Serious
Subzero Birding
Text &
photos © Andreas Buchheim
January 2012
has been colder than average here in central Mongolia. Only during a
few nights—early in the month—the temperature did not
fall below minus 30°C (-22°F), but even the “warmest” night
was minus 27°C (-16.6°F) cold. At the end of the month temperatures
dropped even below minus 40°C (-40°F), making birding an unpleasant
affair unless done from your flat or from a car. I did the latter on
31 January and went to the area below Songino Khairkhan Uul to check
whether the European Greenfinches (see previous post) were
still around and whether I could take some more pictures.
minus 43°C (-45.4°F),
as seen on my thermometer,
Ulaanbaatar,
Jan 2012
I arrived at 10
a.m. and soon re-found the flock of European Greenfinches, but they were immediately spooked by a guy and his (?) cows, not to
be found again that day. Birding was hard as birds were few but being
out of the smog was good enough for me.
Ulaanbaatar
under a thick layer of smog, Jan 2012
As I waited for
the greenfinches to return to their favoured spot a (the?) male
Güldenstädt’s Redstart (see previous post)
moved along but was too far away and disappeared to somewhere. The
redstart’s berry-bush was totally covered by frost and if there
had been some berries left they most probably were now inaccessible.
The sewage stream had become a very narrow one, usually about 4 to 6
m wide it was now only 60 cm wide and a lot of ice was floating on
it.
The
redstart’s bush on the banks of the almost totally frozen
over sewage
stream, below Songino Khaikhan Uul, Jan 2012
No less
than 27 Azure-winged Magpies
were taking their toll on the berries but somehow the managed always
to keep their distance, thus, again, I was unable to get close enough
to take some acceptable shots.
Azure-winged
Magpies taking a nap in a tree,
below Songino
Khaikhan Uul, Jan 2012
In general,
photographing was difficult, not only because of the freezing
temperature but also because it was sunny and I was trying to take
pictures from inside the car. Most pictures I took showed the impact
of “frost-haze”: the sun warmed up the car and the warm
air (what do I write?—it was not warm, just warmer than the
outside air but still so cold that the snow I had brought in with my
boots did show no signs of melting!) caused the haze directly in
front of the window where it met the cold air, not very funny if you
go out for almost nothing. As Axel had asked me to take some
habitat-pictures I left the car several times and tried to accomplish
this.
Bushes and
the sewage stream,
below Songino
Khaikhan Uul, Jan 2012
Common
Magpie stealing the greenfinch-seeds,
below Songino
Khaikhan Uul, Jan 2012
I had put out
some seeds for the greenfinches but the corvids were quick in
discovering this and ate most. The only remaining turdids were all
Red-throated Thrushes and they were quite keen in keeping away
conspecifics from their respective territories.
Red-throated
Thrush,
below Songino
Khaikhan Uul, Jan 2012
A more open
stretch of the sewage stream,
below
Songino Khaikhan Uul, Jan 2012
Bohemian
Waxwing I saw about 150 today and a few
Great Tits
as well as few Azure Tits
searched for food in the trees. At 12:45 p.m. an Eurasian
Black Vulture crossed the valley to
land on Songino Khaikhan Uul, may be it had fed on Ulaanbaatar’s
rubbish tip. A lonely (?) Ruddy Shelduck
flew upstream and the coming weekend will tell how many of them are
overwintering in Ulaanbaatar this winter. I returned after 4 hours
and boy—I had very cold feet!
1 comment:
It is so cold there! But the scenery is so beautiful!
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