I woke earlier than the rest of the team and had a stroll around the garden of the guesthouse. Completely still at this hour the flutey song of a Golden Oriole filter across the village, and the numerous local Blackbirds fed on the grass. A Common Redstart perched briefly on the fence and Greenfinches were singing from the trees. Once the team was assembled we headed out, looking to get a bit of birding in before breakfast. Although we had been close to Kobechi Lake the previous day we had carried on past it in order to maximise the amount of time on the Steppe. This morning we had the ideal amount of time to take in this small body of water just outside Dedoplistskaro. Rob had already been here a few days earlier as it had held a Red-crested Pochard, but I think he had missed the Black-necked Grebe and was therefore keen to give it another go. Or the other way around, I can't now recall.
The first bird we set eyes on caused some confusion as we initially assumed we were indeed looking at a Black-necked Grebe, but it soon dawned upon us that we were in fact looking through the reeds at a Red-necked Grebe. Excellent. The Black-necked Grebes, a pair, would emerge a little later, and the Red-crested Pochard was still present and correct in one corner. There were a few Coot on the lake, another trip tick, and on our walk along the top edge we also found Little Grebe. Montagu's Harrier passed overhead, presumably the same bird as yesterday, and later on a Marsh Harrier cruised along the bottom edge. Swallow numbers by the edge seemed to build and build, and two separate Quail sang from nearby fields. Best of all we then picked up churring Nightjar. By the standards we were used, ie Wanstead Flats, this whole place was simply wonderful. A small walk around the scrub between the lake and the top fields produced Green Warbler, Corn Bunting, three Lesser Grey Shrike and a Whitethroat amongst others.
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| Eagle Gorge |
After another sumptuous Georgian breakfast we packed up and headed out. Today would be a long day in the car to transfer up to the mountains at Stepantsminda - the main focus of the trip. But before we settled down for our bone-crunching ride we made a stop off at Eagle Gorge, a well known birding site in this area. The main target here was Wren! Just kidding....well, a bit. Anyway, we did indeed bag the Wren and European Sparrowhawk, but also found some common dross like Black Stork, Steppe Eagle, Woodchat Shrike, Blue Rock Thrush, Hoopoe and Rock Bunting. And Red-backed and Lesser Grey Shrike for good measure. We were beginning to find that birding in Georgia was relentlessly terrible.
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| Blue Rock Thrush. I find that most bird portraits can be enhanced by the choice of a nice perch. |
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| Woodchat Shrike |
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| Lesser Grey Shrike |
Barring one stop for KFC (I declined and went and bought a bottle of wine instead) we did not get out of the car for the next three and a half hours. This was at the large man-made lake called Zhinvali Reservoir about half-way between Tbilisi and the mountains. We could not really access the lake itself, but a quick 20 minutes in the surrounding woodland netted that most-wanted of all Georgian birds, the ultra-rare Robin. Beating this by a whisker into bird of the day was a stunning male Semi-collared Flycatcher. Blue Tit and Coal Tit were also new for the trip, the latter being the only ones we saw all week. A further much briefer stop added Grey Wagtail and Crag Martin.
Then it was back into the car for the final schlep up to Stepantsminda. As the road began to climb it began to deteriorate. To begin with we could dodge the potholes, but as the road got narrower and busier this became much harder. This road is one the main land routes into Russia, and constant convoys of Russian and other HGVs have really chewed up the road. At one stage, close to the top, we got stuck in a covered section of the road for about half an hour. Within this tunnel of sorts the road surface has been completely washed away, and the holes are now so deep that the trucks can only pass through the middle lest they tip into the sides. The numbers of trucks were insane, this is how global isolation and sanctions are circumvented. In an interesting geopolitical aside China is drilling a huge road though the mountains which will render this particular mountain pass obsolete. There a bridges and a lengthy tunnel, and the whole project is being undertaken with Chinese machinery and Chinese manpower. Every now and again, in particular at each end of the tunnel, but also in the valley of Stepantsminda itself, we would come across large pre-fabricated building which served as the dormitory for the workers. The trucks were Chinese, the excavators Chinese, all the signage Chinese, the workers we saw Chinese. This is the soft power of Mr Xi at work, and I expect Mr Putin isn't hugely upset about this particular project, a nice highway leading down into central Asia and the EU borders. Fascinating stuff.
