May 7, 2009

More on Ulaanbaatar’s Children’s Park

The Children’s (or Nairamdal) Park in the city centre of Ulaanbaatar, just to the south of Sukhbaatar Square, is (was) a green lung for the ever sprawling city. It provided an escape from the air pollution for many of UB's inhabitants. And it was a place for wildlife in the city!


Inside the park, August 2005.
Gone now... © Axel Bräunlich

These wooden statures were bulldozed...
Still standing Nov 2007. © Axel Bräunlich

I used to go birding there regularly, often just for a short morning stroll. Some of my observations from autumn 2005 show the potential which the park has for wild birds:

10+ Brown Shrikes on 24 August
55 Little Buntings on 19 September
A remarkable total of c.60 Daurian Redstarts on 24 September.



Other species I have seen in the park in autumn 2005 include for example Wryneck, Arctic Warbler, Two-barred Warbler, Dusky Warbler, Yellow-browed Warbler, Pallas’s Leaf Warbler, Nauman’s and Dusky Thrush, Oriental Turtle Dove, Siberian Rubythroat, Red-flanked Bluetail, Evermann’s Redstart, Olive-backed Pipit, Yellow-breasted Bunting, Pine Bunting, Azure Tit, Black(-eared) Kite, Blyth’s and Richard’s Pipit, Azure Tit, and Long-tailed Rosefinch.


New housing just outside the park, August 2005.
© Axel Bräunlich


Ulaanbaatar - ripe for (uncontrolled) development.
The park is behind these construction sites...
November 2007. © Axel Bräunlich

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