In Karasai region I saw the Raven soaring in sky with the trophy in the bill. In Ile-Alatau national park I saw only Great Tits and high flying long-winged raptor, probably Booted Eagle. And in evening I watched and photographed the Scops Owl. The Owl began the hunt after the turning on the lamps of the billboards. There are a lot of insects in the light of these lamps, and Owl were hunting to these insects, not all time, but often. When Owl catches the insect, it perches on wires and picks off the hard parts of trophy, and only after preparing the Owl flies to the nest. I think that all Scops Owl do same. [...... read more ]

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Today my wife discovered the pass of our the home Scops Owl. On almost each arriving with trophy the Owl stayed on wires. The Owl feeds chicks mostly by grasshoppers, but once I noted the big moth in its bill. [...... read more ]

Evening. Cloudy weather. One-hour trip to river side. From a far I saw Blue Whistling Thrush. The pair of Grey Wagtails were bringing the insects to the nest which is placed between the stones. Also I saw two adult Brown Dippers and one mottled juvenile. [...... read more ]

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The warm sunny day. Trip to east from Almaty not to mountains but to plain from foothills to side of Kapchagai reservoir. On the open areas, meadows, fields with bushes the Corn Buntings, Rollers, many Red-headed Buntings were observed. To far from mountains the Common Starlings and Eurasian Bee-eaters were often observed. In high poplar and elm roadside groves the singing of Golden Orioles were heard, and once I saw the flying pair of Orioles. In the thickets of russian olives I saw and heard Common Nightingales, saw Wood Pigeons, Oriental Turtle Doves and Penduline Tits, and heard singing Greenfinches. Everywhere the Mynahs, Magpies and Lesser Grey Shrikes occurred. In villages there are the Collared and Laughing Doves. In Kyrbaltabai I watched singing Blackbird, the Hoopoe, flying flock of Rosy Starlings, Barn Swallows, Masked Wagtails. On little stream I watched Northern Lapwing and flock of Redshanks. Some red-legged, probably adult, Redshanks unquiet behaved. Other ones with pale [...... read more ]

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Common list of birds - Grey Wagtails, White-bellied Dipper, Greenish Warblers, Kestrel. [...... read more ]

On Republic Square the Common Whitethroats were singing already in almost open places. The short-tailed juveniles of Magpie appeared, so the adult Magpies behaved disquietly.Also I had the short trip to Karasi region. All watched birds are the common birds to this place this season: Red-headed Buntings, Corn Buntings, Rollers, Masked Wagtails, Kestrels, Lesser Grey Shrikes, Long-tailed Shrikes, Common Sandpipers. And Barn Swallows, Mynahs, Magpies, Jackdaws, Carrion Crows, Great Tits. I watched one only rare bird, it was Short-tailed Snake-Eagle with broken tail. [...... read more ]

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The warm and sunny day. Trip with Raufael Bairashev and Gennady Dyakin to western foothills of Sailisky Alatau ridge.Kastek. There is the military post in the Kastek gorge now, it means that there is not possibility to walk in the gorge. So we had only watching the birds of the foothills and the beginning of gorge. A lot of Lesser grey Shrikes, Red-headed Buntings and Corn Buntings. Once we saw that two “wrestled” Corn Bunting downing by the ground slope, one of them tried to sing the song that moment. We didn't know what it was - the conflict of two males or gender game between male and female. The nesting in holes Common Starlings fed the nestlings. Near the holes the Rollers, Bee-eaters and Isabelline Wheatears were too. If I add to named birds also the colony of Rooks, Jackdaws, Mynahs and Magpies, so I get the list of common birds of Kastek and vicinity. Also we saw Collared Doves, Barn Swallows, Blackbird, Greenfinch, Common Nightingale and Long-tailed Shrikes in the villages; [...... read more ]

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The short one-hour trip to the gorge to shot the Blue Whistling Thrush. A long time I wish to photograph the Blue Whistling Thrush in the sun, but this cautious bird prefers almost all time to be in a shade. Today it was not possible to make good photos too. The scene of the windbreak after the recent hurricane was very impressive, large spruce trees lay on the slopes.In Samal I tried to shot Red-rumped Swallows and House Martins on the fly, and noted that Martins took the fluff of the seal from the broken isolation on the trunk. Probably at first there was a little cut on the isolated textile, but later birds expanded it and used the seal fluff to the nests construction. [...... read more ]

The first point of trip with Raufael Bairashev is the rocks on the left coast of Ile river. The most popular (notable) bird of this season in southern Kazakhstan is Rosy Starling. Thousands of Rosy Starlings build the nest in the cracks of rocks and among the stones, other Rosy Starlings in the flocks of several tens birds fed in the grass. In addition to Rosy Starlings also bright singing males of Red-headed Bunting are very notable. But the plain colored females of Red-headed Bunting build the nests. Also it's need to note the little grey birds which all time hid in dense bushes. We correctly identified Spotted Flycatcher and Lesser Whitethriat, but we are not sure about Chiffchaff and Syke's Warbler. Twice we saw Oriental Turtle Doves, once Golden Eagle, near the river we saw Caspian Gulls, Common Terns and Rollers. Other birds are usual to this place: Jackdaws, Rock Nuthatches, Pied Wheatears, Lesser Kestrels, Black Kites, Hoopoes, Crag Martins, Red-rumped Swallows and Chukar Partridges. [...... read more ]

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It's hard to fly to birds during and after the rain. Therefore in case of rain on the migration pass the birds find the applicable place and rest waiting the good weather. Every year at 19-20 of May in Almaty it is rainy. Sometimes rains continue several days, but often 1-2 days. And these days are directly days of Nightjars migration. These night birds migrate in morning and evening twilights and their migration are not notable to people, but in case of rain the Nightjars rest. Once I found 9 Nightjars in one day, but that year was very rainy and Nightjars congregated on Republic Square during one week. Today I found two Nightjars, probably both were females. In addition to Nightjars I saw one Common Whitethroat (probably spruce singers are just they), one female Turkestan Shrike and singing males of Greenfinch. [...... read more ]

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