Done! (Kluchiki, Thursday June 1, 2004)
Yesterday morning we did catch Iristu at his nest. We took off the satellite transmitter not working for a long time and marked him with a long-life terrestrial one so that it is possible to track him during the wintering in India.
We looked around for Altynai's nest in the afternoon - and we found him very quickly by surprise. It is hard to believe after the anabasis with Iristu, but it's so. We tried to take a picture of here this morning but the rain failed our intention (the rain also complicated our return to Kluchiki as we had to wait till the water runs down in front of one of the ford).
These moments we are saying goodbye to our friends in Kluchiki, and with Nikolai above all, without whom we would not be so successful. We are going to help Novosibirsk zoologists to mark black grouses (Falcipennis falcipennis) with VHF transmitters tomorrow and the day after that, and then we are flying to Mongolia on Sunday evening where we would like to mark two Black storks with satellite transmitters. I try my best to use Internet and send a set of photos before the departure...