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Gongping Dahu NR. 9/10th July 2011.
I was joined this W/E by John & Jemi Holmes and Jonathan Martinez.The latter had never visited Dahu beach before to see the Swinhoe's Plover. The weather held good although it was very hot and humid. A bit of a suprise was to find the PRCA holding manoeuvers in the village and on the beach but luckily yhe SP breeding season is virtually over and most of this year's crop of juveniles from two broods have already departed, leaving around 60+ adults...

BIJ

I was joined this weekend by a prestigious group from Hong Kong, Richard Lewthwaite,Mike Kilburn and Martin Hale. Needless to say I was quite nervous that the birds would have vanished but happily we found plenty of Swinhoe's Plover at both sites although I didn't carry out another beach count numbers remain strong. I am learning more and more each week about these charismatic birds which differ so strongly from nominate and Eastern sp. nihonensis Kentish Plovers both in appearnce and behaviour....

BIJ

I returned to both Shanghaizai village (Lufeng) and Dahu (Haifeng) beaches to carry out a head count of Swinhoe's Plover. Saturday was bright sunshine with no threat of thundertstorms which was great relief but Sunday was overcast with a rough sea from the typhoon which had recently passed the Philipines.
Saturday: Shangahizai beach (3.5kms) 148 Swinhoe's Plover which consited of approx 60+pairs, 7x 1st Spring juveniles, 2 Chicks and small groups of two males chasing a female. I was able...

BIJ

A. (Charadrius) dealbatus. I visited a new location on Saturday close to my normal weekend a haunt at Dahu, south of Haifeng in Guangdong. This time I based myself in Lufeng and cabbed down to a little village south of the town, Shanghaizai. I was primamrily trying to get closer to a sandpsit which holds Terns but I got lost and ended up on the wrong peninsular. However I managed to persuade a local fisherman to very kindly ferry me across the estuary for a small consideration. I estimated that...

BIJ

This place is my spiritual birdwatching home in northern China and somewhere I would recommend to any birder visiting the Beijing area that they make the effort and visit. It is good at all times of the year but perhaps less so during the months of June and July.
Yeyahu NR and neighbouring Ma Chang are to my mind the premier birdwatching sites in the Beijing area. Surprisingly the area is grossly underbirded and in the three years that I lived in Beijing, having visited the site more than...

BIJ