• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Panjin Birding by the Old Fat Man (1 Viewer)

The smoke from all the agricultural burning has kept me close to home the last few days. About 200 meters visibility much of the time, with even much less for clear enough to make an ID or photo. Everything just looks grey. Even at less than 50 meters you had difficulty making out the Azure-winged Magpie's blue. We had planned to make a trip back to Gedalou Reservoir at Dawa to look for water birds but conditions caused cancellation. Cold and windy today. Hopeful for tomorrow though. The ice is finally gone on the ponds and lakes so may go back to have another try at one of the river estuaries.

I did make two short trips to the nearby city parks.

2015-APR-04

(6) Tarsiger cyanurus - Orange-flanked Bush Robin (Red-flanked Bluetail) All males apparently trying to stake out territory but still grouped up close together. I believe the females were hiding out in the nearby brush.

(4) Periparus venustulus - Yellow-bellied Tit Hadn't seen them for awhile.

(8) Emberiza chrysophrys - Yellow-browed Bunting Another one that had stayed out of sight lately.

(15) Passer montanus - Eurasian Tree Sparrow Doing their usual squabbling talking.


APR-05 Same location

(9) Cyanopica cyana - Azure-winged Magpie

(1) Upupa epops - Hoopoe

(8) Tarsiger cyanurus - Red-flanked Bluetail (Orange-flanked Bush Robin) Two were females this time. They have started to spread out as they settle who's territory is what.

(2) Emberiza rustica - Rustic Bunting These little fellows only show up rarely and never seems to be at the same place twice.

(20) Passer montanus - Eurasian Tree Sparrow I had two males in their typical mid-air fight so focused on each other that they almost ran right into me at high speed!


At least I did get some good pictures showing more promise of spring arriving here.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0108.jpg
    IMG_0108.jpg
    23.4 KB · Views: 161
  • IMG_0158.jpg
    IMG_0158.jpg
    113.5 KB · Views: 164
Your name for the Blue-tail is probably more accurate, apparently a lot of animals were named before the "invention" of the colour orange, hence why we over here have Red Squirrel, Red Fox, Red Kite, and the sort of colloquial name Robin red-breast. So it probably should be Orange-flanked Bluetail :)
 
2015-APR-07
We scrubbed the trip to try for waterfowl again due to it being cold and windy again so I decided to try the wooded areas along the irrigation ditch with the hope that the trees would shield the wind. They did and it turned into one of the better days, although it did not start that way.

Hoping to spot the Grosbeak again, I chose to walk north along the irrigation ditch bank. Within the last couple of days the previously dry ditch had been flooded, which seemed promising. However, at first it seemed like a washout as up to about 4km into the walk and considering just giving it up I had only logged a few Tree Sparrows and Azure-winged Magpie.

Score at this point, 4km and 2 hours into the search:
(30) Passer monotonous - Eurasian Tree Sparrow
(10) Azure-winged Magpie

Even the Japanese Tits that usually were there to scold me were a no show. Just as I was ready to give up, I spotted a Tree Creeper and while trying to photo it, a little still unidentified who proceeded to do its hummingbird imitation as it hovered and worked its way around some tree limbs while reaching out to peck at the bark. Grabbing little insects I could not see, I am sure. I got one photo of it setting in the crotch of a branch, showing the face and figured the prominent white eye ring would make it easy, but I am still not finding it. Several photos of it hovering around a branch. Another photo perched where the eye is covered by a branch.

Thats better, add two more:
(1) Certhia familiarus - Eurasian Treecreeper
(1) Unidentified hummingbird imitator (See pictures of my unidentified finds at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A85oqs3q4o4eF

Those boosted my enthusiasm so I decided to push on further than I had in the past. Good decision as just about 100 meters further on I had what to me was the find of the day. A flash of bright yellow caught my attention as a Grey Wagtail landed on the other bank of the ditch. He took a drink and as I started snapping away (picture attached) I was puzzled by what he was doing. He was bobbing and strutting in what looked to be an obvious display, but who was he displaying too? There were not any others around. Only when I got home and viewed the photos on cropped and on my desktop display did I realize what was up. He was seeing his own reflection in the water! A pretty boy, but apparently not the sharpest tool in the shed. Add one more:
(1) Motacilla cineria - Grey Wagtail

I decided to keep going and about a km further, I hit a patch of park with a good mix of open woods, dense brush and open grass right next to the irrigation ditch for water. Within about a 50 meter wide circle I made all the rest of my observations. The problem suddenly changed from searching to find any birds at all to literally standing in one place and rapidly snapping photos in all directions! Apparently somebody had called a meeting and I had missed the memo!

