A quick trip to the zoo for 3 or 4 hours Wednesday afternoon to see what may be wintering there. Shanghai zoo has some very large areas, ignored by the vast majority of the paying public, of both wooded and grassed land that would put most parks to shame.
There is a lake and some small ponds that are used in the main by wild ducks, pelicans, egrets and herons. Interesting to note that the Mandarin ducks have left and there was only a small row of 3 ducks remaining. The herons, egrets and pelicans were still there in numbers.
There were huge numbers of Blackbirds (well over a hundred, if not over two hundred), Chinese Bul Buls and Tree Sparrows. However I also saw two small flocks (10-12 birds) of Chinese Grosbeaks, an unidentified Thrush (see attached), Oriental Magpie (F), Red Flanked Bluetail (x2), as always here plenty of Azure Winged Magpies, a dozen Gulls (see attached) were going to roost on an island in the lake, Long Tailed Shrikes and a Common Kingfisher, whilst a pair of Pallas' Warblers and a Red Whiskered Bul Bul rounded off the afternoon very nicely.
Leaving me enough time (too dark for birds but still enough light for big cats) to take some shots of the pair of white tigers (South China Tigers) - of which less than 200 remain (all in captivity though China has identified 4 regions in which to reintroduce them).