Panjin Birding by the Old Fat Man (2 Viewers)

That's rather what I was assuming, Dev. Just somewhat surprised me that they bother with it here. Given the general way of doing things, I would be pretty sure that any bird roosting in that pen would be sold as theirs. They are all small flocks kept in villages, not fancies or racing birds.

Frustrating as it can be, I think that maybe the challenge of finding and managing to ID all those little birds, especially now that there is so much cover to hide in, is what keeps me so interested. I did a shore bird trip to Yingkou today and the wife pointed out that I was spending more time trying to work out what was hiding in the bushes and trees than I was in the 300+ shore birds. (More on that once I get things sorted out)

I was scheduled to go back to the Egretry Saturday, but had some business come up so looks like next week now.

May 16, 2016

Dug through the 315 photos and got some new tics verified and am finally finished with the report for today.

I decided that it was such a perfect day that I would make the trip down to Yingkou and check out the Liao River Estuary again. After a short side trip to check out what I thought might be a good area on the Dawa side of the river, which proved to be nothing, I went back to the Yingkou Wetlands Park.

The reeds were growing fast and before I even made it to the river I had found a nice Brown Shrike and several Asian Brown Flycatcher. One of the latter posed nicely on a nearby fence. Also a Black-Napped Oriole flushed from the trees and I got a good look, but again, no photo. Several small birds flushed from the reeds but were too quick to ID, (Reed Warblers?)

It was low tide and the mudflats were dotted with Sandpiper and Plover feeding. The big numbers were (100) Lesser Plover, (75) Curlew Sandpiper and (50) Dunlin. I would estimate that over about 1000 meters there were in excess of 300 birds. Another 100+ were in another group that I couldn't get any closer to than about 500 meters due to the ground still being muddy and having standing water from the rains. They still made an impressive picture when they all suddenly flushed and wheeled about.

I had several small warbler? in the bushes that I was never able to ID. They stayed well hidden only giving brief glimpses of movement and never a clear look. They had a call that first gave them away that sounded almost more like an insect buzz. Ended the trip the same as it started, with a nice Brown Shrike.

Yingkou Wetland Park, Yingkou, Liaoning, China, Liaoning, CN
May 16, 2016 11:00 AM - 1:15 PM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 kilometer(s)
18 species

Lesser Sand-Plover (Charadrius mongolus) 100
Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) 5
Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus) 13
Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) 25
Common Redshank (Tringa totanus) 5
Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) 10
Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) 75
Dunlin (Calidris alpina) 50
Saunders's Gull (Saundersilarus saundersi) 4
Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) 6
Gull-billed Tern (Gelochelidon nilotica) 5
Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) 2
Black-naped Oriole (Oriolus chinensis) 1
Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) 1
Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) 5
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 10
Asian Brown Flycatcher (Muscicapa latirostris) 10
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 20

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S29706237

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More ID

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Awesome stuff Owen! That Curlew Sandpiper is a stunner!

Any suggestion for a good birding guidebook for China? Thanks!

It depends on where you are going to be in China. China is about the same size as the US and has much the same climatic variations.
Birds of East Asia by Mark Brazil (Princeton Field Guide - Princeton University Press) does a very good job of covering eastern China and North-east China. $39.95 US when I got mine last year via Amazon. Dong Bei has his own newly published guide coming out soon for Dalian, Liaoning. (See the message just above yours)

For the rest of China I can't say for sure. Any suggestions folks?

John McKinnon did an excellent guide for all of China (also on Amazon, etc...).

There are some instances now where some of the range maps are off due to the natural moving around of birds (for North American birders, think of the Eurasian Collared Dove) or due to not enough information from some areas of China. Considering what he had for putting this book together, it is a fantastic piece of work used by every Chinese birder I know or have ever seen. It's a thick book and around $50-75 I believe. The book that Owen mentioned is fantastic for the coastal flyway areas of China from the Northeast to just below Shanghai. If you are going inland very far, the McKinnon guide is the only option.

