Birding in the Chorokhi Delta
The first of september 2013 was a day that will be long remembered for us, four lucky BRC counters that decided to spend their day off in the Chorokhi delta.
Not because of the weather though. When we arrived at 8 am the rain poured down already and it wouldn't really stop. The heavy rainfall of the night before resulted in much higher water levels than normal, making an otherwise easy walk now a challenging exercise, and after one hour we were completely soaked, cold and trembling, even considering to go back. Given the fact that it couldn't get any worse we decided to give it a try and worked our way to the beach. A day that started with rain ended with rain, but also with a lot of birds.
Despite the heavy rain and our limited use of optics, the bushes on our way to the beach produced good numbers of passerines. These including several olivaceous warblers, barred warbler, wryneck, shrikes, whinchats and (hemprichii) stonechats. In the open areas in between these bushes we found ortolan buntings, yellow and citrine wagtails and a flock of 40 short-toed larks. In one of the flooded areas we found our first two broad-billed sandpipers, several wood sandpipers and a nice flock of 25 little gulls. When we arrived at the beach, one of the first birds we found was a beautiful though rain-soaked black-eared wheatear. During a brief intermission in the rain, we decided to try our luck over the sea. This was very productive, with 4 arctic skuas, 75 garganeys, a red-necked grebe with some great crested grebes and an astonishing 674 yelkouan shearwaters in two time frames of 30 min!
Walking north we flushed 3 little bitterns from the small bushes on the beach, as well as lots of willow warblers, whitethroats, wheatears, wagtails and a great reed warbler. Even more spectacular were the lesser whitethroat, 5 hoopoes, 3 nightjars and 1 roller that we saw coming in from the sea. Good numbers of yellow wagtail were migrating south, with 300 of them in a five-minute frame only. The river mouth was very interesting, with 5 additional broad-billed sandpipers and a terek sandpiper in a nice mixed flock of waders. A huge flock of 400 white-winged terns, 400 little terns, 30 gull-billed terns, several common terns, whiskered terns and a couple of caspian terns was continuously flying around. The air was filled with mixed groups of up to 110 greenshanks, 90 wood sandpipers, 100s of calidris sandpipers, 22 night herons, tens of grey and purple herons and much more.
The downside of this nice day (besides the pouring rain and fogged up optics) was the presence and activity of hunters. We counted 194 shots during our time in the delta and saw at least a dozen hunters. Several herons were flying round with broken legs or damaged wings. The most heart-breaking part was the moment when we had to euthanize a ringed plover laying on the beach, wounded from a gun shot.
This day showed us the importance of the Chorokhi delta as a stopover place for a great variety of birds. Although it may be cold and wet, Chorokhi delta may be very well worth a visit on a rainy day!
Wouter van Pelt, Rasmus Elleby, Zackarias Svensson and Filip Collit
| Passing | Staying | Comment | ||
| Shoveler | Anas clypeata | 3 | ||
| Wigeon | Anas penelope | 2 | ||
| Garganey | Anas querquedula | 75 | ||
| Little grebe | Tachybaptus ruficollis | 2 | ||
| Great crested grebe | Podiceps cristatus | 6 | 2 | |
| Red-necked grebe | Podiceps grisegena | 1 | ||
| Yelkouan shearwater | Puffinus yelkouan | 674 | Passed during approx. one hour | |
| Cormorant | Phalacrocorax carbo | 4 | ||
