Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Trip to Chachuna and around Vashlovani National Park

Birdwatching season for the 2011 is opened; was made our first weekend trip for this year in one of the birding hotspots of Georgia, Chachuna and Vashlovani NP. Target bird for this trip was Little Bustard, usually those birds can be seen on wintering grounds such as Chachuna and Iori upland. This is a hilly area, with plenty of gorges, which gather into valleys or vanish into plains. The hills are composed of low ridges with naturally eroded slopes. Trip was very successful and on the first morning we found a three different flocks of this nice birds in total approximately 10 000 birds.

Furthermore there was seen other species such as: Common Buzzard, Long-legged Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Marsh Harrier, Hen (or Northern) Harrier, Rock Dove, Stock Dove, Calandra Lark, Eurasian Skylark, Crested Lark, Grey Wagtail, Mistle Thrush, Great Tit, Corn Bunting, Chaffinch, European Goldfinch, Eurasian Siskin, Twite, Rock Sparrow, Common Starling, Red-fronted Serin, Great Crested Grebe, Dalmatian Pelican, Great Cormorant, Pygmy Cormorant, Grey Heron, Great White Egret, Ruddy Shelduck, Mallard, Common Pochard, Smew, Common Coot, Common Raven, Hooded Crow, Common Black-headed Gull.

Pictures from the trip to Trip to Chachuna and around Vashlovani National Park available at://https://picasaweb.google.com/ecotours.ge/Vash#