Sorbulak. Start of spring migration.

Sunday was surprisingly cold and snowy. But I and Oleg Belyalov anyway went to Sorbulak. Firstly we visited Little Sorbulak. On the road over Karaoi village we noticed birds were feeding on the hay putting on snow. Most of birds were Corn Buntings and Feral Pigeons, but also Crested larks, one Black-throated Thrush, Mynas, Collared Doves were there; nearby we saw Grey-headed Goldfinches too. The next spot is dump of Sorbulak. Due to frost the road to dump was more or less good, but some times we rounded the water by the snowy steppe. In the dump as we expected we saw much of Corvids, Rock Doves, and several tens of White-tailed Sea-Eagles. Among the latters we noticed two Steppe Eagles too.

Two closest to mouth of channel bays of the first reservoir of Little Sorbulak are open. But the rest of reservoir is still ice-covered. But in open water we saw Swans (both Mute and Whooper) and Ducks (Mallards, Pintails, Common Pochards, Gosadners). On the road to gateway we saw three Fieldfares and flock of Horned Larks. In gateway we flushed Ducks and Great White Egrets. This moment weather became very overcast and snowy. We went to the mouth of Big Sorbulak. On the road we met the car with Gennady Dyakin and Sanzhar Abdikhalyk. Then we had lunch and went to mouth together.

In the mouth of channel there were several hundreds of different birds, much of Swans, some Gulls, but majority of birds was formed by Ducks: Mallards, Ruddy Shelducks, Pintails, Teals, Northern Shovellers, Gadwalls, Wigeons. Weather was overcast therefore all photos looked as black and white.

Our trip confirmed the start of spring migration. Spring began!

Need to mention we met in Sorbulak not only representative of “Vodokanal”but the police patrol too. Police officer told us that now we can visit Sorbulak only with permission of Police Department. Else police have power to impose sanction. But as we are illegal first time the police gave us a verbal warning only.

1. Oleg Belyalov

2. Corn Buntings

3. Crested Lark

4. Subadult White-tailed Sea-Eagle

5. Stepped Eagle

6. Horned Larks

7. Mute Swan

8. Caspian Gull

9. Whooper Swans

10. Gadwall

11. Common Teal

12. Pintail