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

One more for Emei peak and Minivets

About 2km down from the summit, on an obvious right turn hairpin (going down) I had a great call coming form the trees, I was worried it might be Fairy Pitta but the call did not match. My driver seemed sure it was just Silver Pheasant so I left it. I now realize that it was 100 pct white-collared partridge, one that got away (I have a strict no heard-only policy).

Further to minivets. after a lot of studying images on the web, I now realize that Brazil is not that far off on grey-chinned minivet, the issue is that I did not see this species last Sunday. I am 99pct sure the singing birds were short-billed (not in Brazil)
Has anyone else recorded short-billed in Fujian?

Further I still consider the bird in Nanchang back at the end of March to be probably long-tailed, the other possibility is short-billed.

So two more species to concentrate on for my next visit to Emei peak.

Short-billed Minivet is a fantastic find Michael. I saw plenty of them in Dali a year before, didn't know it occurs in Wuyishan range.The least i could do to help your question is, i found a very old record from birdtalker(2004)

http://birdtalker.net/report/reportview.asp?id=3148

There could be more reports but birdtalker only shows reports approved by the admins. Kevin n Mark had Scarlet Minivets in Wuyuan earlier this year, so i suppose your Short-billed Minivets are definitely possible with you being visiting the area regularly.

My new best local patch, Qianhu

I have found a fantastic wooded area close to water which holds the only breeding Eurasian Jays I have found in the city. It is only 10 minutes from me by bus. The lake is called Qianhu lake but as hu means lake I will call it just Qianhu, see attached map
The north west shore is heavily planted with many trees, some of which are quite mature. This area is called Jiangxi Qianhu State guesthouse and has very large banquetting halls and guest villas, it seems to be a venue for conferences and up-market weddings. You can just walk through the gate without hassle but I cannot get to certain areas closest the lake. From a birding viewpoint it seems to have promising thick woodland which should hold wintering thrushes.

Over the last few weeks I have been visiting several times a week, yesterday I gave it a two hour stroll in the heat of mid June. The following species appear to nest in the area.

Striated heron, I suspect a small heronry in the closed-off area by the lake, this is good news for the herons as striated heron is nowhere common in Nanchang, Qianhu is by far the best place to see striated heron in the city.
Oriental turtle and spotted dove
Red turtle dove
Large hawk cuckoo
Indian cuckoo, male with female yesterday
Black drongo
Brown Shrike, several pairs
LT Shrike
Eurasian jay
Masked LT
WB LT
BC Starling
Many silky starling with young
White-cheeked starling, definite breeder in area, I had presumed they were a winter visitor only to Jiangxi, but at least 20 pairs breeding in city area.
Blackbird, common

I have found no evidence of breeding by warblers or flycatchers at Qianhu other than Cettia fortipes .

Looking forward to finding autumn migrants and winter thrushes here.

Summary of birds on Nanchang city

I now have a running list on BUBrg for Nanchang city, I have used this to produce the attached summary.

The taxonomy is CBR so not quite inline with IOC.

I include Meiling hills to the north of the city but I draw the line well away from Poyang hu, so no cranes on the list.

Current city list stands at 143

On my summer break from next weekend so this will be my last post on Nanchang birds until August.

Have a good summer.

Michael,

Loving the Emeifeng posts. Looks like I'll be heading there next week for a few days.

OOC have you ever overnighted there or only done it as a day trip from Nanchang? If overnighting, where did you stay?

Staying at Emei peak

Dear Jeff

For Emei peak you have a choice of three.

1. Stay in basic accommodation at the monastry hotel at the summit, easy in summer, maybe difficult in winter.

2. Stay in basic accomodation at the village at the foot of the mountain road

3. Stay in Taining, several hotels, some quite plush, not expensive.

On my March trip we stayed in a very smart hotel in Taining for less than 200RMB per room.

