Another winter day out north of Almaty Kazakhstan. Beautiful sunny weather rising to +4C (It’s unseasonably +16C today in Almaty).
Spring is arriving early this year here in Central Asia as elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere.
41 Sightings with an early Hoopoe, an unexpected Long-eared Owl, a lonely Pallas’s Gull sitting on lake ice near to a flock Caspian Gulls (proving it always pays to scan flocks of gulls), and 5 Dalmatian Pelicans – the earliest sighting ever of these early migrators for me. And of course, the fabulous raptors!
3 Mute Swans
Over 150 Whooper Swans
11 Ruddy Shelducks
100s of Mallard (or is it Mallards?)
10 Gadwall
3 Teal (with Gadwall, also early arrivals)
Flock of Tufted Ducks
2+ Goldeneye
1 male and a few female Smew (and should this be Smews?)
50+ Goosander
16 Little Grebe
2 Great Egrets
5 Dalmatian Pelicans
1 Common Kestrel
30+ White-tailed Eagles
1 Long-legged Buzzard
3+ Steppe Eagles
1 Moorhen
3 Green Sandpipers
Several Common Gulls
100+ Caspian Gulls
1 Pallas’s (Great Black-headed) Gull already in breeding plumage
Lots of Feral Pigeons in towns and villages
1 Long-eared Owl
1 Hoopoe
Lots of Magpies, Rooks and Jackdaws
Several Carrion and Hooded Crows
6 Great Tits
2 Large flocks of id’d Calandra Larks but couldn’t id Bimacs or other larger larks in the flocks, although 4 smaller larks which may have been Short-toed of one species or another.
10 Common Mynas
6 Blackbirds
6 Black-throated Thrushes
1 Mistle Thrush
Several House Sparrows in towns and villages
Lots of Tree Sparrows in the countryside
2 Bramblings
1 Goldfinch
About 50 Greenfinches
My trips will become more frequent now as we move towards spring and migration season. Delicious!
Great birding indeed! I do hope you get out for more. Global Bird Count is 5/14. Are you participating?
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