(6) Motacilla alba - White Wagtail
(6) Eophona migratory - Yellow-billed Grosbeak
(1) Emberiza elegant - Elegant Bunting
(2) Pycnonotus sinuses - Light-vented Bulbul
(1) Bombycilla japonica - Japanese Waxwing (Maybe the same single stray I had seen elsewhere, now hanging out with the Grosbeak, his Bohemian friends no where in sight.
(2) Turdus eunomus - Dusky thrush (Hiding deep in pines)
(1) Unidentified - The big black bib looks like the White Wagtail, but a lot less black showing. Maybe a younger bird? An alba of the alba? See full size at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A85oqs3q4o4eF

At his point, 6km and 3 hours in I gave up and took a taxi home. All in all a good outing. Actually, I think that I enjoy the challenge of ferreting out all these land bound birds hiding in the brush one at a time over trying to identify and count large quantities of water birds out in the open. Turns out there is some use for the hunting skills I learned 50+ years ago!

Any help with ID always appreciated https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A85oqs3q4o4eF
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0264.JPG
    IMG_0264.JPG
    161.1 KB · Views: 170
  • IMG_0192.JPG
    IMG_0192.JPG
    97.6 KB · Views: 172
Owen, your hummingbird imitator is a Pallas's Leaf Warbler, often the first leaf warbler of Spring. They often hover as you described. You also have a picture of a Goldcrest in your icloud photo stream! It's the most right hand photo half way down beside the two White Wagtail pictures. The Wagtail looks leucopsis to me. Good stuff!
Tom
 
Thanks Tom. I was correct in identifying it as a White Wagtail then. Now that I know what to search for I can find at least one picture on Flicker that is almost a perfect match and with a lot of discussion in a group where they settle on Motacilla alba leucopsis. Avibase sites Clements 2012 and lists it as a separate species of Motacilla leucopsis - Amur Wagtail. As you can see here: http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?avibaseid=AD5998C2AD9E0DB6 it is a debated topic with quite a number of alternative arraignments suggested. Interestingly enough, the printed checklist that I keep is from Avibase-Bird Checklists of the World customized for Liaoning, but it doesn't include their own Amur Wagtail. In short, I am not the only person not sure where to put this. Executive decision: Amur Wagtail it is.

The Goldcrest was an accidental find as I was trying (unsuccessfully) to catch the Treecreeper. I have found buntings that I did not notice visually sometimes as I will often snap a photo of a flock of sparrows and review it later to see if anybody else was tagging along unnoticed.

I would not have gotten the Pallas's Leaf Warbler as it never sat still long enough to get a good look. Now that I look it up, a definite match.

We are off to look for water birds in a few moments - wish me luck!
 
Great possibilities for waterbirds in your part of the world, Owen. I look forward to hearing what you pick up.

Cheers
Mike
 
2015-APR-09

Since we will have not electricity or water tomorrow, I am going to get a posting out on today's viewing of water birds. It got cut short, but it was still a great outing!

We delayed until afternoon hoping it would warm up a little and it did make it to about 10 C by that time. Pretty stiff wind though and dark grey skies. We went back to Gedalou Reservoir in Panjin, Dawa, Liaoning. A little background I learned today, according to the local who drove us out there from Dawa city. The lake was a project of the Japanese during their occupation of Manchuria in the 1930’s and ’40’s. He said his grandfather had been slave labor on the project and had died working there. It must be spring fed as despite the very dry winter we just had the water level stays at normal basin level. There are a number of hot springs in the area. At about 13:30 we got started and decided on walking north this time. At first we thought we had struck out as nothing was visible on the lake. The visibility was really poor though so we pressed on.

