Sept 6 2016. Chokpak Pass, Kazakhstan. A steady east wind dampened our birding today. Some of us were suffering from a nasty cold and our collective enthusiasm was lacking. I decided to take a long exploratory walk, partly to see what birds I might encounter and partly to see whether following a track across private land (or maybe it ‘s common or community land) presents any problems in post-Soviet Kazakhstan; it doesn’t seem to.
Kicking clouds of ochre dust as I went I was intrigued to see pairs of grazing horses dotted across the open landscape. In each case it was a mare and her foal, always one of them was on a long tether, neither would stray very far that way. The horses were an attraction to wandering flocks of Yellow Wagtails who found plenty to eat around the horses’ feet. Likewise small clusters of Common Mynahs found ample food buzzing around the horses’ backs and ears.
I startled a Hoopoe which flew in a backwards arc behind a row of trees, too far to follow. I cursed myself for my inattention; it had only been a few metres ahead of me at the edge of the track, I should have seen it first. It’s a bird that seems to prefer dry, dusty, semi-open areas, I’d dearly like to examine and photograph one at length and at close quarters. They’re one of those childhood dream birds.
My Bird of the Day was little more than an extension of my imagination. I saw, far, far away and high almost beyond binocular-reach a soaring pair of Cinereous Vultures. The photographs I took don’t tell you much but, they were adequate for one of our Kazakh hosts to identify the geometry of the bird as singularly Cinereous. As the book describes it; “ (A) huge vulture with broad, parallel-edged wings and a very short, wedge-shaped tail”. You’d have to wonder where the thrill is in a nearly microscopic photo image. For me it was the tingle of near disbelief as I strained through binoculars to make sense of something that was obviously colossal; bigger than a Golden Eagle. How could it be anything but Bird of the Day.
