April 8, 2018
Yesterday was a remarkably fine day, even with little wind, which is unusual here this time of year. I decided to take advantage and took the 1.5 hour bus ride down to the mouth of the DaLiao River at Yingkou and the Yingkou Wetlands Park.
I made for the wetlands first where numbers can and do range from little to uncountable numbers of shorebirds. The tide was well out by the time I arrived and hence wide expanses of mud flats were exposed. However, they were almost devoid of any birds with the exception of a few
Common Sandpiper and a small flock of
Black-headed Gull resting in a single flock. The surrounding wetlands were not crowded either but did yield enough to be of interest and make for an enjoyable day.
As soon as I entered the wetland area I was greeted by five
White Wagtail which were courting with short hop flights straight up and back down to the same place. Turning my attention to the small ponds I was quickly rewarded with a couple of
Little Egret. It was only after cropping a photo after getting home that I saw there was also a
Common Redshank standing right next to the Little Egret I was fixated on. I did notice the
Common Sandpiper standing nearby though. A couple of
Eurasian Teal flew off as I approached closer to verify for sure that I was looking at LE not Intermediate E.
Most of the other ponds were empty, but one yielded 77
Pochard floating out in the middle and four
Eastern Spot-Billed Duck. Two of the Spot Billed were more muted in coloration, matching with what I normally see here. The other two, however, flashed so bright white that my initial sighting was at such a distance that I at first only saw the white heads which looked very small and thought I was possibly seeing some Smew. I finally managed to work my way around to where I could get a reasonable photo and look with the bins. Sure enough, a very clean, bright white and much bigger than I first thought.
About 75
Eurasian Tree Sparrow and a couple of
Common Magpie, that were picking through where the tourist trap nearby dumps its garbage into the wetland, were the only other sightings other than a single
Eurasian Kestrel.
EDIT: That is indeed a Black-winged Stilt, not a Redshank. I didn't get a photo of the Redshank.
Yingkou Wetland Park, Liaoning, CN
Apr 8, 2018 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
3.0 kilometer(s)
11 species
Eastern Spot-billed Duck (Anas zonorhyncha) 6
Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca) 3
Common Pochard (Aythya ferina) 77
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) 6
Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) 6
Common Redshank (Tringa totanus) 1
Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) 30
Eurasian Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) 1
Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) 2
White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) 5
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 75
View this checklist online at
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44379778
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (
http://ebird.org)