Hope this helps

Japanese thrush breeding in Nanchang

My first day out back in Nanchang after my summer hols.
I had brought back my heavy Slik DX700 tripod so was finally able to use my scope properly; those ¼ “ to 3/8 “ adaptors are rubbish. My plan was to scope early autumn waders at Elephant lake. I spent the day hauling my scope, tripod and books in a shopping trolley; inelegant but practical. The weather today was very warm and humid but overcast with a good breeze so birding was not too uncomfortable. Unfortunately the lake was now fully flooded with no muddy margins. I decided to abandon the plan and head across the city to Aixi lake. Over the summer the city’s municipal buses have had some route changes so after a total of 5 busses I arrived at Aixi Hu.
I was not expecting to see much but I was pleasantly surprised. I had conclusive proof of azure-winged magpie breeding (a flock of short-tailed juveniles) and then female Japanese thrush feeding two juveniles. I then had superb views of black-capped kingfisher. I only had time to work the top NE corner of Aixi today, I am beginning to think this place really is the top site in the city. No sign of autumn passage passerines yet, as soon as I start to see warblers at Aixi I will head off to Ji Island.

Full list for Saturday 9th August 2014. Elephant lake and Aixi Hu.
Dabchick few
Mallard 2 at Aixi
BC Night heron Few at Aixi
Striated heron Few at Aixi
Chinese pond heron 10+ at Elephant lake, 5+ at Aixi
Little egret, 10+ at Elephant lake, few at Aixi
Great egret 1 at Elephant lake, I would expect to see Intermediate one day but not today.
No raptors
Moorhen few juveniles
No waders except Grey-headed lapwing on the grassy fields at Aixi
Whiskered tern 3+ distant on fish ponds north of Aixi
Spotted dove, common
Cuckoo sp, a small dark cuckoo at Aixi, I strongly suspect Indian as it was in the same place as noisy pairs in May, I wonder what the host was?
Black-capped kingfisher. One adult at Aixi, not far from where I saw one last May. Same bird? Is it summering? Attempting to breed? What a bird! Striking blue on wings, bird of day.
Hoopoe, two birds at Aixi
Brown Shrike, one very young bird at Aixi, clearly breeding here.
LT Shrike few
Black drongo, few around Aixi including some youngsters.
Azure-winged magpie, the status of this species in Nanchang is a quandary; I have seen a small flock at Aixi in October which I took to be passage birds but then I saw a flock through spring around the park, today I had a small flock with short-tailed juveniles. Whatever the status of the adult birds this species breeds in Nanchang.
Eastern great tit, few
Barn swallow, few
Chinese bulbul, many juveniles today, how I struggled to identify juveniles a year ago on my first day out in Nanchang!
No warblers
Masked and WB LT, few family groups
Crested myna, few
BC starling, common today, many young.
Silky starling, few
Japanese Thrush. Last May I had a male skulking in the thickest part of a plantation, I returned to the same spot at Aixi to find two juveniles and an adult female. This breeding record is an extension of the known range of the central Chinese breeding population well to the south and east, it may be a first breeding record for Jiangxi province. A very local breeder here, no evidence of more than one pair and no data yet on whether it is resident or just a summer visitor.
Blackbird, a common breeding bird in the thick plantations.
Tree sparrow, common

Roll on Autumn

Weekend around Nanchang city, 16/17 August

This weekend was unsettled with showers and nowhere near as hot as August last year. Yesterday, Saturday, I walked the eastern shore of Aixi Hu and today did a long walk down the Han river, checking Dredger park and the Shengmi bridge area. No sign of obvious Autumn migrants yet.

Best birds of the weekend Sat/Sun 16/17 August
Large numbers of herons gathered on a tree-covered island in Aixi Hu, many little, BC Night, Great and Eastern cattle egret all sharing the canopy.
No waders except common sand and a GH lapwing along the river.
Black-winged cuckoo–shrike, a family group at Aixi, proof of breeding in Nanchang.
Family party of Azure-winged magpie at Aixi
Family party of white-cheeked starling at Aixi, with very young birds, possibly second brood?
Several juvenile leucopsis white wags, this form clearly breeds in Nanchang
Despite much looking not finding Intermediate egret, are they here?

