Mongolia post #3: wildlife

I was largely clueless as to the identity of just about all the plants and wildlife I saw there, but I was sure impressed. This is a huge grasshopper that was common in the area (Tuv Aimag, Altanboulag Soum). This grasshopper looks like a specimen I saw in the Mongolian museum of natural history, which had two labels (!!!): Deracantha onos and Bradyporus multituberculatus. I think it is the latter. Well, I got some feedback - Deracantha it is - Thanks!


There was a lot of trapping activity by the locals in the area. These kids are looking on in glee as their dad prepares a fairly common local species, the Siberian marmot Marmota sibirica:


Birdwatching on foot in the high steppes of Mongolia is a little bit like pelagic bird watching in the middle of the ocean on a surfboard - not very effective... But I was able to tally about twenty species and caught glimpses of many, many other birds that well, I don't really know what they were...

common kestrel
black-eared kitehill pigeon
rook
Daurian jackdaw
red-billed chough
carrion crow
Eurasian hobby
black-billed magpie
domestic pigeon
Mongolian lark
Eurasian tree sparrowbarn swallow

demoiselle cranegolden eagle
northern wheatear
common raven
isabelline wheatear
great-horned owl (great observation while climbing)pied wheatear
white wagtail
Daurian partridge
horned lark