Birds of Kazakhstan

Vaughan Ashby – Tuesday 4^th December 2007

The geography lesson! Kazakhstan was part of the former USSR & still has strong ties with Russia, its neighbour to the north & west. To the east lie Mongolia & China. ‘Stan’ means ‘land. Kazakhstan is the 1/8^th largest country in the world & has a population of less than 16 million people of many ethnic origins. We were surprised to hear that it is a very wealthy country, due to oil & mineral deposits. First

There are 3 main types of countryside:- the dramatic Tien Shan mountains which rise to 7000m, the Steppes, where wild herbs & flowers grow, including glorious areas of poppies & vast areas of lakes. The Caspian Sea forms part of the western boundary. Temperatures can vary from -40 to +50 degrees in some areas & winds of 200 kph have been recorded.

Thence to the birds! Vaughan Ashby does not claim to be a professional photographer, but he showed us photographs of a very high standard. Many of the birds were of families with which we are familiar but of species which we do not see in the UK, such as wheatears, warblers, wagtails & larks. Some birds we may have seen in Europe, such as hoopoe, roller & golden oriole. Others we would not recognise, for instance the grebes. Some birds occur in huge numbers, with rose-coloured starlings in a colony of 10,000. They have a habit of popping down holes as you approach, then popping up again behind you! Perhaps, surprisingly, there are 10,000 pairs of greater flamingo & red-phalarope migrate through in tens of millions.

Due to extremes of temperature in the mountains, many birds which breed there migrate to lower areas for the winter. However whilst black lark females do this, the males brave it out, sometimes with very high mortality- up to 90% or more. Amazingly, in the breeding season following a winter of particularly high mortality in males, the resulting chicks are mainly male.

There is evidence of man’s effect on the balance of nature, as in tree planting along roadsides in the Steppes to prevent snow drifting. The trees have been colonised by rooks & long-eared owls, to the detriment of the original avian natives in the surrounding area. There is also a lot of shooting, but it is in well controlled areas & does not appear to be having an adverse effect on the numbers. Some of the money generated is put into nature conservation projects.

Vaughan’s talk concluded with a brief look at some of the mammals & reptiles he has encountered in his travels.

Our speaker is a tour leader & has been to the country many times, his wife being a Kazakh. Sadly she was unable to attend the meeting as planned, but our speaker has a wealth of knowledge which provided a very interesting & entertaining talk.

Pat Thomson