Birds of Nanchang and Poyang Hu, Jiangxi Province (1 Viewer)

so why did you destroyed the net!!!
If every fishponds owner in China start to set up a mistnet on each of their ponds, for sure there won't be any more trouble with fish predation.... and they will all enjoyed nice hotpot at dinner every day....
Misnetting without an authorisation from Ftry dpt is illegal...then it is just matter on how you want to face the problem and if you're willing to face it...no matter wich ridiculous excuse the guy gave to you...

Poyang Hu, Wuchengzhen area

Today, Saturday, I spent the day birding with Jean in her nice car. We started with a short visit to Polygolf where I had a record single flock count of 52 Grey-headed lapwing. We then set off north to Yongxiu (see earlier posts about my first visit to Poyang Hu last November) from which it is an easy drive out to Da Hu and Wuchengzhen. When Jean came here two winters ago the road was in a terrible state, last winter they were redoing the long causeway skirting the southern shore of Da Hu. I can report that the rebuilding work is now complete and there is a high quality concrete causeway bordered with red and white posts to prevent drivers going over the steep, nicely finished banks to the water 3m below the road. It is easy to stop and bird from the causeway, the road is wide and the traffic light. We had an excellent time scoping with the light behind us many birds on the floating vegetation just north of the causeway. It was surprising to see so many very young whiskered terns, some still unable to fly, being fed by their parents. The best birds were many PT jacana, LT stint and several eastern yellow wagtail. We then drove onto the quayside at Wuchengzhen, what a difference from last February! The water was a good 4m above the level last winter.
Exploring the road I located a good site for migrants near the village of Datongchun (see map), excellent views of a pair of white-shouldered starling. At the eastern end of the causeway (see map) there are some great trees on a tall bank with nice concrete paths, this could well hold good migrants later in autumn, today just brown fly and a cuckoo sp.
In the afternoon we drove back to Nanchang and thence up the long hill at Wanli to the Green lake resort. My third visit here and still uninspiring for birds though the views are great, nothing at all of note here.
Next weekend a family trip to Beijing.

Complete list, Saturday 20th September 2014

Chinese bamboo partridge, calling from bamboo on the road up from Wanli, a common bird in this area.
Common pheasant, few around Da hu
Spotbill, few
GC grebe, common around Da hu
Dabchick, common
BC Night heron, few over
Grey heron, few, numbers starting to build
Chinese pond heron, 10+ today
Eastern cattle egret, 30+
GW egret, 50 +
Intermediate egret, 20+
Little egret, common
Eastern marsh harrier, one flew south across the Da hu causeway being harassed by whiskered terns
Brown crake, one on the road
Moorhen, few
BW stilt, 30+ at polygolf
GH lapwing, 52 at Polygolf, 15+ around Da hu
LRP 10+
Kentish 10+
PT jacana 30+
Common snipe, 1 at polygolf
Greenshank, 5+
Wood sand, 30+
LT stint, 1
Green sand, 2
Whiskered tern, very common, some very young birds at nest on floating mats.
Spotted dove, few
Cuckoo sp, possibly oriental at trees at eastern end of Da hu causeway
WT king, 3
Pied king 2
Common king 1
LT shrike, common
Black drongo, common
Eastern great tit, few
Red rumped swallow, 70+ birds gathered on wires around houses at Datongchun
Zitting cisticola, few
Collared finchbill, few
Chinese bulbul, common
YB warbler, one seen and heard at Datongchun
Arctic warbler at least one along the road
Crested myna, common
BC starling, common
White-shouldered starling, 3 today, a difficult to see presumed pair at Datongchun eventually gave great views, plus another female further along the road, are they moving through or did they breed here?
Silky starling, 20+
Blackbird, few
(Stejeneger’s) stonechat, 3
Brown fly, 6+ today
Tree sparrow, some large flocks
Eastern yellow wagtail, 2 pairs of poss macronyx along the Da hu causeway
White wagtail, few leucopsis
Richards pipit, one on the grassland near Wuchengzhen
Oriental greenfinch, 10+

Holiday week

Three days with the family in Beijing doing tourist stuff. Excellent weather with blue skies. The birding highlight was a visit to the Mutianyu Great wall. Almost birdless but a distinctive three note whistle was common which I could not place. I also glimpsed a bird which looked a bit like a large prinia. I had a brief view of a songar tit (not recognised on IOC, lumped with willow). On the way down, halfway between the foot of the cable car and the transit bus pickup I had a family party of Chinese nuthatch close to the path, a really good Chinese endemic and world tick.