Roll on Autumn

A visit to a flooded Nanji wetlands NR

Yesterday, Saturday, I took the bus with Stephen towards Nanjishan. The bus crossed the bridge but was unable to go much further as the whole of Nanji wetlands is now flooded. The road where, in May I walked to Ji island is now under at least a metre of water. There is a public boat service from the bridge to Nanjishan, see map. The boat was a big river ferry boat capable of carrying at least a hundred people. It left at 09.25 and arrived at Nanjishan at 10.45, we stood at the back and had views of various waterbirds, the best was a nice black bittern. It was very hot and humid but we explored the island for areas that might hold migrants later in the autumn. I had always thought Ji island, 5km to the south-west had the most potential for migrants but having walked what is technically Nan island I feel that it has much potential with long raised bunds with good trees and scrub on the banks. Time will tell. No sign of obvious migrants but finally clinched the first of three intermediate egrets today.
We walked back to the centre of the village to lunch on noodles and cold beer, before returning at 2pm on the return boat, this time it was the standard issue Poyang Hu narrow boat, carrying about 30 people. A sack at my feet started moving about; several live ducks going to market; animal welfare is not a high priority here. We were offered a ride back to the city for only 25RMB, we agreed if it would drop off at my part of town. The vehicle was a small minivan seating 6, more and more people got on and we left with 11 people crammed on board. After a km we stopped, much shouting and arguing as people were wanting to be dropped at many different places, a man behind starting smoking. It was at this point that Stephen and I baled out; a salutary experience of doing business with “black cars”.
In the 10 minute wait for the bus to turn up (only RMB10 for the 70 minute journey back to town) we scanned a very interesting muddy field, lots of Kentish, LRP and GH Lapwing but really needing a good ‘scoping.
We were told that the flooding cuts off Nanji usually in late May, this year it was Mid-may and continues to mid-September. This year it has been unusually wet so the road may be flooded until October. This means that I will not be able to get to Ji Island for many weeks but will have to rely on Nan island for finding migrants.

Full list for Nanji wetlands and Nan island, Sat 23 August 2014
Pheasant 3
Spotbill, few small groups, 20+ for day
Yellow bittern, 3
Black bittern, 1
Striated heron, 2
BC Night heron, few over
Eastern cattle egret, 15+
Chinese pond heron 10+
(CT) Intermediate heron, 3 today, finally clinched in China
Little egret, 10+
Moorhen, few
Coot, 1, did some stay the summer and breed?
GH Lapwing, 15+
Kentish plover, 5+
LRP 6+
Whiskered tern, very common, many juveniles
Spotted dove, few
Oriental turtle dove, 6+
WB Kingfisher, 1
Common kingfisher, 6+
LT shrike, very common, at least 1 very dark, full strength dusky shrike today. Nanji seems to be a good place to see the dusky form.
Brown shrike, 6+
Black drongo, common, many juveniles
Barn swallow, 15+
Red-rumped swallow, few
A few distant house martin sp. Still to see Eurasian in China.
Zitting cisticla, few
Plain prinia, the common small bird of the reeds
Chinese bulbul, few
Blackbird, few
BC starling few
OMR, 3
Tree sparrow, common
White wag, few leucopsis
Looking forward to finding proper autumn migrants on Nan island. Roll on autumn.

Waders at Nanji wetlands, 30 August 2014

Today I drove out, with Jean in her car, to Nanji wetlands, we managed to drive about 3km beyond the bridge, just beyond the core JSW area, before we were forced to turn round by the flooded road. We found that the earth bund across to the core JSW area (see earlier posts) was still accessible but now very overgrown. I worry about how the JSW coped with the flooding, perhaps their displaying in March means the young are fledged by mid May and able to escape flooding?
It was only 33 Celsius but the humidity was intense and birding was very hard work. I returned to the muddy pools I found last week and was able to scope them properly, see maps. A real bonanza for waders with at least 18 long-toed stint on the pools (probably a record count for Jiangxi). The bird of the day was a female painted snipe which strolled out then skulked in a grassy clump. Got views of a snipe that I managed to convince myself later to tick as Swinhoe’s. We finished with a stroll down the bunting track (see earlier posts), not much except 2 brown flycatcher, a sign of proper autumn migration. We had to leave by 1pm but it was so hot and humid I was quite knackered by then. Many thanks to Jean for the transport.