We stopped at the Gudauri Panorama to stretch our legs, turn small patches of snow yellow, and to see what was going on. Initially we were captivated by numerous Water Pipit on the tundra-like grass, but above our heads was where the real action was. In the skies, heading north through this gap in the peaks were hundreds of Honey Buzzards. We were at 2,200m and they were much higher and going higher still. Initially they kettled to gain more height, and then gradually peeled off to make the crossing. In the distance we could see another huge kettle of birds, completely extraordinary. A single Red-billed Chough was seen, and we disturbed a migrant Common Snipe in the long grass. As we went over the very highest point a short distance further on we noted quite a few Northern Wheatear in the snow - more migration in action.
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| Stepanstminda Rubbish Creek |
At about half past five in the afternnoon we rolled into the outskirts of Stepantsminda. We had some gen that one of our top trip targets had been seen at a popular fly-tipping area. Birding takes you to all the best places. It's so well known for being good for birds whilst being highly grim that it has it's own eBird pin called Stepantsminda Rubbish Creek. We could not wait! It was indeed as disgusting as the name suggested, with building waste and all sorts of other crap piled in heaps down a rough track and around a parking area. A miserable-looking horse was tethered next to a truck from Kazakhstan, and behind some kind of café/change-your-Rubles-here shack lay a small stagnant pool with heaps of bricks, iron latticework and smashed tiles sliding into it. And a bit of electrical waste. Truly lovely. But what followed was an hour of simply excellent birding, as can often be the case in what to humans looks awful. We found the bird we were looking for quite quickly, White-winged Redstart (once known as Güldenstädt's Redstart). It is a little confusing as the local Common Redstart here, Ehrenberg's Redstart, also has white wing patchs, but the ones on Güldenstädt's are a lot larger. The bird itself is a size larger, a really chunky Redstart well suited to living at altitude. At this time of year they would be expected to be higher up, but apparently some bad weather earlier that day had forced them down into the village. The weather was still dark and gloomy with very light rain still falling, but we soon got a distant but still satisfying scope view in the extensive Blackthorn scrub towards the river before it flipped down and was lost to view. As we wandered around this post-apocalyptic war zone of a site we then found a much closer bird behind the shack. Remarkably there were four birds in this small area, all calling their heads off above a small flooded area. Sensationally good-looking birds! Also here, low to the water, were some Warblers. At the time we felt very strongly, or at least I did, that one of these was a Moustached Warbler, with a massively-flared white super and with a deeper clipped call, but the only photos any of us got were all of the same buffy Sedge Warbler, which was probably the only bird that ever paused long enough or came close enough. This is an instance where images were actively unhelpful. We also encountered our first Mountain Chiffchaffs here, another lifer if not a particularly exciting one, and Purple Heron and Black Kite both flew by as the day drew to a close.
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| Sedge Warbler |
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| Red-backed Shrike |
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| White-winged Redstart |
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| White-winged Redstart |
That evening we had the best dinner yet in a guesthouse that does not advertise and only operates by word of mouth. Shelduck Birding Tours - it's who you know. Georgian dumplings, khinkali, are a thing of wonder, possibly one of the best things I have ever eaten. Rob's mate Alex dropped in at some point to discuss the birding plans for the next day. The weather was set to be good after a number of difficult days, and he would meet us on the slopes of Mt Kuro the following morning if he could manage it. Snowcocks were keenly awaited by the Snowcocks...
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| White-winged Redstart |
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