Hot sunny sometimes cloudy day. Trip with Raufael Bairashev and Albert Meek to Sorbulak lake and Almarasan gorge. On Sorbulak lake there are as usual abundance of birds. When we closed the Pelicans gone smoothly from sandy beach to the water and floated for some distance and then flew away. After some time Pelicans and Cormorants flew and arrived on the water, and then moved towards the coast. From a long distance I saw the low-flying bird with white wings and with dark wing-bar. At home I looked the field guides and found that that flying bird was Great Crested Grebe. So today I first time saw the flying Crested Grebes.In Almarasan gorge we saw juvenile Blue Whistling Thrush, Brown Dippers and Greenish Warblers, but in next Ozernoe gorge we run into Azure Tits. In the city we some time observed Common Nightingale. [...... read more ]

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Water in the reservoir Bartogai is much less than before. But the people by contrast are much more than before. On the waterfront I was expecting to see different birds, but saw only two Common Sandpipers and one Little Ringed Plover. On the lake the several families of Ruddy Shelducks with different ages chicks, two families of Goosanders, two Great Crested Grebes were floating, and also I saw one Mallard Duck. One male Goosander hid from me under the bridge, this action required a lot of effort from him because Goosander all the time counterworked the strong current. Eventually he got tired and swam away with the current. Other birds: Upland Buzzard, Black Kite, Horned Larks, many Isabelline Wheatears, Tawny Pipits; Barn Swallows were feeding fledglings; but some chicks of House Martins were still in the nest; Kestrels were perching on poles along the road, also on one of poles I saw the red morph Common Cuckoo; and in roadside puddles the Northern Lapwings were feeding. The day was hot [...... read more ]

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Gennady Djakin and Andrey Kovalenko have found the nest of Blue Whistling Thrush located at height about 5 meters from the ground. So usable location of the nest made possibility to photograph the already quite feathering nestlings and their parents. Adult Thrushes brought to nestlings not only insects and larva, but also berry (red honeysuckle), small lizzards, snails and worms. Presumably in 2-3 days the nestlings should leave the nest, we observed how they flapped the wings, built the muscles already practically ready to flight. Before putting the forage in the open mouth of juvenile, the adult thrush some time waited the opportune moment on near rocks, about in 3-5 meters from the nest. However it's difficult to say that Whistling Thrush was very wild, because Thrush almost easy flew up to the nest with juveniles on very close presence of people. [...... read more ]

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The workers of sanctuary have released the young Saker Falcons. Falcons can well fly but do not fly far away from the sanctuary, mostly are perching on the rocks near the river, or on the precipice of the gorge. According to statistics in the wild about 80% Saker Falcons die in the first year of life. On the birds released in wild from sanctuary the death-rate is higher most likely, because of maladjustment to life in the wild. I noticed six released Falcons, unfortunately only one of which survives at best.The same evening we tried to photograph the Tengmalm's Owls in sanctuary area. Owls cried loudly over the cliff of gorge. But the assumed calling of juvenile birds to parents in my opinion was the alarm call of parents to juveniles. My guess is based on the fact that in the place where we heard the Owl's call we saw the Fox at first, and then the Saker Falcon perching on the rock. Also I heard the singing Scops Owl. No one was photographed. [...... read more ]

Sunny, warm day. Trip with group of birdwatchers to Taukum sands in Southern Trans-Balkhash area. On the wells at Kanshengel we saw a lot of Black-bellied and Pin-tailed Sandgrouses which fed in stony desert by flocks of hundreds birds. In Kanshengel village we watched the brood of Little Owls, and also found the big pipe in which Owls hid and probably former nested. Also we noticed the Rosy Starlings in flights of hundreds birds, the Black Kites, one Steppe Eagle, Masked Wagtails, Red-headed Buntings, Brown-necked Raven; shorebirds - Temminck's Stints, Black-winged Stilts, Long-toed Stint, Little Stints, Wood Sandpipers, Green Sandpipers, Little Ringed Plovers, Greater Sand Plover, Terek Sandpiper; Larks - Crested Larks, Short-toed Larks, Calandra Larks.Taukum sands. In saxaul and tamarisk bushes located on sand hills we watched only single birds - Asian Desert Warbler, Lesser Whitethroats, Red-headed Buntings, Tawny Pipits, Crested and Short-toed Larks, and Isabelline Wheatears.Sorbulak [...... read more ]