Full list for Saturday 30th August 2014. Nanji wetlands NR
Dabchick few
GC Grebe few
Spotbill, 20+
BC Night heron few distant birds from bunting track
Chinese pond heron , common
Little egret, 20+
Intermediate egret, 8+
Great egret 15+
Cattle egret, few
Yellow bittern, 2
No raptors
Moorhen few
BW Stilt, 25+
GH Lapwing, 3
LRP 20+
Kentish plover, 10+
(CT) Greater Painted-Snipe, 1 female
Common snipe, 2
Pintail/Swinhoe’s at least 4 birds.
(WT) Swinhoe’s snipe, happy with the excellent scope views of one bird, large, lacking the grayish shoulder often so obvious on pintail, striking head pattern matching photos. Underwing and spread tail seen well. Can we ever be sure without seeing the outer tail feathers? Happy to tick this one, more on gut feel than anything else. They are supposed to be a common migrant.
(Eastern) black-tailed godwit, 30+, the first of vast wintering flocks
Spotted redshank, 20+
Marsh sand, 20+
Greenshank, 5+
Green sand, 20+
Wood sand, 20+
Long-toed stint, great scope views, at least 18 birds today
Ruff, 5+
Whiskered tern, common
Spotted dove, common
Common kingfisher, 1
LT Shrike few, common
Brown shrike, 1
Barn swallow, common
Zitting cisticola, common
Plain prinia, few seen
Yellow-bellied prinia, one singing
Chinese bulbul, comon
Black drongo, common
Crested myna, common
Silky starling, few
White-cheeked starling, one along the road. I had a flock of at least 50 birds, with many young, near Qianhu this week, clearly breeds in good numbers around Nanchang.
Asian brown flycatcher, 3, the start of passerine movement?
White wagtail, few leucopsis
Tree sparrow, common

Roll on autumn!

mjgrunwell said:

Today I drove out, with Jean in her car, to Nanji wetlands, ...

Click to expand...

Congratulations on your 18 Long-toed Stints! Yes, your Asian Brown Flycatchers are an indication of more passerines to come. Nice work also in publishing maps of your site.

Autumn passage underway

Yesterday, Sunday 31 August, I got over to Aixi park for a couple of hours.

The best birds were

Japanese Thrush, 4 different birds including one juvenile, presume part of the breeding population here.

Black-naped Oriole, 1

Tiger Shrike, 3 birds all juveniles, Postulate: They go north in a wave second week of May and return in a wave late August.

(WT) Pale-legged leaf warbler, 2 birds together, very skulky, first impression in the gloom was asian stubtail with a tail. Got some very close views, broken/kinked super, pale legs. wingflicking and quick tail dropping, have I completely ruled out Sakhalin leaf? No, but I need to be realistic, I saw this species in early Sep last year but chickened out of ticking it. Guess this bird is a common early autumn migrant through Jiangxi?

Anyway, wild horses won't stop me working Nan island next weekend.

Weekend at Nan island, Aixi and Elephant lake

Yesterday, Saturday, I set off on the 159 bus to Nanjishan. The bus stopped at a new concrete road about 1km south of the bridge (see previous post) leading to the boarding area for the onward journey. Today there was a single narrow boat, grossly overloaded with people and stores, fortunately we arrived at Nan Island without incident at 10:45, I walked the loop around the eastern and northern shore returning just in time for the return boat at 2pm. Birding was reasonable, most migrants were flying over, huge flocks of sand martin, Chinese sparrow hawk and a flock of oriental pratincole being the highlights. The only warblers were single eastern-crowned and pale-footed. On the return boat there was again the sad sight of a sack of ducks, unfortunately they got stood on and the owner discarded one of the four ducks. They were wild-trapped spotbill, I guess a family party of adult pair and two youngsters. The adult male was dead and I offered money to simply release the others from the boat, but my offer was declined. The bus was waiting very close to the good wader pools from last week, but I did not have time to check them.
On getting back to Nanchang I got a cab for the journey to Aixi Hu, getting an hour’s good birding before dark and then getting home by bus. The highlights were 2 Japanese thrush and my first yellow-bellied bush warbler in Jiangxi. A very long and tiring day.
Today was even hotter and sunnier and a few hours around the southern end of Elephant lake yielded some close wader views and the first Arctic warbler of the autumn.

