Overcast and quite cold day, the rain began in morning and regularly renewed. There were no any important events but there were Ducks in a large number. Number of Ruddy Shelducks decreased, but number of Coots increased. We surprisingly noticed waders, mostly Dunlins and Little Stints. The large raptor (which was identified either White-tailed Sea-Eagle or Pallas’s Sea-Eagle by reason of broad dark terminal band on white tail) was Greater Spotted Eagle, the big surprise to us. We saw Black-winged Stilt but when we come back to home only Sanjar Abdikhalyk noticed that the latest photo of Stilt on site is dated by 9th of September but one from Sorbulak is dated by 2nd of September. We had to shoot. [...... read more ]

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Hike into the gorge with Machiel Valkenburg, Sanjar Abdikhalyk and Vassily Fedorenko. Weather was highly unstable, now strongest wind and rain, now sun and silence. Kimasar gorge once again confirmed the reputation of the main Nutcrackers place in Almaty vicinity, also we watched two Blue-capped Redstarts, Songar Tits; a lot of Red Crossbills, Black-throated Accentors, Chaffinches, Bramblings, Grey-headed Goldfinches in large flocks; the less number of Mistle Thrushes, Carrion Crows; and several Wrens. Predators: Kestrels, Hen Harrier, Goshawk and Sparrowhawk. At the bottom of the gorge, on other side of the river we saw the screaming Blue Whistling Thrush (quite late for it), and in the asphalt part of gorge the pair of Brown Dippers too. [...... read more ]

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Near my working place (Gagarin-Timiryazev corner) I noticed Sparrowhawk perched on elm. In September I watched Sparrowhawks almost every day (both in the mountains, in the city). [...... read more ]

Hike for the Three-Toed Woodpecker. Woodpecker was not found but there were many interesting observations. The first one is the large flock of Wood Pigeons (about 30-40 birds) in the bottom of the gorge; Pigeons rounded over the gorge then perched on the spruce trees. The next observation also was very interesting - we found White-browed Tit-Warbler in the bushes at altitude of about 2050 meters what is quite low to this bird. That means that White-browed Tit-Warbler already began their seasonal migrations. Further, in the spruce forest as usual Nutcrackers and Magpies were well marked; on the stump one Nutcracker peeled off the cone at a short distance from us not paying us attention.On the border of spruce forest and juniper thickets we watched some dozens (25-35 birds) of Redstarts (Black Redstarts and Blue-capped Redstarts) which were very active in after dinner time, perched on spruce branches or on ropes and jumped down to insects in the grass. Other birds of spruce forest: Mistle [...... read more ]

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The Day of Bluethroats. Today by force of circumstances I was in park on Republic Square three times (at 9am, at 1 pm and at 5 pm), and all times I saw Bluethroats, not one but 5-7 birds each time. I saw both males with blue bibs and females. All males I watched had white spot from throat to breast, the sign of juvenile bird. Also I watched Barred Warblers, Stonechats, Lesser Whitethroats.Hike for yesterday’s Desert Wheatears became the watching of predators (Sparrowhawk, Hobby and Kestrel) but no one Wheatear. [...... read more ]

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The day of Nightjar passed without Nightjar. I didn’t find any Nightjar. At morning I saw female Sparrowhawk perched in oak crown and some Stonechats. In dinner time I took a walk to wasteland in Atakent, watched one Buzzard, Hobby, Sparrowhawk in the sky, and about 10-15 Desert Wheatears on the ground. [...... read more ]

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On wasteland at Atakent I watched three Wood Pigeons, one Sparrowhawk and three high soared Ravens. [...... read more ]

The warm sunny day. I left the home late and arrive to the gorge at 11.00 am only. In lower inhabited part of the gorge I watched many Grey Wagtails and one White-bellied Dipper. In spruce forest dozens of juvenile (short-tailed) Barn Swallow flew, but they instantly disappeared when the small predators appeared. Raptors were 2 Kestrels and 2 Sparrowhawks. Once Lammergeier appeared from a far, and once I covered by the huge shadow, I didn’t identified the bird but apparently it was the same Lammergeier. The main bird of the day was of course Three-toed Woodpecker. About two hours I sat under the tree and Woodpecker moved on it before my eyes directly. Woodpecker was not down below about 4 meters but not up more than about 10 meters. Most of the time except the 15-minute break during which Woodpecker cleared the feathers and rested bird searched insects under the bark of dried spruce. Woodpecker almost didn’t pay attention to me, I called by phone, dressed, drank the tea, moved to the [...... read more ]

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I walked around the Square. Took the photos of Wood Pigeons flew to feed the acorns. Pigeons were absolutely quiet, I could to close them at a portrait distance. Other birds: Hume’s Warbler, Lesser Whitethroats, Common Whitethroats, Chiffchaff, Stonechats. [...... read more ]

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The Raptors Day. During the day we watched nine (or probably ten) raptors species. The trip plan included the observation of Lammergeiers which were noticed 4 times, all birds were adult, probably some of them were twice recorded. In addition to Lammergeiers we also watched Black Vulture, Long-legged Buzzard, Pallid Harrier, Sparrowhawk, some Black Kites, Golden Eagle, pair of Himalayan Gryphons, a lot of Kestels, and probably Saker Falcon. For the rainless summer the plateau was dried, the grass almost everywhere is dry and yellow. Birds were a bit, sometimes in the dry grass we noticed flocks of Meadow Buntings and Tree Pipits. Pipits have greenish tinge on plumage especially on the mantle. Near the steams (or near the Cows which stay near the streams) there were a lot of Barn Swallows and Pale Sand Martins in less number, and also White and Masked Wagtails. On the descent from Plateau in the rocky gorge we saw Chukar family and hen of Pheasant. Birds were not a lot but the mood from [...... read more ]

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