GEORGIA AND ARMENIA MAY 2006 TOUR NEWS Leaders: Svetlana Annenkova, Vaughan Ashby and local guides

Birdfinders first Georgia and Armenia tour was a great success. During our four-night stay in Kazbegi in the Greater Caucasian Mountains of Georgia we were blessed with good generally weather, which meant that many of the mountain species were higher up. Nevertheless, on our first full day on the west side of the valley we enjoyed excellent views of Caucasian Black Grouse together with Caucasian Snowcock and Great Rosefinch. On the second day we had to climb high up a grassy slope to see Güldenstadt's Redstart but enjoyed excellent views of Caucasian Snowcock from the valley bottom. On day three we found a superb male Güldenstadt's Redstart still in the 'park' alongside the road and we enjoyed this bird for the next two days alongside Green Warblers and Mountain Chiffchaffs. Of the other mountain birds, we enjoyed multiple views of Lammergeier, Eurasian Griffon-vulture, Red-fronted Serin, Twite and White-winged Snowfinch, whilst a pair of Wallcreepers at eye level alongside the road was much appreciated by everyone. Migration was much in evidence with large numbers of European Honey-buzzards and Red-backed Shrikes as well as smaller numbers of many other species including Corn Crake, Red-throated Pipit, Great Reed-warbler, Marsh Warbler, Thrush Nightingale and Black-headed Bunting. So we left Georgia having seen all of the speciality birds.

Moving on to Armenia, we spent two nights in each of Dilijan and Yeghegnadzor before finishing the tour in Yerevan for four nights. Highlights were large colonies of Armenian Gulls on Lake Sevan whilst in the Lesser Caucasian Mountains everyone in the group saw two Caspian Snowcocks, some not even having to walk away from the four-wheel-drives! In a beautiful gorge we found both Eastern and Western Rock Nuthatches breeding alongside each other whilst Upcher's Warbler's were literally everywhere! After the excitement of our first White-throated Robin we found them to be common and literally hundreds of Rose-coloured Starlings flew around in large pre-breeding flocks. Syrian Woodpeckers were very co-operative whilst Black-headed Buntings had certainly arrived in force. At Armash Fishponds we found all the speciality birds including Pygmy Cormorant, Marbled Duck, White-tailed Lapwing, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater and Ménétries's Warbler, whilst at Vedi in the Oorts Mountains we found both Finsch's and Red-tailed Wheatears, as well as many singing male Grey-necked Buntings. We were extremely fortunate to find a pair of the rarely seen Mongolian Finches, albeit briefly, but Trumpeter Finches were the exact opposite, literally hopping around our feet for 15 minutes. Bimaculated, Short-toed and Lesser Short-toed Larks were common and it was good to see that the numerous Corn Buntings had not suffered the same fate as in the UK. The parks of Yerevan gave us Levant Sparrowhawk whilst on our last day we drove up Mount Aragat enjoying several Radde's Accentors, the magna form of Bluethroat and some stunning wild flowers.

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