Day 13 - Hustai, Lake Bayan and back to Ulan Battaar

We were up and about around 6.00 before a 7.00 breakfast, which was the most extensive of any that we had had during the trip.

We packed up quickly and set off around the park. There were was a stop at the Deer stone, a prehistoric column with deer carvings and a moon depicted on it. There were Long-tailed Ground Squirrels and Siberian Marmots all over the place and I was lucky enough to get some really good pictures of a couple before they disappeared behind their stone.

We drove around the tracks and valleys seeing a good variety of birds, including Hoopoe, Blyth’s Pipit, Black Vulture, Amur Falcon, Kestrel, Northern Wheatear, Mongolian Larks, Upland Buzzard and singing Skylarks. As it had rained, the tracks were quite slippery but our crew were excellent and drove us safely back to the visitor’s centre for coffee and some retail therapy. We managed more sightings of the Przewalski Horses but not much closer and still with a lot of heat haze.

We left the park on the tracks out the road, stopping for more views of Sakers and buzzards before heading off for Lake Bayan. We stopped at Urikhan for lunch and a comfort stop at a fast food place. The road crossed a river just before the car park and we spent a bit of time looking at the Swallows, including rusty swallows and waders in the water.

We decided to take away lunch as the time was going on and we were worried we wouldn’t have time for everything we wanted to see. We stopped on the road side just beyond a bridge as a Marsh Harris flew around up the road, and then spent time scanning round. There were a couple of pairs of White-naped Cranes with a chick each, in the reeds, which is where they stayed. Swallows and Sand Martins flew around, some of the swallows were Rusty swallows with a lovely red breast. Across the fields were a nice selection of waders including Spotted Redshank, Redshank, Wood Sandpipers, Curlew, and Greenshank, Black-winged Stilts, Spoonbills, Avocets and a Grey Plover. We also saw Greylag Geese, Reed Bunting and various Yellow Wagtails. Chris was scanning a group of Black-tailed Godwits when he found three Asiatic Dowitchers. The flock took off and flew across the road to the fields in the other side, giving a chance to see the size difference.

We then spent a little while driving round the other side of the water, trying to see the cranes better but they were too deep into the reeds. As we walked we came across lots of frogs of different sizes from small froglets to full sized frogs. We parked up in a drier, sandier area and it wasn’t long before we found our target, Pallas’s Reed Bunting, giving good views sitting up on the tops of bushes. There were the odd Midday Gerbils hopping about and a stunning male Eastern Marsh Harrier quartered an area a little distant but giving great views.

We then made our way back to the Mongolica Hotel, stopping at Urikhan again for dinner before arriving back around 12.30 and heading straight to bed.