Comment about tour Altai - Listening to the sky

23-04-2014

author - Jukka Hintikka

The Russian Altai includes two parts: the Altai Krai and the Altai Republic. Barnaul is the
biggest city in the area (capital of the krai). From birdwatcher's point of view, the Altai
Republic is more interesting. It is a thinly populated, vast area of 92,000 square kilometres,
and it host large woodland areas, mountains (highest peak 4506 m) and steppe.
June 12, 2010
An early start from Helsinki and the morning train to St. Petersburg. Our flight departed from
St. Petersburg, Pulkovo Airport at 19.40.
June 13, 2010
We arrived at Barnaul 3.00 AM as scheduled. We met our guide Lena, who spoke good
English and knew well the basic birds, and our driver Sergei at the airport. The trip started
with wrong foot as we realised that the car (a 4Wdrive
UAZ van) was too small for our group
by all standards. Anyway, it was impossible to get another car or hire a second vehicle at that
time, so after some fierce work we managed to get ourselves and all our stuff in the van, even
though travelling was like sardines in a tin can.
The morning hours were spent birding at Firsovo, SE of Barnaul. River Ob was flooding, and
vast areas were under water. Birding at the river banks produced Common Rosefinches,
Blyth's Reed Warblers, Grasshopper Warblers, Siberian Stonechats, Kingfishers,
Golden Orioles, both Common and Oriental Cuckoos and Yellow Wagtails (beema type).
The highlights included a singing male Siberian Rubythroat and a Black Stork.
During breakfast at a roadside cafe (delicious pies and hot tea!) we managed to find a couple
of displaying Swinhoe's Snipe and our first Lanceolated Warbler was heard. Our first
attempt for visitor registration was made in GornoAltaysk,
but we missed the office hours.
After Biysk, the road was cut due to the flooding river Biya. We parked by the roadside and
Lena and Sergei started to prepare lunch. We had a short walk in the surrounding woodland
and found a singing Dusky Warbler, a Siberian Jay and a singing Siberian Blue Robin. In a
couple of hours the road was rebuilt (literally; loads of gravel was brought to the road and the
road was elevated almost a metre) and we managed to reach village Artybash and Lake
Teletskoye.
We spent the night at a hunters' cottage on the hills 10 kilometres west of Artybash. This
place proved to be excellent for a birder already in the evening: displaying Swinhoe's Snipe
and singing Lanceolated and Pallas' Grasshopper Warblers and Siberian Rubythroats.
June 14, 2010.
Early morning birding in the forest was one of the finest hours of the trip. Species included
Chiffchaff (subspecies tristis), White's Thrush, Taiga and Darksided
Flycatchers,
Radde's Warbler, Hawfinch and Little Bunting.
After breakfast we returned to Artybash and after a failed registration attempt we boarded a
ship, which seemed to be designed for larger waters than Lake Teletskoye. Anyhow, we
cruised all the way to the southern end of the lake with several stops en route. Most
interesting observations during the stops included Hume's Leaf Warbler, Blackthroated
Thrush and an interbreeding between alba and personata White Wagtails.
The lake itself is picturesque and a tourist attraction. It is very deep with steep sides, which
was probably the reason for the astonishing small numbers of water birds. We didn't see a
single gull and only a couple of ducks, but luckily we did spot a small flock of Asian
Whitewinged
Scoters.
We spent the night in a small village at the southernmost end of the lake, near the river
Chulyshman. The water was flooding here too; our campsite was supposed to be a small
cape, but due to high water it had turned into an island. The water had flooded in several
houses, and the village's graveyard was about to fall into the lake due to erosion.
June 15, 2010.
Since there was hardly any birds to see on our island, we had arranged an early start for our
ship. Unfortunately, the wind was heavy and we decided to rest until 7.00.
We stopped at several sites when cruising back to Artybash. The birds included Osprey,
Peregrine, several Siberian Blue Robins and Siberian Rubythroats, Greenish and
Hume's Leaf Warblers, Blackthroated
Thrushes and a Redbacked
Shrike. The lake
itself was as stunningly beautiful and as empty of birds as yesterday.
Ticks were very abundant in the woods around Lake Teletskoye. After a short walk, it was
normal to find 510
ticks crawling on your legs or sleeves. Some of the ticks are supposed to
carry a virus which causes meningitis, so checking each others arms, legs and back was
done regularly. The numbers of mosquitos here seemed very low, at least from Finnish point
of view.
Overnight in a comfortable hotel in Artybash.
June 16, 2010
Wakeup
call at 3.50 AM and birding in the surroundings of Artybash. Several roads and
paths were cut due to the flooding.
