Tanbaly Tas: Birds and Petroglyphs

On March 24, Akmaral Davletova, Rauf Bairashev, and I headed towards Kopa. The ultimate goal of our trip was to visit the natural museum and archaeological complex under the open sky, Tanbaly. The weather was beautiful. After turning towards the village of Kopa, we immediately stopped. Flocks of buntings and larks were feeding on the ground. We were amazed by the abundance of linnets, and we decided it was a linnet day. There were many of them along the way, of different kinds—common, mountain, and horned larks, recognizable by the metallic sounds in their singing. Since there were linnets, where was their shepherd? He didn't make us wait long. A gray shrike was sitting on the branches, watching over its flock and not shying away from insects either. In between, it also caught them.

It became even more interesting further on. We started encountering predators: a long-tailed shrike and three short-toed eagles circled right above us. We also encountered a steppe eagle. Here and there on the rocky mounds, we encountered Pied and Isabelline wheatears. We immediately scared off a little falcon from the rocks with hieroglyphs, which flew a little further into the gorge. We followed it without hurry and encountered and greatly enjoyed observing stonechats. They turned out to be very curious, climbing to the top of the ridge and watching us from there. Maybe it's because it's early spring now, the breeding season, and they've dulled their sense of fear. Usually, they scatter and hide among the rocks.

Then Akmaral noticed and took a picture of a Long-eared Owl that flew up and landed under a stone right in front of us. We got a good view of it through binoculars. Then we watched another shrike skillfully catching insects. On the way back, there was again a sea of linnets, but the most interesting thing was a mixed flock of camouflaged pipits and yellow-headed wagtails. They were feeding along the road in one place and gave us a good opportunity to observe them.

Not like at Sorbulak, where they fly in flocks, and you have to chase them to get a good look. But cool guys manage to take good photos of these nimble birds while driving. After such enjoyment, we went home very happy and charmed by the day we had. Vika, Marina and Olya were not with us. It didn't occur to anyone to make a checklist, but those that could be photographed couldn't escape Rauf's camera. He slowly posts them on the website. It seemed to me that spring this year is very early. Last year, the migration was late and lasted a long time. I had a feeling that the birds were hurrying to breed and feed their chicks faster. This worried me a little, could it be that this summer will be dry, and the earth seemed dry and insufficiently soaked with moisture.