Day Four: 12th August
Morning
This morning’s ringing session was really quiet and we have had some fun and games chasing firstly a herd of horses away from one net set and then a herd of cattle away from another net set. Sadly, the horses had already destroyed a couple of nets, so I took the nets down and spent a few hours repairing them.
Mandakh — a Mongolian student who helps out at the ringing station — has taken a huge lump of hard fat out of the freezer along with a scrag end of lamb. She finds the western perceptions of food really funny, and more so our horror when we discover that A: the massive lump of fat is a sheep’s tail, and B: it is going to be our dinner… I have decided that there is no way I’ll be eating a great big lump of fat.
(I later found out that the hard fat had been grated with the lamb meat and turned into little pierogi, and I have to say that they were delicious!)
Afternoon
This afternoon we headed over to a lake that has some reeds in search of any passerines to ring and also to look for the nest of an Eastern Marsh Harrier that may have young. We were dropped off at the lake, which had good numbers of duck and also a few Whooper Swans. The lake is the shape of the number 8 and is almost entirely fringed by reeds. We realised straight away that the water is too deep for wellington boots, so we decided to go trouser-less into the reeds, only to find out that it is infested with mosquitos and thoroughly unpleasant. Trudging through the lake in just our underwear proved very difficult underfoot; tripping, slipping, and sinking into the muddy bottom. Our efforts to hear or see any passerines proved fruitless, but still we set a net bisecting the reeds.
The Eastern Marsh Harrier nest was, by our estimation, about 50 metres away, so we spread out into a line and very excitedly searched for the nest. The terrain was treacherous; although there were tussocks of reeds forming solid footing, in between them was a sloppy, muddy mess in which you would sink about a metre. I was lucky enough to be the person to find the nest, which was a large platform, but there was nothing there. Then, from three metres away, a fully-fledged juvenile Marsh Harrier flew up and away – we had missed them!
We’re pretty disappointed by this, but we knew it was a bit of a long shot. We checked the mist net to no avail and set off for a tour round the lake. The area was swarming with damselflies and dragonflies but no birds. Not, anyway, until we came to one grassy area in which we found a nice little group of Pallas’s Reed Buntings.
Arriving back at the mist net we discovered it was still empty; it is amazing that this seemingly good habitat is entirely devoid of warblers. We took the net down, put our trousers back on, and then turned our attention to a male Japanese Quail we could hear calling from a grassy area 10 metres away. Despite several attempts, the Quail eludes us but honestly, more by luck than judgement.
The mosquitos were maddening, the light was starting to ebb, and the wind was starting to pick up, so we climbed the nearest hill to escape the biting insects and, in doing so, noticed that, with the wind, a serious lightning storm was heading straight for us. It’s time to leave and head back to camp, but Batmunkh has gone shopping at a ‘nearby’ town and was supposed to be with us ages ago (another case of Mongolia-time!) When the car finally arrived, the storm drawing ever closer, we breathed a sigh of relief. The journey back to the ringing station was another rally drive in which we were thrown about the cabin as Batmunkh barrelled down some truly unforgiving roads with little concern for his suspension.
Later
Emil has asked if I can take him out dazzling tonight and of course I am happy to do so. I am pretty tired after last night, so I’ve suggested we do a short session just to give him a flavour of what I do.
I’m dressed for dazzling, and I am quite fastidious about this as it is important to have everything in the right place to make the process as smooth as possible. Everything I wear is dark and ‘silent’ so that the clothes do not rustle at all. I have an mp3 player in my left pocket which will play the sound of running water to cover the sound of my footsteps. My torch hangs on a lanyard over my left wrist and the Axion 2 XG35 thermal imager hangs on a lanyard around my neck. Bird bags are in a dark shoulder bag and any birds captured are hung over my back using karabiner clips. For tonight Emil will be on the net but when I operate on my own, I hold the net in my left hand whilst walking around searching with the thermal imager.
Out with Emil, when I go for the approach, I stop, put the net into my right hand and hold the torch in my left hand. Guests observe how organised it is, and it has to be to be effective in the dark. Emil was very excited but, as I passed him the net, he started to doubt himself. I demonstrated how I approach birds, and what I expected him to do, which seemed to put his mind at ease a little. We then practiced by approaching a couple of obvious plants; this way we knew our approach was in-tune and it allow Emil to practice his aim with the net.
Emil has never come across the flowing river sound before and I stress how important it is. We head towards the first Asian Short-toed Lark with the sound off — at about 7 metres away the bird flies. We try a second and the same happens. We stop and I hit play on the mp3 player, the next approach was very different: the bird sits completely still and Emil manages to place the net over the bird perfectly. During my time with Emil this evening we have managed to capture five Asian Short-toed Larks and put them in bags to be ringed at dawn tomorrow. Emil has done some dazzling before, but he found my approach to the bird quite different from others, I adapt my approach in response to the behaviour and actions of the bird, depending upon if it is sat in the open or behind a tuft of vegetation. Hopefully he can take this evening’s techniques away with him and this information should serve him very well when he returns to Germany.
