Off To Catch A Train

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On my last full day in Vladivostok I went back to Russky Island and found a couple more new birds. One of them popped up on to the top of a bush while I was trying to re-find a shrike (it turned out to be a brown shrike and not a bull-headed shrike as I hoped) and my immediate thought was “reed warbler” but of course there were no reeds anywhere for miles around. It was actually a thick-billed warbler, which is in the same genus as reed warblers but lives atypically in woodland and scrub. I don't know if it's considered a “good bird” to get (all new birds are good to me) but I was pleased with it. The other bird was more surprising to me. I was hanging round the beach waiting for cormorants to fly by to see if I could tell a Temminck's cormorant from a great cormorant, and a pelagic cormorant flew past. Twice. I had seen what was probably a pelagic cormorant the day before from a cliff-top but it was too far down to be 100% sure of, but this one was so close inshore that there was no mistaking it for any other species. The thing is though that from the field guide text I don't think there should be pelagic cormorants here at this time of year. Or maybe I'm just reading it wrong. None of the Temminck's/great cormorants came close enough at all for ID purposes.

So that's my time in Vladivostok up. I have quite liked the Russian part of the trip so far, despite the glumness of the city. If I hadn't found my bird spot on Russky Island it may have been a different story though! It was a bit frustrating not being able to get anywhere else. Winging it certainly doesn't work here! I tried to find out at the information centre if there were any one or two day tours to nature reserves or something that I could do. My question didn't register very well, so I found a promotional booklet on the shelves and pointed at photos of mountains and deer and birds. “No, very price” was the response, with nothing further forthcoming. I tried some internet searches and any tours were well outside my price range. If I was doing Russia as a one-off shorter trip then I would arrange some tours in advance, but for a longer trip where budgeting matters I can't afford that.

However, my main animal reason for coming to Russia wasn’t in Vladivostok anyway, it instead lies three days by train to the west. So today I am off to the station to catch a little train by the name of the Trans-Siberian.



Just as an aside, I found out today that US Americans can get a three year tourist visa for Russia now! They are the only nationality that can do so (because America and Russia have always been such good friends of course). The three year visa only costs US$20 or so more than the standard 30 day visa but it allows you to stay in Russia for up to six months at a stretch and return as many times as you like within the three year period.

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