Birding the coast around Shanghai (1 Viewer)

Hengsha Island, Sat 5 Dec 2015

Last Saturday I was taken by Craig and Elaine for my first visit to Hengsha island. See the attached maps. The island has superb reedy/saltmarsh habitat and is the closest such habitat to central Shanghai. However it has two drawbacks:
1. It has no bridge link, the only access is by ferry, for which there is often a long queue. We arrived on Saturday morning over 30 minutes before the first ferry was due at around 6:15 but still had to wait until the third ferry.
2. All the key habitat is reclaimed land to the east, there is only a single access gate “the south gate” this gate is manned through the day and access will be denied. However if you get there early you can just drive through and join the other vehicles (fishermen/crabbers etc) on the long embankments.
I thought the site was excellent, though the weather was very cold and it started to sleet then rain at lunchtime.

Full details of the day and the rest of the birds seen last weekend (though not by me) are at
http://www.shanghaibirding.com/2015/12/08/horned-grebe-in-shanghai/

Highlights on Hengsha, Sat 5 Dec 2015
Falcated duck, many hundred on the main pool
Gadwall, the commonest dabbling duck by far, 1000+
Goosander, 2 on the main pool
Ruddy shelduck, 3 on the coast
Pied harrier, several good views but, as usual, no sign of the elusive males
Eastern marsh harrier, few
Merlin, one
Great bittern, amazingly common, at least 10 birds seen, some very well.
Jack snipe, one flying over the marsh
(WT) Chinese shrike, the outstanding bird of the day! A really smart bird showing close to the road in the far SE corner (see map). A strikingly pale bird, particularly in flight with huge white wing bars.
Pallas’s reed bunting, fantastic close views of a flock of 30 birds in the reeds. Always have this “faded” “sanded-down” look about them. Small size, tiny bills. They also all show a distinctive pale, unstreaked, greyish-brown hind neck half-collar. This feature seemed consistent regardless of age/sex. Now seeking Japanese reed/Ochre-rumped bunting, clearly not in with the pallas’s.

Yangshan island and Nanhui

A brief visit to Yangshan island at dawn, almost nothing of note except for a noisy and flighty brown-eared bulbul.

Back on the mainland we caught up with one of last weekend's slav grebes on Dishui lake. We also had a red-head rb merg there.
The clumps were dead but the sea bursting with ducks, the best being large numbers of common shelduck and a lone drake common goldeneye.

Highlights, Sat 12 December 2015
Common shelduck, 600+ on the sea
(CT) common goldeneye, one drake on the sea
(CT) red-breasted merganser, 1 red head on Dishui lake
Falcated duck, 300+ on Dishui
(CT) Slavonian grebe, one on Dishui lake
Clearly buntings moving through, we found a scrubby field near Dishui where we had:
Rustic bunting, 20+
Little bunting, 15+
Yellow-browed bunting, 1

(WT) Brown-eared bulbul, one above the garbage dump, Lesser Yangshan

A great day out, sunny but cool after a very wet midweek.
My thanks to Xueping for the attached photos

Hi, Michael

It is a long time since you left Nanchang, i miss you, i seldomly go to Poyang Lake on the weekend now, Tong menxiu came 3 days ago and we went out together to Nanji hill island, we saw the rumoured Asian Open-bill Stork there, they found it a few days ago (only one), it is a new record of Poyang Lake.

This year ,in the middle of December,the water level is still very high, most of the cranes can not feed at the lakes , most of the birds we saw yesterday are spoonbills,geese,coots and grebes, a few ducks :Eurasion Wigeon,Facated Duck,spot-billed Duck.

Asian Openbill at Poyang

Hi Steven

Tell us about this bird. We have seen a photo of a sad looking thing sitting in vegetation. Is it sick? Is it feeding? Can it fly? Is it an escape? Where exactly is it? When was it first found?

Thanks

Asian Openbill

It is been about 2 weeks, Only one was found, i think it is an accidental bird, when we went there, it perched in a tree and was preening, looks quite healthy, according to an local fisherman, it likes the place very much, stayed most of the day there, do you still remember on Ji Shan Island, there is a very narrow tunnel, and when you through that tunnel , there is a small pond, next to the pond are big trees, the bird was found there. attached is a photo of the bird taken by me.

Nice catch with the Asian Openbill, Steven!

Nonggang babbler now easy to see

Firstly thanks to Stephen for the news on the openbill at Ji Island, Poyang Hu.

