BIRDING MONGOLIA

October 17, 2016

Tuul Gol, 9 September 2016

text & photos by ABu

Azure Tit

Tuul Gol, UB, September 2016

After a cloudy night I went once more down to the river to see whether any new birds were around. There were, but not many. One of the first birds I saw that morning—I spent 5 hours along the Tuul—was a juvenile Goosander/Common Merganser. Unfortunately the light was still too poor and so are the two shots below. At around noon I heard a familiar call and tried looking for the bird. It took my quite a while to spot it circling fairly high above my head. Because this species, Japanese Sparrowhawk, has not been mentioned on our blog often, I include a composite picture of the juvenile female. Please excuse the awful quality of these shots.

Goosander

Tuul Gol, UB, September 2016

Goosander

Tuul Gol, UB, September 2016

Composite picture of the Japanese Sparrowhawk

Tuul Gol, UB, September 2016

Again, photographing birds proved too difficult in the vast majority of the cases so in the end I was taken even more pictures of the "Stoliczka’s" White-crowned Penduline Tits. Please note that the adults did not yet complete their moult. On some pictures the growing and still short secondaries are poking out. In case you find any Chinese Penduline Tit among those pictures, please let BirdingMongolia know! The Long-eared Owl that I flushed disappeared not to be found again. This applies to many other birds likewise. Else the bushes had not been overly crowded with birds and I had to criss-cross the area to get the birds on the day list.

Bird List (42 species)

Ruddy Shelduck 3
Mallard 6
Eurasian Wigeon 1
Northern Shoveler 2
Common Merganser 3 juv
Great Cormorant 2 juv.
Black-eared Kite 1 ad.
Booted Eagle 1 ad.
Japanese Sparrowhawk 1 juv. female
Common Kestrel 2
Northern Lapwing 1
Green Sandpiper 1
Spotted Redshank 2 juv.
Long-eared Owl 1
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker 4

Black-eared Kite

Tuul Gol, UB, September 2016

Common Magpie

Tuul Gol, UB, September 2016

Red-throated Pipit 5
Olive-backed Pipit c20
Grey Wagtail 2
Siberian Rubythroat 7
Bluethroat one 1cy
Daurian Redstart 2 females
presumed Siberian Lesser Whitethroat 2
Siberian Chiffchaff 1
Yellow-browed Warbler c25
Arctic Warbler 1
Dusky Warbler c15
Taiga Flycatcher 9
Eurasian Tree Sparrow c20
Azure Tit c50
Great Tit 10
presumed "Stoliczka’s" White-crowned Penduline Tit c50