“World Class Bird”

In Kazakhstan, when nature photographer  Oleg Belyalov finally decided that we were serious naturalists, he wanted  to make sure we saw the best birds.

We had been out for a long day, so he took us to one of the clear little trout streams that flow through Almaty, where, in a bush on the bank, we spied one of these,

To be sure we got the point as well as a bird in our life list, he kept repeating “WORLD CLASS BIRD!”

It was. And as we had already that day seen an ibisbill,  a Eurasian black vulture, a snowcock,  and a LAMMER GEIER, it was especially noteworthy how  high Oleg  placed this bird…