Common Rock Thrush in display flight,

Khongil IBA, W Mongolia, Jun 2012, © Andreas Buchheim

Part one: Almost the UB Ponds as a starter

text by Jörg Langenberg

UB Ponds 5 Jun 2012 13:00-18:15 h

We were scheduled to meet Abu at Khovd airport in western Mongolia on Wednesday, 6 June, but as we arrived the day before we decided to follow his advice to visit the famous UB Ponds, and so we did. Despite the directions we had, our driver tried to find his own way to the ponds and that led us to end up on the wrong side of the river: “Welcome to Mongolia!”. After that he was convinced that it would be better to follow the advised route. We actually started below Songino Khairkhan Uul and this site held a lot of birds and we were soon very busy with prime birdwatching. Among the many birds were the following:

Common Nightjar: 1
Crested Honey Buzzard: 1 (the only one we saw during the trip)
Booted Eagle: 1
Eurasian Black Vulture: 1
Thick-billed Warbler: ca. 10 singing males

Common Nightjar, below Songino Khairkhan Uul,

Ulaanbaatar, Jun 2012, © Armin Schneider

Crested Honey Buzzard, below Songino Khairkhan Uul,

Ulaanbaatar, Jun 2012, © Thomas Langenberg

Near the railway bridge, Thomas spent some time for photographing the many Pacific Swifts which hunted low above the water. There and along the smelly sewage stream we came across the following noteworthy birds:

Eastern Baillon’s Crake:
1, which quickly disappeared not to be seen again
Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler:
5, showing excellent along the stream
Black-faced Bunting: 1

Eastern Baillon’s Crake, below Songino Khairkhan Uul,

Ulaanbaatar, Jun 2012, © Thomas Langenberg

Pacific Swift, below Songino Khairkhan Uul,

Ulaanbaatar, Jun 2012, © Thomas Langenberg

Pacific Swift, below Songino Khairkhan Uul,

Ulaanbaatar, Jun 2012, © Thomas Langenberg

We continued to the swan pond where we found more birds:

Whooper Swan: a breeding pair
Demoiselle Crane: 2, presumably breeding there as well
Falcated Duck: a stunning male
Eurasian Wigeon: a pair still hanging around there
White-winged Tern: more than 300, fantastic views

We could not make it to the main ponds as too many birds were around and we also had an appointment for dining. Furthermore we all were jet-lagged a bit and wanted to go to bed not that late, also because our flight to Khovd was scheduled at 06:50 am the next morning. It was obvious that we could have spent several hours more at this wonderful site.

Rests of riparian woodland

(no branches as far as cows can reach up!),

below Songino Khairkhan Uul, Ulaanbaatar, Jun 2012

© Thomas Langenberg

Read more about our trip next on Birding Mongolia soon...