Go East for the Daurian Jackdaw.

Day is cloudy at morning, sunny after noon, no precipitation. There is a lot of snow but the road is quite a clear. Trip to east from Almaty with Gennady Dyakin, Andrei Kovalenko and Sanzhar Abdikhalyh. Leaving the city we saw dozen or more Collared Doves. First spot of trip is the large dump. Near dump the Eastern Buzzard was perched on the tree; on the dump there are a lot of birds, and we noticed to binoculars the Daurian Jackdaw, the bird we searched. But dump’s security guard forbad us to take photo. It’s a shame.

Further we went to Koishibek village direction to search another dump recommended by the above security guard. Dump wasn’t found, but we saw Great Grey Shrike, White-winged Woodpecker, Reed Buntung and other less rare birds. On the dump near chicken factory (today birding was mostly on dumps areas) there were a lot of birds. All the birds we watched here can be divided into feeding on silverberry-trees (Thrushes, Greenfinches, Tits etc.), feeding on silage bunches (Pigeons, Corvids, Sparrows, Crested Larks), and feeding the parts of chickens and eggs (15-20 Sea-Eagles, Hooded Crows, Rooks, Jackdaws and no one Daurian Jackdaw). Also here we saw several Eastern Buzzards, and one Great White Egret which we some times accidentally scared from the little channel.

Then we drove along the Big Almaty Channel. We expected many little passerines but didn’t see them. We saw Eastern Buzzards, two Upland Buzzards, one Rough-legged Buzzard, and one Merlin. Close to evening time we explored roadside trees along the road to Tonkeris village. Andrei found here Long-eared owl, female Merlin. Of the little inhabitants of roadside thickets we saw many Azure Tits and Goldfinches. Once the great Egret flew by. And just before sunset we saw two Crested larks perched on the tree.

1. Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor homeyeri)

2. Northern Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)

3. Crested Lark (Galerida cristata)

4. Great White Egret (Egretta alba)

5. White-tailed Sea-Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)

6. Merlin (Falco columbarius)

7. Rough-legged Buzzard (Buteo lagopus)

8. Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)

9. Azure Tit (Parus cyanus)

10. Common Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)

11. Russian Olive