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A DAY ON THE RIVER
Today’s Chengdu birding took place about 40km’s outside the city proper –in fact situated “next-door” to a very popular tourist destination – the San Xin Dui archaeological site and museum. But our watching was on the bordering river – the promisingly named Ya Ze He – Duck river.
Ruddy Shelduck - a truly noisy duck
And this place lived well up to its promise – maybe not on a scenic front, since industry and the messy, badly planned sprawl that is creeping out from the nearby town of Guanghan makes this a pretty “gritty” location – but on the birding front it’s a nice surprise.
The Birdmobile and Duck River!!!
There is lot of gravel digging in this area – and a lot of pool like habitats have been created – with a very slow running river. This gives a lot of habitat for duck species – we saw a lot of dabbling duck – but we saw no diving duck – even though interesting stuff like White-eyed Pochard and Red-headed Pochard have been noted. Sawbill were there in the form of Red-breasted Merganser. Out of the Grebes – we got Little and Great Crested.
Highlight of the ducks were 3 Falcated Duck. Otherwise there were lots of Spot-billed Duck, Common Teal, Mallard, Wigeon and a few Gadwall. Unfortunately we didn’t turn up any of the Baikal Teak, which should be here!!!!
Spot-bills a handsome duck
The most stand-out species were the Ruddy Shelduck – It makes a change to see then down here rather than those desolate ponds on the Tibetan Highlands. A lot of Cormorants were also present – and there are still a few Cormorant fishermen plying their trade in Sichuan.
On the wader front we had – Common Snipe, Lapwing, Curlew, Little Ringed Plover, Green Sandpiper – and last but not least a party of 4 Greater Painted-snipe.
Painted-snipe - you can tell from this pic it was a pretty murky day!!!!
The other species of interest a flock of 30+ Little Bunting.
By the way you can get out here in about an hour from Chengdu, if you use the motorway link. If you haven’t hired a guide/transport – then getting a bus to the San Xin Dui museum (must be instructions on this in the guide-books – Lonely Planet et al – there are certainly a lot of tour busses running in this direction) gets you almost to this site, since just walking a further 200m or so brings you to the river – and the birds.
A DAY ON THE RIVER
Today’s Chengdu birding took place about 40km’s outside the city proper –in fact situated “next-door” to a very popular tourist destination – the San Xin Dui archaeological site and museum. But our watching was on the bordering river – the promisingly named Ya Ze He – Duck river.
Ruddy Shelduck - a truly noisy duck
And this place lived well up to its promise – maybe not on a scenic front, since industry and the messy, badly planned sprawl that is creeping out from the nearby town of Guanghan makes this a pretty “gritty” location – but on the birding front it’s a nice surprise.
The Birdmobile and Duck River!!!
There is lot of gravel digging in this area – and a lot of pool like habitats have been created – with a very slow running river. This gives a lot of habitat for duck species – we saw a lot of dabbling duck – but we saw no diving duck – even though interesting stuff like White-eyed Pochard and Red-headed Pochard have been noted. Sawbill were there in the form of Red-breasted Merganser. Out of the Grebes – we got Little and Great Crested.
Highlight of the ducks were 3 Falcated Duck. Otherwise there were lots of Spot-billed Duck, Common Teal, Mallard, Wigeon and a few Gadwall. Unfortunately we didn’t turn up any of the Baikal Teak, which should be here!!!!
Spot-bills a handsome duck
The most stand-out species were the Ruddy Shelduck – It makes a change to see then down here rather than those desolate ponds on the Tibetan Highlands. A lot of Cormorants were also present – and there are still a few Cormorant fishermen plying their trade in Sichuan.
On the wader front we had – Common Snipe, Lapwing, Curlew, Little Ringed Plover, Green Sandpiper – and last but not least a party of 4 Greater Painted-snipe.
Painted-snipe - you can tell from this pic it was a pretty murky day!!!!
The other species of interest a flock of 30+ Little Bunting.
By the way you can get out here in about an hour from Chengdu, if you use the motorway link. If you haven’t hired a guide/transport – then getting a bus to the San Xin Dui museum (must be instructions on this in the guide-books – Lonely Planet et al – there are certainly a lot of tour busses running in this direction) gets you almost to this site, since just walking a further 200m or so brings you to the river – and the birds.