Blackthroated
Thrushes were abundant (both adult and juvenile), Goldfinches
(greyheaded
subspecies subulata), Greenish Warblers, Hume's Leaf Warblers, Oriental
Turtle Doves, Taiga Flycatcher and a singing male Blackfaced
Bunting. An interesting
shrike was found next to our hotel, which we figured out to be an odd Brown Shrike.
After an excellent breakfast we headed for a long drive towards the mountains. The day was
hot (+31C) and the car tightly packed, which made us all sweat. In addition, the engine
radiator caused hot air flowing into the cabin, which is probably helpful in the long cold winter,
but in summer it made our travel nearly unbearable.
Our aim was to get as close to the Mongolian border as we can, but we had some delays. We
managed to do the obligatory immigration registration in GornoAltaysk,
but it took us two
hours of valuable time. The hot weather, overweight and upward slopes were a bit too much
for the engine, and we had to stop to cool it down a couple of times.
We did not have good chances for birdwatching during the day, but we managed to observe
Demoiselle Crane, Greater Spotted Eagle, Ortolan Bunting, Isabelline Wheatear and
Black Stork.
Eventually, we found a nice camping spot in a valley near a small creek (1019m above sea
level). Overnight in tents.
June 17, 2010.
Morning birding in the valley produced Oriental Cuckoo, several Ortolan Buntings,
Darksided
Flycatchers, both Tree and Olivebacked
Pipit, Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Pied
and Isabelline Wheatear and an adult Imperial Eagle.
After some drive we had a stop on the dry steppe. Isabelline Wheatears were everywhere,
seven Lesser Kestrels, Tawny Pipit, a pair of Imperial Eagles and Skylark. A delightful
surprise was a male Meadow Bunting, which was skulking in the riverside bushes but
eventually seen well. The next stop produced the first Lammergeier of the trip.
We arrived at Aktash at 15.00. Surprisingly, the preordered
permits for the border zone were
handed over to us without any bureaucracy or additional delays. After some shopping and
engine fixing we continued to our accommodation: a group of small, cozy cottages in the
valley bottom with beautiful views to the snowcovered
high mountains. Birds in the
surrounding included Black Redstart (subspecies phoenicuroides), Pine Bunting,
Forktailed
Swift and Booted Eagle. A good meal and a refreshing sauna made the day.
June 18, 2010
Birds were already active in the dark at 4.00 AM. Since we were in the bottom of the valley,
the sun was not visible until 8.00. Interesting birds included Tengmalm's Owl, Brown Shrike,
Blackthroated
Accentor and a pair of Ruddy Shelduck. Chiffchaff and Hume's Leaf
Warbler were common.
Our first stop was in semidesert
near the flooding river Chuya. The stop produced quite a few
new birds for us: lots of ducks, Coot, Whooper Swan, Booted Warbler, Citrine Wagtail,
Mongolian Finch and Shore Lark. We observed some distant Buzzards, which caused
some debat about identification of Upland Buzzard and Longlegged
Buzzard.
The next town was KoshAgach,
which is located on the flat and treeless Chuisky Steppe. On
the outskirts of the town there are several ponds, which hosted Pochard, Great Crested
Grebe, Horned Grebe and Redcrested
Pochard among others.
After the lastminute
shoppings at noon we headed off from the main road, across the
Chuisky Steppe and into the mountains. Our passports and permits were checked by the
border guards, and after the last bureaucracy we were on our own in the mountain area. Soon
we found Black Vulture, Steppe Eagles and Citrine Wagtails.
We drove the mountain roads into the eastern parts of Ukok Highland and camped by a small
mountain lake (2283 metres above sea level). The view was surprisingly similar to the fjells of
northern Finland: treeless, rounded mountain tops and slopes, a clear lake and dense thickets
of Dwarf Birch and Downy Willow. We were very happy to find several Pallas' Reed Bunting
next to our campsite and a Asian Whitewinged
Scoter.
June 19, 2010
The birds in the area were both similar to and different from the birds in similar habitat in
northern Finland. Wheatear, Bluethroat, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Teal and Common
Sandpiper were just like home, but Chough, Pallas' Reed Bunting, Citrine Wagtail, Dusky
Warbler and Ruddy Shelduck added an exotic feeling.
After the morning trip we had a long discussion about our next day plans. The road had
suffered some damage during winter and spring, and it was not clear whether it was possible
to drive further. Finally we decided to continue on foot towards the pass of Teplyj Klyuch, and
Sergei drove the van as carefully as he could. Interesting birds included a brood of Great
Grey Shrike (subspecies mollis), Plain Mountain Finch, Himalayan Accentor and Black
Vulture.
As we had nearly reached the highest point of the pass, the road was cut by snow. We
decided to camp there (2851 metres above sea level, 6 km to Mongolian border, 30 km to
China and 57 km to Kazakhstan), though there was hardly space for our tents among the
rocks. Water was available from the melting snow. Hawkwatching
from the camp site
produced a Saker Falcon, Steppe Eagles, Lammergeier and Upland Buzzard. Other birds
included Water Pipit (subspecies blakistoni), Crag Martins and Güldenstädt's Redstart.
