China observations (15 Viewers)

[MKinHK]

Your breeding inner city falcon is most likely to be Peregrine.

Lots of good birding spots in Yunnan - which city/cities will you visit? Even an hour in the early morning will bring some decent birds in many places.

Cheers
Mike

 

[Creba]

Your breeding inner city falcon is most likely to be Peregrine.

Perigrine would be one of the obvious, but the distribution maps in both Mackinnon&Phillips and Brazil gave me doubts. They both have them only on migration. Breeding Perigrines could be a recent development in the NE then (?).

Lots of good birding spots in Yunnan - which city/cities will you visit? Even an hour in the early morning will bring some decent birds in many places.

Cheers
Mike

Just the classic I guess, I have been told: Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, including Tiger leaping gorge, Yulong mountain, lashihai and shilin stone forest.

 

[Creba]

Also, does anyone know if there's an online repository for bird videos (similar in spirit to xeno-canto/AvoCet)? I reckon that our videos of nestlings might be helpful somewhere in the interwebs.

The only website I know where they are looking for (high quality) wildlife footage is www.arkive.org. However I think it is mainly endangered species they are looking for. I don't know if your species fall within there definition of 'endangered'.

My prefered depository is observado.org, but you can only add pictures and sounds. However, you can also link to references. So if you have them on a website or a public domain (youtube, vimeo,...) you can link a sighting location to those clips in that way. Although the administrators are not keen on seeing pictures of nest and nestlings for ethical reasons. I guess this would be for most depositories. But if it is only linked and if you can clearly indicate they were made for academic reasons these could be arguments to still share the information in this way. Exact nest locations should always be protected by obscuring them and/or indicate a later date for publication.

I can help you to contact the administrators and/or adding the data if you are interested.

regards，
Bart

 

[thirudevaram]

Well, as far as the information is not published in the local forums, its fine. Sometimes, the "600mm" paparazzi's go insane for those shots.

 

[Frogfish]

CHChang : your eggs may well be those of a Bittern. Moorhen & Coot eggs are a mottled brown, whereas Egret and Bittern eggs are likely to be white (varies of course).

Your butterfly is a Byasa alcinous.

 

[DavidJStanton]

Alpine Swift - Xinjiang May 2012

Thought this may be of interest from our recent trip to Xinjiang and Sichuan in May/June 2012, where Paul Leader, Geoff Carey and I had up to 10 Alpine Swifts along the River Ili about 35km east of Yili (Yining).

Not the best photo I grant you, but a good record. I am in the process of writing a trip report, though it is more in the to-do list with other trip reports, rather than being a finished article I'm afraid!

 

[MKinHK]

A terrific record - the Ili Valley delivers once again!

I had European Greenfinches and Calandra Larks here in 1998 which were among the first records for China.

Cheers
Mike

 

[mcaribou]

travelled from Tibet to Xinjiang.Saw Greenfinch today in Mulei.Before that,saw Pallas's Eagle in Balikun.

 

[mcaribou]

In Lianyungang,Jiangsu there were 1,899 ADowitcher alive and 1 dead juv.
Sadly it may be because all the habitats around Tianjin in Bohai Bay have been destroyed,which used to hold thousands of ADowitcher.

 

[mcaribou]

today at Hai'an in a mixed flock when looking at Spooner in br plumage,we also saw a Common Ringed Plover.

 

[Terry Townshend]

Another Common Ringed Plover!

Paul Holt and I have just spent 3 days at Nanpu, near Tangshan, Hebei Province. Highlights included 4 Asian Dowitchers, over 100 Relict Gulls, 15+ Reed Parrotbills, good visible migration including Blyth's, Pechora and Richard's Pipits, Yellow-breasted Buntings etc.. but the star bird was a COMMON RINGED PLOVER! Hot on the heels of Zhang Lin's bird. Images attached. I believe there are fewer than 5 records from eastern China?

 

[mcaribou]

Cool Terry!

 

[lewis20126]

Paul Holt and I have just spent 3 days at Nanpu, near Tangshan, Hebei Province. Highlights included 4 Asian Dowitchers, over 100 Relict Gulls, 15+ Reed Parrotbills, good visible migration including Blyth's, Pechora and Richard's Pipits, Yellow-breasted Buntings etc.. but the star bird was a COMMON RINGED PLOVER! Hot on the heels of Zhang Lin's bird. Images attached. I believe there are fewer than 5 records from eastern China?

Terry

It looks incredibly short-billed in those photos, but I'm sure PH would have eliminated Semi-P plover! Good record.

cheers, alan

 

[Terry Townshend]

Hi Alan,
Paul was quick to rule out Semi-P Plover. In a lesson in identification of the two species, he said that the prominent white flash behind and above the eye and the blackish face and ear coverts were indicative of Common Ringed. And confirmation was in the call.

I think ssp tundrae does show a shorter bill, relative to the nominate.

Amazingly, the following day, we heard (and saw distantly) another or the same Common Ringed Plover some 7km from the site of the original sighting.
Terry

 

[mcaribou]

Hi Terry
Do u remember the long seawall in Rudong?My CRP was seen again two days later about 20km away.Since the habitat extends almost the same along the seawall,I think it's the same bird.

 

[thrush]

Paul Holt and I have just spent 3 days at Nanpu, near Tangshan, Hebei Province. Highlights included 4 Asian Dowitchers, over 100 Relict Gulls, 15+ Reed Parrotbills, good visible migration including Blyth's, Pechora and Richard's Pipits, Yellow-breasted Buntings etc.. but the star bird was a COMMON RINGED PLOVER! Hot on the heels of Zhang Lin's bird. Images attached. I believe there are fewer than 5 records from eastern China?

Great work; excellent record shots of common ringed plover.

 

[mcaribou]

today at Xiao Yangshan Island near Shanghai around noon several hundred common tern type and one crested tern type and a few other terns were in migration.None was ided to species but it's time to notice Aleutian and Chinese Crested etc.
Passerines' daily migration was also visible and once they landed what waiting for them were shrike,shrike,shrike,shrike..........................................

 

[McMadd]

today at Xiao Yangshan Island near Shanghai around noon several hundred common tern type and one crested tern type and a few other terns were in migration.None was ided to species but it's time to notice Aleutian and Chinese Crested etc.
Passerines' daily migration was also visible and once they landed what waiting for them were shrike,shrike,shrike,shrike..........................................

Let's see what tomorrow brings...I want flycatchers and chats!

 

[mcaribou]

Let's see what tomorrow brings...I want flycatchers and chats!

just normal:yellow-rumped,gray-streaked,asian brown,blue and white,Japanese paradise.I didnt see any chat.

 

[McMadd]

just normal:yellow-rumped,gray-streaked,asian brown,blue and white,Japanese paradise.I didnt see any chat.

Hi ZL

20 Avocet south at the "Magic Holiday Inn Express" was good I thought (?)...couple of Dollarbird at Yangshan this afternoon...c.20 Oriental Pratincole and same of Grey-headed Lapwing near the turf farms W of the bridge.

Back out tomorrow with Jeff so hopefully some more of the same...see you about?

Mark