Uzunagach. Thrushes Day.

The weather forecat of Saturday (today) was cloudy but forecast of Sunday was sunny, therefore we are going to go birding in Sunday. But something in my head was itched, so I decided to go birding in some place. As tomorrow we are going to drive in east of Almaty, so I decided to go west, maximum untill Degeres, but depending in the context. When I crossed Uzunagach directly in exit of village I noticed some Thrush-sized birds in silverberry trees. By binocular I was seeing someone reddish but probably it was leaves of berries before the bird. I moved right and left and understood reddish something is not leaves or berries, it is self bird. Then I back to car for a camera and took some control photos, of which I guessed that bird is Dusky Thrush. New bird for me! The next about one hour I waited when Dusky Thrush dive me a chance to photograph it more or less good quality frames, but unfortunatelly I couldn't did it. First reason is the weather, it was not so cloudy may be even sunny, but with very disturbing smoke because I had to photograph birds from a far distance, and couldn't go close due the river. Second reason is Thrushes are shy birds. Third reason is that silverberry is tree with dense branches, but my target object prefered to stay either behind the tree or in middle of crown. I lost and found it two times. When I later looked photos I noticed that I took photos of two different Dusky Thrushes, the first one has reddish back, the second one has brownish back.

In the looking for Dusky Thrush I should to look carefully every bird. I like to do it, especially if I have positive result. Today was definitely my one, because in addition to Dusky Thrush I found three Red-throated Thrushes, one Redwing, and one Fieldfire. Fiedlfire has of course the relative value, but Red-throated Thrush and Redwing are exactly the lucky records in our region. All Thrushes were shy and flew away in first sign of any trouble, but ... in one moment their behaviour was changed. I that moment already drived to opposite side of the river. and had opportunity to approach to trees with Thrushes. It was after a lunch time. So thrushes that time not flushed, but move along the branches to the unvisible to me area. I was slowly moving and some times finding open space between branches to take some good photos at least. Even result it's not so good, I am realy happy because birds in my photos are almost in full frame and absolutely identifing. Finally my Thrush hunting was more than 3 hour. But it was very nice birding. Dusky, Red-throated, Black-throated Thrushes, Blackbird, Redwing, Filedfire, the six species of Thrushes in one day. It's strange that I did't see the common in silverberry thickets Mistle Thrush. That case there would be seven species.

In addition to Thrushes there were Greenfinches, Eversmann's Redstarts, Common Starlings, Grey-headed Goldfinches, Brambling, Chaffinches. Then I drive to museum of Zhambyl, saw the flock of Corn Buntings and Merlin, and then go back at home. Short time but very nice birding day.

1. Dusky Thrush

2. Red-throated Thrush

3. Black-throated Thrush

4. Redwing

5. Fieldfire

6. Eversmann's Redstart

7. Common Starling

8. Great Egret