Day 4 - Around Base Camp

Up at 6.30 for omelette and bacon breakfast with tomatoes. Around the camp a cuckoo was heard and we saw Lammegeier, Brown and Koslov’s Accentor before driving up to the viewpoint where we sat and  scanned for a few hours before we came back down and walked across the plain area below us, with Isabelline Wheatear, Horned Lark, Asian Short-toed Lark and Snowfinches abundant.

We were picked up and dropped off about 1 km from camp to walk back seeing Snowfinch, Redstart, Daurian Shrike, Crag Martins, Pacific Swifts, Brown Accentor. There were some interesting House Leek type plants in the crevices and Hyssop growing wild

We had a lovely lunch of pasta and veg and some time-out which we took as an opportunity to have a shower now that it had been sorted out. An ingenious set up with a car battery running a pump in a bucket of water heated up on the stove. Inside the tent was a wooden slatted base to stand on and a shower unit that was extremely efficient. Care had to be taken as it was quite fierce and came out of the ‘front’ of the shower unit spraying you in the face if you weren’t ready for it. It also needed care not to soak your clothes hanging at the doorway. But it was very refreshing and pleasant after a couple of days of wipe downs with wipes.

We took a walk along the stream in the narrowing gorge. At one point there was a House Martin and Crag Martin nest with birds coming and going with food. We all found Brown Accentor and Rock Sparrow.
We had an early dinner of salad sandwiches before returning to the viewpoint, this time a little to the west. There was no cat activity but we did see Ravens, Lammergeier, and some Siberian Ibex on the tops.

We came down around 9.00pm and set off on a night drive through the gorges and valleys. Our first excitement was a family party of Marbled Polecat, an extremely rare mammal meeting. They slowly got used to us and our lights and then the family came out together and moved off up the valley, looking like a pied, rolling scarf.

We drove on, seeing a Red Fox and some Ibex. As we reached a plateau on the other side of the mountains we began to see jerboa, with the large eared Siberian Jerboa and Gobi Jerboa. A pair of wolf eyeshine were spotted but the animal moved faster than we did and disappeared. It was interesting that a flock of sheep in a nearby nomad camp were very closely packed and looked really nervous. Eventually we made it back to Base Camp around 1.20 am.

Day 3 - Base Ger Camp

Up at 6.00 for an early walk along valley. There were Snowfinches and Isabelline Wheatears in camp, and Pacific Swift flying along the valley. On one of the rock faces we found a House Martin with nest, which it visited regularly and another nest which this time was a Crag Martin. Other birds along the valley were Eastern Black Redstart, Brown Accentor and a Cuckoo was heard. It was a lovely valley getting narrower, with several flowers, including a saxifrage plus mouse ear.  There was a small stream running along the bottom which just petered out and disappeared into the ground. A dead Red Fox was a sad sight but we also saw Altai Gobi Silver Vole, living in burrows on the valley sides, usually under a bush.

We returned for a lovely breakfast, with fried eggs, cucumber, tomato and bread/buns and cheese
before driving out to a valley, which was Pica central, passing Alashan Ground Squirrels along the way. We stopped and spent some time walking along the track looking out for mammals. The scenery was lovely and we had Koslovs Accentor, Pere David’s Snowfinch, Steppe Eagle and Upland Buzzards. We saw lots of Alashan Ground Squirrels, Midday Gerbils and Daurian Picas. There were some Yaks on the meadows and up on the hill tops.

We then drove to valley of Ar where we stopped to scan for Altai Snowcock but with no joy. We saw a few blue butterflies but identification was very difficult as there is little literature, the best we could do was Silver-spotted Blue and also Small Tortoiseshells.

We spent some time cold searching with a stop at old Snow Leopard site and Gannu went up the valley for signs of Boomba (pee and scratch marks). He reported some, but thought they were old, however Tumen thought they may have been rain affected so a camera trap was set up to see.
We drove further up and through a col/saddle to other side of mountains, where we could see the steppes in the distance before turning round and making our way back with a stop at the col to enjoy the panorama. There were a few nice plants including a Saxifrage and Oxytropis.

We drove back for a lovely lunch of rice, veg,  fried beef bits. Two nomads on horses called, joined by two others for a short time. Two of the horses were tied to some poles and their saddles removed while their riders chatted to Tumen. We started to walk down the valley with Brown Accentor, Lammergeier, Koslov’s Accentor and more blue butterflies when we heard Chris calling with the news that the nomads had found a half-eaten foal carcass, killed by a snow leopard, which seemed to still be active.

We went back to camp, ready to leave at short notice but waited for news from two more nomads and a long discussion about the feasibility of going to watch. The plan was to leave at five to go and scan. We drove through the valleys and then off-road across some high meadows to a spot where a short climb up a scree hillside to a rocky top which looked out over a valley with one Ger in the bottom. We scanned for a while then moved to a better position to scan the area near the carcass. We watched some Ibex on the skyline and we could see lots of Ground-squirrels near the Ger and a Brown Accentor flew through. We saw a couple of butterflies and found an amazing fly on rock but no sign of the leopard.

Two rounds of salad and cheese sandwiches were handed round before the Sun dropped and we returned to camp for a quick cup of tea before heading for bed.

Day 2. Dalanzadgad to Base Camp in the Beautiful Mountains

Breakfast was from 7.00 so we took a pre-breakfast walk along the road to Dino park. The park was quite overgrown and neglected which meant there were a few wild flowers and lots of Tree-Sparrows plus Amur Wagtail. Martin heard a Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler but we couldn’t find it again later. As this was the day of the Nadaam Festival, we saw a man walking through in traditional  costume. Along the road was a statue of Chinggis Khan grandson. After breakfast we were collected and driven to farm area on outskirts, our last two cars got lost following the wrong car.  We parked and walked in over the fence taking a good look at our first Ger.

