a wild life trip to Monoglia

carl the birder

carl the birder

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
during the 28 september to 13 of oktober i went to Mongolia for wildlife watching. during the trip i had 5 target animials but i was happy withe every thing. The targets was snowleopard, mongolian saiga, black billed capercaillie , henderson ground jay and goitered gazeel. i was a orgenise trip withe the swedish avifauna. there was 4 main reason for this one is that i have newer birderd in this part of the world, it is more fun to bird withe more the one, it is hard to orgenise to this area of the world by myself, and most inmprtent my parents wood newer alow me to go to mongolia by my self.
books i use was the new helms bird of mongolia and mammals of mongolia which was hard to find so i goot it wen i was in mongolia. one thing to noot i was the youngest one on the trip by far the other ons was in ther 60s and i am 19.
28 sep
fly to Moscow.
i left around 1 pm to fly two houer to Moscow. One the why i met gunnar and lena two who wher going on the same trip. in moscow we did som birging form the airport. we saw four speicis including common kestrel. the we meet who was going to jon us for the firs part of the trip.
Hg- trip leder
Lars bertil
Joan
and Per
after that we was one the plain to ulan bator
 
i am sory for not uppdating for a while benn bysy withe school
any way
29 spetember
i dident fall a sleep on the plain so i was alredy a bit tierd wen we landed early in the moring. today whe whare going to stay close to ulan bator and go to a area caled tulli river. it was just otside of ullan battor and i was a withe lots of small treas close to the river. this area was great for passerines birds like azur tits and red flanked blutails. senns this was my first time birding in Asia most of the birds wher lisfers. in one area of the river there wher some wild mandarin ducks. A species i have alweys wanted to see in the wilde. ther wher just felmals tho but i was still cool.
a huge flock of white-cheeked starling lannded in a trea. this was the only time i saw any during my two weaks in Mongolia. whe saw a flock of azur wingd magpie which made hg happy. it was a mongolian lifer for him despite him alredy birded in the contry like 8 times. after having a brefirst we went a bit futher down the river and to a lake withe the name swan lake. this was fals idvertainsing ther was no swans here but ther was some ducks like rubby shellduck. birds of prey dident dispoint we saw a withe taild sea eagle witch is rare for this part of mongolia. plus blacks kite and a upland busards.

after a moring of birding we went for lunch and the only sitshing of the trip. we also pict upp one more meber of the trip Erick. we saw some govermet buldings and most exsating we spoted a humming bird hawk moth feedin on some flowers. we whare all tierd after all not sleaping on the plane. so wee had a soft afternoun on the hotel and a early dinner in a steak house close to the hotel.
i thinck wee saw aroeund 40 difrent birds the first day but no mammal today those wood come the coming days
 
so innsted of doing a trip report i have deside to do decreibe the places i went to

tull river
viseted 2 time one for most of the day once for two houer in the morning

discpion
tull river is a river that runs thru ullan bator(the capital of mongolia) the part that i went to was a bit outside of the main city. most of the pace had lot smal treas and bushes. as it was peak migretary time. thare was lot of passerines in the area. kind of hard to see them. alos wild mandarine ducks are found in the river it self. this being a recent adion to the areas fauna. the area was alos god for raptors including booted eagle and upland busserd. close to the area is smal lake called swan lake. wich had mostly common ducks during the first visit
durign my secon wisit som daurian partride in the area. gave good vievs also som more ducks in swan lake.
 
terej natinonal park viseted 2/1 days
this national park is about 3 hours north of ulanbator
the natinal park is part of the taiga so it completly coverd in thick pine forests. sens i was here during the fall most birds had alredy left the area but not all. the main target for me was black-billed capercaillie witch is found in taiga in north mongolia, kina and russsia. i thick is hard to get far into the park sens it is so big and the best paces are prity far into it. but wanderin in the thick taiga forest was a amazing experiens. higliet bird was hasel grouse and urial owl. we did here capercailli wing flaps but i coundent find it time before it diseperid into the thick forest. thare was some mammals here red fox was sean 2 times, cute sibeierian chipmunks(my first wild chipmunk) was sean on the forests flour. The Eurasian red squirrels that are found here dos not make it up to is name. the sub species here is al black not red. but the higelite of the mammals was two siberian roa dears standing in a hill. we also herd wolfs howling ones as wel as a red dear witch saunded like a dinosaurs.
final thouts
i likte this pace and i wood go back. but i think only during spring/summer wen thar are more birds thare
 