Just returned from a three day trip to the Rudong coast with Stephen. Met up with Craig and did some nice birding together, mostly around the temple at Yangkou and the SBS beach. (see map) Nice to meet some enthusiastic Chinese birders, it was fun trying to get them to work a grassy field. On the way back to Pudong airport we spent a couple of hours at the eastern end of Chongming island, (see map) windy so nothing to see at the vast reedbeds. We checked out the drainage ditches crossing a huge rice field and found three red-throated pipits and a yellow-breasted bunting.

Complete list for trip to Yangkou coast and Chongming island, 2-4 October 2014

Japanese Quail, 1 flushed
Pheasant, 1 flushed
Teal, several distant flocks in flight
Wigeon, some in with distant teal flock
Spotbill, few distant flight views
Dabchick, few
Striated heron, a juvenile flushed from the SBS sea wall
BC Night Heron, few in flight
Chinese pond heron, 1
Eastern cattle egret, 10+ on Chongmin
Grey Heron 200+ around Yangkou
Purple heron, 1 Yangkou
Intermediate heron, 5+
Little egret common
Kestrel, few seen
Moorhen, few
BW stilt, few
Avocet, 4
Grey plover, 200+ on SBS beach
LRP, few
Kentish, very common
Lesser sand plover, very common
Barwit, few
Curlew, few
FE curlew, few
Marsh sand, 10+
Common greenshank, fairly common
Nordmann’s greenshank, 11 distantly scoped, photoed much closer by Craig
Green sand, few
Common sand, 1
Wood sand, few
Grey-tailed tattler, 1 by SBS seawall, excellent close view
Terek sand, common on beach
Turnstone, common
Great knot, 30+ on SBS beach, one excellent close view with bird calling
Sanderling, few
RN stint, few
Dunlin, by far the commonest calidrid
BB sand, fairly common
Spoon-billed sandpiper, I reckon I saw at least 5 birds on the beach. Three together were a winter adult, an adult with a little breeding colour left and a juvenile bird. Nice to see that at least one youngster made it this far.
Black-tailed gull, a distant immature on the beach
Vega gull, several fitting the description
Heuglin’s gull, at least one past the temple, fairly happy with this one as familiar from Qatar.
Mongolian gull type, at least one
BH gull, fairly common
Saunders’s gull, common but strictly coastal and well out on the mudflats
Tern sp, two distant birds on SBS beach may have been roseate
Whiskered tern, flocks on ponds
Gull-billed tern, 1 on Chongming
Spotted dove, few
Oriental turtle dove, 2
Cuckoo, about 3 birds west of Yangkou, I was happy they were all lesser just on size, Craig has some shots and they may prove me wrong!
Common kingfisher few
Hoopoe 10+ around Yangkou
(WT) Bull-headed shrike, at least one, probably two immature birds around the temple. Some excellent close prolonged views of my only world tick of the trip.
Brown shrike, 2+
LT shrike, common
Black-naped oriole, 1
Ashy drongo, 1
Azure-winged magpie, 2 by road on way up
Common magpie, few
Eastern great tit, 2
Sand martin sp, few distant
Swallow, common
Chinese bulbul, common
Asian stubtail, 3
Radde’s warbler 1
Pallas’s LW, 2
YB warbler, 10+
Arctic type, 1
Two-barred warbler, 1
Vinous-throated parrotbill, small flock in reeds opposite crescent statue at Yangkou, no sign of Reed PB this trip
Crested myna, few
Silky starling, 30 around temple, dubious provenance in my view
White-cheeked starling, 2 on the temple roof
White’s thrush, at least 15 birds this trip, last year I had 20 birds in just a few bushes, a memorable experience.
Grey-backed thrush, at least 6 birds, the first of the autumn, the redwing of the Chinese east coast
Eyebrowed thrush, 1 at the temple
Red-throated thrush, 1, probably first year male, on the long hedge to the west of the temple, Craig got shots
RF Bluetail, 3, the first of the season
Swinhoe’s robin, 1
Daurian redstart, 1 female, the first of the season
Stonechat, 1
White-throated rock thrush, some really good views of this excellent bird, at least 3 females and two imm males, no full adult males.
DS fly, 2
Brown fly, 15+, learnt the call
Mugimaki fly, few
Blue and white fly, few but all imm males
Tree sparrow common
Yellow wag sp, flushed on Chongming
White wag, few
Richard’s pipit 2
OBP, at least 1
(CT) Red-throated pipit, three birds in a concrete drainage ditch on Chongming. At first only two birds and I was starting to consider Pechora on the juvenile until a spanking adult with summer throat appeared.
Chinese grosbeak, 1 around the temple
Little bunting, 1
Elegant bunting, a cracking pair at the temple
(CT) Yellow breasted bunting, 1 female/imm consorting with the RTPs
Black-faced bunting 1 female

