Tajikistan. Vahdat region, Romit gorge.

My first trip to the nature, to Romit gorge. The gorge is about 30 km from Dushanbe. Having missed by the nature I often asked to stop the car. On pastures near the road I has seen a female of Hen Harrier, Long-legged Buzzard and Crested Larks. Buzzard easy sat on a cable column and almost did not pay attention to the people worked on field and to Rooks from time to time tried to attack it. But Buzzard didn't ignore me, bird flew to the next column. Crested Larks are absolutely hardly noticeable on autumn fields. But I was a lucky, the pair of birds has landed near to me.

Romit gorge is wide and really very beautiful. There is a large river named Kafirnigan in the gorge. The road goes upwards not so abruptly, but the rocks sharply come nearer and become more and more abruptly. The vegetation is a poor, small trees of a hawthorn, sometimes a walnut, a little of grass and bushes. A little of vegetation and a little of birds. In the beginning of gorge I spied only two highly hovering Eurasian Griffon-Vultures and one Upland Buzzard near a kishlak.

There is Romit National Park in Romit gorge. The Park is on the left coast of Kafirnigan, but we did not visit it and went above by gorge. Above the Park the road isn't asphalt, kishlaks still are met but they are located not so often. Between the kishlaks there are sites of the wild nature. The birds were a little but among the met birds were very interesting at least for me. White-capped Redstart. I already saw White-capped Redstart in Dushanbe on Komsomol lake but then I could not photograph it. Also I wanted to take a photo because there isn't this bird in Kazakhstan. Today I met three White-capped Redstarts total. But the first Redstart was not so timid as other ones. White-capped Redstart is a bird some larger than sparrow. While Redstart sits by front it seems absolutely black, but as soon as bird moves at once it is visible both a white cap and a reddish-orange uppertail. White-capped Redstart is some similar to ours Guldenstadt's Redstart but much more dark, with a black breast and without a white mirror on the wings. I have noticed that White-capped Redstart is met in places where the river channel is narrowed, current forms rough streams and where there are large boulders.

There are a lot of Carrion Crows in gorge, by the way these birds are not present in a city absolutely. It is possible to tell that Carrion Crows are most widespread, background birds in Romit gorge. Other birds are much less in number. After Crows most popular birds are Chaffinches and Brambling. The mixed flocks of Brambling and Chaffinches were met in fruit-trees places. Birds as I told are a little, all of birds are timid and some of them I caught a glimpse. Two Wrens, Goldcrests, one Hume's Warbler, a flock of Buntings (may be Pine Bunting), Eversmann's Redstart.

Brown Dippers (4 birds today) were possible to watch in more details. But Brown Dippers are so common birds to Almaty inhabitant that I simply would not like to spend free time to these common birds. Tajikistan's Brown Dippers did not admit me even on 10-15 metres. Once I tried to wait the Dipper behind the stone, Dipper didn't approach but I saw another bird - Little Forktail, new bird to me. In Kazakhstan Forktails breeds in Каратау, but not everyone can find it. Today in Romit gorge I saw three Forktails, but only one approached to me so close. From all birds I saw today the most interesting to me were White-capped Redstarts, Little Forktails and Wallcreepers. These birds either are absent in Kazakhstan (such as White-capped Redstart), or are rare (as Little Forktail and Wallcreeper). Today each of these birds I met on three birds, and one by one.

Sitting on stones Wallcreeper is ordinary-looking a small grey birdie, it is almost imperceptible. If Wallcreeper sit motionless, it in general could not be seen. But in flight dark red wings of Wallcreeper at once evident. Wallcreeper flies widely as a Hoopoe, and red wings looks very well. Today I tried to watch three Wallcreepers, but each time Wallcreeper departed from me to other coast of Kafirnigan or to high rocks where probably Wallcreeper nests. On the return way to Dushanbe I met flock of Common Starlings.

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