Full list for Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th September 2014. Nan island, Aixi Hu (NE) and Elephant lake (south end)
Dabchick common
GC Grebe common around Nan island
Spotbill, 20+
Garganey, one from the boat
BC Night heron few from boat, common around Aixi
Chinese pond heron , common
Little egret, 20+
Intermediate egret, 2+
Great egret 15+ around Nan
Grey heron, 2, the first of the autumn/winter
Cattle egret, few
Yellow bittern, 1
Striated heron, few at Aixi and EL
Chinese sparrowhawk, presumed pair, together, high, flying south over Nan island
Moorhen few
Brown crake 1 on Nan
BW Stilt, few at Nan and EL
GH Lapwing, 2 on Nan
LRP 20+ on Nan, 15 at EL
Kentish plover, 5+ on Nan, 6 at EL
PT Jacana, 10+ around Nan, mostly juveniles
Common snipe, 1 at Nan 1 at EL
(Eastern) black-tailed godwit, 30+ on the pools, from the bus
Greenshank, 4 at Nan
Green sand, 5 at Nan, 4 at EL
Common sand, 1 at EL
Wood sand, 8+ at Nan
Red-necked stint, 2 at Nan, 3 at EL
(CT) Oriental pratincole, 5+ over Nan island
Whiskered tern, common
Spotted dove, common
Common kingfisher, 1 at Nan
Pied King, 2 at Nan, 2 at Aixi
WB King, 1 from boat
LT Shrike ,common, same full dusky young bird on Nan
Brown shrike, 2 on Nan, 3 Aixi
Barn swallow, common
Red-rumped swallow, a common breeder on Nan
Sand martin, many hundreds passing high above Nan
Zitting cisticola, few
Plain prinia, few seen
Chinese bulbul, common
Black drongo, common
Ashy drongo, 2 leucogenis on Nan
Common magpie, 1 at Aixi
Eastern great tit, few at Aixi
Oriental skylark, 1 Nan
Collared finchbill, 3 on Nan
Yellowish-bellied bush warbler, 1 of the nominate race at Aixi. I saw what was probably the same bird in the park a week ago but was completely blown away by the yellowness of the bird, short tail, large pale bill and pale orange legs. I got better views this week and was able to be certain that it was just YB BW.
Arctic warbler, 1 at EL
Pale-legged leaf warbler, 1 on Nan
Eastern crowned warbler, 1 on Nan
Masked LT, common at Aixi and EL
WB LT, common at Aixi and EL
Hwamei, 1 at EL though of doubtful provenance
Vinous-throated parrotbill, one small flock at EL
Crested myna, common
Silky starling, 20+ on Nan, large evening flocks over at Aixi
White-cheeked starling, a few on Nan
Japanese thrush, a first summer male and an adult female at Aixi, they appear to have moved into the good feeding areas and away from the thick dark plantations where they may nest.
Blackbird, Few on Nan, common at Aixi
Asian brown flycatcher, 1 at EL
White wagtail, few leucopsis at Nan and EL
Tree sparrow, common
Pipit sp. 3 birds flying around on Nan, maybe a bit smaller than Richard’s, white outer tails, call def not Richards, distinctive sound like a wheezy toy, may be Blyth’s?
It does seem that just lying back and staring at the sky turns up as many birds as bashing bushes.

I encourage you to try to take pictures of the poachers and their catch( best being without showing to them) and report it to the local forestry dpt or police. If you need support to report it, just let me know. Same if you find any mistnets or any other case of poaching in te field...
Concerning the YB Bush Warbler, some Brownish-flanked (rather unclear if they are juv or fresh adult) mays show quite a lot of yellow on the underpart and may be very difficult to separate from YB BW appart of the call.
YB BW is a species restricted to hight elevation in the region and I doubt their going down so early, they may show up in lower elevation when weather push them down...

All the best,

Jonathan

Yellowish bellied bush warbler

Thank you for your comments re trapping.

Cettia fortipes is a common bird here and I am familiar with its jizz and structure. I agree that altidutinally YB should not be in Nanchang. This bird has a different short trill from fortipes (I am generally poor with calls but fortipes is one I have confidence with.)
The structure of the bird is different, def smaller than fortipes, short wings, short cocked tail. The bill is all pale horn, the legs bright pale orange. The first impression is a baby bird with bill and legs too big, very pale overall. The picture on OBC images by James Eaton of nominate fits well, I am happy with the Id as yellowish-bellied, I videod YB in Sichuan in June singing, if it sings I will be sure.

Very hot mooncake day

Today, Monday, was a national holiday, Moon-cake festival. The streets were quiet as most people were at home out of the 36C heat. I chose the hottest part of the day for three hours sweating around Aixi hu. Few migrant warblers, Japanese thrush and yellowish-bellied bush warbler again. Best was a juvenile lesser coucal.
Hopefully be cooler for next weekend.

