Panjin Birding by the Old Fat Man (6 Viewers)

August 31

Spent three hours hiking Gedalou Reservoir and though not a large number of birds, there was a nice selection and with the nice weather made for a nice day. I came back with an almost exhausted battery and over a thousand pics which whittled down to eighty worth working with. Trying to photograph Terns in flight is really hard!

The standards for there of C. Magpie and Barn Swallow, but there was activity all around. I found a nesting area for the Chinese Pond Heron where the parents were trying to get the juveniles out of the nests and into the air and chasing the Common Magpie off that were stealing fish from the juvies.

White-Winged Tern were working the shoreline in numbers and were a real challenge to photo. Those little buggers move fast!

A flock of Vinous-Throated Parrotbill, but they only briefly popped out into view and I didn't get anything worth seeing. I don't know how many there actually were, but I only actually saw four of them.

It is a known breeding area for Grey Heron and sure enough one made an appearance as well as 20 Intermediate Egret five Black-Crowned Night Heron and two Great White Egret.

Nine Little Grebe and 6 Great Crested Grebe also made a showing as well as 3 Great Cormorant.

Gedalou Reservoir, Panjin, Dawa County, Liaoning, CN, Liaoning, CN
Aug 31, 2018 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
6.0 kilometer(s)
17 species

Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis) 9
Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) 6
Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) 5
White-winged Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus) 50
Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) 3
Gray Heron (Ardea cinerea) 1
Great Egret (Ardea alba) 2
Intermediate Egret (Ardea intermedia) 20
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) 5
Chinese Pond-Heron (Ardeola bacchus) 8
Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) 5
Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) 1
Oriental Magpie (Pica serica) 7
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 75
Light-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis) 2
Vinous-throated Parrotbill (Sinosuthora webbiana) 4
White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) 1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48208419

More pics August 31 Gedalou Reservoir

A few more pics including some Black-Crowned Night Heron that still have juveniles to tend to. A big commotion in a big willow tree attracted my attention and there were three juveniles in the tree with mom feeding them fish. When she arrived all kinds of racket broke out.

The Great Crested Grebe were scattered along the shoreline in the reeds but one little family came out in the open as well as a male who was bathing and practicing his mating dance where they paddle hard and stand almost straight up on the water.

Sep-1

What started out as a local outing turned into a completely different thing after I found the trees along a local irrigation canal devoid of any birds at all. The weather was excellent, so I decided instead to check out the Panjin Wetland Park area. That was a lot more interesting with at least Herons and Egrets to enjoy.

I decided that instead of going into the more crowded areas to walk east three or more km to a newly developed park area. Although it is possible to drive into there if one knows one of the couple of unmarked dirt paths that provide access, very few locals go back into there. The few that do are usually in the three wheel 'farmers' electric 'pick-up' trikes and are going in to fish. The south side provides a decent road, once you can find your way into it, but the north side of the lake proved to be almost impassible due to the rains this summer.

The main feature was that there were at least 8 Grey Heron that were out in the open and easy to observe. Normally they are shy and difficult to see. The pic of the GH with a turtle is of one that occupied 15 minutes or so to manage to move into a better position and observe more carefully. Instead of grey it looked so bluish and the white on the head and neck so bright white that I thought at first I had something new. Near the same area but far out, probably close to 300 meters, was another that looked so blue, tall and slim that I studied it for a bit. Probably just misjudging the height given how hard it is to accurately judge size against at that range against a featureless background like the lake.

As well as a couple of Purple Heron which popped up out of some reeds and dropped back down again, disappearing, before I could get a pic, I did catch one lone Great Cormorant and a single Spot-Billed Duck. Again, same as the day before, a few Great Crested Grebe were scattered about. Little Grebe and Oriental Reed Warbler were heard hidden in the reeds but only a small group actually observed. A few Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler were scared up while I was trying to get a look at some of the LG, which was nice as they are especially difficult to actually see being very skulking and rarely coming out of cover in the reeds.

Panjin Wetland Park, Liaoning, CN
Sep 1, 2018 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
5.0 kilometer(s)
17 species

Eastern Spot-billed Duck (Anas zonorhyncha) 1
Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis) 4
Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) 9
Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) 8
Yellow Bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) 1
Gray Heron (Ardea cinerea) 8
Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) 2
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) 6
Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) 6
Oriental Magpie (Pica serica) 4
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 100
Light-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis) 8
Oriental Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus orientalis) 10
Pallas's Grasshopper-Warbler (Locustella certhiola) 6
Daurian Redstart (Phoenicurus auroreus) 1
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 200

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48228399

Additional pics - SEP-1

A few more nice pics from the day

Lots of things happening lately by you Owen. You must have been to some good sites. Nice Cormorant photo!

