Today began with a 4-wheel drive taxi ride (arranged through
our hotel the night before) up the track to Sameba Church which is prominently
perched on a hilltop west of Kazbegi above the village of Gergeti. From here we began the strenuous climb up the
obvious ridge towards Mount Kazbeg which the Irish lads had constantly said ‘we
won’t lie to you boys, it’s not an easy climb’! And they were right – it was
bloody hard work and took us 4 hours to reach the snowline at c10,000 feet, even from the
church. On the way up we’d seen several Caucasian Chiffchaffs, Steppe Buzzard,
c10 Red-billed Chough, a spiral of c40 Alpine Chough and several Camberwell
Beauties. Reaching the spot where it’s hard to go much further because of deep
snow we began to scan the ravine to the north which is where we’d been given
directions to. After ages and with optimism beginning to seriously wane we
finally got onto a stonking male Caucasian Great Rosefinch feeding on low dwarf
rhododendron on a snow free patch and closer inspection revealed 2 females with
it – phew! I don’t think any of us have had to work as physically hard for a
bird before. The immediate vicinity also gave us 2 Alpine Accentors, 2 – 4 Alpine Swifts, 2 Twite, 2 Red-fronted
Serins calling Caucasian Snowcock and a great group of 15 Caucasian Tur on the very steep slopes across the
ravine.
Back down in the woods on the way down we also had Common
Treecreeper, Jay and Red Squirrel which were preceded by a Red Fox on the
return walk. No bird photos were taken because we opted to travel as light as
possible for our trek and left my lens back at the hotel!
Climbing the ridge above Sameba Church
Looking for Caucasian Great Rosefinch
'Rosefinch Ravine' and Mount Kazbeg
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