Panjin Birding by the Old Fat Man (2 Viewers)

An interesting reflection on how homogenous the Palearctic region can be - I had all five species in a park in Geneva a month ago and these five are equally likely in just about any English woodland. Hhaving said that a white-headed Long-tailed Tit in the UK would attract plenty of interest.

Cheers
Mike

Owen, I have been away from birdforum for a while but just wanted to say good job on the Nuthatch, Long-tailed Tits, and Treecreeper! All good Liaoning species. Looks like some late fall/winter birds showing up by you.

Tom

Dense fog here today for most of the day, so I took the day off and Wednesday I am off for a quick in and out trip to Beijing. The American government unexpectedly decided that it was time to have my disability verified by an American licensed physician. :eek!: I was not excited about a trip back as the trip itself further worsens the arthritis. Then it occurred to me that Beijing might have a practicing semi-retired American physician. Sure enough I managed to contact one today and he was very cooperative about seeing me.

Unfortunately, not any extra time for some birding. :C Will be arriving by train in the afternoon and leaving that same evening. Probably will be recovering until the weekend.

Best wishes for a comfortable trip Owen.

cheers
Mike

Not comfortable but mission accomplished. Thank goodness for the high speed rail system.

On birding, we actually had time on our original tickets for me to have taken an hour and a half or so birding at Ritan Park, Chaoyang District, embassy district but our son-in-law business man had inserted himself into the trip because it was "dangerous with all the terrorists". I had said I wasn't worried and it wasn't necessary, but he insisted. Ah, he meant well. He insisted on changing the tickets to an earlier train rather than spend time birding. :C The biggest problem was that for some reason all the taxi drivers at the train station didn't want to go to the embassy district as they all claimed they didn't know how to get to the address (written in Chinese), didn't know where Ritan Park was, and didn't know where the British Embassy was. A police officer finally came over to see what the problem was and the driver the son-in-law was working on decided he could try after all. Drove right to it. I was able to see enough out of the taxi window to say that the Ritan Park and the embassy area in general look to be a good area to bird inside Beijing. The numerous, side by side embassies provide a large area where birds can congregate, feed and nest without being constantly harassed and Ritan Park is a good public area to view in the midst of it. Numerous Corvids evident, Common Magpie and Carrion Crows identified. Many Warblers and Buntings that I wasn't able to take the time to identify also evident. More Passerines than I have seen in any city environment in China before.

If anyone needs some Western standards level of medical or dental attention, you might consider Bayley & Jackson Medical Center in Beijing http://www.bjhealthcare.com/ Dr. Bush there was an American licensed physician and was quite helpful. While on recommendations, since I couldn't bird and hadn't eaten that day, I insisted on stopping at Schindler's Tankstelle a Bavarian restaurant at Ritan Park with truly excellent food and imported German beer! B http://www.schindlers.com.cn/tankstelle-fillingstation.html

Probably too close to the station. They wanted a bigger fare.

Rule #1 of taxis in China. Get in the taxi, then tell them where you're going. Especially at train stations and airports.

Jeff hopkins said:

Probably too close to the station. They wanted a bigger fare.

Rule #1 of taxis in China. Get in the taxi, then tell them where you're going. Especially at train stations and airports.

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Yea, that is the standard method that I learned when I was traveling for a living in the US, but the Chinese family was along and their standard, at least up here in the northeast is dicker over the destination and price before getting in. Good luck on getting them to change.

Wanted to get out and bird today but zero degrees and gale force winds with possible snow tonight. At least it should be pushing some more migrants south.

Nov-10-2015

Weather up here has been nasty since Thursday of last week with three days of rain, sleet, ice, followed by snow and all with gale force winds. Yesterday was reasonable outside, but big sheets of ice were coming off the high rises, making just being outside hazardous. I decided it was a good time to just stay inside since I don't have to get out any more. My wife runs one of the evening line dance groups for the neighborhood and even she decided it was too bad to be out. As anyone living in China knows, almost nothing cancels out those sessions.

Today was considerably better and hoping for a fall of some new migrants, I made a trip around the areas with habitat in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, not a lot in evidence. Seems to more have chased away what was here. Sparse pickings, but a couple of nice finds.

