Georgia - May 2026 - Day 4 - Snowcocks in the Mountains

The slopes of Mount Kuro was our first port of call, seemingly everything had led to this - Caucasian Snowcock was the bird, the reason for the trip, the team logo (can't share....). This iconic bird is basically why birders come here. It is found only here, only in these mountains, and we were here to see it. 

We met Rob's mate Alex in at the bottom, where the track above the village runs out and there is a small church and a couple of places to park a vehicle. He had some clients on the go but remarkably they were asleep rather than like us raring to go. Their loss! It was not a long walk up to a small plateau, and from there we started scanning. First to fall was Caucasian Grouse, some way up the slope. I missed it due to Bob taking inordinately long in the scope which caused some short-term but ultimately unnecessary panic as they showed fairly constantly whilst we were up here. A couple of Cuckoos sat on a fence near the cars, Wheatear and Water Pipit were around, and a friendly Ring Ouzel was collecting worms for the family.

Water Pipit

Ring Ouzel

Cuckoo - hepatic

Cuckoo

Rock Thrush

Wheatear

The weather was perfect, overcast but calm and still, we could not have hoped for a much better outcome. We had really lucked out, the previous few days it had apparently unbirdable up here. The main target was soon located on sound, a mournful upslurred Curlew impression. Invisible until they took flight, after which with a bit of scanning you could locate them on the scree or the cliff face where they had landed. Always distant, my photos are literally pixels, but it didn't matter as scope views were pretty decent. Mission accomplished.

Easy huh? I've processed the spot the bird is in to make it really pop!

After a suitably stunning breakfast we made our way across the valley to Geregti Triniti Church, another famed spot. Our target here was Great Rosefinch, but despite a trudge up to the Monastery, and then up an extremely steep slope and along a ridge path at the start of what is known as the trail to the Chkheri River source we couldn't locate one despite being on the snowline. The birds were clearly higher up now. We did manage two Lammergeier, both Chough and Alpine Swift, so we were in the zone so to speak. More Mountain Chiffchaff were in the last vegetation, a Tree Pipit sang from a small bush, and Bee-eaters migrated overhead. The views were incredible, birding takes you to some amazing places that you would otherwise not ever think to go. Some of these are rubbish tips and sewage works of course, but by and large I have been privelged to visit some extraodinary places because I've been trying to see a bird there. 

Further down the valley, past another huge Chinese dormitory, we explored the buckthorn scrub near a rectangular pool known as Pansheti Swimming Pool. The birding here was really good, with lots of Barred Warblers, tons of Shrikes, singing Corncrake and Black Redstart being the highlights. What Corncrakes were doing here I cannot say, it just felt incredibly bizarre, yet there were two crexxing away. You forget quite how loud they when they are close but despite a bit of a vigil we couldn't find them.

Long-tailed Tit (caudatus)

Mountain Chiffchaff

Red-backed Shrike

Stepantsminda Valley. Typical Georgian building.

A Dipper was seen near the sluice at the Kazbegi Hydropower plant, with more along the river at Sno Gorge which also had a number of Common Sandpiper but overall birding during the day was quite quiet. We had another crack at the mountain specialities towards the end of the day. seeing likely the same birds as earlier in the day, and had better views of Rock Thrush. As we descended a Nightjar churred and we got great views of Red-fronted Serin feeding in the weeds by the side of the road.

Red-fronted Serin

We had another ridiculously good dinner complete with a new shape of dumpling that were as good as the first but far too filling. The spread was immense, what a place! Then an early night before an early night ahead of our final day. We planned to do a bit of birding in the valley first thing before heading back over the pass and down to Tbilisi and a final afternoon of birding.