So a nice list but next year I may try somewhere further north like below Dalian.

On Sunday a stroll around Aixi park NE corner produced 2 male Japanese thrush and a taiga fly.

Next weekend back to Poyang Hu

Looks like a fine return for your efforts Michael, and congratulations on the Bull-headed Shrike - one of my favourite birds.

Could your bird that looked like a prinia be a Chinese Hill Warbler - or whatever its called these days - they are pretty common in the hills around Beijing.

Cheers
Mike

Nan island, Sunday 12 October

Thank you Mike for your suggestion for the Beijing mystery bird, you may well be right with Chinese HW but my view was just too fleeting. The three-note whistle I heard does not match CHW.

Last Sunday the weather was wonderful, sunny and 28C. Took the bus out to Nanji wetlands NR. The drive out was slower than usual as the second rice harvest is starting and tractors with giant hoppers are laying out rice along one side of the road to dry out. Almost every available piece of road seems to have been commandeered to dry rice, including motorway slip roads.

I can report that the water level at Poyang Hu has dropped back and that the road out to Nan Island has been open since the beginning of October, a later date than usual due to the high rainfall of spring and summer.

I had a long, tiring walk to the very northern tip of Nan island, but the stiff northerly breeze meant that migrants had moved into thicker cover in the island’s centre. The vast flowering grasslands of the northern tip were producing huge amounts of pollen to bring on much sneezing.

The recent drop in water level has left a legacy of much blackened, dead vegetation and no fish, hence a distinct lack of egrets around the island.
Pleased to see that no sign of mist nets around the ponds.
Spent the last birding around the southern end of the island, with the director of the reserve centre, we found Mugimaki fly and Pallas’s LW but not much else.

Complete list for Nan Island, Sunday 12th October 2014.
Pheasant, 2
Spotbill, few distant in flight.
Interesting to note that no wintering duck, swan or geese have arrived in this area.
Night heron, few
Grey Heron, 20+
GW egret, 2
Intermediate egret, 12+ in one flock, late migrants?
No other egrets today
Harrier sp, 2 very distant birds, probably eastern marsh
Brown crake, 1
Moorhen, few
PT jacana, 8+
Common snipe, 3
Wood sand, 3
Common sand, 1
Green sand, 2
No gulls and amazingly, not one whiskered tern seen today
Spotted dove, common
Common king, few
WB king, 1
LT shrike, common
Black drongo, 2, getting late
Many high flocks of swallow and sand martin sp
Oriental skylark, 10+ on the northern grasslands, several singing.
Zitting cisticola, few
Collared finchbill, 2
Chinese bulbul, common
Pallas’s warbler, 1
YB warbler, 5+
Dusky warbler, 1+
Crested myna, few
BC starling, 10+
Silky starling, 100+
WC starling, 5+
Blackbird, few
Daurian redstart, saw the first of the season on 3 Oct at Rudong, the first in Nanchang on 9 Oct and 3+ today. I feel that Daurian red would be a good indicator species of arrival dates, I am guessing but is first arrival in HK about 15 Oct?
Mugimaki fly, 1
Tree sparrow, common
White wag, few of both ocularis and leucopsis
Grey wag, 1
Richards pipit, 3+
RT pipit, at least three, ID mostly on call, harsh light, strong winds and a flighty bird makes pipit ID difficult with just bins
OB Pipit, few heard, one seen well doing the walk along a horizontal tree branch.
Bunting sp, 2 very flighty birds, suspect black-faced.

Next weekend I will try my luck in Fujian forest.

mjgrunwell said:

Just returned from a three day trip to the Rudong coast with Stephen. Met up with Craig and did some nice birding together, mostly around the temple at Yangkou and the SBS beach.

