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Panjin Birding by the Old Fat Man (1 Viewer)

I started out this afternoon to scout some rice paddies that I haven't been to in awhile, only to discover that today was the day for high school entrance testing at the government school right next to us. Street was blocked off and hence no bus. Decided therefore to go back to the rice paddy where I picked up the Spotted Redshank.

Upon spotting a pair of Eastern Spot-Billed Duck that were sparring with each other in one of the rice paddies, I shot some quick long range shots and then decided that at the worst I would just be chased off along with the half dozen other people already there, I jumped the crude rope fence. That led to finding some of the missing Little Grebe whose loud whistles let me know I didn't have their welcome. Also one Common Moorhen. By the time I worked my way through the maze of embankments the ducks had cleared out, but Wood Sandpiper; Black-Winged Stilt; Common Magpie; Grey-Headed Lapwing were still foraging through the water. I was rather surprised to see the Common Magpie wading through the shallower water and snatching up tidbits alongside the stilts. Guess they are clever enough to learn by observation.

Panjin, Dawa County, Liaoning, CN, Liaoning, CN
Jun 28, 2016 1:00 PM - 1:45 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.5 kilometer(s)
11 species

Eastern Spot-billed Duck (Anas zonorhyncha) 2
Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) 4
Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis) 5
Eurasian Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) 1
Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) 2
Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) 2
Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) 5
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 20
Light-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis) 2
Oriental Reed-Warbler (Acrocephalus orientalis) 4
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 5

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S30429006

After some scouting, I finally found a shorter route into the actual rice paddies than what I had done before. It would have been underwater last year, but with the drainage ditches someone has added another raised walkway. The paddies are, I believe, not officially permitted, but are a side project of people and their families from the new fire station that sits on the edge of the area. They are hidden from sight except from the fire station itself.

A couple of Eastern Cattle Egret and one Black-Crowned Night Heron were the only large waders this time. The field where more had been three days ago was recently mostly drained. This time there were two Spotted Redshank. One was with the Black-Winged Stilt and the other was with a large flock of about (35) Wood Sandpiper.

Panjin, Dawa County, Liaoning, CN, Liaoning, CN
Jun 28, 2016 2:15 PM - 3:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 kilometer(s)
7 species

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) 2
Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) 1
Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) 9
Gray-headed Lapwing (Vanellus cinereus) 9
Spotted Redshank (Tringa erythropus) 2
Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola) 35
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 10

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S30429109
 

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July 2, 2016

I decided that yesterday morning before it warmed up, I would check out my little isolated spot along the ZhongGen Canal that has produced some nice finds like the Wryneck earlier in the year. Not a lot of variety, but numbers were good.

As soon as I clamored up the embankment I was greeted with a pair of Daurian Starling feeding two young fledglings in some cottonwoods. I was in deep shade and of course they were back-lit with bright sunlight, so it took quite a bit of effort to be sure of what I had seen once I got back home. The streaking on the breasts of the young threw me off. And name confusion contributed as Brazil had it as Daurian Starling (Sturnus sturninus), while MacKinnon (which is what I was using) has it as Purple-backed Starling (Sturnus sturninus).

Trying to search online was even worse as OBC had it as Daurian Starling/Purple-backed Starling (Agropsar sturninus), while IBC was just Purple-backed Starling (Agropsar sturninus) and Avibase and eBird say Daurian Starling (Agropsar sturninus).

Right next to them were (8) Chinese Grosbeak. The next kilometer was non-stop Brown Shrike many of whom had fledgling they were feeding. Also a Hoopoe with a tag along fledgling that was both feeding itself and bugging the parent for a handout.

Jul 2, 2016 10:15 AM - 11:20 AM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 kilometer(s)
6 species

Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) 1
Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) 20
Asian Brown Flycatcher (Muscicapa latirostris) 2
Daurian Starling (Agropsar sturninus) 4 Two fledglings being fed by two adults
Yellow-billed Grosbeak (Eophona migratoria) 8

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S30504124

For the next kilometer the only thing of great interest was encountering (60) Mallard! (10) females with their ducklings. No sign of any males. This was in a patch of water that was isolated between the new rice paddies and the canal banks starting this year. They don't appear to just be farm ducks as they were actually fenced out of the areas in agricultural use. I think they just found an small unused wetland area and took advantage of it.

I wanted to go on south just another few hundred meters to where I have seen some Kingfishers before, but a local stopped me and told me I couldn't go down there. He was friendly enough, but insistent about it. It was getting pretty warm anyway so I headed back to the road to catch the bus and was surprised with the rarity of the day - A city bus with the air conditioning actually running and working well and without the windows being open!

