Panjin Birding by the Old Fat Man (3 Viewers)

The Eastern Buzzard makes 200 on my life list, with 90 species for Liaoning! Not so bad for being only 9 months into keeping a record and having managed to miss both the spring and fall migration while in Kansas.

Nov-27-2015

The wind finally died down enough to make the temperatures tolerable and I made it out this afternoon. Again, not much evident, but did pick up a new tick with (11) Spotted Dove working over a harvested corn field. Two kilometers and an hour and a half later I had the following:

(2) Common Magpie mixed in with (5) Azure-winged Magpie, also working the harvested corn field. Perched just above the dove were (6) Hawfinch who were looking very cold and not happy. Innumerable Tree Sparrows were of course evident along with (2) Naumenn's Thrush and a lone Hoopoe. Finished up with a quick siting of (one) Grey-headed Woodpecker and (7) more Azure-winged Magpie.

Nov-28-2015

Finally a sunny day! I think the last time we had more than an hour or two of sun was about two weeks ago. Still only made about -7, but that feels a lot better with the sun and with only a light breeze.

Things have really thinned out here with the cold and not kidding there. Looks like it might be a harsh winter as they are already ice fishing here. I watched this fellow and one other walk all the way across apparently taking a seasonal short cut between two villages. My wife just said that Panjin TV was saying that this November has been the coldest in 60 years. Not sure what records that is based on since Panjin was only established as a city in 1984.

Two and a half hours and about 4 kilometers later all I had was:

(17) Hawfinch
(5) Spotted Dove
(1) Naumann's Thrush
(5) Common Magpie
(18) Azure-Winged Magpie
(1) Black-Headed Gull

The Black-Headed Gull was observed as it made a crash landing and skidded a ways on it's tail on what it obviously thought was open water as the sun was just strong enough to melt a slight film of water on the surface of the ice. The picture here is a little later as it slipped walking and caught itself with a wing flap.

Congrats on the 200, Owen. We had our first cold wave last thursday, not so bad but it was cold and windy. The frozen ponds clearly speaks out for your winter.

Dec-02-2015

The cold wave has broken and we are back to normal temperatures for Panjin. Rain yesterday and sunny skies today. Predictions are for December to be more normal. Hooray!

Decided to celebrate clear skies and temps hovering at about zero and take a nice long hike. I started out anticipating about a 6 km trip, but had to detour some to avoid the sloppier areas where the sun was melting the frozen surface and making for gummy mud, so ended up with more like 8 km and 3.5 hours. Being retired has it's advantages as I can take the time for that if I want. :king:

The short version first with dialog to follow:

Panjin, Dawa County, Liaoning, CN, Liaoning, CN
Dec 2, 2015 10:30 AM - 2:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
8.0 kilometer(s)
8 species (+1 other taxa)

Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) 3
Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) 1
Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) 8
Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus) 21
Light-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis) 6
Dusky/Naumann's Thrush (Turdus naumanni/eunomus) 4
Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla) 40
Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) 6
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) X

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26096950

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

The birds were grouped up in particular locations with as much as 2 km with nothing to see. Most of what I saw was within sight of our apartment with a couple of nice flocks towards the end.

There were (8) Common Magpie scattered along the walk along with Tree Sparrow too numerous and active to count. Unusual for Panjin, but no Azure-winged Magpie.

Started across the street at the city park that has continued to produce and had (4) Naumann's Thrush, (6) Light-vented (Chinese) Bulbul, (6) Hawfinch and (3) Spotted Dove. All were well hidden in the brush and took a considerable time to ID and longer to manage to get a usable pic as you can see.

Continued on towards a park area that is only lightly used and saw nothing but (1) Hoopoe and a few Magpie for the next two km. The park was a total bust and a muddy mess, so worked my way around the mud and swung back towards home checking the narrow strip of brushy land next to Highway 305. Went another kilometer thinking it was a total bust when suddenly came upon a flock of aprpox. (21) Long-tailed Tit. They were also playing hide-and-seek so only managed one decent pic. As I followed them north through the brush they met up with a larger flock of approx. (40) Little Bunting who were headed south. That was it for the couple of km of the rest of the walk except for the occasional Tree Sparrow.

