Kazakhstan
Steppes
and Forests of
Central
Asia
May 18 - June 1, 2008
Reservations and prepayment are required on all Ventures. Your place on this Venture will be reserved when your deposit of $300 has been received. Please make your check payable to VENTURES, Inc. and send it to this address or call the office with your VISA or MasterCard #.
Limited to 10 participants.
Southeastern Kazakhstan offers endless steppes, lakes, rivers, and pine-covered mountains. Because of the centralized geographic location, birds indicative of both the Oriental and Western Palearctic regions can be found. From the stony deserts near the former capital, Almaty (Alma-Ata), to the Tien Shan Mountains close to the Chinese border, the variety of landscapes will amaze and the birding is nothing short of spectacular. Even their names evoke the rugged landscape and remote mystery associated with this part of the world. Many of the birds we will be seeing are little known and indeed, very rare vagrants to Western Europe. Birding tours are new in Kazakhstan, and we are among the first US-based tours to spread our wings to explore this part of the world. Accommodations are comfortable, yet simple and food comprises mostly of good locally prepared foods. Bring your sense of adventure and join us for a real interesting exploration of the birds and scenery of Kazakhstan.
Leader: Simon Thompson
$3749 per person double occupancy from Almaty, (Air from London TBA) Single supplement: $375 (Not available in Yurt Camp) Extension: $1025; single: $105
Price includes: All internal air and land transportation, all accommodations, meals, service charges & gratuities (except for leader & local guide), information packet & bird checklist, leader/guide service throughout.
Not included: Air to Almaty, alcoholic beverages, and any other items of a personal nature.
Pallas's Sandgrouse, Ibisbill, Sociable Lapwing, Caspian Plover, MacQueen's Bustard, Himalayan Snowcock, Himalayan Griffon Vulture, Lammergeyer, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, White-winged, Bimaculated, Black and Calandra Larks, Azure Tit, Wallcreeper, Himalayan Rubythroat, Guldenstadt's Redstart, Pander's Ground-Jay, Rose-colored Starling, Severtov's Tit-Warbler, Red-fronted Serin, White-capped Bunting, and many more.
We
need to take a flight from London to Almaty that leaves in the early morning of
May 17, so you don't have time to catch the flight if you arrive from the US
that morning.
You may want to come into London on May 16 and spend the night.
Some of us will be spending the night near Gatwick Airport at a country
hotel to relax, walk and enjoy some local birding before we head out. The costs
for this overnight and meals are not included in the cost of the Venture.
Day
1 (Sunday, May 18)
After arrival at the Almaty Airport
in Kazakhstan, we will load up and leave for our hotel which located in the Ili
Alatau National Park. We can start birding immediately or have a rest after our
long flight. Hume's Leaf-warblers and Red-fronted Serins occur in the vegetation
around the hotel and there is a good chance to see 4 species of Vultures.
(Lammergeyer, Griffon, Eurasian Black and Himalayan Griffon)
Night in Almaty
Day 2 (Monday, May 19)
We'll leave early this morning around 7AM heading east towards the
Chinese border. We will bird en route hoping to see a good selection of Shrikes,
Warblers and raptors. After about 3 hours we will arrive at the Kokpek pass
where we have a good chance to find White-Capped Bunting, Blue Rock Thrush,
Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush, Rock Martin and Saker Falcon. After lunch at Kokpek
pass we will continue on to Tashqarasu and the Turanga forest for White-winged
Woodpecker, Saxaul Sparrow, Turkestan Tit, Booted Warbler and Yellow-eyed Dove,
before continuing on to the Ili River and Aydarly for Demoiselle Cranes, Desert
Wheatear and a possible Pallas Sandgrouse. This will be a long day so it will be
a pleasure to get to our hotel- where there is a good chance for the stunning
Azure Tit.
Night at Shilik Lodges
Day 3 (Tuesday, May 20)
After leaving the hotel around 7:30,
we will start the day between Masaq and Borandasu for Pallas Sandgrouse, Desert
Finch, Crimson-winged Finch, Mongolian Finch and Desert Warbler (nana
sub-species). Many desert species will be possible as we pass the Sharyn River
and the impressive Sharyn Canyon, where we will stop for lunch. We will then
head in a southerly direction towards the Kyrgyzstan border with stops in the
village of Temerlik for warblers, Kegen Pass for Meadow Bunting and Qarqara for
Demoiselle Crane, birds of prey (Golden Eagle, Himalayan Griffon Vulture),
before getting to our hotel in the early evening.
Night at Shilik Lodges
Day
4 (Wednesday, May 21)
Should we have missed Pallas'
Sandgrouse the day before, we will have an early start again to search for this
amazing bird in the area between Masaq and Borandasus. We will stop by the
Sogety plains for Desert Finches and Lesser Kestrel, before stopping at
Barthogay Lake. We hope to be back in Almaty by 6 PM in time for a good shower,
dinner and an early night in readiness for our adventure into the Taukum Steppes
the following morning.
Night
in Almaty
Taukum desert is probably one of the best spots
in the world for typical steppe and desert-species. The landscape has little
relief and the vegetation does not grow higher that 75 cm. Here we will have
good chance to find Caspian Plover, Greater Sand-Plover, Macqueen's Bustard,
Steppe Eagle, Imperial Eagle, and Bimaculated, White-winged, many thousands of
Short-toed and Calandra Larks. Because there are no facilities at all in this
part of Kazakhstan, we plan to set up a luxurious traditional Yurt Camp with
staff and a professional cook.