I had stopped for some buntings in the brush that proved to be Yellow-browed Buntings when the wife spotted some waders in a recently partially drained lower basin used for raising crab and/or fish. It had created a nice little mud flat. I was looking for a route to access the area when I turned to look back along the way we had come and a large, healthy looking, bright cinnamon colored Siberian Weasel calmly walked out of the brush about 50 meters away and stopped to give us a curious look. Totally surprised, I just stood there staring back and then excitedly turned to tell the wife, “Look, look, look!” Very eloquent, I know. He continued to look us over and then it occurred to me that I had a camera hanging from a neck strap. Of course the somewhat dodgy auto-focus on my old Rebel XT chose that moment to balk. Instead of focusing in on the large weasel who was totally in the clear, it decided to hunt back and forth. As I fumbled to switch off the AF he decided this was getting boring and with that he went over the stone wall and down to the lake. I rushed over to the wall but never saw him again. He probably has a hidden hole there somewhere where he dens up.

I had moved away from the wall and crossed to the other side of the road and taken about five steps towards the wife when there was another surprise. A Pallas’s Sandgrouse broke cover from about a meter away and zoomed through the trees expertly dodging and weaving. No chance to get a picture no matter what camera I might have had, but I immediately called out, Grouse! I grew up where we had Ruffed Grouse that would do the same thing, but with a loud boom from the first wing flap. Four more during our time there, all breaking close up and none seen until they flew gave me good enough visual to feel confident of identification later at home. Not that hard, only one Grouse listed on the checklist for Liaoning anyway and it matched well. Apparently the mild winter this year has led to an irruption from Inner Mongolia.

There proved to be two species of waders working the mud once we got down there. Waders are a totally new thing for me, so I haven’t made any ID that I am happy with yet. Higher quality Photos at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A8532ODWnsuFK Most are the larger with long dark bill and grey almost olive head neck and backs with a faint white stripe over the eye. Yellow long legs. They look strikingly different when they fly as much more white and black show. IMG 0411 and 0427 show both the larger and smaller species together for good size comparison. ID help appreciated as I will make no progress tomorrow with the power off.

Back up at the main lake I could just make out that there was at least one group of some water birds floating well out in the lake and just barely at the edge of visibility. Two Great Crested Grebe eventually drifted our way and I was able to get some ID photos at long range. Several small groups of ducks were seen to fly over at too great a distance to determine anything more than that they were generic ducks. As we left there was one Common Coot fishing in one of the small pools by itself.

Totals for today:

(5) Syrrhaptes paradoxus - Pallas’s Sandgrouse
(30) Larus argentatus - Herring Gull
(15) Chroicocephalus ridbundis - Black-headed Gull
(2) Podiceps cristatus - Great Crested Grebe
(20) Emberiza chrysophrys - Yellow-browed Bunting
(4) Apus apps - Common Swift
(10) Emberiza pusilla - Little Bunting
(1) Fulica art - Common Coot
(40) unidentified larger waders
(10) unidentified smaller waders

(1) Mustela sibirica - Siberian Weasel
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0411.JPG
    IMG_0411.JPG
    58 KB · Views: 162
  • IMG_0427.JPG
    IMG_0427.JPG
    45.3 KB · Views: 142
  • IMG_0442.jpg
    IMG_0442.jpg
    181.7 KB · Views: 145
Thanks Jeff! I had considered the Common Redshank but just wasn't confident about it. How little do I know about shore-birds? I had never even heard of a Godwit! Live and learn. That is a lot of what makes this a fun hobby to me.

About 15 minutes to power off. Got to go.
 
Good news as it turns out. No water, but the power stayed on.

Close review leads me to think I had both the rarer, near-threatened, Black-tailed Godwit and the more common Bar-tailed Godwit. They were in two groups keeping about 25 meters apart. I dug out two images both showing Godwits in the same landing posture with flared tail. One attached image shows the rarer Black-tailed (image 0447) and another shows a Godwit but with a definite bar-tail (image 0375) Am I over analyzing?
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0375.JPG
    IMG_0375.JPG
    96.2 KB · Views: 149
  • IMG_0447.jpg
    IMG_0447.jpg
    53 KB · Views: 140
Owen, the flight shot above is a Common Redshank. I looked carefully in your first picture a couple posts ago for Bar-tailed but didn't see any and don't see any for sure in your last post either. Bar-tailed a far more common on the east side of the Liaoning Peninsula so seeing Black-tailed is a good record to document.
 
Interesting. I didn't realize that black-tailed were rarer there.

Gotta admit that I didn't look at every bird though. I just assumed all the birds in the shots were the same.
 