Best birds, Aixi Hu, north-eastern area, Monday 8th September 2014
WB waterhen, 1
(CT) Lesser coucal, 1 juvenile skulking in vegetation near a prime breeding area just north of the main road. My guess is that it hatched in the area and I have never been there early/late enough to see the adults.
LT Shrike, it may be the heat but many birds were digging into the earth.
Yellowish-bellied bush warbler, presumed same bird as previous
Yellow-browed warbler, one, the first of the autumn
Arctic warbler 3+
Eastern-crowned warbler 2+
Vinous-throated parrotbill, a huge flock today, 80+
Japanese thrush, getting predictable, 2 males, not adult

Nan island and illegal mist nets

Yesterday I took the bus and boat to Nan Island in the centre of Poyang Hu, arriving at 10:35. My first stop was the small park by the quay full of neat shrubbery and good quality life-sized models of sibe crane, spoonbill etc nothing bar a cuckoo sp, oriental at a guess.
I walked the north-east side getting good views of eastern crowned warbler but generally very quiet. On checking the fishponds I wanted to find muddy shorelines where I had seen several waders the previous week, I flushed two green sand straight into a huge mistnet. I had failed to notice the nets strung across the pond. One of the sandpipers managed to escape, the other struggled hopelessly half-drowning at the bottom of the net. Unable to get anywhere close to the bird a red mist descended and I spent several minutes uprooting and destroying the poles holding the nets to the shore, this had no effect on the poor sandpiper. I then realised that nets were strung across several ponds, these are proper 8 shelf nets each at least 20 m long with poles set in the middle of the deep pools. One of the nets held a dead whiskered tern and a struggling spotted dove. I tried in vain to reach the dove. The owner of the ponds then arrived with an old man and with Stephen kindly acting as translator on the phone was able to impress upon the guy my unhappiness with the illegal situation. It transpired that the guy had been loosing stock of small fish to egrets, he could see that stringing mist nets was not going to deter egrets but simply kill passing flying birds. I pointed out that egrets don’t like people and he just needed to patrol the area with say a flag and an airhorn to keep egrets away. On a positive note he said the nets would be taken down, I threatened him with reporting him to the police if they were there next week.
The most depressing aspect was that all the time we were there no-one thought about the poor trapped birds dying in the nets, my anguished requests for help to rescue them were met with blank incomprehension. “So a bird is trapped in a net and is going to die a long and lingering death, why are you wasting your time worrying about this?” An all too common attitude here.
Action points.
Always carry a strong sharp pair of scissors to a) release trapped birds and b) destroy mist nets.
Grateful if ringers could advise as to how to do the greatest damage to a 8 shelf 20m net if I can only get to one pole and have only a short time.
Anyway all very upsetting and the birding was very thin.
I got back to town and again took a cab to check Aixi park. Noticeably quiet and devoid of warblers. Clearly the recent change to fresher cooler weather may have meant both a clearout of migrants and perhaps good conditions for birds to fly over. I am clueless about correlating migrant occurrence to weather in Jiangxi!

Best birds Nan Island, Sat 13 September 2014
Eastern crowned warbler, 2+
Arctic warbler 3+
Pale-legged warbler 1
One probable 2-barred warbler
One cuckoo sp

Report it to the FORESTRY DPT!!! They gone go there with 10 peoples include police and all the staff, to try to find the misnet owner, destroy the net "properly"...result the poacher won't start again so soon...
If you destroy it, tomorrow it will be set up again and you've just been tired to clean the area for one day...
These nets cost nothing to the poacher compare to the value of the birds they're catching....

Best is to cut only the shelf string and leave the net with the dead birds inside...and report it to the Forestry dpt... and make sure the Forestry dpt came to clean it during your following visit to thes site....

jonathmartinez said:

Report it to the FORESTRY DPT!!! They gone go there with 10 peoples include police and all the staff, to try to find the misnet owner, destroy the net "properly"...result the poacher won't start again so soon...
If you destroy it, tomorrow it will be set up again and you've just been tired to clean the area for one day...
These nets cost nothing to the poacher compare to the value of the birds they're catching....

Best is to cut only the shelf string and leave the net with the dead birds inside...and report it to the Forestry dpt... and make sure the Forestry dpt came to clean it during your following visit to thes site....

Click to expand...

I agree with Jonathan. Report the poacher. You'll be back in a week, and maybe the nets won't be there, but in two weeks, a month, or six weeks, etc. they will be back.

You owe the man nothing. Report him, and then in addition to you the forestry people may also have their eyes on him.

Nets

Thanks for your comments but in this case there was no poaching involved, the nets were set merely to deter fish predation. If I see them again then I will certainly report.