Click to expand...

Hi Michael, Elaine and I enjoyed birding with you and Stephen. You know your stuff and have a contagious passion for birding! The moment we found the Spoon-billed Sandpiper was memorable, as was our walk up the road north of Haiyin Temple. I'll work on those shots of the mystery cuckoo and see what others have to say.

Mystery sounds of Fujian montane forest

Yesterday, Sat 18 Oct I travelled to Taining by train and had a fantastic time in forest near the temple at the summit of Emei Fang. I found a large bird flock of Huet's fulvetta, red-faced warbler and many YB warbler, I made several recordings, I would be grateful for help on confirming ID.

Rec01, Presumed YB warbler song, when recording I cannot be sure of the bird singing.

Rec02, Some Huet's fulvetta angry trill, the phylosc call is interesting, a bit like claudia's, could it be Hartert's warbler? Never saw the bird

Rec03 and 04, presumed buffy LT, only glimpsed a long-tailed bird.

Rec05, a mixture, Huets, and phyllosc, what is that trilling?

Rec06, Again is that claudia's/Hartert's? I find it hard to understand how I never saw a single phyllosc that i thought was anything other than YBW. puzzling

Rec07 and Rec 08. I heard this unfamiliar call, at first I thought with the sheer noise level it was going to be a laugher but then i glimpsed a small upright flycatcher-shaped bird, I guessed green shrike-babbler on the glimpsed view and the recordings do seem to fit. Rec07 is at least 3 birds near the summit and Rec08 was again at least 3 birds half way down but all I saw was glimpsed flight views. Grateful for confirmation on ID as this would be a WT.

Rec09 The last mystery bird was a distant 3note call of fluty quality heard on the Fujian/Jiangxi border, faint on the recording.

Thanks for any help.

First 5/9 files attached Second batch follows

Second batch of Fujian recordings

Attached

1 / song of Small Niltava (I never heard a YB Warbler singing in autumn, very frequent in spring)
2/ song of White-spectacled Warbler that are common there
3/ Grey Treepie
4/ Grey Treepie
5 and 6 again song of White-spectacled Warbler
7 and 8 Chestnut Bulbul
9 Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler....

Fujian sonsters

Thank you for your comments Jonathan

Small niltava? Blimey! Never seen one of those, find it unlikely that I could spend an hour surrounded by birds and not notice a niltava, though you could be right in which case it is time to hang up my bins!


Grey treepie is entirely credible but this is the commonest bird in SE China that I have never seen!

WS warbler, OK, only sp of that genus I actually saw was chestnut crowned.

Chestnut bulbul? Blimey! What was I on? Think I need a second opinion on that one.

Scimitar babbler, yes sounds good.

If you are correct then I have completely failed to ID two new species!!
Welcome other opinions

FWIW, I agree with Jonathan about the calls of Grey Treepie, Chestnut Bulbul and Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler.

Fujian songsters, results

Dear Jonathan and John

Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction, I have now done my homework and this appears to be the outcome (exactly as Jonathan called it)

Rec 01 Small Niltava, no idea how I never saw this bird, not even a glimpse of something! Small niltava was recorded here this spring, eg http://www.xeno-canto.org/187254

This is one of the few species occurring in Fujian that is not in Brazil. (Birds of East Asia (not the south American country))

Rec 02 and 05 and 06 White-spectacled warbler, at least this is consistent with my no phyllosc other than YBW! The only Seicercus warbler I saw was chestnut-crowned, clearly a difficult bird to see.

Rec 03 and 04 Grey treepie, other recordings match, I did see a long-tailed bird which did seem too long for Buffy LT (of which I had brief views here in June) This is my only WT of the trip

Rec 07 and 08 Def not matching green/blyths shrike-babbler, in particular recordings of blyths taken at this site just do not match. eg http://www.xeno-canto.org/183263 Does indeed seem that I jumped to conclusions on a too-brief view of what was prob just a flycatcher. Chestnut bulbul does match call, interestingly this was the only bird I saw and identified in the trees when making Rec 08.

Rec 09 Def Streak breasted Scimitar babbler, I had some great views that day, I prefer to call it rufous-necked SB.

So thanks again for all your help, a huge learning exercise.