Inspired me to get off the fence and order McKinnon's Field Guide to the Birds of China. $77 on Amazon +shipping. That got me a tongue lashing from the wife! At first she thought I was saying 77RMB and that was OK.

Which Flycatcher?

I was trying to get a shot of an Asian Brown Flycatcher when this popped into the field of view. Lasted less than a minute and in dark shadow and I didn't think to quickly open the aperture, but visually the belly looked more lemon yellow than shows in these photos, which is what drew my attention. I sent it through the ID forum and got one opinion of female Yellow-rumped Flycatcher. Belly seemed too yellow to me but only Chinese Flycatcher looked good for coloration and wing pattern to me. Probably just over thinking it, but take a look and let me know what you think. http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=324961

Yellow-rumped it is!

Well, never mind that. Just another case of never having seen a female Yellow-rumped in real life before. The ID Forum is indeed a great place to get an iffy ID verified - or shot down as the case may be. The antithesis prevails.

My engineering training leads me to look to authority for verification but having worn a "Question Authority" button around during my hippy-dippy days (which can be accredited to either Timothy Leary or Benjamin Franklin according to your leanings) tends to cause me to ask them why. :hippy:

May 19, 2016

The day started well as I was walking the dog in the enclosed garden area of our development a little past 07:00 and I was greeted with a small flock of Japanese White-Eye. Being prepared, I had my bins with me and got some very good close-up views. Definitely Japanese as there was no hint of chestnut markings on any of them.

Deciding to follow-up later and see if I could find more I made for the city park near-by despite it being very windy. Hearing what seemed to be the same calls in a clump of brush just off the walkway, I slowly worked my way into an excellent position at the edge of a small clearing where I had a good view of the bushes from the back side.

A lot of flickering movement deep in the bushes at first and then some Asian Brown Flycatcher moved out into view. I noticed while watching them that I would sometimes hear a sharp snap sound when one flew out to catch a flying insect. Very distinct. I then observed several times when one individual was chasing off another the same snap rapidly repeated. It sounded much like the wing tips were coming together at the down stroke and making the sound, but couldn't confirm that with observation. Turned out to be quite a number of these scattered through the park.

After awhile of standing still and waiting them out, I started to get brief glimpses of Japanese White-Eye through the leaves of the bushes. Slowly, as I waited, they emerged more and I was able to spot an occasional individual Chestnut-Flanked White-Eye. Finally, after more patient waiting, I had just eased up the camera and had both Japanese and Chestnut-Flanked in the shot, filling the viewfinder when a pair of old lady "foragers" came crashing through the bushes and all my White-Eyes went flying away. Then, apparently recognizing me from the reporters blog posting or having heard of it from their children or grandchildren, they had to have me show them what I had pictures of and deciding to help, they went over to literally beat the bushes. Sigh. Never did get a shot but did get a very good view of both species together.

Still did well overall. At least (8) Brown Shrike were scattered through the park, occasionally chasing each other around. The Light-Vented Bulbul which have been mostly absent since the big windstorm are starting to show up again and caught an excellent shot of one of two Spotted Dove. Also managed to catch a couple of Arctic Warbler.

Almost forgot - I had one mystery in that I could hear very clearly and at close range a bird making a single note call, very distinct, that sounded for all the world like a metallic chirp. At first thought I was hearing something along the line of a squeaky bicycle crank. A very metal on metal type sound. Usually one chirp at about one second intervals. Not for lack of trying, I could never establish any visual sighting of whatever it was making the noise. Didn't really sound like a tree frog, but I suppose that is a possibility.