Sep-5

There are a couple of exposed sandbars in the Shuangtaizi River visible from the Panjin Wetland Park trails and usually having large numbers of gulls, terns, heron, egret, etc. However they are just far enough from the access trails to make ID of the birds very difficult to impossible. Therefore I decided to try to access the area from the other side of the river (Shuangtaizi District side). Walking along the top of the levee, I managed to get slightly closer and with a clearer line of sight, but still not close enough to really work with out a scope. Included here is one photo for anyone who wants to try long distance gull, tern, etc. ID (Lancy?). However you really need the better versions available at: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0q5Uzl7Vdwbwj Anyone should be able to download the images from there so you can crop, expand to your hearts content.

There is a large island there between the Xiaolu River and the Shuangtaizi River, usually called the Liao River by locals, though that is actually further east and runs roughly 90° to the Shuangtaizi. From the south side of that island you would be very close. However is is one of the privately run, pay to enter, parks and there were fewer birds than normal today, so I deferred until a better time. Also through the binoculars I got a lead on how I might be able to get close from the Xinglongtai District side. I'll try that next time I get that way.

I did find quite a number of heron and egret and although the walk was easier on the north side, you are considerably further from the water in most places. I did take a narrow dirt path down to where several fishing boats were beached and was tempted to "borrow" a boat. No oars however and a silly thing to get in trouble over.

As I started out the Barn Swallow were thick and as I walked east it slowly gave way to mostly Red-rumped Swallow. I managed a shot of a parent feeding a youngster. I just missed the quick hand-off the parent managed without stopping.

Might try renting a bike sometime as the trail continues on east along the Xiaolu River and I always want to know what is "over there".

Panjin Wetland Park, Liaoning, CN
Sep 5, 2018 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
5.0 kilometer(s)
13 species

Little Tern (Sternula albifrons) 6
White-winged Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus) 5
Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) 5
Great Egret (Ardea alba) 5
Intermediate Egret (Ardea intermedia) 12
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) 6
Chinese Pond-Heron (Ardeola bacchus) 1
Striated Heron (Butorides striata) 1
Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) 1
Chinese Gray Shrike (Lanius sphenocercus) 1
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 400
Red-rumped Swallow (Cecropis daurica) 50
Light-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis) 2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48306354

Hi Owen, I took the long distance gull/tern ID challenge.

I think there are 5 Black-tailed Gulls standing on the rightish, at least 10 Black-headed Gulls mostly sitting, 2 possible Common/Mew Gulls toward the left standing, 1 Vega/Mongolian type sitting near the middle right, and I won't venture a guess at the terns. This is all a guess for fun of course. Great Egret and Grey Heron.

Hi Tom, It looks like nobody else is taking it up so I'll weigh in. Basically the same as I was thinking. I lean toward Common Gull based on what I was seeing. I thought that was a Mongolian! A little earlier than I have seen them before....I hope that doesn't bode ill for this winter! On the Terns, again based on what I was seeing, I think probably Common Tern. You missed the Little Egret on the left foreground.

All in all, just a little too far out to be sure of anything, so I think I'll continue to leave them out of the ebird report.

SEP-8 Yingkou Wetland Park

One of those cool, crystal clear days that make Fall my favorite time of the year. So I decided to brave the 50 km bus ride to check out the Yingkou Wetlands Park.

It was indeed so clear that you could make out the mountains 40-50 km in the distance. Lancy, the day you were here was pretty typical, with enough haze to make even seeing across the river difficult, but as you can see from this, the Dawa County shore was sharp and clear. Still not the large numbers of migrants, but two days before we had the first real cold front mover through dropping the overnights to 10-12°.

The main one for the day was as I left and I spotted what I was sure was a small, bright blue bird streak into some heavy cover. I spent the next half hour managing to get reasonably close to some very well hidden and very shy small birds. With the binoculars I was able to pick out glimpses of blue behind the foliage, but never to actually see a bird. However that was pointing to Blue and White Warbler, one of my target species. Never getting a good look though means either I just wanted to see one and/or one of the Azure-Winged Magpie that I had seen on the way in was playing hide and seek with me. I did manage to get some female Taiga Flycatcher however. Unfortunately, not a good enough look at what may have been the B&WF to count it. :-C

One Grey Heron was a little out of character, working far out on the tidal mud flat. Usually they like the nearby ponds rather than out in the wide open.