Jeff, Avibase has the Black-tail Godwwit listed as "near threatened" for Liaoning Province and the Pallas's Sandgrouse varies from nothing to occasional irruptions. Spotting any kind of wild mammal like the Siberian Weasel is a rarity in most places in the inhabited parts of China, so it was a very good outing.

That being said, I spent most of the summer of 2000 in a small village up east of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, where my wife's mother and oldest brother were living. I noticed they were meticulous about closing and barring the gate to the walled compound area before dark every evening and turning the German Shepherds lose inside the compound. I asked about why since there didn't seem to be any crime problems. The brother, who is my age, very matter of fact said it was because of the tigers. I just laughed and told him he wasn't scaring the American by making up stories. Turns out there really were tigers. A few months later the government reimbursed one of the locals for losing a cow to a Siberian tiger kill.
 
There was a problem Tiger in Heilongjiang province again earlier this year that killed a few goats.
China gets a lot of comments about the demise of the Tiger but a very similar story for Americans is the wolf. Almost identical in terms of what has and is happening.
 
Oh, we have done more than our share. The buffalo (American Bison to those of you from Europe) ranged from Alaska through the Great Plains and into Mexico. Estimates are there were as many as 60,000,000 buffalo. By the end of the 19th century they had been reduced to less than 1,000, primarily in Canada. They have recovered somewhat, probably something over 500,000 now, but are primarily kept as cattle. The Passenger Pigeon is thought to have been the most abundant bird species and possibly most abundant warm blooded animal species in the world and they were hunted into extinction as was the Heath Hen. Wolves were practically eliminated in the USA in the 20th century. During some research I was doing on I stumbled across a notice in a 1914 newspaper in Olathe, Kansas that the bounty on wolves had been extended for another year. Wolves have only recently have been re-introduced in some areas, but are still relatively rare.
 
2015-apr-14

The weather has warmed up considerably here finally, so I had been out spotting as much as I could and hence getting behind on my logging and reporting. Raining off and on today though, so I am sorting through my notes and photos.

One conclusion I have come to is that Bluetail may not be as rare as most seem to think, they are just elusive. I am finding that in my area the Bluetail rival the Sparrows in numbers. They just don’t show themselves in big groups out in the open. By taking my time at the right places and watching carefully for the quick movements back in the brush, I am seeing them regularly. I doubted myself at first but I have managed to get photo verification of that. Good thing digital “film” is free as they hide well enough that I probably throw out 90% of the attempts on them.

2015-APR-14

I decided to return to the park just south of us around where a main irrigation/drainage canal was widened into a narrow lake. I guess I need to come up with better clever names for these areas since, being an engineer, to me it is PJ-F & PJ-G. “F” (the south side of the lake) is good habitat with plenty of cover and a relatively large area that is not heavily visited by people. It appears that they started to develop a park and just never finished it up which makes it better habitat. “G” (the north side) is even less developed with only a narrow dirt trail which is normally blocked off by a crossarm gate. On to the north for about a kilometer are several small lakes and undeveloped reed marsh. The area would be ideal for water birds except for the one village on the edge from which predation from people on any nests as the area must be heavy as the area was almost devoid of any birds at all. A few Bluetail is about all there was. Despite numerous signs posted that my wife interpreted as being NO FISHING there were about a dozen groups of people fishing in the various ponds. Surprisingly the authorities showed up and started running the fishers off. They questioned what we were doing and not knowing what to make of it told us we had better leave also. Roughly, what I got from the wife’s conversation with them was, “Your doing what???” “WHY??” The wife just laughed and told them all Americans are a little crazy, which they seemed to accept.

In the canal/lake I spotted about 20 gulls with aprox. half of them being Black-headed Gulls but the other half being similar enough that I would like to run a tentative ID past the group. All white except for having a black hood except for a few that were either young or still coming out of winter plumage as there was some faint black markings of a hood but all lacked the black on the wing tips. Exhibited a distinct yellow bill and more difficult to determine but I believe yellow feet. They did show a distinct black wedge on the underside of the wing. What I dug up that seemed to fit was the Saunders’s Gull (Larus saundersa) but is rarer so thought I had better get that verified by more experience. Note: it seems to match well with the following: ibc.lynxeds.com/node/107639 and ibc.lynxeds.com/node/163065

There was one female diving duck that I accidentally stirred up while trying to find a “different bird” the wife had pointed out. Too startled to get a good ID of any kind but was basically brown and built with feet well back on the body and ran across the water to gain speed to fly like a diving duck does.

