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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

China observations (1 Viewer)

May 21

A quick morning session in Nanhui, with visiting birder Rei Raz from Israel, who was fresh off from the "Champions of the Flyway" bird race. It was a slow morning but things certainly got better during noon.

A fruiting mulberry tree has attracted a variety of birds including Himalayan Black Bulbul, Chestnut Bulbul and two Collared Finches. Collared Finches have a feral population in some areas of the city(parks) but appearing along with these bulbuls could make them wild(?).
 

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on 22 Sep 200 White-throated Needletails passed Jiulongshan at northern bank of Hangzhou Bay.
on 1 Oct 200 Hobbies passed.

200 Hobbies! Good to see numbers like that as i had wondered about how viable the population was in China since i have never seen more than one at a time.
 
today it was very quiet at Jiulongshan till 16:00 a flock of 180 Grey-faced Buzzard came from southwest to roost.
Usually here the raptors pass from northeast to southwest in visible migration.

In the morning there were similar numbers passing Tai Lake on the border of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province,which is to the northwest of Jiulongshan.
 
200 Hobbies! Good to see numbers like that as i had wondered about how viable the population was in China since i have never seen more than one at a time.
in the peak of Hobby migration in late Sep it's not rare to see 20~30 in one or two hours passing the coastline even when we stand on the seawall without any hill.
 
one week later at where the eagle was seen,two Baer's Pochards and two Ferruginous Ducks were new to the collection of waterfowls,plus an OStork.
 
Steller's

Hello friends,

I am considering trying for the Steller's sea eagle on the site up in far NE in beg of March.

Does anybody know if there are any observations this year?

Would a foreigner need a permit for that area (since it is close to both DPRK and Russia...)?

Thanks for tips and advice, cheerio,
jocko
 
Hello friends,

I am considering trying for the Steller's sea eagle on the site up in far NE in beg of March.

Does anybody know if there are any observations this year?

Would a foreigner need a permit for that area (since it is close to both DPRK and Russia...)?

Thanks for tips and advice, cheerio,
jocko

Jocko,

First of all I don't recognize the name, so welcome to the forum.

Exactly where are you talking about? Changbai Shan? If so, my understanding is that it is not presently closed off but foreigners should be prepared to be denied access to a particular location at any time without any explanation. Big telephoto lenses would just draw further attention and suspicion. We have contacts in the Internal Security Police and government travel administration offices so I'll see if I can get any info out of them.

As for Steller's Sea Eagles, I haven't heard of any sightings this year. I know they have become rare in the Bohai Gulf. I would estimate that your chances of being able to successfully locate any would be much better in S. Korea, Japan or Vladivostok. Rare enough here that I am not even sure about the timing of their movements. I assume that as soon as the ice starts to break-up they tend to move even further north into Siberia.
 
Steller's

Thanks Owen and Jeff,

I am specifically looking for gen on Steller's in China (have seen them in the past both N Seoul and on Hokkaido). There is a place called Hunchun where a few have been sighted early spring in the past few years.

So basically I was hoping someone had been up there this year and had some updated news. But actually I would be grateful also for more practical info regarding sites also for (not only the eagles) other species such as owls, peckers and perhaps pine grosser. And if someone knows of a suitable "birder driver" in the area, I wouldn't mind to get his/her number.

Thanks again,
jocko
 
Hi
I've only just come across this thread but spend a lot of time in China for work (in Haining, Zhejiang province) so will certainly keep an eye on it in future. It also seems like the appropriate place to ask if there is any constructive way of reporting sightings in China. I quite often find that I see birds that are significantly outside the reported range for the species or in the wrong season. For example, on this current 3 week trip I've seen chestnut bulbul and crested goshawk neither of which appear near here on any range maps I've seen. I'm assuming this reflects limited knowledge of the true range rather than this small provincial city being a hotbed for rarities! Is eBird the best approach or are there more useful ways of reporting?
Michael
 
Welcome Michael!

You are exactly correct in surmising that the distribution maps for China are typically only rough estimates due to being based on a very limited amount of reporting of observations. Two major reasons, China's traditional isolation from the rest of the world and the fact that birding as a hobby is a rare endeavor in Chinese society. Both are changing factors now and hopefully will continue to improve as time goes on. Related to those are that the relatively few people that do any observation of birds in China don't usually share their data outside of China.

Where your reporting can do the most good is a question that I am sure you will get many answers to, but I personally will encourage you to post reports right here. This thread is intended for anyone to use in reports and discussion of birding in China in general. After you get to know us better you may want to start your own thread. That is the path that I followed and now I maintain my own forum on Liaoning Province in general and the Panjin/Yingkou area in particular. https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=301937&highlight=Panjin
There are of course several excellent Threads other people have for particular areas in China as I am sure you saw in finding this one.

Next I would really encourage you to post your observations to ebird.com and to encourage any Chinese birders that you interact with to do the same. They are making real efforts to gain the kind of data set that they need for China and I have had them contact me directly expressing their appreciation for my consistent observations and for including detail such as accurate counts and photos. In relation to your observation here, they have also contacted me requesting more detail about birds that seem out of range to their existing data set. Hence I know that they are actually using the data they collect from China. Also some of the latest improvements to their website have made available some really useful tools for exploring a particular area or for finding particular species of interest to you.

The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society has to be credited with being very active in Hong Kong but also for their work with the mainland also. There are growing numbers of Chinese mainland birders and birding clubs but the language barrier is a major factor.

So my opinion, for what it is worth and I am sure you will hear from many more. I hope we hear from you regularly!
 
Thanks for the suggestions Owen. I will certainly post some observations here on future trips (although that won't be for a few months). For now, for anyone who's interested, I've attached a spreadsheet of what I've seen grouped by my individual trips to China. I wouldn't claim that every single ID is nailed on but the vast majority are accurate. I also made a start on eBird by logging my last outing before I came home.

Michael
 

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Hi Michael
Nanbeihu area in Haining has several hills good for watching migrating raptors.
It's expensive though.So see my Post on Jiulongshan between Haining and Shanghai.
 
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