We met early and it was cold, (wicked cold as they would say in Boston.) Bundled up we set out in a large van with room for 7 or 8 but our group was just my guide from UB, the biologist guide and a driver for this specific vehicle. Photographers love early and late light where the sun is not directly overhead and causes photos to be washed out. The early and late light provide an environment for much nicer photos. We headed back down the road toward the biologist station intending to observe the horses at their watering area along the river. Before we got there, the Takhis met us to escort us to the river. We saw several harems along the way before parking our vehicle. Just in case the other Takhi were taking the day off and visiting their relatives in a different area, we stopped to take some photos.
From there we proceeded to a hillside where many more Takhis were grazing in the early morning light. As we began walking up the hill in a circuitous route toward them, we heard the bleating of animal in pain. Well, he wasn't in pain from being injured, it was more a pain of need. In the binoculars, we found the source of the noise, it was a large, antlered male Maral Red Deer (actually an elk, but who argues with a biologist? me!) We made the decision to photograph the horses in front of us and then head toward the elk, hoping he would attract a crowd. While I was working on getting the optimal photo, my guide was scanning the area. Now he spotted, a wolf headed our way. Wow! A lot going on in just a few minutes. While I could observe the wolf, he was too far away for anything resembling a photograph.
So this was the end of this Takhi session and we moved in the direction of the wolf and elk. Unfortunately, the wolf was headed away from the elk and since there was only one hunting, we decided he might be too far away to pursue so we moved toward the bull elk that was bugling. Walking along in the vast land, it’s hard to judge distances and as we walked closer, the elk didn’t really seem to get much bigger. Finally, we reached the edge of the small hill we were on and could see the elk fairly far away (500 yards). With no easy way to get there, I agreed to continue and we decided to get to where the elk appeared to be, we needed to climb up the next hill and walk on the ridge line. Sounds easy but I’m a flatland person and we started out in UB at 1,600 meters (mile high). So a good idea became a bit of a struggle up over the rocks and onto the ridge. The views were nice, although a bit hazy. We began moving through the area in the general direction of the bugling elk. Shortly thereafter, we came upon a small group of does and watched them. No photos as they were headed the other way and I’m not interested in photographing the southbound end of the northbound elk except for this guy...
We worked our way around to the side and then found the bull elk waiting for his three does we had just seen. He was in perfect position for me to capture this…
Once they realized we were there, they bolted . Now that we were up on the ridge, I encouraged the group to keep going. Soon we were treated to really loud bugling from what must have been a very large bull. The biologist told me this was the big one. Although he was over the next ridge, we wandered in that direction and watched a few groups of elk running up and over a far hill, we believed in reaction to the first grouped we spooked.
We wandered around a rocky area and saw some elk in a reasonable distance and decided to split up. I went one way and my guide was going to go to the other side once I got in position. When I got there, something other than me spooked the three we had been watching so I rose from my hiding area to see a group of 25 elk rumbling right past me! Amazing sight!
On our way back to the van, I noticed a group of partridges which we surprised, fly away from us but landing in another section. Again, I got in position and this time the guide did spook them into flying and that resulted in this…
Once we got back in the van after this minor 3½ hour stroll through the hills, my guide decided it was time to visit someone so we went into his ger and they proceeded to scarf down cups of fermented milk tea and sad looking bread and rolls. After this break, it was down to a river in another side of the park where we saw very unusual sights like great blue herons and mergansers (ducks) that are very common in Massachusetts so no big deal seeing them.
Then we drove very near a group of black vultures (big and ugly) and focused our attention one individual hoping he would fly so we could see the size of his wingspan. Wish granted…
It was decided to find a way to cross two rivers and after unsuccessfully locating the right spot we stopped for lunch which consisted of two big chicken legs, salad, bread and a Kit Kat bar. After lunch we decided that we needed to cross the river for the best photo ops. The driver and biologist pulled over to one area where the river was narrow and I’m thinking narrow equals deep where wide at least has a chance to be shallower. So these two chuckleheads, take a small boulder and heave it into the middle of the water to determine whether or not we should drive through this area. I’m thinking this is stupid but didn’t say anything to them except “Can me and my camera equipment get out before you try to cross?” (Note to Edmund and Eric: Maybe I’ve wised up after avoiding two near disasters with my cameras.) So the two Einsteins decide not to cross at this point and we drive on to find a better spot. The next place they stopped, looked even worse so when they got out, I leaned over to my guide, Mungunchimeg, and said, “Maybe I should through one of these geniuses into the river and see if it’s deep enough?” Her response was, “I think you are sarcastic.” My thought was, “… and it only took two days for you to figure that out?” So the two Mensa candidates decided not to try and cross (without the benefit of throwing rocks) and we continued until we could get across. So, on the other side, we got out and walked for a few hours along the river yielding some small photographically interesting things like…
As the sun began to sink in the West, we headed back toward the Takhi drinking area but stopped at an old Turkish burial area (in the middle of Mongolia). The area is called Orkon and dates back to 500A.D. and is a graveyard lined with 550 stones supposedly placed there by mourners for the funeral of someone very important. How nice. Well, when my son invents a time machine, you can bet going to the middle of nowhere Mongolia in the year 500 AD will not be on top of my list! In fact, at this moment I wasn’t sure why I was there now!
Now fully focused on our end game which was Takhis, I was a bit concerned that our van made a sudden abrupt stop, but this time not to veer around the crummy roads. We came to a full stop. Well, there was a treat in store. We found a juvenile Steppe Eagle, who was exciting to watch, as all birds of prey are, but too far away to photograph.
As the day was nearing it’s end, I was treated once more to the sight of the beautiful Takhis. There were around the river to give me a nice farewell. Base on the animal count of our guide, we saw over 80 different Takhi or 33% of the park’s population in our little over 24 hours time.
Back to the ger for one more night’s sleep. Should be no problem sleeping after 6 hours of hiking at mile high elevation, now if I could just get more blankets. Did I say it was cold here? Tomorrow, it's on to Terelj National Park on the other side of UB and another ger. Hey, nothing goes to waste here, so guess what's on the dinner table tonight...
No comments:
Post a Comment