Cosmostation
Our last day here in Kazachstan has come. Unfortunately. Today we are going high up the mountains! We did not have our two small busses awaiting us in the morning, but maybe five jeep-like cars strong enough to take us high enough! One car could fit around seven people, so we got on. Unfortunately, not everyone fit inside. Meaning Askar and a few others stayed behind, waiting for the cars to go second round. We drove by the Almaty lake and through the plain above we've been to yesterday. And continued up where the road was more and more covered in snow and the cars would have more trouble. They were rather slow, but did their job in the end.
Red-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)
They brought us to an altitude of 3400 m, which is highest I have ever been. It was a land of fog and snow. Completely silent. Despite the fact that it was also probably a Russian base of some sort - called the "Cosmostanice". No one really new the purpose of it, but there were plenty of small huts randomly, maybe for measuring something and you could say a village of sorts, larger than I would guess. Not for regular people though. It seemed like a military or parhaps rather scientific base of sorts.
Through the thick fog we couldn't see more than a few dozens of meters ahead, so we were just walking around blindly. It was deadly silent and the buildings half collapsed, the place was eerie and felt like time has stopped here. The atmosphere was finished with the strange call of a Red-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax). The only bird we were able to see here. And honestly I was surprised any bird was actually here. It didn't seem like a place you'd go birding to. At all.
The highest I've been to a toilette
We continues to wade through the deep snow until we got to one edge of the "village". There we found a half- collapsing toilette that seemed to be operating. Maybe. A few of us had actually tried. The hole beneath it was ridiculously deep - at least 6 meters, so one didn't feel too safe on the floor made of old creaking planks with considerable gaps between them.
The fog is slowly tearing, revealing the mountains around us
It was there around that one building and one long since collapsed that we actually saw another bird. The beautiful Güldenstädt's Redstart (Phoenicurus erythrogaster) with bright orange belly a completely white cap that merged its silhouette with the surrounding snow. We were running back and forth between a few places it was flying between, until my eyes really hurt from all the bright white around me and I had to take out my sunglasses.
At the edge
Around that time Askar arrived with the rest of the group. He lead us to another part of the place and we saw a Spotted Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes), a Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta) and some of us (not me, sadly) a Himalayan Accentor (Prunella himalayana).
Mountainslope
We got to the paths leading to the edge of the mountain, where we could admire the other mountain peaks as the fog was tearing a bit. There was aslo a ridge not too far below us and I mused how awesome it would be if we could see the Himalayan Snowcocks from up above like this. They had to be here, somewhere! As soon as I made my thoughts public, Lukáš went to the end of the path and like 20 seconds later called out: There they are! Yes, in that very spot, there were at least five of them. Everyone was able to take a good look with the scopes.
Himalayan Snowcocks (Tetraogallus himalayensis)
Himalayan Snowcocks (Tetraogallus himalayensis)
This was really awesome. As someone said, they really like to spend time on the ridges and mountain peaks where they can have a nice view of the surroundings.
Clearing fog
We continued through the station/village and met another amazing Güldenstädt's Redstart, this time we could see it closer up and even take some pictures. Notice how his white head merges with the background. When a group of us was staying silent only clicking the cameras, from a nearby building we actually heard voices discussing something. Those buildings and structures kind of looked like they are from an era passed, and yet, this high, there were actually people doing something there!
Güldenstädt's Redstart (Phoenicurus erythrogastrus)
Since we've seen most of the species to actually be seen here, the cars have taken us down back to the 2700 m of altitude and we walked again back down to the Great Almaty Lake.
Turkestan Red Pika (Ochotona rutila)
Because this National Park indeed is a touristic spot and it was already around lunch time, many people appeared on the road. And where there are people there are coffee stalls etc. We couldn't resist and get something warm to drink. I enjoyed a cup of hot chocholate. When we were walking down with Jožka, we were passing a sign depicting a bunch of birds to see here. Surprisingly, the biggest picture seemed to be of a white-headed eagle. A group of tourists just glanced at it and one of them actually called out in our mather language: "What, a White-headed Eagle actually lives here?" Jožka couldn't help, but clear things out for him, immediately responding in Czech as well: "Oh, it really doesn't." That took the young man off guard and so we exchanged a few sentences and were on our way.
Grey Marmot (Marmota baibacina)
Not really surprisingly anymore, when we were going to the lunch, it started raining. I think we didn't have a single day without rain. And it was supposed to be rather rare, here! Anyway, we were looking forward to trying the promised horse meat. I think it was a horse of someone from the travel agency we were with, who had a leg injured and they put it down. The meat was prepared in two different ways. We could get pieces of cooked meat with bread and cilantro and it was then also prepared in some kind of sauce. Both ways were really tasty.
Red-fronted Serin (Serinus pusillus)
Because it was obviously cold and some people (me) managed to lose their (by this time badly torn anyway) raincoat, we were given the option to go back to the hotel.This was an opportunity several people had taken up. However, no way I am giving up the possibility of getting one last look at the Ibisbill!
Ruddy Shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea)
The rest of us went back to the Lake. Unlike yesterday, right at the start of the path we met a flock of tits. Namely the Songar Tit (Parus songarus) and a Coal Tit (Parus ated rufipectus). The Coal Tit is a species familiar to us, however, this subspecies had a tiny crest on its head!
One more encounter with the Eversmann's Redstarts (Phoenicurus erythronotus)
At the same spot and then further away as well, we also met an occassional Turkestan Red Pika (Ochotona rutila). We didn't notice even a single one yesterday!
Ibisbill (Ibidorhyncha struthersii)
We went back to the place we saw the Ibisbill yesterday. The snad has melted away and the Ibisbill was now actually even harder to see. But we found one! As I was looking at it through my binoculars, I noticed something round an small moving in front of it. For the hardly even second, I noticed it was something lookung like a stone, but fluffy, with a black pearl-like dot fot its eye and a tiny curved bill. It was a baby Ibisbill! It, however, dissappeared as soon as it appeared before and was very, very hard to find again. I saw a couple of times, though, and then better in the scope. People were sort of ignoring my "Oh wow, there's a chick!" But later they came to believe me and they then looked at it through the scope again. We were all elated. The Ibisbill really nests here.
Actually we found out there were two pairs of them. One at each side of the lake.
View from the Almaty Lake
Unfortunately soon it was time we decided we would meet at the cars no matter what, to avoid havin a group wait for some late-comers since the weather wasn't the best. We were returned to the hotel. We put together all the species we all saw during this trip and came to a number of over 200! For me personally, as I was noting down the species for each day into the paper I was given by Askar, the number was 183, which is still impressive!
Edge fo the Lake
The next morning came the sad part when we packed our stuff and were picked by the busses that transfered us to the airport bakc to Almaty. This was such an amazing trip. I would love to do more!
Turkestan Red Pika (Ochotona rutila)
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