Panjin, Dawa County, Liaoning, CN, Liaoning, CN
May 19, 2016 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 kilometer(s)
9 species

Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) 2
Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) 8
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 20
Light-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis) 5
Arctic Warbler (Phylloscopus borealis) 2
Chestnut-flanked White-eye (Zosterops erythropleurus) 3
Japanese White-eye (Zosterops japonicus) 15
Asian Brown Flycatcher (Muscicapa latirostris) 10
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 5

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S29785838

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May 22, 2016

I made it back to the government run rookery in west of Panjin City in Xinglongtai county for a really enjoyable days birding. To answer your question now, Dev, no, the spoonbills did not return this year. Just to get the bad news out of the way, Mr. Lu, the Asst. Director, told me that there used to be Red-Crowned Cranes in Panjin, but there were now none in the wild and two birds that a farmer kept penned up at his compound.

On the brighter side, I did spot and get some pictures of some nesting Eastern Cattle Egret while taking advantage of access to normally off limits areas. Apparently expanding their range northward.

Just as we were coming up to the entrance, we encountered members of the Panjin Bird Watching Club set up on the access road waiting to catch pictures of a pair of Hoopoe who were nesting in a tree cavity and who were putting on a show as they came and went. Stopped to say hi, shake some hands and pose for pictures with Old Man Christmas. :king: Picked up the Hoopoe and a pair of Common Cuckoo while there.

The trees having filled out their foliage makes observation much more difficult with the observation tower being the best place to go right now. From there I finally managed the elusive photo of a Black-Naped Oriole and a new tick with a Northern Hobby.

The Great White Egret & Intermediate Egret were in abundance and as always yielding great photos, but the Chinese Pond Heron & Black-Crowned Night Heron were cooperating the best for photos.

Mr. Lu then took us back into a closed off area with several small observation towers. Numerous Grey Heron were putting on a show. The tower was well located as they are especially easy to spook it appeared and the tower was just close enough to get some great shots without bothering them. Further on were numerous Black-Crowned Night Heron that were nesting right up to the edge of the road. Got a great shot of a nestling peeking out at me. Also a couple of Ring Neck Pheasant up next to the road. Also picked up some nice pics of Chinese Penduline Tit who were busily constructing a nest.

We finished up as he took me by to see a new area of reed beds being developed with very nice boardwalks to attract more tourism money. As is normal here, the reeds are infested with crabs, which will also serve as food to attract the heron and egret. Looked like they were actually doing a good job of protecting the environment while still providing access.

more photos

some more. For those interested, the better shots are available full size at: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B085Uzl7Vdwbwj for awhile.

Some interesting info that I picked up. Mr Lu estimated the Great White Egret to be about 2500 - 3000 nesting birds and about 2000 each of Intermediate Egret & Chinese Pond Heron. He only estimated 300 Black-Crowned Night Heron, but I would say he was considerably low on that number unless they were just much easier to observe. Purple Heron & Eastern Cattle Egret he estimated at maybe 500 each. He said he wasn't sure about the Grey Heron but they were only in one small nesting area which was even isolated from the rest of the rookery.

Another point I picked up is that he is also a correctional officer and the facility actually belongs to the police through the prison which is located near-by. Nobody actually said it was using convict labor, but it was not denied either. A couple of sharply uniformed lady officers during my last visit followed me around taping me and asking questions. They rather reluctantly finally said it was to be used to make a presentation to the prisoners to show them people appreciated the nature sanctuary. Oh, yes and by the way, delete those photos of us and don't tell anybody our names.

DingXiang Tourist Area Rookery, Liaoning, CN
May 22, 2016 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Protocol: Traveling
0.5 kilometer(s)
12 species

Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) 50 At government run rookery; Mr. Lu, Asst. Director estimated upwards of 500 nesting birds
Great Egret (Ardea alba) 100 At government run rookery; Mr. Lu, Asst. Director estimated 2000 - 3000 nesting birds
Intermediate Egret (Mesophoyx intermedia) 25 At government run rookery
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) 6
Cattle Egret (Eastern) (Bubulcus ibis coromandus) 12 At government run rookery. Nesting and mixed in with Great White Egret
Chinese Pond-Heron (Ardeola bacchus) 50 At government run rookery; Mr. Lu, Asst. Director estimated upwards of 2000 nesting birds
Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) 75
Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) 4 Identified by call; verified by members of Panjin Birdwatching Club
Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) 2
Eurasian Hobby (Falco subbuteo) 1
Black-naped Oriole (Oriolus chinensis) 2
Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) 10