| Little bittern | Ixobrychus minutus | 3 | ||
| Night heron | Nycticorax nycticorax | 35 | 13 + 22, probably 2 birds shot | |
| Squacco heron | Ardeola ralloides | 2 | ||
| Little egret | Egretta garzetta | 6 | 10 | |
| Grey heron | Ardea cinerea | 50 | 10 | |
| Purple heron | Ardea purpurea | 10 | 20 | |
| Marsh harrier | Circus aeruginosus | 1 | 2 | One immature male coming in from the sea |
| Montagu's/Pallid harrier | Circus pygragus/macrourus | 2 | ||
| Honey buzzard | Pernis apivorus | 1 | Coming in from the sea | |
| Hobby | Falcon subbuteo | 2 | ||
| Peregrine falcon | Falco peregrinus | 1 | ||
| Oystercatcher | Haematopus ostralegus | 9 | ||
| Ringed plover | Charadrius hiaticula | 3 | 1 shot bird | |
| Grey plover | Pluvialis squatarola | 35 | ||
| Turnstone | Arenaria interpres | 1 | ||
| Dunlin | Calidris alpina | 100 | ||
| Broad billed sandpiper | Limicola falcinellus | 7 | ||
| Little stint | Calidris minuta | 24 | ||
| Wood sandpiper | Tringa glareola | 90 | ||
| Green sandpiper | Tringa ochropus | 10 | ||
| Common sandpiper | Actitis hypoleucos | 1 | ||
| Terek sandpiper | Xenus cinereus | 1 | ||
| Greenshank | Tringa nebularea | 110 | ||
| Black-tailed godwit | Limosa limosa | 9 | ||
| Whimbrel | Numerius phaeopus | 1 | ||
| Ruff | Philomachus pugnax | 5 | ||
| Arctic skua | Stercorarius parasiticus | 4 | juv | |
| Black-headed gull | Chroicocephalus ridibundus | 1 | ||
| Slender-billed gull | Chroicocephalus genei | 1 | ||
| Yellow-legged gull | Larus michahellis | 2000 | ||
| Little gull | Hydrocoloeus minutus | 25 | ||
| Little tern | Sternula albifrons | 400 | ||
| Gull-billed tern | Gelochelidon nilotica | 30 | ||
| Common tern | Sterna hirundo | 10 | ||
| Caspian tern | Hydroprogne caspia | 4 | ||
| White-winged tern | Chlidonias leucopterus | 400 | ||
| Whiskered tern | Chlidonias hybrida | 8 | ||
| Turtle dove | Streptopelia turtur | 14 | ||
| Nightjar | Caprimulgus europaeus | 3 | Coming in from the sea | |
| Hoopoe | Upupa epops | 9 | 5 coming in from sea | |
| Kingfisher | Alcedo atthis | 4 | ||
| Roller | Coracias garrulus | 2 | 1 coming in from the sea | |
| Wryneck | Jynx torquilla | 1 | ||
| Shorttoed lark | Calandrella brachydactyla | 40 | large flock | |
| Sand martin | Riparia riparia | 200 | ||
| Barn swallow | Hirondo rustica | 250 | 120 | |
| House martin | Delichon urbicum | 30 | ||
| Tree pipit | Anthus trivialis | 10 | ||
| White wagtail | Motacilla alba | 50 | ||
| Yellow wagtail | Motacilla flaca | 300 | 150 | flava/thunbergi/feldegg. 300 birds passing in only 5 minutes |
| Citrine wagtail | Motacilla citreola | 10 | ||
| Trush nightingale | Lusciana lusciana | 15 | ||
| Wheatear | Oenanthe oenanthe | 50 | ||
| Black-eared wheatear | Oenanthe melanoleuca | 1 | ||
| Whinchat | Saxicola rubetra | 15 | ||
| Siberian stonechat | Saxicola maurus hemprichii | 3 | ||
| Barred warbler | Sylvia nisoria | 1 | ||
| Blackcap | Sylvia atricapilla | 5 | ||
| Whitethroat | Sylvia communis | 15 | ||
| Lesser whitethroat | Sylvia curruca | 2 | ||
| Great reed warbler | Acrocephalus arundinaceus | 4 | ||
| Olivecious warbler | Iduna pallida | 5 | ||
| Willow warbler | Phylloscopus trochilus | 20 | ||
| Spotted flycatcher | Muscicapa striata | 1 | ||
| Great tit | Parus major | 2 | ||
| Penduline tit | Remiz pendulinus | 1 | ||
| Lesser grey shrike | Lanius minor | 1 | ||
| Red-backed shrike | Lanius collurio | 50 | ||
| Hooded crow | Corvus cornix | 35 | ||
| Golden oriole | Oriolus oriolus | 3 | ||
| Ortolan bunting | Emberiza hortulana | 16 | ||
| Shots | 194 | |||
| Shot birds | ||||
| Ringed plover | 1 | |||
| Night heron | 1 | |||
| Purple heron | 1 |