gun-galuut natur reserv- viseted for one full day

gun galuut is a natur reserv located on the monglian steppe south west of ulan-bator.
weirdly ther was barly any advertising for the park and we only saw one more car during the.
the area is mostly a steep with some smaler lakes in the midel. as you enter theri was two smaler lakes. a flook of around 25 swan geese and a singel bar-heded goose as well as more comon ducks. after a wile somebody spoted a phalarope. parope are a kind of wader that feed by creating small whirlpools thus sucking insekts and other small aninmals for it to eat.
the things that both of the asian phalarope species are rare wagrants to mongolia. after looking more cloesly at it i turnd out to be a red phlarope wich turnd out to be only the third record from mongolia.(but mongolia dos not have many birders so many birds are newer sean by birders)
other things we saw in this part of the park was a golden egale hunting realy close as well as saker falcons.

the park is alos home to agair sheep in the mountens. i belive they are prity to se if you have a scope. we only saw one but i did not look that hard for more of them.

the steep it seelf was boming withe brants vole i kid you not we saw over 5000 in one day they whare every whare.

going futher in the park we saw some altai marmots. also mongolian larks and lapland longsoure (a kind of finch) we stope at a wetland. thate was some black storks and white naped cranes. i think the crane was my favorite bird of the day. withe all of the voles of course they atracde predetors. i spotted a least weesel wich is fun fact the smallest carnivore in the world. it did not care about us at all and gave really good looks. how ever the higlite of the they was just outside of the park. a corsac fox was huning rigth next to the car. menwhile a sacker falcon was attacking the fox.


i realy like gun galuut and agian i wood go back if i am in the area but that wood probebly have to be in the summer
 
4 okotber kustai national park
i had some a later moring the useal couse today 3 more persons who whare just joing for the snowlepoard part of the trip. but today whe whare wisiting the last true wild horses in the word(depending on how you wanne count it)
but firs we whare going to tuul river again to meet the rest of the group. here we found dauran pareges as well as some long taild rose finces. there was also a lot of more bird this time i supspeck that the wether has bacome colder during the last coupe of days. pushing some of them down into the river area. after that we left for kustai. on the way into the park a little owl was siting in the oppen and also on the first stop we found one horse and some red/wapit dear. i am not to sure if the dears hear are coniderd wapit or red after the split. but we wanted to se the horses beter. and wood you now. 5 min up the road a group of 10 wery close to the road. we got amazing wews of them. in fackt my curent profile pic is of this flock. after about 15 mins we heded futher in and found a carces of somethig atracting a lot of cinereous vulture and golden eagles. it was cool to see the vulters feading. after that we had lunch and went birding. close whare we ate a coupel of mongolian gerbils and aslo qute rock sparrows. on the way back we stopt to look at shike. this turnd out to be a chines grey shrike. this beaing the only area in mongolia it is found acording to the field guide. wich i am not shure is thru. couse we also saw one latter on the trip. 4 little red butings showed upp and on the wey back to the car a tolai hare was found by me and also a we flucht two japanese quail. a realy cool species. over al this was a nice day. and on we way back we stoped at a shoop caled bodios wich seel mongolian made warm clots. realy nice and comfy and was also nedde for the rest of the trip.
tomorow we are heding to the west of mongolia to go to the snowleopard and saiga part of the trip
:)
 
Mongolia is not an easy destination, so I envy you for going there especially at such a young age. I am particularly interested to know if you saw snow leopard, so I look forward to your next post.
 
5 oktober to khovd
today we whare flying to the wester part mongolig. but first we had a late moring sence the fligth dident leve until around noon. so off to the air port. after flying for about one houer we landed in the small city of khovd. as we arived at the hotel a man came up to me and askt if we whare sweadish. it was silas a birder from the faroe islands. he is cuntently living in mongolia for work with his famey. he was a realy nice person and he was joing us for most of the trip. after lunch we hedet to tree paltation. this atrac lots of bird couse it is the only pace in the area with tress. a lot of the birds was simelar to the ones in east but difreant species. like the insted of daurian redstarts they ware both evermans and guldenstäts redstarts. it was fun wacking around looking for birds hinding in the bushes. my favorit bird of the day we saw was black-trothed aecentor. so that was the day not much birding today but more is coming
 
