Этой зимой мы периодически сталкиваемся с необычными дроздами, однозначно идентифицировать которых мы не можем. Более того, списывая эти случаи на гибридизацию, мы даже не можем идентифицировать родительские виды продукта гибридизации. При этом предполагаем подчас не двух прародителей, а трех и более. Хотя здравый смысл (и некоторые орнитологи) подсказывает, что гибридов не может быть много, а уж вероятность встречи тройного гибрида и вовсе равна сотым долям процента. Пытаясь идентифицировать дрозда, мы смотрим а) фотографии в интернете б) [...... read more ]

Almost all the day was overcast with short sunny period in midday; weather is not so cold but dank. The trip with Andrei Kovalenko and Vassily Fedorenko to the silverberry thickets of Ile river valley. At first we visited vicinity of Avat village, but here birds were a bit, we saw only 2 Black-throated Thrushes, about 30 Greenfinches, Blackbird, 2 Grey-headed Goldfiches, Chaffinch, Eversmann’s Redstart, Waxwing, and the tracks of Pheasants. Then we went to thickets near Baiserke village where we stayed most of the day. The basic bird of this locality is Black-throated Thrush, which we saw at least 300 specimens (compare with 2 in Avat). Some times among the Black-throated Thrushes majority other birds occurred. But we were interested Thrushes, of which we tried to find Dusky Thrush photographed last time by Vassily. Of all Black-throated Thrushes I looked for the bird with white throat and dark streaks in all underparts from breast to belly. It was found many Thrushes with same features, [...... read more ]

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In the office where I work we feed birds. The numerous Doves, Sparrows, Mynahs attracted male Sparrowhawk. It twice landed to the tree near our window. First time Sparrowhawk stayed about one minute and flew away, but today it was almost one hour, rested and cleared feathers. During this time no one bird was feeding on the feeder.Photo was taken by the collegue's Nikon with the 55 mm lens. [...... read more ]

Today is sunny but cold. At morning in Samal we watched Peregrine Falcon which perched on the roof of high building, then tried to capture Crow when it was flying belly up. Falcon is young bird with the streaks on underparts, it means we have at least two Peregrines in our district this winter. Then we (me and Oleg, Sanzhar and Vassily) went to Kamenskoe Plateau, to the Ak-Kain sanatorium and to Observatory. Birds are a bit though there are many apples in the gardens. Twice we noticed Eastern Buzzards, three times flocks of Waxwings, many times Black-throated Thrushes and once Red-throated Thrush. The latter is very nice record but I couldn’t take photo. Smog from the city came to mountains at noon, all around were covered by dirty mist.After two last trips I made sure impossible to view the color of tail feathers tips of Waxwings from a far. [...... read more ]

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Today is sunny but very cold. Out of the city it’s colder than expected -11 degrees in the city. Trip to Sorbulak-Baiserke with Vassily Fedorenko and Oleg Belyalov. Before Little Sorbulak we visited the local dump, probably using by the local chicken farm. In addition to several hundreds Corvids we saw here more than 60 White-tailed Sea-Eagles. During this winter we regularly visited local dumps with numerous Sea-Eagles, so the large number of latters must amazed each of watchers doesn’t seem unique to us. But the Red-fronted Serins near Sorbulak surprised to me because Sorbulak is far from the the mountains and the food in foothills are yet a lot. The most significant bird in Little Sorbulak is Water Rail.Directly in Sorbulak the open water is not so large; birds are invisible due to the mist on the water. After birds flew up from the water we saw more than 1000 ducks including the most numerous Tufted Ducks, and less Smews, Goosanders, Goldeneyes, Common Pochards and a bit of Mallards [...... read more ]

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In spite of weather report I and Gennady Dyakin were going to visit mountains, specially to Big Almaty Gorge. The morning fog was in city but dissipated already in Ozernoe gorge; but when we drove by serpentine road to Big Almaty Lake (BAL) the weather is sunny. BAL is the main target today’s trip but we short stay on the crossroad where Gennady unsuccessfully tried to find Solitary Snipe. In this spot we saw only 2 Red-fronted Serins, 2 Red-mantled Rosefinches, 1 Coal Tit, and 1 Blackbird. Then as I said we drove by serpentine raod to BAO but didn’t reach it unfortunately. We didn’t reach even “Alpine Rose” hotel because road is very snowy, and slippery under the snow, due of latter we slid into the snow roadside. About one hour we digged snow, enclosed tree branch under the car wheels, tried to move back and forth, and were understanding that we will not visit BAL today, though the weather in mountains was perfect. So we hardly digged up the car, and turned to Almarasan where [...... read more ]