Day 5 (Thursday, May 22)
We'll leave the hotel early again at
7AM
,
with our first stop being at a colony of spectacular European Bee-eaters, with
chances for European Roller and Indian Sparrow. Our first major birding stop
will be at Sorbulak Lake, where can expect our first Hen Harrier, Paddyfield and
Great Reed Warblers, White and Dalmatian Pelicans, Collared Pratincole and White-tailed
Eagle. A stop at the famous
Sorbulak Dam should produce thousands of Rose-colored Starlings, before
departing for Bozoy where we will briefly search for Caspian Plover, Macqueen's
Bustard and White-winged Lark. Our next stop is in Aydarty for Warblers in the
village trees and bushes, with a possibility for Long-tailed Shrike. We should
arrive at our traditional Yurt Camp in the early evening.
Day 6 (Friday, May 23)
It's up again with the birds this
morning as we head out to the artesian wells at 5AM for Caspian Plover, Greater
Sand Plover and Sandgrouse. Driving
in a westerly direction from Qanshengel, we'll make a lunch stop at a place with
petroglyphs for Eastern Rock Nuthatch. Both White-winged and Bimaculated Larks
are possible in the surrounding steppes and we'll keep our eyes open for Steppe
Eagle and Steppe Grey Shrike. If we have enough time we'll drive past Aqsugek to
Alakol Lake for Great Black-headed Gull, before returning to our camp in the
evening.
Night at our traditional Yurt Camp
Day 7 (Saturday, May 24)
Today will be devoted to any species
we have missed over the past few days. We may go to Bozoy again to look for
Macqueen's Bustards. We also have the opportunity to spend a little of today
relaxing.
Night at our traditional Yurt Camp
Day 8 (Sunday, May 25)
We depart early to look for Black-crowned
Penduline Tit at Topar lakes, where it's also possible to find Shikra, Sykes's
Warbler and Ferruginous Duck. Our next stop will be the Turanga forest near
Zheltoranga for Yellow-eyed Dove, White-winged Woodpecker, Turkestan Tit, and
Saxual Sparrow. A stop at a Muslim cemetery near Zheltoranga could also produce
Pied Wheatear and Saxual Sparrow. On our way back to Almaty, we'll make a stop
at Bereke for Blue-cheeked Bee-eater and Pander's Ground Jay (1 out of 10 tours
see this bird so maybe our luck will be in today). It may be a late arrival back
in Almaty this evening.
Night in Almaty
Day
9 (Monday, May 26)
Because of the late arrival from
Taukum the night before, we will depart a little later today. Our destination is
the Observatory, accessible with four-wheel drive vehicles. We'll make stops
along the way for the amazing and enigmatic Wallcreeper, Blue Whistling-Thrush,
Brown Dipper, Blue-headed and Eversmann's Redstarts, and Grey Wagtail. We may
have a chance for European Three-toed Woodpecker in the forests!! Lunch will be
at the Observatory where we will walk around the camp looking for Rosefinches,
Himalayan Rubythroat, and White-winged Grosbeak.
Night at the Observatory
Day
10 (Tuesday, May 27)
We'll start the morning with another
walk around the Observatory before breakfast looking for more mid-elevation
species. After breakfast we will climb higher to the Cosmos Station, with our
targets being Guldenstadt's Redstart, Brown, Himalayan Accentor and Black-throated
Accentors and a good chance for Himalayan Snowcock. We'll return to the
Observatory for lunch.
After lunch we'll head to Big Almaty
Lake to look for the wonderful Ibisbill. Both Sulphur-bellied Warbler and
Severtov's Tit-Warbler occur in the area, so we will carefully search the
juniper shrubs near the observatory.
Night at the Observatory
Day
11 (Wednesday, May 28)
Today is for finding any species that we missed at Big Almaty Lake or
Cosmos. If we missed Guldenstadt's Redstart at Cosmos, then we'll head back to
try again as Cosmos is probably the best spot in the world for this beautiful
bird. If not we may go after the Ibisbill again. We should arrive around 7PM at
the hotel in Ili Alatau.
Night in Almaty
Day 12 (Thursday, May 29)
For anyone not wanting to do the
extension to Kurgulzino National Park, they can relax at the Almaty Hotel prior
to catching their return flight home. Participant doing the extension will
connect with their ongoing flight to Astana.
DAYS 12-15
(Thursday, May 29
-
Sunday, June 1)
The next three days is an extension
to Astana. The flight takes about 2 hours so our arrival will be just before
noon. After arrival we will depart for the
Kurgulzino 
National Park where we will be
birding for 2 full days with a professional birding guide from the park. Main
targets in the area of grass steppe are Black Lark, White-winged Lark, Sociable Lapwing, Terek Sandpiper, White-headed
Duck and Pine Bunting.
Nights
of May 29-31 in Kurgalzino National Park
Target species ; Himalayan Snowcock, Macqueen's
Bustard, Caspian Plover, Ibisbill, Pallas's Sandgrouse, Yellow-eyed Stock Dove,
White-winged Woodpecker, White-winged Lark, Black Lark, Himalayan Accentor,
Black-throated Accentor, Brown Accentor, "Caspian" Reed Warbler, White-browed
Tit-Warbler, White-tailed Rubythroat, Evermann's Redstart, White-winged
Redstart, Songar Tit, Turkestan Tit, Azure Tit, White-crowned Penduline Tit, ,
Red-mantled Rosefinch, White-winged Grosbeak, Saxaul Sparrow, Mongolian Finch, White-capped
Bunting, Pine Bunting, Gray-necked Bunting and Meadow Bunting
We will return to Almaty on June 1, where we can either spend the night in Almaty or connect with our ongoing flights home.
Due
to weather and other conditions, this itinerary is subject to change.
Venture
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