China observations (2 Viewers)

Never mind that...when did we decide we had Pale Martins? Got any shots of them?

Pics are really crisp...Lily spent wisely

McMadd said:

Never mind that...when did we decide we had Pale Martins? Got any shots of them?

Pics are really crisp...Lily spent wisely

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I have been a very good boy and have got few more updates as well including a Leica scope

Remember the Gentelman called "Anders"? He wrote to me the grating twittering call fits the Pale Martin. Personally, i never heard them calling, who knows there could be a silent Sand Martin too. All pale birds are Pale Martin to me.

a non-br Long-billed Dowitcher at Nanhui coast yesterday.Many Japanese Paradise Flycatcher and Blue-and-white Flycatcher and many others.

Migration magic continues...

Yesterday happened to be the stellar moment of my Shanghai birding. 417 Amur Falcons in Xiao Yangshan. First wave of 37 birds were seen around 10 AM. 380 birds during 12.30 - 2.30 PM. Finally, 4 in Nanhui, making the total count of 421 for the day.

A stunning passage Dev - I've been hoping for just one this week!

Cheers
Mike

Wow! That is impressive, Dev!

Great work Dev! Lovely photos, and a phenomenal count too.

thirudevaram said:

Yesterday happened to be the stellar moment of my Shanghai birding. 417 Amur Falcons in Xiao Yangshan. First wave of 37 birds were seen around 10 AM. 380 birds during 12.30 - 2.30 PM. Finally, 4 in Nanhui, making the total count of 421 for the day.

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on 13 Oct I was at Yangshan and then Nanhui too.
Also some Amur Falcon but not so many as in yr record.
Nanhui/eastern Shanghai is very low so not easy to see migrating raptors--only one yesterday.

Thank you folks. Sunday morning started with a strong south westerly wind, i wasn't hoping for any big passage. The wind was still heavy during the first wave. The wind dropped around noon and that's when the big flock came over.

Great raptor records, and the shot of the adult male is fabulous - we just seem to get nearly all juveniles down here in HK !

johnjemi said:

Great raptor records, and the shot of the adult male is fabulous - we just seem to get nearly all juveniles down here in HK !

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Thanks John. I haven't seen so many Adults males before too. I guess, this was a moment of being in the right time and the right place.

October 18 - Is winter coming?

The local boys, me and Kevin P and visting birder from US,Rusty Wilson, we all went to our usual jaunt of Yangshan and Nanhui. Not a spectacular raptor parade as the last weekend but we had plenty of action. Peregrines going at each other, then Peregine Vs Eurasian Hobby, , Common Kestrel Vs Buzzard, Common Kestrel Vs Eurasian Sparrowhawk, and then a triple threat action between Peregrine Vs Hobby Vs Common Kestrel. A very tight game to claim their winter territory, this is when i though the winter is coming. To prove that wrong, 4 Himalayan Swiftlets flew over head. These birds were regularly seen in Shanghai since July(?) this year. Also, more Stejneger's stonechat on passage.
And finally we had no trouble in clinching a flock of 11 "Japanase Grosbeaks" in Yangshan and later 2 in the car park of Nanhui. 8 "Red Knots" at Nanhui in their winter plumage were really asking the question, "Jon Snow, is winter really coming?"

October 24 - Hengsha

This Saturday out with another visiting birder from the US, Len Kopka. We have already birded with Len last year in Yangshan and Nanhui and the year before. So we decided to hit Hengsha instead to check the waterfowl situation.

We immediately scored Himalayan Swiftlets and Pale Martins as we touched down at Hengsha. Variety was bit less in terms in Waterfowl except for a lonely Common Shelduck. Plenty of pipits in the dry grassy area as Shanghai hasn't seen rain in almost three weeks which is very unusual for the October month. Red-throated , Pechora, Buff-bellied Pipits, were easily picked out.

