9 juni 2012 - Mongolia again

Two blog posts in a few days, must mean we are seeing some good birds...since leaving Ulaanbaatar we have been enjoying some great birding, highlights around Jalman meadows have included Lammergeier, Black Vulture, Steppe, Booted & Golden Eagles, Amur & Saker Falcons, Hobby, Black Stork, 16 Black Grouse, Demoiselle Crane, Oriental Cuckoo, Daurian Jackdaw, Black, Three-toed, Grey-headed and Lesser spotted Woodpeckers, Wryneck, lots of singing Rubythroats, Red-throated Thrush, Rock Thrush, Pine, Black-faced & Yellow-breasted Buntings, Long-tailed Rosefinch, Azure Tit, Pallas's Grasshopper, Dusky, Yellow-browed, Two-barred & Thick-billed Warblers, Daurian Redstart, Pacific Swift, Blyth's & Olive-backed Pipits, Citrine & Baikal Wagtails, Isabelline Wheatear, Dark-sided & Taiga Flycatchers, Brown Shrike & Hawfinch.
We have now moved on to Gun Galuut, the large lake had 11 Stejneger's Scoters this morning plus 2 Red-necked Stint, PG Plover, Mongolian Larks, 300+ Demoiselle Cranes, breeding Whooper Swans.
It's now chucking it down, so sitting in the ger while it passes....
It stopped raining briefly so Dan, Guido and I checked a handful of small bushes in the camp, producing 6 PG Tips, 2 Black-faced Bunting, Thick-billed Warbler and a Dusky Warbler.
Then the sun came out and Dan decided to take his scope to the restaurant, where (whilst downloading photos) he managed to find 2 White-naped Cranes....so i gathered everyone up and we drove off into the marsh. Once there and watching the cranes Dan then exceeded himself again by finding a Siberian Crane!!! A lifer for all of us and having missed the species 8 times before a real surprise.
At the same time we saw the White-napes again, were surrounded by singing Mongolian Larks, Pacific Swifts, feeding swallows and Pale Sand Martins and a fly through Amur Falcon!
Back at the ger we could even see the Sibe from the ger!