Jul 2, 2016 11:20 AM - 12:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 kilometer(s)
6 species

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 60 Actual count
Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) 1
Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) 2
Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) 13
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 20
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 5

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S30504181
 

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I suppose that that's the juvenile Hoopoe in the back - very scrawny looking! I've not seen one myself, so it's nice to see.
 
I hadn't seen one before either, Gretchen. Like a lot of fledglings, including the Daurian Starlings and for that matter human young adults, it was actually foraging for itself but if it saw the adult had something to eat, it would hurry over to beg.
 
July 6, 2016

Went out early this morning after walking the dog to try and beat the afternoon heat and humidity. Turned out to be a lot of walking for what I did find, but at least did pick up a new tick with (4) White-Winged Tern. No picture as they were just too far away across the field, but did see at least (11) Common Magpie who seemed to be having a great time obviously noisily horsing around in the trees along the edge of the field. People were working in the rice paddies, so only saw (1) Black-Winged Stilt, (2) Black-Crowned Night Heron, (2) Eastern Cattle Egret and (6) Grey-Headed Lapwing

Moving on to the next wetland area, I found the White-Winged Tern as well as (6) Whiskered Tern, (6) Oriental Reed Warbler, (7) Hoopoe, (4) Brown Shrike, (5) Eurasian Cuckoo.

Just because it is the slow time of the year, I'll throw in one whatsit?. This fellow was fishing in the river. Can you ID it? Answer tomorrow.
 

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Very good, Jeff! :t: Looked like a rather nondescript heron at first, but the pattern of wing spots in these shots are what made it for me. New enough at this that he dropped the fish before he got very far.
 

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July 13, 2016

I checked out the section of the ZhongGen Canal nearest to me yesterday as well as the Fragrant Lake. About 4 km along the canal and another 1 km at the lake. Broke it down into aprox. 1 hour sections for the eBird report, but will spare you that and summarize it into the canal and the lake.

Along the canal there was an abundance of Brown Shrike with many fledglings out. I totaled a count of 42 along the 4 km stretch and I am quite confident that it was an under-count as I often could hear young who were begging, but got bored with tracking down the same thing so many times. Enough that eBird flagged it as being too high of a count. I can see why as I didn't see any Brown Shrike last year and this year they are by far the most abundant thing around. The reason I chose to go over there was that I had not been seeing any Azure-Winged Magpie for quite awhile and decided to check out an area where they are pretty much assured year round. Sure enough I found at least 26 of them along about a 0.5 km stretch. They were being very loud and aggressive, so although I didn't see any, I assume they were protecting fledglings. Only (10) Barn Swallow evident, which is much lower than usual. Did spot (2) Chinese Pond Heron in flight over the area and a couple of Yellow Bittern in a rice paddy. One Oriental Reed Warbler in that paddy area, though these must have pretty much finished with nesting as I am steadily seeing (and hearing) less of them. Scattered through the area were (3) Chinese Bulbul; (3) Spotted Dove; (9) Daurian Starling (adults and fledglings); and one Hoope.

The Fragrant Lake has only been there for about two years as part of the ambiance of a high end apartment development, but is starting to attract some good variety.
Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis) 17
Yellow Bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) 8
Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) 2
Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) 4
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 5

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S30666448

The Little Grebe were adults out with grebelings? in trail and some larger juveniles out on their own, but still sticking together. A surprising number of Yellow Bittern observed as swimmers were startling them into flight.
 

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Interesting Beetle

I did get distracted for awhile by a colorful and interesting beetle that flew onto a plant close in front of me. Looked like little leaves growing out of its back which I took to be some sort of camouflage. Submitted it to the Insect forum and Silver Wolf tells me "It is one of the Cetoniine beetles (in the scarab beetle family), similar to Lophorrhina pentachordia but probably not that species. The green bits are not going to be part of the beetle, rather something attached to it..." Just one of those neat things in nature that you run across if you are observant.
 

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Red-Billed Starling?

I almost forgot that I did encounter an unknown starling? along the canal. Only got a quick look, so the photos are not great. The ID forum got a lot of looks but only one suggestion with xuky.summer saying, "looks more like a juv Red-billed Starling, but I can't explain the white tail." That would be far out of the range shown in the guides, but does look more like that than a Daurian Starling.

Thought I would give you guys a shot at it.
 

