Fascinating Bird Photographing Tour to Mongolia in July 2014 By Akira Nomura

Bearded Reedling (Panurus biarmicus) was a bonus bird to me. This male came out of reeds suddenly with 3 females to stare at us with dignity. At first glance, his magnificent bearded face reminded me of the hero of Mongolia, that is, Chinggis Khaan.

As a bird photographer, my ultimate satisfaction is to photograph all bird species occurring in Japan and designated by The Ornithological Society of Japan as ‘Bird of Japan’. This was the first trip to Mongolia to commemorate the 25th year of my bird photographing career as well as to take photograph the birds that I have not seen before among the ‘Bird of Japan’. I gained an opportunity to know Prof. Sundev Gombobaatar from The Mongolian Ornithological Society when I contributed my photos to the publication for Mongolian Red List of Birds of 2011. I call him ‘Gomboo san’ intimately in Japanese through the cooperation and I was very glad that he invited me. I sent him the email of the list of birds that I wanted to photograph in order to increase the percentage of my satisfaction as much as possible. Thanks to his arrangements for the itinerary and transportation, I could take almost the listed birds.

Red throated Thrush(Turdus ruficollis) is a common breeding visitor to Mongolia. It is a rear wanderer and adult and juvenile never visible at the same sight in Japan.

He walked around in the habitats and found out my expecting birds. Indeed! He found out them much earlier than I did and what I have done was to press the shutter of my camera after his instructions. Moreover he found out the birds that I did not expect among the ‘Bird of Japan’ and subspecies as an exciting bonus! I visited Mongolia on July 5th of 2014 when it was late for breeding season. Instead it was good for me that I could take photograph lovely juveniles of many species and sometimes with their adults.

Pied Wheatear(Oenanthe pleschanka) is a common breeding to Mongolia. It is a rare wanderer and such beautiful white and black plumage hardly visible in Japan.

During my stay in Mongolia, I was too busy searching and photographing the birds to enjoy all the different habitats and beautiful scenery in Mongolia. Mongolia is such a vast and attractive country that many foreign bird watchers are fascinated to visit. I saw 89 species of birds which were rather few and the reasons were because we mainly looked for the listed birds and I spent much time on photographing to get my satisfactory image and finish. Therefore I decided to come back to Mongolia in next season in order to go to other districts such as Gobi desert where I could not go and to see other many Mongolian birds.

Common Rosefinch (Carpodacus erythrinus) is a common breeding visitor to Mongolia. It is a rare wanderer and such a bright red plumage hardly visible in Japan.

Lastly, I thank Gomboo san and a driver for their attendance of whole 8-days stay, even in the Naadam Holiday. Without their cooperation, I could not end my first trip to Mongolia in satisfaction and with great fun. DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT

Mongolia Birding Trip Report by R. & B Mearns

Altai Snowcock. @ R. & B Mearns

This 3-week birding trip to Mongolia was organised for the two of us by the Mongolian Ornithological Society and Mongolica Co.Ltd. We requested a fairly slow-paced trip to give us plenty of time on our feet watching birds, mammals and butterflies etc. We wanted to get to know the habitats and species well, but did not especially want the longest possible list of birds. Because of our long interest in early naturalists we particularly wanted to see some of the birds that are named after people. We wanted to spend almost all our nights camping, with time for good walks, a little nest finding and a little photography – and that is exactly what we got!

Juvenile Pallas's Fish-Eagle chased by Common Tern. @ R. & B Mearns.

Our team was excellent and looked after us well each day. They chose all our camp sites and lunch stops carefully, all of them being in excellent places in terms of scenic quality and abundance of wildlife. We thoroughly enjoyed all the different habitats we were in and had a fantastic time.

Henderson's Ground Jay. @ R. & B Mearns.

 Yumi, our camp manager, proved to be a terrific cook and produced wonders from the back of the vehicle. One of us has a restrictive diet and she followed it carefully, indeed we were both fit and well throughout the trip. Bayanaa, our English speaking guide, was enthusiastic and energetic on our behalf and helped us to find almost all the birds we especially hoped to see, as well as some unexpected ones. Otto, our driver, was truly excellent, on difficult roads as well as in city traffic, and was always willing to help around camp and to see to our comfort. They were good at keeping to time, more so than was really necessary, so we always knew how much time we had for walks, how long until lunch etc. We cannot praise them highly enough.

Ruddy Shelducks. @ R. & B Mearns.

 Almost every day was dry, clear and sunny. The only rain we experienced was during the last three days at Terelj. We saw over 180 bird species, 15 species of mammals, three reptiles, two amphibians and nearly 20 species of butterfly. Over 50 of the birds were completely new for us and many others we had not seen since 1985, in Israel. READ FULL REPORT

Central Mongolia Birding Trip Report by Anne Murray

This was our first birding tour in Mongolia, with the aim of finding birds and other wildlife in some of the more accessible parts of the Mongolian steppe. It would not have been possible without the expert assistance of our team from the Mongolian Ornithological Society who organized the itinerary, transportation, meals and accommodation, as well as providing full-time interpretation, birding and cultural guidance. We observed 145 confirmed bird species on the 12-day trip and several other possible species. Many thanks to our enthusiastic young guides and our reliable and friendly driver, Bayasaa.

Saker Falcon is one of the commonest breeders in Mongolia. This is adult male Saker with food in his beak.

Bird identification challenges for us included not having a detailed field guide specifically for Mongolian birds and little access to the internet for sound identification. During the trip we used Norman Arlott’s Guide to Birds of Europe, Russia, China and Japan, together with the Smithsonian Guide to the Birds of East Asia, together with a check list provided by Professor Gomboobaatar and his photographic guide book. Prof. Gomboo’s new guide book was not yet ready. Some European birds were already very familiar; the Central Asian species were generally new for us.

Pere David's Snowfinch is a mysterious species in the steppe.

Thousands of Swan Geese can be encountered in Mongolia.

We were very pleased to get excellent views of the majority of the 145 species we confirmed, including sought after birds like the Great Bustard, White-naped Crane, Pallas’ Fish Eagle, Bar-headed Goose, Relict Gull, Pallas’ Sand Grouse, and Oriental Plover. Our distant sighting of the Dalmatian Pelican in very inclement weather at Lake Ugii was an exciting bonus! As well as birds, we saw many other wildlife species, beautiful scenery, and fascinating cultural sites. In all, it was an excellent tour and great fun. Download full TRIP REPORT.