Emei peak, Fujian 18 October 2014

Last Saturday I took the high-speed trainfrom Nanchangxi to Taining, left 07:11 arrived 08:50, cost RMB 200 return first class.
Left the station, brief negotiation with the first taxi driver using Stephen and away. Because of sensitivity over access for birding at this site I kept my bins hidden and pretended to be deeply interested in the temple when we reached the security checkpoint. Though to be honest the guy just wanted the driver to sign in on the way up. Drove to the temple area (the actual summit is much higher with a large TV tower but out-of-bounds) then disappeared onto the top track for nearly three hours undisturbed birding. (Best to be very discreet about this)
I stood in the middle of a large bird flock for over an hour making recordings. The highlight of the walk was a small covey of silver pheasant. Returned to the car, a short stroll around the huge wooden walkway that goes round to the temple but zero birds and sticky shoes from the fresh varnish, goodness knows what cocktail of chemicals was covering that walkway.
Drove down the hill with several stops, exited the gate then turned left, this road heads north and then east joining the main road north of Shibu lake. The area around the lake, particularly abandoned paddies next to managed bamboo plantations is your best chance of Elliot’s pheasant, but none seen this trip.
Then drove all the way north to the Jiangxi border (see my posts from March), great views of forested ridges but few birds except a soaring black eagle. The sun was invisible from the valley floor after 5pm and birding would be over by 5:15 so back to Taining for a meal before catching the 7pm train home.


Complete list, Emei Feng and road to Jiangxi border, Sat 18 Oct 2014

White-necklaced partridge (HO- not tickable) Heard calling several times, not sure how distant, perhaps less than 100m
Silver pheasant, a group along the track, presumed adult female with 6+ young, some getting distinctly silvery tails so probably young males. Very extensive red on face and much redder legs than shown in Brazil.
Indian black eagle, an immature soaring along ridge lines
Spotted dove, few
Grey-chinned minivet, close views of a 100pct female. A male seen later had a complete dark head but shared the wing pattern with the female, so prob a male GC but I cannot rule out Short-billed which I think occurs here in summer.
LT shrike, few
Red-billed blue magpie, few in lowlands
(WT) Grey treepie, several, very poor views but recordings confirm ID, this was one of the commonest birds of SE China that I had not encountered until today.
Yellow-cheeked tit, best-ever views of a bird
Collared finchbill, common in lowlands
Chinese bulbul, common
Chestnut bulbul, several groups calling, just one seen
Radde’s warbler, 2 along roads
YB warbler, common at high levels
White-spectacled warbler, several heard, never seen
Chestnut-crowned warbler, 2+ seen, one singing
Rufous-faced warbler, probably bird of the trip, fantastic close views of this cracking species, common in bird flocks
Rufous-necked scimitar babbler, several seen well and heard calling
Huet’s fulvetta, the commonest and most often heard bird of the higher forest
Indochinese yuhina, few
Oriental magpie-robin, few
Daurian redstart, few
White-crowned forktail, 1
Dark sided flycatcher, 3+ near temple
Mugimaki flycatcher, 2
Blue-and-white flycatcher, 1 near the temple
Small niltava (HO – not tickable) Recorded in a large active bird flock, not a glimpse. A major target for a return trip
Tree sparrow, few
White wagtail, few
OB pipit, 2+

Looking forward to returning in Spring to really concentrate on singing forest birds.

Nanchang Aixi hu and People's park

A quiet w/e, today Sunday, I strolled down the entire eastern shore of Aixi Hu then had an an hour in the tall mature trees of People's park

Aixi Hu best birds Sunday 26 October
20+ YB warbler
1 Radde's warbler
1 Dusky warbler
large flock of VT parrotbill
1 taiga fly
Many silky starling

Best birds of People's park
Male and female Japanese Thrush
Male Chinese grosbeak
2+ yellow-bellied tit

Hope to get out to Poyang next weekend

mjgrunwell said:

... Looking forward to returning in Spring to really concentrate on singing forest birds.

Click to expand...

Hi Michael, thanks for another valuable record from your little-known region.

Brief visit to Poyang Hu, Da Hu

A rainy weekend and suffering from a heavy cold, however I got a lift to Poyang Hu, Wucheng area to do a reccy for next week’s proper search for Swinhoe’s rail
Notable that very little in the way of wintering birds has arrived yet; no cranes other than a few common, only a few bean geese, tundra swan and a small flock of swan geese.