In addition to the birds, I just had to show Emil the main feature of the night on the Mongolian steppe: the Jerboa. The Jerboa is a rodent with powerful hind legs, moving very much like a kangaroo. They are the best animal I have ever seen at night and proved very distracting whilst trying to find birds.
Jerboa seen through the Pulsar Axion 2 XG35 thermal imaging monocular.
There have been several instances during my time here in which I just stood and watched the Jerboas as they skimmed across the ground. I have noticed that, where there are Jerboas, there are no birds; I think that all the hyperactive action of the Jerboas disturbs the birds too much.
The other mammal I showed to Emil was much slower as it bumbled along. It was a Daurian Hedgehog. I rarely see hedgehogs at night, so this was a truly special experience, one which may have been missed had I not been using the thermal imager. This device has opened up a trove of night-time activity that I previously wouldn’t have been able to see.
Day Five: 13th August
Morning
Wader passage has again been very slow overnight and in the morning, which is disappointing and sadly we have to say goodbye to Emil and Batmunkh and Mandakh have gone to Ulan Bataar to assist with an international goose conference, so it is just me and Sam left to run the ringing station.
Afternoon
They have timed their departures perfectly; in the afternoon the temperature drops and the skies darken. In this weather the landscape seems even more immense than normal. We have closed the nets and shelter in the ger as showers carried by high winds are sweeping through, and there are phenomenal lightning storms in the distant hills.
Evening
It’s not long after dark and it has become clear that the storm is closing in on us and the sheet lighting is getting closer by the minute. I’ve just been outside the ger to take some video footage with my phone, the power and danger of nature in this form is magnificently impressive but it is not safe to be outside. Sam is pretty concerned for our safety, but I guess the safest place to be in this situation is in the ger.
The lightning storm from Matt’s ger.
We’ve tried to go to bed to sleep through the storm, but the wind has reached gale-force and the rain is torrential. We are not sure that the ger will survive the storm; the bottom section by my bed is ripped open and the roof is developing a hole. We have no contact with the outside world as we have lost internet. We are pretty concerned at our situation but can do nothing else except make some temporary repairs and hunker down in our beds.
Day Six: 14th August
Morning
Weathering the storm last night was pretty nerve-wracking stuff and made for fitful sleeping until it finally passed at around 2 am. But this morning, we’re off to a brilliant start with eleven species of wader have been ringed already. But the real highlight has been ringing twelve White-winged Black Terns. The storm has created pools all across the grassland and has raised water levels significantly, so we’ve had to move a lot of the nets to cover shorelines. The storm has also created the right conditions for a massive hatch of mosquitos and we are getting absolutely plastered with bites all morning.
Afternoon
It is now mid-afternoon and the Ugii Lake Manager and her assistant have paid us a visit to check up on us after the storm. They speak no English and we speak no Mongolian, so we communicate by sign language. They are very kind and have brought us some fritters that turn out to be perch, it is one of the best fish I have ever tasted but it is full of bones. They help us repair the ger as much as possible and they report that about 100mm of rain fell in just two hours last night.
Evening
Sam has asked to go out dazzling with the thermal imager tonight. We’ve run through the demonstration, discussed techniques and, after a couple of practice sweeps at plants, it’s time to head off.
The pools of water had really messed the habitat up and it seems the larks have been pushed out as we didn’t manage to see any at all. We bumped into another Daurian hedgehog, which is always a pleasure to see, and of course there are my favourites: Jerboas everywhere! Spotting a small group of Swan Geese on a channel ahead of us we decided it was worth a try.
Over the past few nights, I have done a lot of watching with the thermal camera at night; it is more than just a spotting/catching tool. I have been watching the behaviour of many of the waterbirds at night. The Swan Geese and Ruddy Shelducks prefer to be offshore, but some seem to forget to leave the inland channels. When approached, they swim towards the lake and if they feel threatened, they will fly. I have noticed that, if I approach from the lake direction, some of them swim inland holding their body and head very low trying to escape detection.
As Sam and I approached this group, most flew straight away but one bird swam inland. I quickly took my shoes and socks off, passed the thermal camera to Sam who was safely on land, and waded into the water a bit carefully as I had no idea how deep it was.
It was no easy capture as it kept the distance between us consistent — if I moved, it moved to keep that gap. I had to try to wade slightly faster than the goose. It suddenly decided to sneak out of the water and this was my chance: I placed the net over it just as it reached the shore. Apologetically, I told Sam that this brings the night to an end as we have no bag big enough for the goose, plus I am utterly drenched. Back in the ger and we are now ringing and measuring the Swan Goose. It really is a beautiful bird, really changing my mind about this species when I compare it to the feral birds back in the UK.
Keep a look out for part three of Matt’s journals, which will be coming to TJ Focus soon.
Mentioned in this article: Pulsar Axion 2 XG35.