I almost forgot about this one. Bonus points for coming up with an ID for this poor bedraggled soul who is having a bad hair (feather) day. 3

Owen Krout said:

I almost forgot about this one. Bonus points for coming up with an ID for this poor bedraggled soul who is having a bad hair (feather) day. 3

Click to expand...

I'm gonna pass on this one.

Post #125, The buntings are Rustic. Assuming, they are new birds (probably lifer?) for you?

Hello Dev,

Yes, Rustic would be a lifer for me. Having come from America, almost everything here is totally new to me. My mother was an avid bird watcher and sparked a life-long interest in me, by insisting that I be able to identify anything at her feeders. Never actually kept a list though. That being said, most of it is not particularly relevant here.

Trying to ID a new bird can be tricky. I considered Rustic, as I did think that I caught a glimpse or two of individuals showing more black on the head and wasn't really sold on Little, but the illustrations in Brazil's seemed to show much more marking on the belly than I had with these. I am getting better though, as I did immediately see them as buntings. A small thing to the more experienced birder, but part of the small steps we all take towards really knowing what we are doing.

As always, thanks for any help.

Just did a quick check of my photo files and found that I was at least half right. In the keywords I had indeed entered it as Little Bunting, but also as Emberiza Rustica. More than anything indicating my own indecision I suppose.

Little to report for two hours of effort.

Panjin, Dawa County, Liaoning, CN, Liaoning, CN
Dec 4, 2015 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Protocol: Traveling
4.0 kilometer(s)
6 species

Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) 1
Gray-headed Woodpecker (Picus canus) 1
Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) 10
Light-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis) 12
Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) 4
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 10

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26119176

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

I would said that the "bad hair" one is an Eurasian Tree Sparrow...how much bonus points would I get with that?

Have to agree with Jonathan -once identified its obvious.

Cheers
Mike

I'll leave it up to the group to decide on how many bonus points, Johnathan. But you may be correct at that. :t: Understand both are heavily cropped, but I went back to the original frame and found this one also.

At the time, I was unable, even with the binoculars, to figure out what was hiding back in the brush so I snapped a picture hoping to figure it out later. Now I also think it looks like an Eurasian Tree Sparrow, but have to wonder if it is not just pareidolia. What do I think? I think I'll have another beer, maybe that will help. B

Dec-06-2015

Temperatures have finally returned to normal here in Panjin. Today it was hovering around zero with only a very light breeze, so I decided to check out some areas that I have not visited for awhile and it payed off.

Not even bothering to eat breakfast this morning, I didn't intend to walk quite so far or to take so much time, but every time I was thinking, "Good enough, I'd better head home." It would immediately be followed with "Ooh! That's nifty!" Finally, 3 hours and 45 minutes later, with the camera battery giving out (830 pictures - - - I got a bit carried away with the concept of "film" being free it seems) and with aching joints and realizing I was hungry, I gave it up and headed home.

Started with nice Hen Harrier right next to our apartment.

After a couple of kilometers of walking I walked into the woods along the irrigation canal and spent about an hour withing 20 meters of where I started with something new every time I turned around. A large mixed flock of Long-tailed Tit, Eastern Great Tit, and Coal Tit was enough to keep me delighted, but it also produced Treecreeper, and Winter Wren.

It just kept getting better as I found what I thought was a Sparrowhawk. A E. Kestrel was nearby and definitely much bigger. In fact this was quite small even for a Sparrowhawk as you can see by the comparison to the insulators. By the size and the relatively short tail with wider barring than the Kestrel's tail, (I think I could make out four bands, but not certain about that) and color I thought it to be a Japanese Sparrowhawk. Not on the eBird list for this time of year though, so see what you all come up with.

Also not on their list for this time of year was what sure looked like a couple of Elegant Bunting. Again, see what you think.

After the E. Kestrel made a couple of unsuccessful stoops, missing what was probably a mouse in a corn stalk shock and a small bird on the ground, a group of Rustic Buntings were mobbing the Kestrel and a few lost interest and dropped to the ground to forage. Bad idea. The Kestrel had bunting for lunch.

Rounded off with more Woodpeckers than I had seen before in one outing, a large flock of Azure-winged Magpie and a few other misc..

