BIRDING MONGOLIA

Forestbirding January 2016

text & photos by ABu

Eastern UB, Jan 2016

On 23 Jan 2016 I went up Bogd Khan Uul, again for 5 hours of forest birding. I started at the observatory and headed up the mountain for almost 3 hours before I went back to the car and drove home. Since a fortnight or so my thermometer always showed temperatures between minus 35°C and minus 40°C (around minus 40°F) in the morning. This is really cold!

Rock formation with zero birds

Bogd Khan Uul, UB, Jan 2016

I was alone in the forest, I mean, there were no birds. OK, OK, not entirely zero birds, but the only opportunity to take pictures of birds I had when I was back at the parking lot. Normally I miss a lot of chances to take photos, simply because I carry the battery of the camera inside my inner jacket. This makes sense insofar as the cold would otherwise result in a very quick loss of battery power before destroying it completely. So it takes quite a while to get the battery out from the jacket: open the outer jacket, open the inner jacket, find the battery inside the pocket, take it out and put it into the camera, close both jackets again (! remember, it is minus 35 °C) and fire. Frequently, the birds have flown away by the time I am ready to start.

UB under the smog, Jan 2016

This time it was different. Wherever I went to there were no birds. Those very few I came across I had either been flying high above the forest or stayed within the canopy: Lesser Spotted Woodpecker 1 male, Eurasian Nuthatch 5 of which I heard 2, Coal Tit 2, Willow Tit 7, Eastern Marsh Tit 3, Eurasian Treecreeper 1, Brambling 1, Common Crossbill 2 plus few flybys, Spotted Nutcracker heard only, Brandt’s Eurasian Jay heard only, Oriental (Carrion) Crow 2 and Northern Raven 1. This is the complete list!

If this is going to be the standard for the rest of the winter we should better call our blog “Landscape Mongolia”. I need to try harder and will do so!