today was the last manly birding day of the the trip.
the main location of today whod be khar us lake. wich is a big lake now for its large numbers of ducks and more.
but sensen the birding ther is beter in the afternon we birded in areas aorund khvod. first we visited the same tree palantation as the day before. not hunge amount of new birds but a crag martin and a japanes sparow hawk. brown accentor my 5 accentor on my life list was a lifer for one of the most travel birders in my group.after that we went into the desert too look for mongolian ground jay. silas had a place whare he had sean it before. so we went there to look we did not find itnsted we saw the only mamal of the day. a group of siberian ibex. on the way to kar us a HUGE flock of pallas sandgrouse apaird in front of the car. my first ever sandgrouse. at the lake we had lunch and the time for birding. this is hands down one of my favorit birdings days ever.
just the amount of birds we saw what was likely over 10 000 red crested pochard lots of ferruginous duck and the most exeting and probebly the globaly rarest bird we saw two whited haeded ducks (wich is coniderd Endangered and decresing in nubers) and a flock of dalmatin pelicans was also fun to see. we also saw lots of hariers and more. we staide until dawn and then went back to the hotel. i did not sleep well as i wooke upp feling ill. lyckely i felt bether in the morning
 
hello
sorry i havetn updated this i almost in 2 years.
insted of doing the full trip i will just do the finald day ....


day 1 no leopard
day 2 no leopard
day 3 no leopard
day 4 no leopard

day 5 was the last day and we only had the the morning to look
even tho we new it was never a garante to see a snow leopard. i am not gone lie and say we whare not a littel bit disepointed and had almost given up. but never the lest most of the group desided to try the waly that the camp was in.
so we stated waking and scaning whith scoops. i ended up in the back with one the guides. after all but me and him had started to walk and i was just about to kontinu upp the hill. he sundely says..... i see a snowleopard ..
me thinking it is a joke gose like realy.
yes
yes

he get me one the animal. a snowleopard is realy waking one the top of the rigge of the other valy
he then ses that the rest of the group is a far bit away upp the hill.
he start yelling at them to get the scoops upp and stars runign upp to get them one it. leveing me alone. i get to wach the animlal in the scoop alone for two minuts before it disepers behinde the rige. in the end all but two of the partispant gets to see the animal. but i got the best and by far the longest view of it. we whare also lycky to find it when we did considering the sun started to block the view 10 mins after the sigthing.
so i can now say i have sean 3 of the 5 big cats in the wild(mising tiger and jaguar )
with out a douth this trip is the best trip i have ever done. it will son be 3 years ago but i still often think of the day a saw a wild snowleopard
 
carl the birder said:
hello
sorry i havetn updated this i almost in 2 years.
insted of doing the full trip i will just do the finald day ....


day 1 no leopard
day 2 no leopard
day 3 no leopard
day 4 no leopard

day 5 was the last day and we only had the the morning to look
even tho we new it was never a garante to see a snow leopard. i am not gone lie and say we whare not a littel bit disepointed and had almost given up. but never the lest most of the group desided to try the waly that the camp was in.
so we stated waking and scaning whith scoops. i ended up in the back with one the guides. after all but me and him had started to walk and i was just about to kontinu upp the hill. he sundely says..... i see a snowleopard ..
me thinking it is a joke gose like realy.
yes
yes

he get me one the animal. a snowleopard is realy waking one the top of the rigge of the other valy
he then ses that the rest of the group is a far bit away upp the hill.
he start yelling at them to get the scoops upp and stars runign upp to get them one it. leveing me alone. i get to wach the animlal in the scoop alone for two minuts before it disepers behinde the rige. in the end all but two of the partispant gets to see the animal. but i got the best and by far the longest view of it. we whare also lycky to find it when we did considering the sun started to block the view 10 mins after the sigthing.
so i can now say i have sean 3 of the 5 big cats in the wild(mising tiger and jaguar )
with out a douth this trip is the best trip i have ever done. it will son be 3 years ago but i still often think of the day a saw a wild snowleopard
Click to expand...

That's wonderful! I'm glad you got to see one.
 
It should be an amazing trip. Mongolian steppes are one of my favorite habitats (mainly due to -now regionally rare-hoofed mammals). Conservation programs for saigas seemed to benefit the species as a whole. I hope this happens with bactrian camels as well. Snow leopards are difficult to study due to their habitat and behaviour and I believe that their Mongolian (and other) populations would need more research for their conservation
 
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