Armenia; Megri & Sisian

We pushed on to Meghri which is located just a few kilometres away from the Iranian border. Our accommodation for the next two nights here could best be described as "rustic". Breakfast consisted of an egg and bread with butter or cheese. Otherwise the food during the duration of the trip really was fantastic.
We moved right down to the sensitive area next to the border to a disused quarry at the entrance of a large wadi/valley to look for Persian Wheatear. We managed to pick up at least one pair here who were feeding very recently fledged young. Also seen here over the evening and the following day were Upcher's Warblers, Chuckar, Eastern Black-eared Wheatear, Blue Rock Thrush, Sombre Tit, Eastern & Western Rock Nuthatch, lots of Eastern Orphean Warblers, Red-backed, Woodchat & Lesser Grey Shrikes and Black-headed Bunting.

We also tried for Caspian Snowcock during our two day stay. We managed to get one distant view of a single bird but despite hiking up after it we didn't have any others. Great views of Rock Thrushes, Alpine Accentor, Shore Lark and Twite up there also.

On the long way back North we jammed in on a pair of Bimaculated Larks in a ploughed field near Sisian. Some of the ploughed fields in this area were filled with resident and migrant species such as Northern Wheatears, Whinchat, Skylark, Horned Lark, Water Pipit, Red-throated Pipits, Goldfinch, Linnet, Twite and Ortolan Bunting. Some of the migrants well probably grounded by dank misty conditions. We also had a few flocks of Wood Sandpipers and White-winged Black Terns flying over arable and grass fields.

Persian/Red-tailed Wheatear

Persian/Red-tailed Wheatear

Upcher's Warbler, birds don't get more exciting than this...

brevirostris Twite

Alpine Accentor

Lesser Grey Shrike

Our transport up to the Caspian Snowcock site.

Left to right; myself, Paul French, Wilton Farrelly, Ian Graham, Garry Armstrong & Davy Steele with Iran in the background to the left.

I think this just the local race of Brown Hare? This guy was up at 2950m

Paul just about to open a randomly placed fridge at a isolated picnic spot, just anticipating someone to jump out at him.

Flag/Irises

Monkey Orchid

Bimaculated Lark

Armenia; Dilijan to Yeghegnadzor

So onto Armenian. We collected Paul in Tbilisi on the way South. We had a singing Nightingale in no man's land while walking between the border of Georgia and Armenian, not countable on either country list?
We had our first encounter with close proximity of the Azerbaijan border, the first of many. A lot of houses were abandoned in the area due to previous conflict and ongoing sniping from each end. Several military are killed yearly on each side still, not the best areas to bird in!

Near Voskepar (I  think) with Azerbaijan in the background.

Our first real stop and overnighter was at the beechwoods of Dilijan. We stayed in some ex-Soviet holiday homes which had all seen better days. Some of the dwellings we encountered both in Georgia and Armenia were so dilapidated it was often hard to make out if they were occupied. Another odd feature of some of the two-storey houses was that only the ground floor would be live in with the first floor just being a complete shell.
Anyway the beechwoods at Dilijan were excellent with a large selection of woodland species. The main target here was Green Warbler. They were without doubt the commonest warbler present in the woods that evening and the following dawn. We had managed to miss them at Kazbegi, possibly a little early although Paul had a few the previous week there. Other good species seen included breeding Lesser Spotted Eagles, Middle spotted Woodpecker, Red-breasted Flycatcher (no Semi-collared Flycatcher though), samamisicus Common Redstart, Hawfinch and Common Rosefinch.

Dilijan, nice spot for Middle spotted Woodpecker...

Next day we continued on South and spent a few good hours around Sevan Lake, one of the largest high attitude (1900m) freshwater lakes in the world. It's also home to a large proportion of the world population of Armenian Gull.

Black-headed Wagtail

Adult Armenian Gulls

Adult Armenian Gull



Adult Armenian Gull

Adult Armenian Gull

Adult Armenian Gull (head & bill structure vaguely cachinnans-like)

Third-summer type Armenian Gull.

Glossy Ibis

Male-type Red-throated Pipit

Female-type Red-throated Pipit

caspia Reed Bunting, nice thick bill and pale rump area.