June 20, 2010.
Wake up at 4.00 AM in the calm and cool morning. Our search for Altai Snowcock was
unsuccessful, but in addition to yesterdays birds, we managed to see 15 Asian Rosy
Finches and two Brandt's Rosy Finches. A fresh bear track was found not far from our
camp, and after Sergei woke up, he told he had seen a bear in the pass yesterday evening
after we were already sleeping. Even though we missed the bear, we did see a distant group
of mountain sheep.
Our day was interrupted by a fierce thuderstorm. We got most of our stuff inside the car in
time, but three of our group were on the other side of the valley trying to get better views of
the Asian Rosy Finches, and they were of course soaking wet.
We returned yesterdays route back and continued a couple of valleys further. The next
camping site was (2632 metres above the sea level) on the shore of a small, partly
icecovered
lake. Shore Lark seemed to be the commonest bird in the area.
June 21, 2010.
At night there was a distant, heavy thunderstorm, which luckily never reached our camp.
Morning included Chough, Shore Larks, Redshank, Twite and a Pallid Harrier. Small and
mediumsized
rodents (different species of marmot, suslik and pika) seemed to be abundant
in the region.
While returning to KoshAgach,
crossing a wooden bridge nearly turned fatal. The road edge
fell down into the river and a third of our vehicle was suddenly on thin air. Luckily, the bottom
of the van was stuck on the edge and after some fearfilled
moments, we managed to exit the
vehicle safely and push the van back to the road. Sergei did some reparations and after a
short while, we were driving again towards KoshAgach.
In KoshAgach
we had a lunch, charged batteries and did some shopping. Sergei managed to
fix the damages of the bridge incident, and after that we were ready to head for our next
mountain target, Elangash river valley. We had a short but heavy rain in KoshAgach;
someone of us remembered that this village is supposed to have the lowest precipitation rate
of all Russia. On a stop by the river not far from KoshAgach
we found two Barred Warblers
and two hybrid Shrikes (see Antero Lindholm's website).
Our next camp was betweeen hills by a small river near Elangash mountains (2400 metres
above sea level). The evening produced Golden and Steppe Eagles, Upland Buzzard, five
Black Vultures and a Hill Pigeon, and even starting rain did not make us unhappy.
June 22, 2010
The weather had turned cloudy and we got some showers during the day. Birds in the area
included Brandt's Mountain Finches, Brown Accentor, Demoiselle Crane, Rock
Sparrow, Whitewinged
Snow Finch, Black Redstart and Twite. Both Common and
Isabelline Wheatears were numerous. Raptors were still numerous and easily watched as
they patrolled the mountain slopes.
Since we were still on the foothills, we decided to move our camp further upstream.
Unfortunately, we were supposed to cross the river, which was impossible due to the flood
and heavy stream. We split the group in two. Three of us left with a tent and some food in
their rucksacks and hiked about ten kilometres upstream into the valley. The rest of the group
moved the camp a bit further upstream.
The good numbers of raptors was easily explained: there were hordes of grazing sheep and
cattle in the valley, which apparently provided an neverending
food storage for the larger
raptors.
June 23, 2010
The hiking group had an excellent start for the day: they woke up in calls of Altai Snowcock.
The Snowcock called actively somewhere high on the mountaintop, and even though the
hiking group climbed up the dangerously steep slope, they did not manage to see it. Other
hiker observations included Alpine Chough, stunning views of Lammergeier and a bear
skull.
However, the base camp group got their share too. At dawn, they walked about a kilometre
upstream and kept scanning the hills for raptors, and they managed to spot a flock of four
Altai Snowcocks far away high on the slope on the other side of the river. Other birds
included Steppe and Imperial Eagles, Black Vultures and a strange Gyps, which was
identified as Himalayan Griffon.
On our drive back to civilization we spotted a Saker and numerous Rock Sparrows. We
stopped by the river to examine the hybrid Shrikes closely. In addition, we found a
Redrumped
Swallow, Pale Martin, Coot, Gadwall and some commoner duck species.
Once on the highway we headed north back to Aktash. Overnight in the same homely
cottages as a week before.
June 24, 2010
Night observations included Nightjar and Scops Owl. We were back in the taiga zone, which
meant Oriental Cuckoo, Song Thrush, Siberian Rubythroat, Pine Bunting, Redflanked
Bluetail and Blackthroated
Accentor among other already familiar species.
After breakfast we headed for our next mountain target. We followed the river Chuya up to
1400 metres above sea level. The road was a sight itself: a narrow path high above a ravine.
