Spoon-billed Sandpipers in China (4 Viewers)

[mcaribou]

one Spooner is back to Beilun Rivermouth,Guangxi.

 

[mcaribou]

two Spooner today still at Rudong.

 

[mcaribou]

one of the ten birds we flagged in Sep in Rudong was seen in Bangladesh--Yellow 57!

 

[Terry Townshend]

That's brilliant news, Zhang Lin!

 

[jonathmartinez]

there was a Spoon-billed Sandpiper this afternoon at Xitou in Guangdong province, it is the second consecutive year that a bird is wintering there.

 

[jonathmartinez]

We finally found that 2 birds are wintering at Xitou on 27th and 28th of december.
And during a short visit to Fucheng Leizhou on 29th and 30th , John Allcock and I found an incredible 30 Spoonies on the mudflat north of Fucheng estuary. There could be well more.
It includes 3 marked birds, white flag X8 which is an hand rear bird from Meina in 2014 and seen this autumn in Jiangsu, yellow flag 53 which has been flagged in Jiangsu this autumn, and a bird with a single orange plastic ring and metal one....
This is the highest count of Spoonies ever recorded in China during winter...

Happy new year 2016

 

[Terry Townshend]

Jonathan,
Happy New Year! That is brilliant news with which to begin 2016! Big congratulations to you and to John. If it can be established whether this is an important regular wintering site for SBS, it raises the significance of China for SBS conservation beyond the need to protect the stopover sites in the Yellow Sea.
Great stuff.
Terry

 

[jonathmartinez]

actually there are 43 Spoon-billed Sandpiper in Guangdong, 5 at the SE tip of Donghai Island and at least 38 at The Fucheng estuary.

 

[Dong Bei]

Very cool! Are these new wintering sites then?
Tom

 

[jonathmartinez]

just saw the 2 one from Xitou, so it is now 45 birds in total. The main batch is from he Fucheng area, we just better understood in december where the bird congregating during the rising tide and are getting better count, there is good chance that more bird are there actually.
We've also confirmed a new wintering site at Donghai Island as well as finding a new one in the same island. But these two site are fairly close from Fucheng as well...

 

[DavidJStanton]

Nice work Jon and John!

 

[johnallcock]

Very cool! Are these new wintering sites then?
Tom

As I understand, birds have been known wintering at Fucheng in previous years, and were also seen at Donghai last winter. We found one completely new location on the trip, just to the south of Donghai, where SbS have not been seen before, perhaps because it has not been visited at the right time of year (and we ran out of time to cover the whole flock at this site).

The major difference this year compared to previous years is that that the species was not known at these sites but that we had not anticipated how many SbS were present until our December trip, when we found 30 birds. The key seems to be that you are in the right place at the right time, counting on the mudflats on the rising tide rather than relying on finding the roosts. On this trip we were able to watch the numbers increase on each scan in front of the rising tide. It's important, though, not to be too distracted because the tide rises very fast and you need to make sure you are not stuck on the mudflat!

Fucheng and Donghai are fairly close to each other, about 30km apart on opposite sides of the estuary. I would not be at all surprised if there are more birds waiting to be found, at other locations in the area or at other estuaries in south China.

 

[sichuan jiujiu]

I am planning to spend a few days in Shanghai the coming week.
How do I get to Rudong by public transport (from Shanghai Downtown) and from there to the mudflats?
Is the Dongtan Park on Chongming Island worth a visit?
Thanks in advance!
Roland

 

[thirudevaram]

I am planning to spend a few days in Shanghai the coming week.
How do I get to Rudong by public transport (from Shanghai Downtown) and from there to the mudflats?
Is the Dongtan Park on Chongming Island worth a visit?
Thanks in advance!
Roland

Hi Roland, buses to Rudong leave regularly from the bus terminus close to Shanghai Railway station. It will take you about 3-3.5 hours to reach Rudong. At Rudong, you need to take a local bus to XiaoYangkou, takes an hour and half to get there.
Dongtan boardwalk is your best bet to find the Reed Parrotbills and wintering Buntings, waterfowl and Black-faced Spoonbill. The cranes and geese are usually found in the south-east corner of the reserve which is a lengthy walk from the boardwalk if you don't have wheels.

 

[sichuan jiujiu]

Hi Dev,

Thanks for the info! Transport to Xiao Yangkou was quick, but distances to the birding spots overwhelmed me and I found myself spending too much time with running along the coast road without finding a higher concentration of waders. Unfortunately thick mist kept me from seeing anything the next morning until noon when I had to leave.

Just hope that the Spoon-billed Sandpipers make it through the heavily managed coast line this year.
cheers
Roland

 

[mcaribou]

With fewer birds left in Guangdong,many of them are on the way back thru Rudong area.
On 6 and 7 many waders were arriving,esp Great Knot(one with PTT　from NWAustralia landed at Tongzhou Bay)and Grey Plover(one with PTT from SouthAustralia landed in Dongtai).
I saw ten Spooner in quick scans when focusing mainly on color-marked Great Knot.
On 8 local photographers got two flagged Spooner,one was Lime 08,our old friend and the other was Lime A1 who for the first time was seen after it was hatched in 2014.
A1 is showing some br plumage and should be ready to breed at this age.

 

[KFC]

With fewer birds left in Guangdong,many of them are on the way back thru Rudong area.
On 6 and 7 many waders were arriving,esp Great Knot(one with PTT　from NWAustralia landed at Tongzhou Bay)and Grey Plover(one with PTT from SouthAustralia landed in Dongtai).
I saw ten Spooner in quick scans when focusing mainly on color-marked Great Knot.
On 8 local photographers got two flagged Spooner,one was Lime 08,our old friend and the other was Lime A1 who for the first time was seen after it was hatched in 2014.
A1 is showing some br plumage and should be ready to breed at this age.

Good news to have another potential breeder enter the population. Thanks for keeping us informed.

Ken

 

[Terry Townshend]

Great news about Lime A1..!

 

[Owen Krout]

I had a trip to the LuNiaoYan Bird Sanctuary part of the LiaoHu River Sanctuary in Panjin, Liaoning, China. On Google Earth it showed up as 41.096381, 121.849163. A small but very good nesting area for heron and egret set up after severe flooding in 2000 and jointly run by Panjin and Liaoning governments. While there I noticed a picture of Black-faced Spoonbill that the assistant director, Mr. Lu, had on display. I inquired and he said he had taken it himself and they had a nesting pair last year that successfully raised four young. He indicated that it was a little early yet for them, but they were hoping to see them return by the end of May. I plan a return then to see if they have indeed returned.

 

[mcaribou]

Last week I had two resightings in Dongtai.One is a bird banded in Kamchatka.The other is Yellow 52 which was locally banded last Sep.
Also I saw locally banded Nordmann's Greenshank.
It's good to know they use the site in both spring and autumn migration!
But still need to find the Grey Plover and Bar-tailed Godwits with PTT from Australia.There have been several of them staging for quite a while but I just had no luck.

One Nordmann's Greenshank with PTT from Thailand is on the way.Let's see if it will land in Rudong-Dongtai area.