Ters-Ashybulak reservoir, Taskol lake.

Zhabagly village. Today is sunny, sometimes slightly cloudy, windless day, all we need is this day. As soon as the sun rise, immediately there were birds. In the garden Blackbirds and Starlings started to sing the songs, Woodpeckers started to drum, Chaffinches and Bramblings landed to ash-tree, Collared Doves began to fly one to another, Mynahs, Jackdaws, Rooks started to be active too. We take some photos, had breakfast and go to Ters-Ashybulak reservoir.

Ters-Ashybulak. The morning Talas Alatau ridge is very beauty, it is very white with clouds in foothills, perhaps yesterday rain in plains was the snow in mountains. During the branch road from highway to reservoir there are some little lakes on which Ducks were feeding and resting, on the one lake together with Lapwings and Shovellers. Also I saw the large flying flock of Lapwings. I saw the flying flocks of Cranes too. In the roadside thickets there were Kestrels and little passerines including the first in this spring Isabelline Shrike and Pied Wheatear. But the most significant record was when we departed Ters-Ashybulak. Before departure other guys saw the Osprey’s hunting to large fish, Osprey catched fish from the water and flew to the rocks direction. But nobody saw the landing place and it was a long time ago, but Andrei said that Osprey can perch with fish on the pole. Looking for binocular he found the bird almost immediately, and we approached to Osprey in three cars and took a good photos.

Taskol lake. The next spot of our trip is Taskol lake in the foothills of Karatau ridge. In the wet meadows near Taskol the Lapwings were feeding, of other waders we saw also Redshanks but a bit. In the middle of the lake there was large flock of Coots of about 800 birds. Among the Coots we saw the pale patches of Ducks (Shovellers, Red-crested Pochard etc). Many little passerines in the reeds, some of them came to us when we called they by sound.

Then we moved to the very scenic canyon located at about one kilometer from Taskol. In the niches of canyon there are nests of Eagle-Owls but we didn’t find them. But Andrei found the nest of Raven, probably it is the most significant record in Taskol vicinity. Also I saw the first of this spring Hoopoe and Calandra Larks.

During the back road to Zhabagly we recognized the Steppe Eagle and Goshawk. We were feeling good from the first birding day. The Russian proverb: Tit in hand is better than Crane in sky. Today we saw many Cranes in sky, tomorrow we are going to search Yellow-brested Tit