Complete list, Sunday 2nd November 2014, Poyang Hu, Da Hu area.
Chinese bamboo-partridge, heard only
Swan goose, one flock of c10 birds over
Bean goose. Several small flocks over
Tundra swan, one flock of c20 birds
Spotbill duck, 20+, no other ducks
GC grebe, common
Dabchick, common
Very few herons, a few grey, 2 GW egret, 6 Intermediate (either late to leave or maybe overwinter?) nothing else seen
Raptors, distant Eastern marsh, 2+ common buzzard, 1 Osprey, strong possibility of Bonelli’s eagle, but just too brief.
Waders, Spotted red common, nothing else noted
No gulls and no sign of Whiskered tern, do they all leave? I have seen them in early March, are these early returners or overwintering birds? Dunno, more research needed.
Common king, few
LT Shrike, few
Eastern great tit, few
Oriental skylark, few
Zitting cisticola, few
Black-throated tit, 3
Collared finchbill, few
Chinese bulbul, common
Pallas’s warbler, 4
YB warbler, few, often heard
Blackbird, few
White wag, few ocularis
OBP 3
Buff-bellied pipit japponicus, 2 very close to the causeway across Da Hu
Brambling, c50

Hopefully a better list next week

Dear Asia Birders,

I am looking for any records of large spiders catching birds, such as documented in

http://www.biosch.hku.hk/ecology/por...r32-p23-25.pdf

Look at the end of the pdf file, on page 25!

If you know of such a record, please email me at
[email protected]

Your record would be used in a scientific publication.

Thank you, Bruno Walther, Taipei Medical University

Searching for the impossible? Going off the rails

Last Saturday met up with Craig and Elaine from Shanghai and Dave from England to have a serious hunt for the elusive and difficult Swinhoe’s rail.
We were able to drive the track north from the WS starling site (see previous posts) and get very close to the area on the NE corner of Da Hu where I and Stephen had glimpsed a bird exactly a year before. (see earlier post on this thread)
We had a 16m heavy chain with ropes to pull through the grass, we had the whole morning working as a chain gang but were completely unsuccessful in our quest. The highlight was Dave nearly stepping on a metre long cobra, it was sluggish and gave good views before disappearing down a hole. After our serpentine encounter we were all a lot less keen to trawl the grassy meadow.
At lunch time we left Dave to continue his quest and birded the causeway at the southern shore of Da Hu, superb close views of water pipit and japponicus buff-bellied pipit.

Note on a new, faster way to get to Wuchen by road: Leave the motorway at the Yongxiu exit, after passing the toll gate, instead of turning left at the roundabout to drive up the busy main street, go straight on for a few km, you pass a huge new government building on your left, just past this turn left onto the new road that goes north, to go to Wuchen get off just before crossing the bridge and take the shoreline road east.

We then decided to cross the brand new road bridge at Yongxiu (see attached maps) and head north and east towards Bang Hu. We ran out of light before we got to Bang Hu but we did discover a great site; a large turf farm north of the bridge (see map). The turf held many pipits, larks, northern lapwing and what looked like, at distance, lots of common starling. The birds seemed to lack the pale rump and cheek patch of white-cheeked so we set off to check them out. Lo! 80+ common starling, Craig got some record shots, could be a new species/record count for Jiangxi?

So a mixed day, no luck with the rail but stayed dry, had sibe cranes as a consolation, a cracking male Hen harrier, two black-winged kites, best-ever views of BB and water pipits, common starling as a CT, and a cobra.

Highlight list for Da Hu and area north of Yongxiu, Saturday 8th November 2014

Ducks, spotbill and a few common teal
Geese, 100+ Greater WF, 200+ Bean geese (still to get to grips with race/taxonomy)
Tundra swan, 200+
BW kite, two seen well through the day
Eastern buzzard, 2+
Hen harrier, 1 male at NE corner of Da Hu
Sibe crane, 100+, many yet to arrive
Common crane, several flocks
Hooded crane, this species is usually scarce early in the season but we saw at least three flocks, perhaps 40+ for the day
Grey heron few
Few little egret and 1 CPH
Waders, few green sand, many spot red. 50+ northern Lapwing
Oriental skylark, few
During the trawl we pushed out various small passerines, mostly zitting cisticola but we had one large dark probable locustella but just could not get views.
Silky starling, 200+ during day
WC starling, some large flocks, 200+ for day
(CT) Common starling, 80+ at turf farm north of new bridge at YongXiu, Brazil says this is scarce winter visitor down coast, interesting to discover status in this part of China.
Pallas’s warbler, few
YB warbler, often heard
Daurian redstart, now common
White wag, few leucopsis, one nice ocularis
Richards pipit few flushed
Buff-bellied, 30+ japponicus today, some very close views, all with liver legs
Water pipit, 5+, all much paler and less contrasty than BB, all with jet-black legs, race prob blakistoni
Chinese grosbeak, some large flocks on wires, 50+
BF bunting, now common in the shrubbery

