Monday, December 31, 2007

Shine Jiliin Mend Hurgii!!!

The beautiful Christmas tree Marm sent, complete with presents for unwrapping at Christmas! Thanks, moms and wonderful friends!


Happy New Year!!!

We have had a wonderful holiday season here, despite missing good times with family and friends back home. The two weeks in UB playing with Peace Corps friends, and the playing with Mongolian friends here in Choibalsan have been fun and rejuvenating. Combined with the gifts and greetings from home, we have the holiday spirit all around us.

Many have asked if Christmas is celebrated here. The answer is yes and no. They don’t have Christmas in the religious sense. Christianity is not a popular religion here. The culture has adopted much of the symbolism, however, and has incorporated it into their New Year’s observations, without all of the same practices or trappings as we have at home. There are tinsel, garland, and strings of lights everywhere. A common style is to hang extra long tinsel, strand-by-strand, from the ceilings; a labor intensive process with a big payoff. The glints of rainbow light look great. At the same time, it can be tough to navigate through the jungles of tinsel, as it often hangs down to neck level. There are artificial trees in many of the restaurants and schools. Many people know some of the better-known American Christmas songs, with maybe a dozen versions of "Last Christmas" being the runaway favorites. The culture has a Santa-like New Year's figure. He's an old, bearded man dressed in blue and white, who is like a shepherd of snow and winter, and goes by names such as "Winter Grandfather" and "Old Snow Man;" but some people have taken to calling him Santa.

There is modest gift-giving with candy and snacks being the dominant choices. We’re told socks are pretty popular, too.

Actually, ringing in the new year is a much bigger deal than Christmas, with parties, fireworks and the requisite watching of wrestling on TV. Generally, socializing with co-workers is a very big deal here and usually the spouses are left at home during office parties. The New Year’s bash is no exception, yet Julie’s school colleagues were kind enough to include me in the activities. It was a great time! A wonderful thing about partying with people here is that many people seem to adopt us as instant friends. I liken it to children meeting on the playground for the first time – often a bond develops, almost immediately, and we play together like we’ve been life-long buddies. Part of it is their welcoming, playful nature, part is that Julie and I are a novelty, and part of it, I think, is the “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” condition – have a blast now and the details will not leave the room.

We’re pictured here with two of Julie’s co-workers, Chimgee and Zoloo, seated at a pretty typical holiday table. The cakes are beautiful and ubiquitous and serve as the centerpiece of a New Year's party table. The big, frosted bottle is “Chinggis” vodka, the top of the line here. On New Year's, people get dressed up in their finest. The women often get their hair styled just for this party and wear lavish dresses as if going to the prom. Dusting hair and painting eyes with glitter is common and adorable, even for some of the men.

At the party, we were fed several yummy courses, played games, and danced a lot. Unlike at home, where it is more common to eat first and then dance, the dancing begins right away here. The common method is for people to form a large circle and the braver, zanier dancers take turns in the middle. The dance music varies a lot with some ABBA, hip-hop and techno in the standard dance mix. The big game was a lottery in which nearly everyone won something (Julie even won 1000 tugriks - a whole dollar!), and in another game, I found myself in a bizarre situation – blind-folded with absolutely no clue about what was being said or what I was supposed to do. Zoloo helped me by explaining that I was supposed to feel people and guess who they were. Knowing only a few people in the crowd made the task even stranger. I could only laugh and play along. Julie got to be one of the "feelees," though, so at least I got one right!


Here are a couple of holiday scenes: holiday cakes for sale at the market; a school pageant with students dressed as the 12 different animals in the Chinese zodiak; and another cherub...
















We wish you, our dear friends and family many blessings and good times in the year ahead. Happy 2008!!!!!!!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Quality

For this North American, the birdwatching in Mongolia has been great fun. I've been in-country for about 6 months and I’ve seen about 80 species on occasional weekend treasure hunts. I’ve seen it written that what Mongolia lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality. And I’ve been lucky in my short stay to have discovered some very high quality.

Part of my summer was spent in Sukhbaatar soum in Selenge aimag which is located in the country’s extreme north. The area boasts rolling grasslands, small wooded hills and a marsh area just south of the population center.

Among my summer favorites were a pair of Hooded Cranes. I found them only once in the marsh in mid-August, and I’m guessing they were in transit. Also in the marsh, I was delighted to have a Baillon’s Crake slip out of the reeds into plain view and a flyby of the massive Great Bittern. I really enjoyed watching the feeding and flitting of the large flock of resident White-winged Terns. Among the ducks species were Ruddy Shelduck, Garganey, Northern Shoveler and Gadwall. My favorite forest denizens were Hazel Grouse and a cute Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

At the end of August, since Julie and I have lived in Dornod aimag in the extreme east, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the diversity I’ve found in the steppe. I’m lucky to have a large river snaking nearby and a section of it features a largely willow riparian zone. Fall migration did not disappoint with about 40 new entries on my life list – a list that now exceeds 640 different species.












I love owls and the Eurasian Eagle Owl and Oriental Scops Owl I found in Choibalsan are runaway (flyaway?) favorite finds so far. I found the latter at dusk on October 1st. A Dark-throated Thrush caught my attention as it flew up into a nearby tree. Just below the Thrush, the Scops Owl sat perched. I called Julie on my cell phone and she took the 10 minute walk to find us. What a treat!!!

The Bar-headed and Swan Geese have been real prizes as were the Eurasian Nightjar, Japanese Quail and a surprise Chinese Pond Heron on October 4th, which I spooked and got long looks at along the Kherlen River in Choibalsan. Also along the Kherlen, I found a Chinese Grey Shrike on both November 3rd and again on November 11th. It would only allow me to get within about 20 meters before moving off to a more distant perch or to hunt by hovering over the nearby grasslands. This was quite unlike the very tame Northern Shrikes I’m used to in the States. I found it again on November 24th.

The Wryneck, Palla’s Sandgrouse and Eurasian Spoonbill I found this fall have curious appearances while the Azure Tits, Bramblings, Orange-flanked Bush Robins and Daurian Redstarts were all striking.


I’ve been impressed by all the bunting species and in my short time here, I’ve already enjoyed spying the Tristram’s, Rustic, Little, Black-faced, Palla’s and Meadow varieties. I’m told the Tristram’s is a rarity. The winners of the prize for cuteness are the diminutive Lanceolated and Rusty-rumped Warblers who slinked about in the grasses underfoot and would occasionally peer up at me in apparent curiosity. They were adorable.

I’m looking forward to future visits to other habitats in Mongolia and to find some of the real prizes in the world of cranes and raptors. I’ll let you know how that goes.