feb 2014, © Andreas Buchheim

part one: 

Documented Birding

text by Abu

Birding in winter is a quite complicated matter here in Mongolia, at least if you intend to visit the countryside. Temperatures can fall well below minus 40°C (that is also minus 40°F) during the night and this usually makes camping not advisable. Apart from the fact that proper clothing is mandatory, a winter birding trip needs thorough planning. You should know where you will spend the nights, and that would be preferably not in a tent or inside a car. It may even be also not in a ger (yurt) in which it can get very cold if the fire doesn’t survive the night! But if you have the chance to travel with Mongolians, then the planning is made much easier as they might have relatives along the route. The route even could be altered following the distribution of the relatives.

We slept in the car during the first night. It wasn’t that bad, not cold at all but a little too tightly packed. We were lined up like canned sardines and any movement was not much appreciated by the others. Luckily we had drunken enough not to be too much bothered by that! Our second night out we spent in a roadside hotel in Ölziit village. The next two nights we slept at relatives in the city of Tsetserleg and for the last night of our trip we had been invited to overnight at our driver’s place in the village of Erdenesant.

Then you need transport. We had a so-called Furgon, a Russian made minibus (UAZ 450 or UAZ 452) that seems to be in use since the last ice age, with almost nothing improved over the years. Actually it is on the market only since 1958. What sounds like a big disadvantage at first, is actually an advantage. The technical equipment is so basic that all drivers can fix it anywhere. The Furgon has no electronic parts which could fail. If you would have a failure in the electronic of a modern 4WD, then you would be in serious trouble. This, with the wide availability of spare parts, makes the Furgon the ideal vehicle, especially when you intend to leave the asphalt.

We took our own food and a stove and cooked inside the car unless we stayed at relatives. Then we enjoyed buuz, the homemade steamed dumplings. Liquid “food” was available during the entire trip and we made sure that nothing had to be brought back to UB.

After a chilly night it stays cold until noon and birding during the morning is quite uncomfortable. We had maximum temperatures not above minus 15°C (5°F), and during all nights it was below 30°C (-22°F). Photographing birds during the mornings poses an extra challenge as well. You cannot do it from a car unless it is unheated (thanks to Igor for sharing his experience) and outside you have to take extra care for the batteries. They will not last long if you don’t keep them at a warmer place while walking around. I put them in my breast pocket under my outer jacket, but very often I need too long to get them out and put into the camera and then the bird is gone. Nevertheless our cameras always worked quite well even at minus 35°C (-31°F).

If it comes to the birds: roughly 100 species can be seen in winter here but not much birding was done during the cold season until recently. See this link, and also click on “winter” in the label list at the sidebar.

Since last winter we have picked Snowy Owl as our prime target but with a recent of a white morph Gyr Falcon (the first properly documented for Mongolia ever?) we also opted for this species. Personally I chose Solitary Snipe as an additional target species because I have been searching for it since I started spending the winters in Mongolia.

After a discussion in January we chose the region around the Orchon River valley for our trip, mainly because of its current abundance of rodents. We left in the early morning of 6 February 2014 and went to Kharkhorin via the village of Erdenesant, with birding mainly done from the car. In Kharkhorin we paid the riparian forest along the Orchon river a brief visit before we drove out of the town along the paved road which leads to Ogij Nuur. About 25 km from the town we parked the minibus in a winter shelter for the night.

The weather on our first day was cold but clear at first, but about from 11:00, the conditions worsened. First indication of this was a “snowbow”, created by millions of ice crystals in the air. Then clouds were blown in from the north and in the evening a light snowfall set in.

Snowbow with ice crystals (not stars!) above Erdenesant Village,

Feb 2014, © Andreas Buchheim

Red-billed Chough, Erdenesant Village,

Feb 2014, © Andreas Buchheim

In Erdenesant village we found an Arctic Redpoll in a flock of about 800 Père David’s Snowfinches. This flock also attracted a few Mongolian Larks. Other birds seen there were Red-billed Choughs and a single Hill Pigeon in a flock of about 400 Rock Pigeons.

Hill Pigeon is easy to spot from a flock of flying Rock Pigeons,

Erdenesant Village, Feb 2014, ©Andreas Buchheim

When it is freezing cold, birds do their best to reduce

heat loss. Both birds in this picture, the Mongolian Lark

in the back and the Père David’s Snowfinch in the

foreground, spared one leg to save energy,

Erdenesant Village, Feb 2014, © Andreas Buchheim

Père David’s Snowfinches

Erdenesant Village, Feb 2014, © Andreas Buchheim

The best observation of our first day out was a huge flock of Mongolian Larks which we came across a little south of Kharkhorin. This flock consisted of about 12,000 birds (judged from our photographs). We were much amazed to see this flock showing manoeuvres similar to the ones performed by large flocks of Common Starling. A group of 4 Eurasian Collared Dove was also a very good record as there are still not many sightings from winter.

Me and some of the Mongolian Larks, Kharkhorin,

Feb 2014, © Amarkhuu

Part of the flock: there are no less than

1191 Mongolian Larks just in this photo!

Kharkhorin, Feb 2014, © Andreas Buchheim

Eurasian Collared Dove, Kharkhorin,

Feb 2014, © Andreas Buchheim

The next day (7 February), which was sunny with a very blue sky, was our “Upland Buzzard Day”. In total we saw 242, with 61 from a single scanning spot west of Ogij Nuur alone! There was not much more around: no large songbird flocks (a group of 30 Meadow Buntings was the largest flock), not many other raptors either, though we did see a few Saker Falcons and Eurasian Black Vultures. We were quite pleased to find a Daurian Jackdaw just before sunset.

Juvenile Upland Buzzard, near Ölzijt village,

Feb 2014, © Andreas Buchheim

Juvenile Upland Buzzard, near Ölzijt village,

Feb 2014, ©Andreas Buchheim

Juvenile Upland Buzzard, near Ölzijt village,

Feb 2014, ©Andreas Buchheim

Daurian Jackdaw, Ölzijt village,

Feb 2014, © Andreas Buchheim

On another very bright day (8 February) we drove from Ölzijt village to the city of Tsetserleg via Batsengel village. We saw fewer raptors this day but could add Golden Eagle and Lapland Bunting to our list. During lunch we found a Saker Falcon perched on the ground, eating its prey. After having finished its meal the falcon took flight and no less than five minutes later it had snatched the next rodent from the steppe. Apparently it is extremely easy for raptors to find enough food when it is that abundant (and that is exactly the reason for the large numbers of raptors we saw, of course!).

A valley between the villages of Ölzijt and Bastesengel,

Feb 2014, ©Andreas Buchheim

Saker Falcon, near Batsengel village,

Feb 2014, ©Andreas Buchheim

Eurasian Black Vulture, near Batsengel village,

Feb 2014, ©Andreas Buchheim

Eurasian Black Vulture, near Batsengel village,

Feb 2014, © Andreas Buchheim

During the first three days of our trip we were tailed by a film team. They documented our efforts in finding our target species but we did not succeed as long as they were with us. Whether or whether or we had more luck during the second part of our winter birding trip will be reported next.

Scanning winter birders and

the film team, near Batsengel village

Feb 2014, © Andreas Buchheim