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July 15, 2016

Heavily overcast, but considerably cooler today, so I hiked over to check out the wetlands/rice paddies. I was pleased to see (9) Little Egret that had moved in. Also caught (3) Black-Crowned Night Heron; (1) Purple Heron and (1) Grey Heron. A Ring-Necked Pheasant hen broke cover about a meter in front of me as I was concentrating on the herons and all I got was one brown blur that filled the 400mm lens.

Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) 2
Gray Heron (Ardea cinerea) 1
Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) 1
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) 9
Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) 3
Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra) 1
Gray-headed Lapwing (Vanellus cinereus) 2
Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) 5
Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) 1
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 25
Light-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis) 4
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 10

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S30690398
 

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I was doing some housekeeping and discarding some photos that I had taken and saved for one odd reason or another and found this one I had forgotten about. I noticed what seemed like a band on a leg of a lone Rock Dove/Domestic Pigeon and took this shot. They are usually ignored as in the last year a minor local industry has developed in raising flocks for sale to restaurants and it is now common to see flocks of 10-20 wheeling overhead.

Turns out it has blue bands on each leg. i couldn't make out the lettering though. Do they normally band domestic birds?
probably answered already if it is the cas eall my apologises, if not this is a typical homing pigeon one band is the regsitered number , the other is a racing one , so that pigeon could probably be a lost one(during races they don't stop like that ) good of you to have notice it .
regards
juan
 
Thanks, Juan. New information and interesting to me at least. There is a roost?, or whatever it is called in the hobby, very near to there, but I believe that those birds are sold to the local restaurants so indeed probably a lost bird. Hopefully it finds a roost where it won't be sold for meat. Last year there was a flock of 20 -30 birds that commonly wheeled over the area just east of there from a village. That little village has been cleared out and bulldozed since then for development. That was before the craze for raising pigeons for food got started in this area and maybe it is a racer that was trying to find its old home.
 
Hi Owen

I think your starlings are juvenile Daurian Starlings.

The bill is too broad and blunt for Red-billed and White-Cheeked.

That leaves White-shouldered, Chestnut-cheeked or Daurian.

Chestnut-cheeked doesn't breed in China.

White-shouldered always shows a pale iris.

So Daurian is the only one left . . .

Cheers
Mike
 
Hi Owen

I think your starlings are juvenile Daurian Starlings.

The bill is too broad and blunt for Red-billed and White-Cheeked.

That leaves White-shouldered, Chestnut-cheeked or Daurian.

Chestnut-cheeked doesn't breed in China.

White-shouldered always shows a pale iris.

So Daurian is the only one left . . .

Cheers
Mike

Thanks, Mike for the confirmation. Through the discussion that went on the ID forum I finally decided that it was a young Daurian Starling. Apparently the black markings develop later. Since this was close to the area where adults were feeding fledglings, and given what is likely to be in this area, it makes sense.
 
Owen,

Glad to see you're getting out and seeing some interesting things. (I'm in the US for a short holiday.) I enjoyed the picture of the juv. Brown Shrike - I've not see one at that age before.
 
Gretchen, I hope your enjoying your time in the US. If my attempt at obtaining a Q1 visa in Hong Kong fails, I will be going back myself to get one of the new 10 year visas from the D.C. embassy.

While I was trying to get as close as possible to the juv. BS the adults were even closer of to the side loudly expressing their displeasure. The youngster seemed to be totally oblivious to the whole thing.
 
August 14, 2016

This morning brought a break to the heat and 90%+ humidity, so I decided to make a morning of it with an outing. I figured that the water bird areas would still be too soggy from all the recent rains, so went over to the irrigation canal with its paved walkway along the banks.

Pretty low numbers and variety but still an enjoyable way to spend the morning. Also managed to pick up two new tics with a Grey-Streaked Flycatcher and a pair of Lesser Cuckoo. Nothing else of note other than the Azure-Winged Magpie which, like any corvids, always seem to have plenty of time to devote to noisily playing and horsing around.

I did note a large area which appeared to be some sort of aquaculture with exclusion netting. I know that the Black-Crowned Night Herons had been using those areas a wetland feeding until this year when it was "improved". A rather well isolated and hidden from view area.

Panjin, Dawa County, Liaoning, CN, Liaoning, CN
Aug 14, 2016 7:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Protocol: Traveling
6.0 kilometer(s)
11 species

Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis) 3
Yellow Bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) 2
Lesser Cuckoo (Cuculus poliocephalus) 2
Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) 1
Gray-headed Woodpecker (Picus canus) 1
Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) 13
Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) 14
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 28
Light-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis) 4
Gray-streaked Flycatcher (Muscicapa griseisticta) 1
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 5

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31088038
 

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