In addition to the above:

(20) Tarsiger cynosure - Red-flanked Bluetail
(30) Passer monotonous - Eurasian Tree Sparrow
(10) Emberiza rustica - Rustic Bunting
(3) Pica pica - Eurasian Magpie
(5) Hirundo rustic - Barn Swallow
(2) Phylloscopus proregulus - Pallas’s Leaf Warbler
(10) Chrolooephalus ridibundus - Black-headed Gull
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0077.jpg
    IMG_0077.jpg
    232.8 KB · Views: 171
  • IMG_0086.jpg
    IMG_0086.jpg
    246.7 KB · Views: 118
  • IMG_0175.jpg
    IMG_0175.jpg
    283.9 KB · Views: 129
Last edited:
Owen, good to read your report. Saunders's are typically channel gulls that cruise mudflat areas looking for small crabs. I have never seen them over a fresh water pond but that doesn't mean they can't be. Your gull description sounds like a tern to me but I'm not sure which kind and most terns typically show up later than now as well. You live right on a main flyway during migration times. Bluetail will be very very common for early to mid-April but you will be very pressed to see one at other time of the year. Books and web sites sometime struggle with how to give status descriptions of such migrants because of their huge fluctuation from year to year and what time they show up and leave again. There are simply not enough people recording this information for most authorities to be "in the know". This is particularly true in our part of the country.

Maybe your startled duck was a Little Grebe?

Tom
 
Owen, good to read your report. Saunders's are typically channel gulls that cruise mudflat areas looking for small crabs. ...

Maybe your startled duck was a Little Grebe?

Tom

Hi, Tom. I've been using your reports and photos to aid me in getting more familiar with what is in our part of the world.

As the crow flies, I am only about 25 km from Liaodong Bay and less than that from the tidal effected area of the Shuangtai River and hence mudflats. The canal runs straight west into the Shunagtai, mostly in the form of narrow lakes, so I suppose could have had some strays work their way up that far. Maybe a tern? I don't really know about that. Having spent most of my life totally landlocked, flying - It's a gull. Walking probing the mud - It's a Plover. Too big for that - It's a Heron. I had no idea until a few months ago there was so much variety. I'll afford Cornell's ID seminar on shore birds next month.

As for the duck, I don't think it was a Little Grebe. It was closer to Mallard size. That one was just an off hand mention since I didn't get a good enough look, but you inspired me to look harder and I think it may have been a female Common Pochard. Makes sense given the large flocks that went through here earlier.

Speaking of Herons, I was out yesterday in what the local TV was reporting as force 6 wind and did observe a "Heron" struggling with great determination to make progress into the wind. I managed on mediocre photo (the lighting was atrocious) which I have attached. It definitively did have the long neck folded back to give it that hunchback look or at least I was sure visually. The heavily cropped photos are not as clear on that. I need that longer lens even more than the up to date camera body.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0212.jpg
    IMG_0212.jpg
    36.4 KB · Views: 145
  • IMG_0210.jpg
    IMG_0210.jpg
    165.7 KB · Views: 125
  • IMG_0211.jpg
    IMG_0211.jpg
    34.5 KB · Views: 129
2015-APR-15

Whoops! Mistyped on my last post. That should have been force 8 wind.

Speaking of which. I made a short excursion out to the local park for about a 1 hour 1km hike with the dog. Everything including the Magpies were staying low and inside the windbreak of the trees and brush. Everything was probably under-reported as most were just hiding in the brush. The advantage is that I get the park pretty much to myself as after all, as I am constantly told in China, the wind makes you sick.

(4) Cynopica cyana - Azure-winged Magpie
(6) Tarsiger cyanurus - Red-flanked Bluetail
(2) Phylloscopus proregulus - Pallas's Leaf Warbler
(1) as yet uncertain Heron? The only thing foolish enough to actually be flying at altitude.

Did get some nice Bluetail shots that I am attaching.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0086.jpg
    IMG_0086.jpg
    246.7 KB · Views: 121
  • IMG_0175.jpg
    IMG_0175.jpg
    283.9 KB · Views: 136
Warning! This thread is more than 2 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top