In the bushes we found Daurian Shrike, Hoopoe, Hawfinch and Barred Warbler plus a Long-eared Owl which gave good flight views.

We drove on to the Bulagtai steppes and spent some time searching for Oriental Plovers. We drove around in line abreast seeing lots of larks including Asian Short-toed and Horned Larks and Desert Wheatear. We also found a couple of Greater Sandplovers.

Lunch at tourist ger camp where we were met by girl in traditional costume with whey crumbs. Lunch was Soup and meatballs, our first experience of the inside of a Ger, and we were introduced to the local game of fortune telling using knuckle bones. In the courtyard we found a small Toad-headed Agama.

More driving around with lots of Toad-headed a and Mongolian Agama. We saw more larks and then a call from Alan had us driving across to look at a flock of Greater Sandplovers when we realised that  the flock also included eight Oriental!!! More prolonged views also revealed 6 lesser/Mongolian plovers with one Greater. After lots of photos and discussion it was time to move back to Dalanzadgad and Tumen’s house, seeing Tolai Hare on the way, to pick up supplies etc. 

We had a cup of tea with honey and then Brenda and I were called out to join a group of wrestlers who had competed at the local Naadam Games, with one of their team winning. They had come to their practise grounds to give thanks and celebrate. It was especially pleasing for them as they had won their own local games when it often went to someone from the other provinces. It was a real privilege to watch and listen to their songs and watch them in their trad costumes. 

We then went for a walk round the wetland area with a couple of White-cheeked Starlings, Amur Wagtails, Richard’s Pipits, Little Ringed Plovers, Ruddy Shelduck and a Chinese Pond-heron, Pacific Swifts. A call back to the house and we jumped in the cars and set off for base camp. We headed for the Three Beauties Mountain range, called this after a legend about three beautiful young girls who were being forced into marriages they didn’t want, so they changed into the three mountains. We were going to the Eastern Beauty. A short way out of Dalanzadgad we turned right onto dirt tracks and we hardly saw a tarmac road for the next seven days. The scenery became more rugged as we drove further into the mountains finishing up in a small gorge with our Ger camp set up on a small, flattish site just up from the valley floor. There was a camp toilet tent with a long drop and a suitably designed seat. The camp had several birds flying about, with Snowfinches and Twite coming quite close.

We settled into our Gers and collected in the food ger for our lovely evening meal, prepared by Oyunna on a two burner gas camping stove with her trusty pressure cooker.

Click here to see where we went.

Day 1. Thurs 5th. Mongolia Here we come!

Our long awaited and much anticipated trip to Mongolia arrived and I was collected at 5.15 to drive to the long stay car park for terminal 4. We parked, caught the coach into terminal 4 and were there by 7.00. The gate didn't open till  8.00 so we decided to have breakfast in Oriel, where we met up with the others. We checked in our luggage, went through security, did a little shopping, boarded our plane and flew to Moscow. We had a 3 hour wait before our second flight to UB so we ate an ice cream!
We landed at 6.00 am (23.00), were met by Tumen and his crew, changed some money, had a drink, packed the cars and set off on the long drive to Dalanzadgad. We had several stops on the way for Demoiselle cranes with young, lots of steppe Eagles, Upland buzzards, Mongolian lark and Imperial eagles.

Fairly close to UB we stopped at a meadow for Demoiselle cranes and got our first views of Mongolian gerbil and Brandt’s vole in burrows just a few feet from the road. One stop at a small pool had a Pallas’ sandgrouse, then three more flew in. We had our first views of Bactrian camels with their floppy humps which collapse when they need to drink

Around the edge were Green/Common sand, Little-ringed plover with a Crane pair plus 1chick. We had good views of more Mongolian larks and Horned Larks.

We stopped for lunch at the Hotel Royal in Madalgove where I chose mutton stew with chips and salad. There was a bit of a wait while one car was temporarily sorted before setting off for the second half of the journey. We had a look round the town, admiring this statue of a horse that had, apparently, won the local Naadam race four times in a row.

As we got further south the terrain got drier and less birds, there were a few ravens and choughs but not much else and it was raining by the time we got to the hotel.

Days Out

As bird migrant activity slowed down, flower, especially orchid, hunting took over. The first orchids of the year were the Early Purples on the access road to the Ovs. This was followed by a visit to Marden meadow for the spectacle of thousands of Green-winged Orchids in what was a very damp and quite lush field. 

Mongolia Preparations

Our next big trip is two weeks in Mongolia with the specific focus of Snow Leopard and Pallas’ Cat, organised by Chris Townend of Wise birding and Tumen Khumbaa from Tum-Eco Tours. You need a visa to visit Mongolia and it has to be collected from the Mongolian Embassy, either by you or by a representative. The basic one costs £40.00 and takes at least 2 days, £60.00 to collect on the day or £120 if you get one of the agencies to do it. I objected to paying more to the agency than the cost of the visa so we chose a grotty day, caught a train from Headcorn and went to London for the day.
The Mongolian Embassy is situated just south of Hyde Park in Kensington among many other embassies. The Visa department was down a stairway in the basement and there was quite a long queue which took us over an hour to hand in our extensive bits of paperwork. We then went to visit the Natural History Museum but the queues there were miles long so we opted for the Science Museum, where we had lunch and then wandered around the lower floors, which were very interesting.
To collect your visa you have to return between 4-4.15 so we left the Museum and made it back in time to walk in, collect our passports with their visas and then head back to Charing Cross for the train home. Mongolia here we come!