china guy
A taff living in Sichuan
We're out in NE Sichuan at the moment - far off the normal beaten birding track. Our usual hotel is full - so after a little scouting around we found a new one that borders a rather grotty looking river that is used as the local rubbish dump. But not too worry - as long as that waste isn't toxic birds don't seem to mind shuffling around empty instant noodle-pots and what-not - and we've been watching the likes of Citrine Wagtail from our hotel window. But this morning we got something that really took us by surprise.
Its been raining heavily - and the river is in flood - and the the most interesting bird of a pre-breakfast scan was a Crested Kingfisher. Down bellow there were some farm ducks, of which I obviously hadn't taken too much notice, but when a passing farmer on the river bank walked by - something pretty fantastic popped out of that group of ducks - Lesser White-fronted Goose!!!!
At first I couldn't believe my eyes - and then there was a mad scramble to get the camera, which was cardless - find a card - and then get off some pics before our goose disappeared. Meggie and me get a bit volatile in situations like this, but we managed not to hit each other in our desperate camera panic - and obscene language both in English and Chinese was kept to a minimum.
That was far too much excitement for a start of a day which is supposed to a free-one for us - and we had to relax with another sensation of our trip - our new toasted sandwich machine - and a nice breakfast of toasted cheese, tomato and onion.
There are two pics of that Lesser White-front - the pic of it in the water shows a little of the eye-ring - the other pic is of an Asian Barred Owlet in yesterday's rain storm - the likely reason why the goose decided to stop-off at this unlikely location.
But we mustn't get too cocky - after reading Shi Jin's posts - were guessing he's probably already seen a whole flock (or should that be a gaggle) of these birds at his local gas station or walking around the cash-desk of some Beijing supermarket
Gretchen - We've yet to see Spot-wing Grosbeak - I reckon we'd have to go out on the Kham (Sichuan Tibet) to get them - we'll be keeping our eyes open for those beauts.
Its been raining heavily - and the river is in flood - and the the most interesting bird of a pre-breakfast scan was a Crested Kingfisher. Down bellow there were some farm ducks, of which I obviously hadn't taken too much notice, but when a passing farmer on the river bank walked by - something pretty fantastic popped out of that group of ducks - Lesser White-fronted Goose!!!!
At first I couldn't believe my eyes - and then there was a mad scramble to get the camera, which was cardless - find a card - and then get off some pics before our goose disappeared. Meggie and me get a bit volatile in situations like this, but we managed not to hit each other in our desperate camera panic - and obscene language both in English and Chinese was kept to a minimum.
That was far too much excitement for a start of a day which is supposed to a free-one for us - and we had to relax with another sensation of our trip - our new toasted sandwich machine - and a nice breakfast of toasted cheese, tomato and onion.
There are two pics of that Lesser White-front - the pic of it in the water shows a little of the eye-ring - the other pic is of an Asian Barred Owlet in yesterday's rain storm - the likely reason why the goose decided to stop-off at this unlikely location.
But we mustn't get too cocky - after reading Shi Jin's posts - were guessing he's probably already seen a whole flock (or should that be a gaggle) of these birds at his local gas station or walking around the cash-desk of some Beijing supermarket
Gretchen - We've yet to see Spot-wing Grosbeak - I reckon we'd have to go out on the Kham (Sichuan Tibet) to get them - we'll be keeping our eyes open for those beauts.
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