Surprise below
Songino Khairkhan Uul
Text & photos © Andreas Buchheim
Ice-mushroom in the sewage stream,
below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Jan 2012
On 16 January I went to the riparian area below Songino Khairkhan Uul. By car it is about a 35-minute drive west from where I live. I
crossed the river by 9:30 am. Virtually the first passerine I saw was
flying towards me. This turned out to be a female Güldenstädt’s
Redstart, most likely the one that was seen here recently
(photo of the flying bird at the Mongolian Bird Watching Clubwebsite). This was a nice start despite the bad conditions. A
north-easterly breeze was blowing all the city smog exactly to the
area (and beyond) where I wanted to watch birds. As the redstart was
not approachable by any means I decided to scrutinize the woodland
and try my luck later the day. After a while I found a group of about
50 Bohemian Waxwings,
but photographing them was impossible, thanks to the aforementioned
facts. At about 11:00 am the wind changed to the opposite direction
and soon I found myself birding in bright sunlight. A (the) flock of
Azure-winged Magpies was on show again, but—again—it
was on the other side of the river. During wintertime rivers don’t
pose any problem to birdwatchers as they can be criss-crossed ad lib,
simply because they are deeply frozen. But I was birding along the
never-freezing sewage stream (quite incredible that there is no
appropriate waste-water treatment in the capital of Mongolia!) and
thus it was impossible to get close enough to the magpies. So I was
driving around looking for a nice place with lots of birds and when I
found it, I waited. And waited. I waited even more for the birds
coming close enough to the car. After more than 45 minutes the
waxwings came back to the bushes to feed on the berries and I began
to take some shots.
Female Bohemian Waxwing,
below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Jan 2012
Bohemian Waxwing with berry,
below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Jan 2012
Bohemian Waxwing with frosty cap,
below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Jan 2012
Suddenly I heard familiar calls and soon 4 White-cheeked Starlings
joined the waxwings. This species is very rare in winter in the country.
Three of the four White-cheeked Starlings,
below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Jan 2012
While I was photographing the starlings I heard other calls. Those I
knew from Europe: European Greenfinch. Was I dreaming
or getting mad? Greenfinch? Here? Impossible! But, surprise,
surprise: There was a flock of European Greenfinches
feeding below the trees. The flock consisted of two males and three
females and I could take some pictures. This species has been
recorded just a few times in Mongolia and all sightings came from the west of the country.
Four of the five European Greenfinches,
below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Jan 2012
Male European Greenfinch,
below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Jan 2012
Female European Greenfinch,
below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Jan 2012
Another finch dropped to join the greenfinches. This was a male
Common Chaffinch but he was too wary and I could obtain
not more than a poor record shot of this rather rare winter visitor
to Mongolia.
Record-shot of the first-winter male Common Chaffinch,
below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Jan 2012
Female Güldenstädt’s Redstart,
below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Jan 2012
Male Güldenstädts Redstart,
below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Jan 2012
After this I tried on the redstart again, but the bird was not
cooperating well. While I was waiting opposite its favored
fruiting-tree I got aware of a male Güldenstädt’s
Redstart which was attending the very same tree every now and
then. The flocks of thrushes either had left the area or I just did
not find them. Nevertheless a few (less than 10) Red-throated
Thrushes were still around. After 4 hours I went back home.
Red-throated Thrush,
below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Jan 2012
Bohemian Waxwing, dropping part one,
below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Jan 2012
Bohemian Waxwing, dropping part two,
below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Jan 2012
3 comments:
What the nice records!
European Greenfinch and Chaffinch are recorded as rare winter guests in Irkutsk, but it is not so close to Ulaanbaatar.
Igor
PS: Andreas, Axel and others, what is heard about Oriental Greenfinch? By the Mongolian Red List of birds, it is only a vagrant in NE parts. In August 1993, however, it was quite common in settlements around the Daursky Nature Reserve (south of the Chita Region) i.e. close to the Mongolian border. But it did only in settlements with not-conifer trees.
Igor
The data in the Mongolian Red List is uncomplete. There are more observations of Oriental Greenfinch, including of migrants in the Gobi (Ikh Nart; I have 2 records from there) and Gobi Altai (seen by Birdquest). And more observations from the NE, where it presumably breeds...
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