I did spot a few Saunder's Gull, which at first gave me a pause as they had fully black legs rather than the more usual dark reddish. Closer examination of the pics proved to be mud on the legs and shadowing.

The rest were the usual players, but I did some exploring and found a pathway back into some isolated ponds that may be interesting during the breeding season.

Yingkou Wetland Park, Liaoning, CN
Sep 8, 2018 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
6.0 kilometer(s)
18 species

Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) 10
Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) 10
Far Eastern Curlew (Numenius madagascariensis) 5
Broad-billed Sandpiper (Calidris falcinellus) 3 Difficult to see from long range photo, but tip of bill did exhibit a slight downward turn
Dunlin (Calidris alpina) 5
Saunders's Gull (Saundersilarus saundersi) 10
Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) 25
Gray Heron (Ardea cinerea) 1
Great Egret (Ardea alba) 1
Intermediate Egret (Ardea intermedia) 3
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) 5
Chinese Pond-Heron (Ardeola bacchus) 1
Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) 4
Oriental Magpie (Pica serica) 2
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 25
Oriental Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus orientalis) 10
Taiga Flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla) 4
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 50

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48382315

More long range gulls/terns

I had another try at getting closer to the sandbars at the Panjin Wetland Park again yesterday. This time from the south bank. Not much better but I spent over three hours doing more exploring than birding and did find some promising areas for the future. It looks like I did about 6 km birding with another couple for hiking in and out from the bus stops. Unfortunately, for someone who used to enjoy a nice 15 km or so hike, that 6 km is pushing the limits of my arthritis now and I can't do that much two days in a row, especially toting all that camera and lens. A normal outing for me is generally about half that much.

At any rate, I have another long distance gull/tern challenge. I'm especially interested in what anyone else thinks on the Terns. Especially the really small ones that look like they have little depression nests they are sitting.

I'm going to have to start renting a bike when I get to some of these areas so I can extend my range. The rental bikes just hit this area about a year ago and are now starting to get widely available.

Hi Owen, the gulls are Black-headed. The smallest Terns are Little Terns. The medium sized one standing in the water in the back with the dot on the side of its head is a White-winged. I don't know if the Black-capped ones are Common or Whiskered. I think Whiskered, but can't say for sure. I'm not as good with terns as I could be.

Hi Tom, Thanks for the input. The gulls I was sure of and I was 90% sure on the White-Winged Tern and Whiskered Tern as I had been observing Whiskered Tern in flight in the same general area and much closer. Little Tern was what I was hoping on the smallest ones, but it was a new tic for me, so wanted another opinion. Pretty sure I had seen them before, but hadn't added them to my list yet.

Sep-10

Made a return to the Panjin Wetlands Park specifically to try the opposite bank of the river and sort out some of the gulls and terns by getting closer. I only got marginally closer, but by not spending a lot of time working on possible warblers and such I was able to sort out the targets of the day a lot better.

The results were Black-Headed Gull & Saunder's Gull, which are to be expected there at most times. For the Tern, Little Tern; White-Winged Tern & Common Tern. The Little Tern made the trip worthwhile as I thought I had seen them before, but this was the first time I was confident enough to claim them.

Waiting for the next cold front to push some more migrants down my way.

Nothing unusual otherwise other than having a Siberian Weasel calmly cross the footpath not more than 2 meters in front of me. It turned it's head to glance at me, but didn't speed up and didn't seem the least bit concerned about my presence.

Panjin Wetland Park, Liaoning, CN
Sep 10, 2018 12:15 PM - 2:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
5.0 kilometer(s)
16 species

Eastern Spot-billed Duck (Anas zonorhyncha) 1
Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) 4
Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) 1
Saunders's Gull (Saundersilarus saundersi) 6
Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) 12
Little Tern (Sternula albifrons) 6
White-winged Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus) 10
Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) 4
Great Egret (Ardea alba) 5
Intermediate Egret (Ardea intermedia) 3
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) 2
Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) 10
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 50
Red-rumped Swallow (Cecropis daurica) 10
White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) 1
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 50

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48466282

Black-Faced Spoonbill

Not my sighting, but since they are not reporting here and it is significant, I will announce it.

The ebird rare bird notification for Liaoning was in my email this morning and Bird soong has an excellent photo to support his sighting of 21 Black-faced Spoonbill at the Liaohekou Nature Reserve yesterday September 13. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48472742 Also reported and documented a pair of Red-Crowned Crane. The area where I have been denied entry three times in the last year.