Panjin, Dawa County, Liaoning, CN, Liaoning, CN
Dec 6, 2015 10:15 AM - 2:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
4.0 kilometer(s)
17 species (+1 other taxa)

Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) 4
Gray-headed Woodpecker (Picus canus) 6
Eurasian Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) 2
Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) 40
Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) 4
Coal Tit (Periparus ater) 14
Japanese Tit (Parus minor) 12
Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus) 25
Eurasian Treecreeper (Certhia familiaris) 2
Eurasian Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) 3
Light-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis) 2
Goldcrest (Regulus regulus) 1
Dusky/Naumann's Thrush (Turdus naumanni/eunomus) 4
Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla) 8
Rustic Bunting (Emberiza rustica) 4
Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) 5
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) X

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26147108

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

Hi Owen, Your photo titled Japanese Sparrowhawk is a female Eurasian Kestrel. It would very extremely rare to see Jap. Sparrowhawk this time of year. Eurasian Sparrowhawk could be around still. That is probably your default bird if it's not a kestrel this time of year. They appear long tailed in flight and often stay around low near ground level this time of year I find. The other one that you can look out for is Merlin which is a winter visitor to much of Liaoning.

Elegant Bunting is Yellow-throated Bunting in ebird and yes you have a picture of one there. Nice Wren pictures and the Harrier is neat as well. No worry about free digital film, snap away! I agree with your observations about the weather, much nicer.

Tom

Hi Owen,

What an excellent day! Great to see so many nice birds, and some interesting behavior! Nice to see so many birds of prey, and I'm always pleased to see elegant buntings (and prefer that name though the ebird people don't )

Re your ID questions on the other thread: the extremely dark coloring of the wrens here threw me off initially too. The Chinese/European crests are very much like American kinglets - and, as with kinglets, their size and quick movements make them easily mistaken for warblers.

Hi Tom, Not doubting your expertise over mine, as it has proven itself since I started here, but thinking out loud; I understood that the Jap. SH would be a rarity and that the standard default would be E. Kestrel and struggled with that both in the field and while evaluating at home. In fact my first thought was "Ah, a Sparrowhawk of some sort!" and then, "Or a really small Kestrel." However it looked through binoculars to have much broader banding on the tail and I thought I could count four bands, which later at home matched well with only the Jap. SH. Also I noted in the field the impression of a very short tail. Which the photo confirms with the wing projection almost reaching the tail tip. It was definitely considerably smaller than a female E. Kestrel that was visible at the same time which also displayed a longer tail. Rereading the Merlin, I could see it as a match for a smallish female Merlin. Unfortunately this is the best picture I got as it didn't stay put long and I didn't get any closer.

As it stands I'll just have to let it go for now and hope to get a better look later on.

Added some more shots from yesterday.

Dec-10-2015

Made a two part outing this afternoon once the morning fog and rain started to clear. First of all tried the parks next to us, but after about 1 km came away with only (5) Common Magpie; (4) Naumenn's Thrush; and (3) Hawfinch.

I decided to make the 1.5 km hike through the dead zone of concrete to the irrigation canal where I did so well the other day, but the wife gave it up and went back home. Did much better there considering only about an hour before the daylight started failing enough that I headed home also. A front from due north had passed through clearing out the last of the clouds in the meantime and the temperature was dropping fast.

The secret seems to be to find the mixed flock of Tits and that is where you will find everything else as well. Coal Tits were abundant with at least 20 all around me. Got a close up of one as he was squeezing himself into a tree cavity. So busy that I was able to walk right up to him. He came out with a beetle which he took to a nearby limb and held it between his feet like a seed while he pecked small bites off it.

(3) or more, Eurasian Nuthatch were working in the midst of the mixed flock along with (4) Eurasian Treecreeper and (6) Long-Tailed Tit. Spent a good deal of time stalking a very elusive small flock that turned out to be (6) Olive-Backed Pipit.

Finished up with (19) Azure-Winged Magpie that were cavorting about.

Owen, sounds like a nice walk. Olive-backed Pipits should not be expected during December so good job on those. Great photos once again sir! I know what you mean about finding a tit flock in winter, there are often others that can be in these groups. Very windy and cold outside right now here, must be even colder by you.

I'm heading out today for some afternoon birding near Wafangdian with my class. It's up your way on the west side of the peninsula about an hour north of Dalian but still quite a bit further south from you. It's a large rice farming area where many cranes and storks spend the winter.