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The cloudy, warm day, with the rain in the end of evening. In Sogety mountains we visited the nest of Egyptian Vulture which was already without the birds. But Egyptian Vulture soared nearby. Also we saw Lesser Kestrels, one large Falcon (probably Saker Falcon), the Little Owl at the hole, Pied and Isabelline Wheatears, Short-toed Larks, Hoopoe, Tawny Pipits, Red-headed Buntings, Turkestan Shrikes, one Cuckoo, and several broods od Chukar Partridges. In other gorge we noticed one adult White-headed Bunting and two juvenile Rock Buntings. It is necessary to note that this year the Rosy Starlings nested in Sogety, we saw a lot of Rosy Starlings in the colony near the road. Nearby to colony some Black Kites were soared.On the spring in Big Boguty mountains the birds were a little, we noticed only Short-toed and Horned Larks of different ages, both adults and juveniles. One Black-bellied Sandgrouse flew some circles over the watering place but departed frightening the car. In stony desert near [...... read more ]

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Sunny day. Trip to highlands with Gennady Dyakin and Raufael Bairashev. On ascension to Big Almaty Lake we noticed Kestrel, juvenile Blue Whistling Thrush, Eastern Buzzard, Mistle Thrush, Common Rosefinch. When we passed by the juniper bush near the Observatory, the female Himalayan Rubythroat jumped out from this bush and postured to us long enough.In Cosmostation area the Hodgson's Rosefinches are a lot as the Sparrows in the city, they flew everywhere and perched on wires and on buildings. In addition to numerous Hodgson's Rosefinches we also watched in stones the Brown and Himalayan Accentors. One male Guldenstadt's Redstart fed three juvenile females. Red-billed and Yellow-billed Choughs flew in flights, the Yellow-billed Choughs are apparently molting, many birds don't have enough flight and tail feathers. At the Station we again saw Mynahs, Magpies and Carrion Crow. The Lammergeier twice flew by, the Raven also flew by twice, and once we noticed the flying by Hobby. On rocks around [...... read more ]

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The hot, sunny day. The road from Kapchagai to Bakbakty is sharply separated into two different parts. Before Malaisary pass the landscape is steppe zone with elm roadside thickets, behind the pass - the sandy desert with spots of undersized saxaul groves. In a steppe zone during the road there and back I noticed Kestrels, a lot of Rosy Starlings, the pair of Black-bellied Sandgrouses, Black Kites, Red-headed Buntings, Lesser Grey and Turkestan Shrikes, Rollers, one Long-legged Buzzard. In the deserted zone the birds were much less; only soaring Black Kites, some Rollers, two-three Eurasian Bee-eaters, sometimes Rosy Starlings (but not a lot) are appreciable. The most appreciable and numerous birds in the deserted zone were Gull-billed Terns. The flight of about three-four hundreds Gull-billed Terns had a rest on the grassless sand nearby the big pool at the well. Some of Terns flew to drink to the pool, other ones hunted away from the rest spot.In Bakbakty on the sunset I watched several [...... read more ]

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Directly on the reservoir I noticed the flying by Great Cormorant, group of three Grey Herons, Kestrel, flock (6-8 birds) Common Sandpipers, Rooks, Rock Pigeons, Black-headed Gulls, Caspian Gulls, Common Terns; near to reservoir - Hobbies, Red-headed Buntings, Rollers and Turkestan Shrikes. On the back way, about 25 km from Almaty, I saw flying by Night Heron. [...... read more ]

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At night I saw both male and female Scops Owls, the male with locust in the bill perched on wire, and the female perched on other wire and by alarm calls were warning the juveniles about impendence of the cat. I didn't see juveniles, but it is obvious that parents still feed them. [...... read more ]