I'm not on Facebook but the link there is: https://www.facebook.com/bird.soong Apparently, not a member here, but anyone who is on facebook could encourage them to join us. I have seen several reports and they look to be an avid birder who has access to some excellent areas.

Owen Krout said:

Hi Tom, It looks like nobody else is taking it up so I'll weigh in. Basically the same as I was thinking. I lean toward Common Gull based on what I was seeing. I thought that was a Mongolian! A little earlier than I have seen them before....I hope that doesn't bode ill for this winter! On the Terns, again based on what I was seeing, I think probably Common Tern. You missed the Little Egret on the left foreground.

All in all, just a little too far out to be sure of anything, so I think I'll continue to leave them out of the ebird report.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I'm late for the party!B
I can't see the photo now but I don't think I'd disagree with Tom. If it's a distant photo, ID would be based on size, shape, mantle color etc ("jizz"). Tom is definitely familiar with them
Been busy since I came back (birdwise anyway). Ten more species was added to my Newfoundland list. Dipped on one bird, which eBird told me that I've seen 200+ this year. It's very common in Panjin wetland park and lots of place in China. Would you like to guess what it is, Owen? 8-P
Someone shared this photo with me and I think it's hilarious!

Owen Krout said:

The results were Black-Headed Gull & Saunder's Gull, which are to be expected there at most times. For the Tern, Little Tern; White-Winged Tern & Common Tern. The Little Tern made the trip worthwhile as I thought I had seen them before, but this was the first time I was confident enough to claim them.

Click to expand...

Owen,
I think at least the tern in your last photo was a Whiskered with the dark underside. During my trip to Panjin wetland, Whiskered seemed even more common than Common tern. I had 25+12+12 in three occasions.
Lancy

Good catch, Lancy! That is definitively not a Common Tern, Whiskered indeed! Must have been getting too tired when I labeled that one. Actually did have both that day though.

Lancy Cheng said:

Dipped on one bird, which eBird told me that I've seen 200+ this year. It's very common in Panjin wetland park and lots of place in China. Would you like to guess what it is, Owen?

Click to expand...

Given your frequency of observations and that you like the gulls, I would have to say probably Black-Headed Gull.

Congratulations on 10 new sp. for Newfoundland!

Owen Krout said:

Given your frequency of observations and that you like the gulls, I would have to say probably Black-Headed Gull.

Congratulations on 10 new sp. for Newfoundland!

Click to expand...

The color is right: Black-crowned nigh heron! Couldn't believe I spent up to 10h on the chase without seeing it. There are roughly 15-20 records in Newfoundland but most were in remote locations.
Black-headed Gull used to be common here in winter and there are still some reliable places to see some. It also breeds on the west coast of the island.
Thank you!

Sep-17

I was able to make a short jaunt out to Gedalou Reservoir yesterday. Not extremely busy, but interesting outing anyway. Since then, my wife managed to make contacts through a friend who lives nearby and we now have a villager who has one of the three wheel motorbike "pick-ups" that we can hire cheaply to stop and go around the lake. Since it is about 14 km around the lake, it is more than I care to do in one day anymore. I managed about half of it once, but that was a stretch.

For yesterday though the major migrants spotted where some Falcated Duck floating well out from shore. Every time the wind would cause them to drift too close to the shore there was a small group of Great Crested Grebe that would chase them away, back towards the middle of the lake.

Common Tern and Little Tern were working the shorelines. Never got a photo of the Little Tern as they are just so small, fast and lacking the contrast for the auto focus to lock on.

Unfortunately, as we were driving out, I got a quick glimpse of either Pied Avocet or Black-Winged Stilt as the briefly broke into flight off of a fish pond near the lake. To quick of a look and without the bins to say which.

I am pretty sure there were more Heron and Egret further up on the north-west end of the lake, but since I was on foot, I didn't get that far.

Gedalou Reservoir, Panjin, Dawa County, Liaoning, CN, Liaoning, CN
Sep 17, 2018 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
3.0 kilometer(s)
15 species

Falcated Duck (Mareca falcata) 35
Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis) 7
Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) 11
Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) 2
Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) 2
Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) 1
Little Tern (Sternula albifrons) 6
Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) 4
Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) 1
Intermediate Egret (Ardea intermedia) 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) 2
Oriental Magpie (Pica serica) 8
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 50
Light-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis) 6
Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) 10

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48581866