In many places the road was badly damaged and western cars would probably not have
survived the it, but it turned out to be driveable by our UAZ. Here we saw Sulphurbellied
Warblers, Pied Wheatear, Rufoustailed
Rock Thrush and Chough.
We were supposed to cross the river Chuya and continue to the plateau, but when we had
almost reached the bridge, we were stopped and told that flood had destroyed the bridge just
eight hours ago. The bridge was the only way the reach the plateau, so we decided to build
our camp and return the next day. On the other side of the river was a small group of French
hikers, who were supposed to catch their plane from Barnaul but were trapped on the other
side.
We birder the area while Sergei cooked a delicious soup. Black Redstarts (phoenicuroides)
were common, and we examined them cautiously. Some of the females were quite similar to
European Common Redstarts. Other birds included Grey Wagtails, Golden Eagle and
surprisingly a White Wagtail of the subspecies baicalensis.
June 25, 2010
We had heavy showers at night, which meant that the highest mountaintops had turned white.
Birds by the river were mostly similar to yesterday, but two Alpine Choughs and a
Blackthroated
Thrush and offered something new.
After reaching the main road we headed north. The day included mostly sitting in the hot car,
but during the stops we saw a total of ten Imperial Eagles, three Black Vultures, a and next
to a roadside restaurant four Hill Pigeons.
In the evening, we camped by the Katun river. We were not totally happy about the place,
since it was mature pine forest and did seem to offer minimal possibilities for birdwatching. In
addition, we had a steep cliff on the other side and river Katun on the other, so chances for
birding in the morning were low. Once the spot was not promising and since it was juhannus
(midsummer evening, a traditional Finnish holiday), we deciced to sit by the campfire with
Russian drinks and discuss the trip thoroughly.
June 26, 2010
The last morning was spent more or less resting due to rain. We did not take the shortest
road to GornoAltaysk,
but crossed the river Katun and took the old road on the west side of
Katun. A nice stop next to a marsh produced six Montagu's Harriers, two Hen Harriers, two
Imperial Eagles and several Pallas' Grasshopper Warblers. On another stop we found
three Longtailed
Rosefinches and a Booted Warbler.
In Biysk we said farewell to Lena and had some delicious pies for lunch, and continued with
Sergei. Upon returning to Barnaul, we made a short afternoon stop again in Firsovo. Ob was
still in full flood and mosquitoes were everywhere, but we observed Grey Heron, Garganey,
Lapwing, Greenfinch, Stock Dove and other nonmountain
species. This time mosquitoes
were very abundant even with Finnish standards, which made evening birding rather
unpleasant. In Barnaul we checked in Hotel Altai for a short nap before the long flight.
June 27, 2010
After a fourhour
rest we packed ourselves in our van at 2.00 AM and left for airport, where
we observed our last new species for the trip, a brood of Longeared
Owls. Our flight to St.
Petersburg was in time, and we were back in Helsinki railway station at 22.00.
Something to remember
Travelling in Russia is quite difficult without any local contacts, and thus using a tour operator
is usually needed. We used Ecological Travel Center (www.ecotravel.ru), which arranged us
a guide, a driver, a vehicle and permits for border zone, but little else for the money. Direct
contact to a local guide and driver will save nerves and money.
In general, Altai offers a wide variety for a birdwatcher. Our route offered approximately all
possible habitats from agricultured lowlands (Firsovo, 300 metres above sea level) to alpine
meadows (Teplyj Klyuch, 2900m) and from deciduous forests to steep taiga slopes. Each
altitude offered different views and different birds, which made the travelling extra interesting.
Lake Teletskoye is arguably the most beautiful single place in Altai and it is no surprise that it
is often included in the tour itineraries. However, birding on the lake was nearly frustrating due
to the lack of birds. On the other hand, we had two very good mornings in the forests near
Lake Teletskoye and saw some exceptionally fine taiga birds there. Taking a cruise is
probably not worth the birds, but the forests should be checked.
The Snipes in the area seem to be problematic. Most of the groups who have visited the area
have noted Pintail
Snipes, though Pintail
and Swinhoe's Snipe are virtually unidentifiable in
the field by plumage. However, the displaying calls of Pintail and Swinhoe's differ significantly
(Swinhoe's sounds are available at www.tarsiger.com ). All the displaying Snipes on our trip
were Swinhoe's; the rest were left unidentified.
The endemic Altai Snowcock is a difficult bird to observe, but it is probably much more
common than people usually think. We had only some days in the mountains and we never
reached the really high altitudes due to flooding rivers and late summer, and yet we managed
to observe them in two separate places.
The Sand Martins in Altai Republic should be studied carefully. We mostly had no chances for
this, and thus identified only one Pale Martin. Hopefully next groups can tell more about them.
This document does not include any pictures, but some images can be found from
www.tarsiger.com Use the search tool and keyword Altai.