About 15 minutes into walking thru the park areas I had absolutely nothing. Not a bird in evidence. I was about ready to give it up when a flock of something unusual flew over. Tracking them down I turned up 11 Hawfinch. First I have seen so that alone made the trip out worthwhile.

That was encouraging so I trekked on. For the next three kilometers, or so, I had nothing more than one Eurasian Kestrel terrorizing a pigeon coup by perching about 50 meters away on the top of a high rise and obviously eyeing the pigeons and 10 Tree Sparrows. Not so encouraging and the late afternoon light was failing fast so I headed back home.

Just at the last 50 meters before being out of the birding area I heard a call that I was not familiar with and stopping to determine where it was coming from I spotted two Great Spotted Woodpeckers flying off from a large, partially dead tree where I have seen them before. Then I noticed movement and ended up watching three Grey-Headed Woodpeckers and two more Great-Spotted Woodpeckers arguing over who had rights to the tree. They were playing King of the Hill using the flat stump at the top where the tree had been topped. The same tree had 6 Coal Tit scolding away and I am fairly sure there was a Tree Creeper also but I was too far away and too interested in the woodpeckers antics to verify that for certain. Finally topped it off with the usual flock of 19 Azure-winged Magpie which hang out in that area.

The pictures look better in the original format so if anyone wants a better look they will be up for a while at: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B085Uzl7Vdwbwj

Owen, nice to read your report and congrats on the Hawfinches. I know what you mean about the weather. My motorbike was in my garage from Thursday night to Monday morning - a first for me in 12 years I believe!
Tom

Nov-11-2015

Worked the small city park directly across the street from our new condo and had some good results.

Stepped out of the doorway and immediately saw two Eurasian Kestrel. A good start for the day!

Magpies galore - 13 Azure-winged Magpie and 15 Common Magpie at least that is the best numbers I could come up with as they were milling about the area so actively that it was hard to keep track!

20 Hawfinch. This is adjacent to the park were I saw Hawfinch yesterday. They don't like being approached, so pictures are difficult.

Two Hoopoe made a showing and I got a picture of one of them in the snow. Given that they feed by probing the ground, it still surprises me to see them up here during the cold months. The third report I made to eBird back in February led to them questioning my claim of a Hoopoe. They outright told me it was not possible here at that time of the year. I provided a photo and asked "Alright then what is this?" and they relented.

What I ID as an adult female Pied Harrier made an appearance and as I was working on getting an ID photo two juvenile (female?) Eyebrowed Thrush flew out of the reed field and one landed in a small tree directly in front of me. I quickly got an ID photo before it took off and I returned to the Harrier. See what you think as to ID as Pied Harrier.

A single Grey-headed Woodpecker was returned to the same tree as yesterday. Must be an ant nest of something like that.

Finished up with a Meadow Bunting which played hide-and-seek with me for quite awhile before I was able to ID him - at least 50 Tree Sparrow noisily feeding in the background and finally two Light-vented Bulbul calling from the top of a large willow just as the light faded away.

Fantastic birds, Owen. Love that female Pied Harrier. Get a male next time, they are ridiculously charming. Sorry for being a spoil sport, the thrush is Naumann's. You don't have to worry about Eyebrowed, when you see one you will have no second thoughts, gorgeous bluish grey head with a white eyebrow. Last week, we had about half a dozen of them feeding on chinese beech berry on a single branch.
Also, You have too many Hawfinches. I will be glad if i manage to see one in the winter.

Thanks for the correction Dev. I put photos up here for two reasons; Just something that I found especially pleasing and/or hoping for discussion on any ID that someone more experienced will comment on. I should have taken the time to double check on-line. Now that I look at some actual photos on-line it is clear you are right. Live and learn. One of the biggest reasons that I participate in birdforum in general is that the people here are supportive of each other and can disagree without the smug attitude that I have found in several birding groups.

Dear Owen, wrote to you today about leg-tagged Saunder's Gull.
Probably harrier is Hen, not Pied.
Great stuff you are seeing up there.
Cheers Colm Moore.....the second old fat man!

