Kimasar gorge, Ile Alatau National Park.

The weather report promised the partly cloudy day. So day was sunny in first half of the day and overcast in the second one. My birding started with two White-bellied Dippers which I saw yesterday. But today they were not together, in different cascades, but both birds were perching on the pipes sticking out the wall. Also here I saw flock of Chaffinches and Black-throated Thrush. Then I climbed to the ridge and went by the forest where flushed flock of Blackbirds.

Today I was not going to reach highlands but going to explore the birch grove, take photo of Redstarts and reach the ridge where wait birds of prey which often soar there. In the birch grove I was surprised by Great Spotted Woodpecker which I didn’t watch in our mountains many years. Woodpecker wasn’t calm, flew from one trunk to another, so I was moving in sloping grove too. Finally Woodpecker was staying at about ten meters from the land and cleaning the feathers. I waited when it come down but it flew away. Also in grove there were Redstarts, Goldcrest and Coal Tits. I watched Redstarts quite a long time, their behavior is the same to Flycatchers one. May be persons who treats Redstarts related to Muscicapidae family are right. After record of Woodpecker I thought if Sanzhar twice watched Great Spotted Woodpecker probably he is looking for Three-toed Woodpecker in the wrong birch grove.

Climbing to ridge I noticed White-browed Tit-Warbler moving in bushes, it means Tit-Warblers came down very low (2000-2100 m). Some higher in the spruce forest I saw Grey-headed Goldfinch and Black-throated Accentor. When I waited birds of prey I saw flocks of Bramblings and Chaffinches flying above the spruce-forest from one slope to another. Also I saw birds of prey and directly above the ridge I was. The first raptor I saw was adult Lammergeier which I also saw in the mouth of gorge (I thought why it fly in early time – before 11am); then I saw two Eatern Buzzards (when I climbing in slope); then Sparrowhawk and Goshawk were regularly soaring above me; at the 500 meters from me the Cinereous Vulture soared with another bird (not id, probably Common Buzzard but rather small), Vulture flew away in east direction (not in west as usual); and when the weather became overcast the adult Golden Eagle flew directly above me.

During two hours of my waiting the birds of prey, as I wrote below, many times mixed flocks of Bramblings and Chaffinches, some times Nutcrackers and Magpies flew by, three times I heard drumming of Woodpeckers. It was at least two Woodpeckers because I heard two drumming in same time; also drumming was a short, so they were three-toed Woodpeckers more likely. Hearing the drumming I was going to find Three-toed Woodpecker I saw in another birch grove, but I didn’t find the trail. But I visited the pine grove during the road to which I saw many Redstarts and feeding in land Mistle Thrush. Thrush surprised me by the speed of finding the worms. When Thrush was looking for worms it takes it from the ground each 30 seconds or even quicker. But most of time Thrush was looking around and slowly moving.

It became dark already in 4pm. I started the back road and watched nothing both in birch grove and spruce forest. I noticed only Brown Dipper in the mouth of gorge. Birding started with Dipper and finished with Dipper too.

1. White-bellied Dipper | Cinclus cinclus leucogaster

2. Great Spotted Woodpecker | Dendrocopos major tianschanicus

3. Blue-capped Redstart | Phoenicurus caeruleocephalus

4. Eastern Buzzard | Buteo japonicus

5. Northern Goshawk | Accipiter gentilis

6. Common Sparrowhawk | Accipiter nisus

7.

8.

9. Himalayan Golden Eagle | Aquila chrysaetos daphanea

10. Vespiary?

11. Black-throated Accentor | Prunella atrogularis huttoni

12. Eversmann's Redstart | Phoenicurus erythronotus

13. Mistle Thrush | Turdus viscivorus bonapartei

14. Barberry

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16.

17. Brown Dipper | Cinclus pallasii