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S29831002

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

DingXiang Tourist Area Rookery, Liaoning, CN
May 22, 2016 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 kilometer(s)
6 species

Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) 2
Gray Heron (Ardea cinerea) 25 At government run rookery
Chinese Pond-Heron (Ardeola bacchus) 2
Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) 75 At government run rookery; Mr. Lu, Asst. Director estimated upwards of 300 nesting birds
Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) 5
Chinese Penduline-Tit (Remiz consobrinus) 4

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S29831147

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Very very cool Owen. Sounds like an amazing place!

Indeed it is, Tom. Definitively a birding hotspot for anyone who may be birding Liaoning outside of Dalian. It was drawing a heavy crowd of Chinese tourists yesterday, which they seem to be balancing well to fund the ongoing activity. Looks to be about 25-30 km from the Panjin North Railway Station which is the high-speed line from Beijing to Shenyang and beyond. Probably would need a local guide to find the place though. Junction of RaoHu and ShangtaiziHu. English signs which were non-existent a few years ago are getting more common and may call the general area Raodong Bay or Dingxiang Tourist area. My camera's GPS said 41.096822, 121.852097 but I have found that the GPS coordinates are often off by as much as a half km when in China. Maybe because I am often in under heavy foliage.

Hi Owen

Great to see you finding newer and better places to find ever more birds.

Wonderful pix of the Penduline Tits nestbuilding and the Chinese Pond Heron - its great to get more background on the egretry - and how interesting it is. No wonder it is left alone if the site owned by the police/prison!

Cheers
Mike

Yea, you don't see all the illegal fishing, crabbing, mist nets, or even foraging that is rampant everywhere else. Didn't even see any of the usual signs of people sneaking through the fences. Probably for good reason.

Some pics of the Panjin Bird Club. I would include Mr. Lu, the Asst Director, but that is what brought up the police ownership. He said not to share his photo and kind of sheepishly admitted that he had a police uniform, but he didn't usually wear it unless his boss was around.

May 23, 2016

Made a quick trip out just before the light rain started and chased me back home.

Nothing of great importance but did locate a Brown Shrike that is not the usual lucionensis but not sure if it would be a superciliosus or confusius. Seemed more like the confusius to me. Note the brown rather than grey head. I also had the more usual lucionensis so included both shots for comparison.

Did finally get a photo of the Common Cuckoo, though not a very good one. And a couple of Black-Crowned Night Heron slowly passing overhead.

Just as I finished up right next to home were my "Rainbirds" right on que. Just as it started to sprinkle the White Wagtail showed up on the rooftop.

Panjin, Dawa County, Liaoning, CN, Liaoning, CN
May 23, 2016 12:10 PM - 12:55 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 kilometer(s)
8 species

Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) 4 Identified by call; four widely separated males calling from recently drained wetlands area.
Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) 1
Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) 2
Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) 2
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 10
Light-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis) 3
White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) 2
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 10

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S29853083

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Owen Krout said:

A lot of flickering movement deep in the bushes at first and then some Asian Brown Flycatcher moved out into view. I noticed while watching them that I would sometimes hear a sharp snap sound when one flew out to catch a flying insect. Very distinct. I then observed several times when one individual was chasing off another the same snap rapidly repeated. It sounded much like the wing tips were coming together at the down stroke and making the sound, but couldn't confirm that with observation. Turned out to be quite a number of these scattered through the park.

Click to expand...