A day in forest at Wuyuan

Arrived in Wuyuan with Elaine and Craig late Saturday for an early start on Sunday. Drove to the river north of Kenkou (see earlier posts), first bird of the day was a cracking adult male bull-headed shrike on a wire; a late migrant or will it overwinter? Discovered that the Scaly-sided mergansers were not on the usual stretch; Craig will no doubt locate the birds over the next few days. We had an unusually large bird wave on the west of the river, just north of the bridge, leafbird, bulbuls and a big flock of Indochinese yuhina.
We then parked the car on the bridge and set off up the trail on the east shore. An intensive day of forest birding with the highlights being a large flock of greater necklaced LT and a taped-out grey-sided scimitar babbler. Despite our best efforts not a sniff of any parrotbills.
We met a friendly man carrying a large blade, a wok and several monkey wrenches, he told us that the trail existed in order to allow access up to the spring at the head of the valley.
Got the 5pm bus back to Nanchang, Craig will no doubt give us a full report on his time here.

Complete list, Wuyuan area,spring-access trail on east side of SSM river at Kenkou. Sunday 9th November 2014

Chinese bamboo partridge, heard only
Spotbill, few
Little egret, few
Indian black eagle, one over
Spotted dove, few
Bull headed shrike, one on a wire
LT shrike, few
Grey treepie, several heard, never seen
Eastern great tit, few
Yellow-bellied tit, 1
Red-rumped swallow, a small flock, late migrants?
Collared finchbill, common in more open areas
Chinese bulbul, few
Mountain bulbul, 1
Chestnut bulbul, 3+
Yellow(ish)-bellied bush warbler, 1 seen well
YB warbler, few
Grey-sided scimitar babbler, one calling, taped and responded well, very close views. An excellent recording made.
Rufous-necked scimitar babbler, one group of at least 6 birds.
Rufous-capped babbler, few
Greater necklaced LT, some great prolonged views, a slow moving flock of 15+ birds. Got a nice view of two birds sitting together with one bird meticulously grooming the other; very touching.
Huet’s fulvetta, few
Indochinese yuhina, flock of c25
Crested myna, few
Silky starling, few flocks
Daurian redstart, few
Plumbeous water redstart, few
White-crowned forktail, one
Orange-bellied leafbird, a pair
White-rumped munia, 15+
White wag, few
OBP few
BF bunting, few
Tristram’s bunting, 2 females

That was my fourth visit to Wuyuan, next will be in late spring in time for the BC laughers.

Hawk-Cuckoo?

mjgrunwell said:

Arrived in Wuyuan with Elaine and Craig late Saturday for an early start on Sunday.

Click to expand...

Hi Michael,

Pleasure birding with you last weekend. Still no Short-tailed Parrotbill and Scaly-sided Merganser. Will try again today.

Despite not finding the megas yet, Elaine and I are far from disappointed. We've turned the forest into our classroom. There's much to learn in these forests.

Attached is a recording I made yesterday. I'm interested in your opinion of the bird that calls at 0:08 and 0:21. Here's the scenario: Elaine and I were about 1 km from the road in one of those valleys around Kengkou. The sound I recorded was coming from farther up the valley, perhaps on or near the ridge, and was being made by a single, I would say rather large bird. I'm thinking it's a Hawk-Cuckoo, possibly Rufous (Hierococcyx hyperythrus). On xeno-canto.org, recordings of Hierococcyx hyperythrus are few, so I have little basis for comparison. But listen to the recording of the Common Hawk-Cuckoo (Hierococcyx varius), also attached herewith. Note the similarities of the call of the Common Hawk-Cuckoo to the call of the bird I recorded. Both calls are of three syllables, the first two syllables being of the same pitch and the third being slightly lower. I'm thinking that the sound I recorded may be some type of "winter call," i.e., a shortened version of the fuller call delivered during mating season.