Female Ortolan Bunting

Armenian Gull colony in the background.

Azerbaijan border with the defensive structures (Hesco-like bastions) along ridgeline.

Further South we jammed in on a male Finsch's Wheatear. Just on the far side of Yeghegnadzor the following morning we had a great selection of birds in a semi-arid valley which included three lifers for myself - Levant's Sparrowhawk, White-throated Robin and Eastern Rock Nuthatch. also here were Western Rock Nuthatch, Black-eared Wheatear, Rock Sparrow and Black-headed Bunting.

Valley between Yeghegnadzor and Vayk.

Eastern Rock Nuthatch

White-throated Robin

Lesser Kestrel colony.



Spandarian Reservoir

Finsch's Wheatear

Georgia

Not long back from an eleven day trip to Georgia and Armenia. I went with Garry Armstrong, Davy Steele, Wilton Farrelly and Ian Graham where we spent three full days in the Kazbegi area of Georgia. From there we moved South into Armenia where we picked up Paul French who joined us for the rest of the trip.
The trip got off to a disastrous start for me as my Canon 7d had a very nasty fall from the back of the bus when leaving Tbilisi airport in the early hours of 1st May. It along with the 400mm lens was out of action for the duration, a very sickening feeling.
So anyway I had to make do with a little bit of good old fashioned digi-scoping, not quite the same but better than nothing I suppose.

We managed to get two the main target birds on the first day -Caucasian Black Grouse, Caucasian Snowcock. I haven't had much luck with some alpine species in Spain and Morocco in the past so it was good to finally see Alpine Chough, Alpine Accentor and White-winged Snowfinch.
The Georgian part of the trip was timed to coincide with a low snow line which normally comes right down to the village of Kazbegi/Stepantsminda and with it Great Rosefinch and Güldenstädt's Redstart also have to come down with it. However there wasn't much snow this winter in the area and with the Spring melt, the snow line was up around the 3000m mark unlike the normal 2200m. Paul had both species in the village while leading a Sunbird tour here the previous week but no one had seen the redstart during the whole week we were there and only a handful of rosefinches had been seen down low.

We hiked up to 2900m on the second day to see if the two species had retreated up to the higher elevations. After a bit of searching we managed to track down 6 - 8 Great Rosefinches which gave distant but prolonged views. The males were amazing looking things. Despite much searching and upteen Black Redstarts (both semirufus & ochruros) we just couldn't kick out a Güldenstädt's. Other good birds seen over the course of the three days included several Lammergeier (cracking birds & WP tick), Golden Eagle, Alpine Swift, Crag Martin, Horned Lark, Water Pipit (very common), Rock Thrush (another WP tick), Mountain Chiffchaff, Wallcreeper (feeding on a four feet high stone wall in the village of Kobi), Lesser Grey Shrike, Red-fronted Serin and Rock Bunting.

I'll update the blog in the next while with the Armenia part of the trip.

amicorum Ring Ouzel, huge amount of white on the wings, amazing looking in flight.

amicorum Ring Ouzel

Caucasian Snowcock, squint and you can just see it!

Caucasian Snowcock

First-summer male Caucasian Black Grouse. This guy was hidding under a rock from us. Note reduced red wattle and brown tones to head, forehead in particular hinting at the age.

Tree Pipit, common in the conifer plantations.

Red-fronted Serin, quite common around the village, took a while to get good views. 

White-winged Snwfinch, only one pair seen in the entire trip.

Male Red-backed Shrike

Male Wallcreeper

Male Wallcreeper

Kazbegi village with Mount Kazbek in the background.

Gorge up from Sameba Church which had Great Rosefinch.

Gergeti glacier on Mount Kazbek.

Kazbegi from the Mount Kazbek side with the conifer plantation and the monsterous Rooms Hotel beside it.

Russian border with Georgia, a Georgian solider appeared from the bushes shortly after this was taken to tell us to feck off!

The white splashes near the top of this cliff face were Griffon Vulture nests.

Male Eastern Tur

Group watching Caucasian Snowcock which was first picked up by Chris Lansdell, Justin Lansdell and Andy Wilkinson.