The reclaimed land wasn't untouched for over an year but now there is lot of workers installing big pipes and the earth movers are on loose on the places where the shorebirds and Black-faced Spoonbill were seen over the last two winters. Not looking good.:C We saw only one Black-faced Spoonbill. Still lot of shorebirds are taking advantage of the wet mud, we noticed 400+ Pied Avocets on a feeding frenzy.

Plenty of Black-browed Reed Warblers and few Oriental. The only Phylloscopus we had were two Dusky Warblers. A Chinese Grey Shrike was seen in the same spot for two straight seasons, perhaps a same bird? Plenty of raptor action here as well. Eastern Marsh and Hen Harrier, Common Kestrel and Peregrine Falcon and a "Black-eared Kite".

Species List :

Common Shelduck
Mallard
Eastern Spot-billed Duck
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Garganey
Eurasian Teal
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Eurasian Bittern
Grey Heron
Great Egret
Intermediate Egret
Little Egret
Chinese Pond Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
Black-faced Spoonbill
Eastern MarshHarrier
Hen Harrier
Black Kite
Common Moorhen
Eurasian Coot
Pied Avocet
Lesser Sand Plover
Kentish Plover
Little Ringed Plover
Terek Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
Green Sandpiper
Spotted Redshank
Common Greenshank
Marsh Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Common Redshank
Far Eastern Curlew
Eurasian Curlew
Black-tailed Godwit
Bar-tailed Godwit
Broad-billed Sandpiper
Temminck's Stint
Long-toed Stint
Red-necked Stint
Dunlin
Common Snipe
Rock Dove (Feral Pigeon)
Oriental Turtle Dove
Spotted Dove
Oriental Scops Owl
Himalayan Swiftlet
Eurasian Hoopoe
Common Kingfisher
Common Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Bull-headed Shrike
Long-tailed Shrike
Large-billed Crow
Oriental Skylark
Pale Martin
Barn Swallow
Red-rumped Swallow
Chinese Penduline Tit
Light-vented Bulbul
Manchurian Bush Warbler
Dusky Warbler
Black-browed Reed Warbler
Oriental Reed Warbler
Zitting Cisticola
Plain Prinia
Reed Parrotbill
Asian Brown Flycatcher
Siberian Rubythroat
Daurian Redstart
Stejneger's Stonechat
White's Thrush
Grey-backed Thrush
Chinese Blackbird
Red-billed Starling
White-cheeked Starling
Crested Myna
Eastern Yellow Wagtail
White Wagtail
Richard's Pipit
Blyth's Pipit
Pechora Pipit
Red-throated Pipit
Buff-bellied Pipit
Chestnut-eared Bunting
Chestnut Bunting
Black-faced Bunting
Grey-capped Greenfinch
Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Barn Swallow

Last April, i saw my first H.r.tytleri Barn Swallow. Brazil mentions "occur elsewhere on migration". Last two weekends, there were couple more birds in Nanhui and Hengsha. Perhaps they pass through here regularly?

Question on Great Tit division

My question on tits over on this board, if anyone wants to answer or read.

Gretchen said:

My question on tits over on this board, if anyone wants to answer or read.

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Okay, clearer now on the taxonomy...in addition to Brazil, any suggestions on where to see good examples of the differences between Japanese and Cinereous? (OBC not too helpful, I think)

Gretchen,

Normally, one good place to look is the Oriental Bird Club https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=Japanese Tit , but in this case they only list Parus major - Great Tit.

You might try a search at the Flicker group Field Guide - Birds of the World https://www.flickr.com/groups/birdguide but not sure I would trust it to be entirely accurate on IDs.

Birds of Asia is often helpful http://carolinabirds.org/HTML/AS.htm#TURDIDAE

Internet Birds of the World has gaps but useful for what it has http://ibc.lynxeds.com/

A Japanese Scops Owl yesterday at Rudong.

Japanese? is this the Japanese race race or Oriental, or something different?

Cheers
Mike

MKinHK said:

Japanese? is this the Japanese race race or Oriental, or something different?

Cheers
Mike

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The northern race of Collared Scops Owl,sometimes splitted as Japanese.