"Dear Owen, I came across your name recently in the Forum and realised that there really was a birder in the Jinzhou area. I was there on 7/8 Nov as my wife was visiting friends and despite the terrible conditions managed to get out. The main find (for you probably commonplace) was a (red with black letters) leg-tagged Saunder's Gull. I chased up the tag through contacts and it appears to have been tagged nearby in Panjin Reserve some 14 yrs. ago. Anyhow, what is birding like in Panjin....do you get out into the field much?
Hoping to hear from you as my few observations made me wonder about the status of several species.
Cheers and hope to hear from you, Colm"

Glad to hear from you Colm. I am posting your note here as it might generate some discussion and will introduce you to the other readers of this thread. I would encourage you to post your experiences, if not on your own thread then at least get started sharing on Gretchen's "China Observations" thread http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=155285 It is a great thread and commonly used by members who haven't yet started their own thread. Another great one for Liaoning is Tom's thread for Dahlian at http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=165968

For any creature to survive for 14 years in China seems to be a remarkable feat to me! Probably more likely for Gulls as they can more easily avoid people and pollution. As for the Harrier, I still think that Dev was right when he corrected me as it being a Pied Harrier. I just spent time carefully going over the ID descriptions in Brazil's Birds of East Asia and considering the visual observation as well as the photo, it just seems better as a Pied. One strong factor would be that Brazil's description of light flight and sometimes soaring with V-wing. Thanks for the opinion though, I always welcome cordial discussion.

I do try to get out to observe as often as I can, about three or four times a week. I am currently limited to walking radius of our apartment, which due to my arthritis means I usually am about 2 hours and 4-5 kilometers round trip, but do plan on a motorbike next year to enable me to extend my range somewhat. I rarely will do a 4 hour 8 kilometer trip which takes me through a good variety of habitat. But that is pushing my ability to the limit and means a couple of days to recover. I tend to bird at a leisurely pace and will commonly spend a lot of time managing to tease out and ID the well hidden and difficult to approach birds that many people just would pass on by. We are right on the southern edge of the developed part of Panjin, technically in Dawa County. The habitat is here for a lot more birds than one actually tends to find.

The status of species in this area is not truly well established as there has been so little reporting done.

Owen, sorry, i'm no raptor expert, thought you nailed one.
It's still missing in my bucket, so the named "Pied" creates a lot of excitement. If Colm says, that's a Hen Harrier, i wil side with him3

Also, Welcome to birdforum Colm. Congrats on China's first "Streaked Swallow" and Beijing's first "Long-tailed Skua". Great job, finding the "Old guy" of Panjin. (the gull, not Owen).

PS : I'm enroute to becoming the next fat man :king:

thirudevaram said:

PS : I'm enroute to becoming the next fat man :king:

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Diet fatty!

Love n hugs to Lily n You
McM

I took the moniker of "Old Fat Man" from "Old Fat American" which is how the guards at our complex referred to me.

It was moving week for us as we transferred to the new condo. Everyday for the last week except today has been spent with workmen finishing up the stairs and fixing all the things that were done wrong to start with and unpacking. Seems the Chinese version is "Anything worth doing is worth doing two or three times" as the attitude of "Ah, good enough!" seems to prevail. Worker yesterday couldn't see why it was a problem that one or the three plugs on a wall outlet didn't work. After all, two out of three was pretty good. The worst part has been getting the central heating, which costs 4,000 RMB a season, to work. Spent several days with it being 6 degrees in our area (the first floor level studio). We have finally gotten it up to 12 degrees right now and the neighbors say that is as good as their apartment. Time to buy a electric hot oil radiator to supplement.

Took a quick tour around the nearby city parks the day before we moved. An hour and a half and two kilometers and an absolute blank. Not even a sparrow or pigeon.

Took the same tour this afternoon in the -10 degrees and heavy high overcast with new snow fall and managed a bit better. Within sight of our patio I found 9 Common Magpie & 6 Tree Sparrow. About a half an hour with nothing else and then found at least 3 Coal Tit, probably more but only the three were visible. Just as I turned to leave what I believe to be an Eastern Buzzard came over being aggressively pursued by a much smaller Eurasian Kestrel. Pics included so see whether you think I got the ID correct.

Owen, ID is spot on and nice photos too!
Tom

Good shots indeed! I had exactly this interaction on the golf course on Sunday - except my Kestrel is a female.

Cheers
Mike

PS blessings on your new home!