Birding Tours to Karaganda region

Nura river in Kazakhstan.

Birding Tours to Karaganda region.

“He said that we belonged together because he was born with a flower and I was born with a butterfly and that flowers and butterflies need each other for survival”

Gemma Malley. The Declaration.

Karaganda region nature.

Nura (kaz. Nұra) is a river in Kazakhstan. The largest river of the Nura-Sarysu basin. Most of the Nura River belongs to the inland drainage Aral-Caspian basin, in some wet years part of the flow overflows into the Ishim River, then into the Irtysh River, then into the Ob River, which flows into the Kara Sea.
The river basin is located in two regions - Karaganda and Akmola. Nura flows into Lake Tengiz (this is the "pearl" of the Korgalzhyn nature reserve, the habitat of the famous pink flamingos). The sources of the river are located in the central part of the Kazakh small hills, in the Kyzyltas mountains (altitude 1100 - 1250 meters above sea level).
The length of the river is 978 kilometers, the catchment area is 58.1 000 square kilometers. It flows within the Kazakh small hills. The main tributaries of the Nura River are the Sherubay-Nura, Ulkenkundyzdy and Akbastau rivers.
In some wet years, part of the runoff overflows into the Ishim River near the city of Astana through the rivers: Sarkyrama, Mukyr, Kozykosh. The territory of the river basin refers to areas of marked insufficient moisture.
The peculiarity of the river is that the main volume of annual runoff (up to 90% and higher) passes in a short period of spring flood. In the summer-autumn-winter low water flow rates of rivers are significantly reduced.
In summer, it dries upstream, freezes in winter. The water in the lower reaches is brackish in summer. It freezes in early November, opens in April.