Riverbirding in December

text & photos by ABu

Stretch of open water

Tuul River, UB, Dec 2015

On 5 December 2015 I checked a 5 km-stretch along the Tuul River. Actually, I had intended to do this the day before but just before I left the house (already dressed for the cold, and one has to put on a lot of clothing!) the wind had turned bringing all the smog to the area I wanted to visit. On top of that it had started snowing. Thus I postponed my walk for 24 hours. To me it does not make much sense to carry my heavy photo equipment through the smog and the falling snow, both reducing visibility and the latter also harming the gear. When I finally was out on 5th, it was sunny with almost no wind (but see above). The temperature was minus 19°C (minus 2.2°F), not too cold to be outside.

Potential Solitary Snipe habitat

Tuul River, UB, Dec 2015

Out of the five kilometres I covered less than 1.5 km had open water still. This is only the second time I witnessed the Tuul River not to be fully frozen over since I am wintering in Mongolia. The year 2015 had been a very dry year again, and the water level of the river remained very low all year, so the open water could not be due to a strong flow (as it was in 2014, which had been a wetter year). Apparently, the springs on the north side of Bogd Khan Mountain are delivering water warm enough to keep some stretches open. I learned at school that the temperature of spring water is equivalent of the yearly average temperature of the area around it. With minus 4°C (+24.8°F) being the yearly average, Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital of the world and, of course, if the rule would hold true, there would not come any water off the springs but ice! Obviously geothermal activities play a part in this, too. Nevertheless, there is open water still and as always in winter I hoped for two species: Solitary Snipe and White-throated Dipper.

There was no snipe but a dipper was around. When I found it, it sat below a steep cliff in the shade. Even worse: I had to stand in (!) the river and the sun was on the dipper’s side, thus I had opposite light and also had to take pictures through the rising steam. In a kind of displacement activity I fired some series of panic shots. Initially, the dipper had been a little nervous about my presence but soon got accustomed to the guy with the lens. No more bobbing then and it even started foraging directly in front of me while keeping in the shade. Not long after its behavior had returned to normal I was approached by two local guys who wanted to greet me. By doing so, they coincidentally spooked the bird and later, after the friendly guys had left, I could not relocate it. I am afraid to say that readers have to cope with the poor quality of my trashy shade images this time.

White-throated Dipper

Tuul River, UB, Dec 2015

White-throated Dipper

Tuul River, UB, Dec 2015

White-throated Dipper

Tuul River, UB, Dec 2015

White-throated Dipper

Tuul River, UB, Dec 2015

There were not many other birds on offer and I could only take pictures of the Oriental Crow as all other birds strongly avoided me: Daurian Partridge 4, Ruddy Shelduck 3, Merlin 1, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker 1, Azure Tit 1, Long-tailed Tit 1, Eurasian Siskin 4, Meadow Bunting c.35 and the standard corvids like Northern Raven, Common Magpie and Oriental Crow.

Oriental Crow in the steam

Tuul River, UB, Dec 2015

Tip: There are several other posts featuring White-throated Dipper on Birding Mongolia. Just use the search field at the top of the sidebar to find them.