I'm quite interested about this sound (and envy your good hearing!). I wonder if anyone else has ideas about it. Does it seem to be some kind of bird call? Sometimes you can hear birds clacking their bills, but I assume that is not the case with flycatchers....

May 24, 2016

Made another trip along the ZhongGen Canal which was the hotspot a week ago or so. Not a lot going on this time. Mostly Brown Shrike but did find what I believe were (2) Bull-Headed Shrike. A stockier build with thicker neck and the eye stripe was wider especially on each end. Unfortunately, I never did get a good look at the flanks for the white patch. See what you think. The rice paddies were all flooded and planting underway and one Chinese Pond Heron was observed checking out the paddy fields.

I had couple of probables, but just too quick of a look to be certain and no photos. An individual broke cover from the tree right next to me at head level and shot across a rice paddy to a line of trees on the other side. I saw enough to know it was a new species to me and got an impression of Starling like dark colored with widespread white spotting and white vent. Looking at the Brazil's when I got home, it sure seemed to be a Spotted Nutcracker. Mixed woodland, but I haven't seen any nut producing trees in this area in general. Probably just migrating through. The second I would say maybe 90% certain as there is little that would look like it or fly like it. I had a large black and white bird with large bill break cover well ahead of me and again fly over the paddy. I pulled up the camera and tried to catch it but just ended up losing sight of it entirely. Never did reacquire it. The flight and general outline looked very much like a Kingfisher so I am guessing a Crested Kingfisher. Wish I had gotten a photo as it was impressive since I am used to the half it's size Common Kingfisher.

The family had forgotten to mention that the intern TV reporter that had accompanied the print reporter the other day managed to get his piece about my birding on Panjin TV the other day. None of us actually saw it, but not knowing about it I was rather puzzled to have people on three different occasions actually calling out to me, "Owen! Owen!" and wanting to look at what I had on the camera, which unfortunately at the time was not much. Seemed a little freaky at the time. How did they know my name?

Panjin, Dawa County, Liaoning, CN, Liaoning, CN
May 24, 2016 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 kilometer(s)
7 species

Chinese Pond-Heron (Ardeola bacchus) 1
Bull-headed Shrike (Lanius bucephalus) 2
Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) 5
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 20
Asian Brown Flycatcher (Muscicapa latirostris) 2
Gray-backed Thrush (Turdus hortulorum) 1
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 10

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S29874732

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Deciding it was just not the day for it, I hopped the bus and went back towards home to check out the canal to the north in towards the city center. Turns out that it was a slightly better choice as there was at least some entertainment in the antics of some Azure-Winged Magpie & Chinese Grosbeak. The AWM generally are quite boisterous but the CG that I had seen in the past were always quite calm and quiet. Yesterday they were in the middle of courtship with the males calling and chasing each other in a large locust tree with great vigor and the females choosing mates.

While watching all this activity, I picked up a hanger-on in the form of a young man who was very interested and obviously delighted once he saw what I was looking at. He followed me around the rest of the way pointing out everything he saw including a small snake. He about came unglued when I promptly walked right up to it to get a better look. Looked much like a garter snake, don't know what the species would be here.

I had for the last week been seeing flashes of a dark blue and finally got a better, though quick look at one. Dark blue, almost midnight blue bird with a prominent white eyebrow stripe. As I lowered the bins it moved deeper into the bush and out of sight. Waiting a few minutes I caught a brief look at the original bird accompanied with an equal size and shape brown individual with distinct scaled breast. Initial thought was too different Thrush, but now think I was seeing male and female Siberian Thrush.

Panjin, Dawa County, Liaoning, CN, Liaoning, CN
May 24, 2016 3:00 PM - 4:15 PM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 kilometer(s)
7 species

Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) 8
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 10
Japanese Tit (Parus minor) 1
Arctic Warbler (Phylloscopus borealis) 6
Siberian Thrush (Geokichla sibirica) 2
Yellow-billed Grosbeak (Eophona migratoria) 15
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 10

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S29874808

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)