Just returned from a quick trip to Guangxi, full report soon.

Nonggang NR is difficult to access and there is no guarantee of seeing the babbler. However, Longheng village has a maintained viewing point/feeding area which provides almost guaranteed sightings every day of the year. See attached maps.

We had a group of 10 birds down to our feet at times, on and off for two hours in the morning. Just superb, photos soon.

In ten years this species has gone from unknown to science to becoming an easy tick. White-winged magpie is the big bonus bird here as well.

One of my all-time favourite sites in China - very much looking forward to your pix Michael!

Cheers
Mike

Yes, it is a lifer for me

Mid-winter doldrums

Firstly a belated Happy New Year to all.
Craig has written a full report on our Nanggong babbler trip with lots of nice pictures and can be accessed here http://www.shanghaibirding.com/2015...er-from-unknown-to-science-to-automatic-tick/

Just returned from a family holiday to Thailand (with a few hours of birding), so my first day out this year.
Today I took the line 16 metro to the end of the line at Dishui lake then a cab out to the furthest micro-forest on the seawall (clump 8). In the last few weeks they have been busy using diggers to scrape clean all the good reedy stuff behind the clumps. Clump 8 is now all but destroyed. I checked out all the northern clumps: very thin gruel, always a bad sign when you are greeted by a flock of tree sparrow, a sure sign of habitat degradation, they also tend to push away other species such as buntings.
After carefully checking clumps 8 thru 3 (much easier now they are mostly bare branches) I took the long walk south to clumps 1 and 2 and then onto the Holiday Inn hotel and Grandstand, finishing at the jetty into the lake behind the Grandstand.
Generally rather thin, the highlight was on the old street lamp road (see my very first visit here on earlier posts) where I found a flock of vinous-throated parrotbill, I gave it a few minutes and had a single reed parrotbill in with the flock. Clearly the “street-lamp” road through the reeds is the most promising area if you want to find reed parrotbill at Nanhui. For how much longer reed parrotbill will be around given the accelerating rate of habitat destruction is a moot point.
The bird of the day was a nice purple heron giving great flight views over the “old street-lamp road” before dropping into reeds. Generally birds recorded in January are deemed overwintering so this may be the first record of overwintering purple heron in the area.
I did not have the time or energy to work the lake proper, it was interesting to note that there was not a single duck anywhere to be found along the entire shoreline, compare this to the hundreds of duck present 3 weeks ago.

Complete list, Nanhui coast Sunday 3 January 2016
Common pheasant 1
Japanese Quail, 1
Dabchick, few
GC grebe, 20
BC Night heron, 2
Grey Heron, 30+
Purple heron, 1
Little egret, 50+
Greenshank, 6
Common snipe, 2
Gulls, 30+ distant large white-headed types
LT shrike, few
Chinese penduline tit, several heard but not seen
No hirundines, the barn swallows lingering at the lake have now finally gone.
Zitting cisticola, 4
Plain prinia, 8+
No warblers today except: 1 dusky warbler
VT parrotbill, 20+
Reed parrotbill, 1
Dusky thrush, 2
Pale thrush, 5
Bluetail, 1
Daurian redstart, 3
Eastern yellow wag, 10+ taivana today
White wag, 4 leucopsis, 3 lugens
Chestnut-eared bunting, 1 fine male
Black-faced bunting, 2 females
Pallas’s reed bunting, 12+

Back to work, hope to get out for some RC cranes next weekend

RC Cranes and brown-cheeked rail

A weekend away birding the coast north of Shanghai.
Full details, lists, GPS coordinates and photos at
http://www.shanghaibirding.com/2016/01/12/a-reliable-spot-for-brown-cheeked-rail/
We started at Yancheng, it took us over an hour to locate a family party of wild RC cranes. Other birds were lots of tundra bean geese, smew and a huge gathering of goosander.
We drove down to Dongtai for last light and found a lone sub-adult mute swan, probably the rarest bird of the trip. We spent the night at Dongtai and worked the Dongtai coast hard on Sunday morning but nothing extra. We finished with a short visit to Yangkou. We discovered the toll booths on the approach to the temple are now demanding 20 RMB per person for entry to the temple. You clearly don’t get much for your money if judged by the indescribable state of the gents at the site (you don’t want to know, and you certainly don’t want to go in)
No birds of note in the leafless trees around the temple; roll on spring!
The highlight was a brown-cheeked rail stakeout just south of the temple (see attached map), this is a regular site in winter but on this occasion just gave brief views skulking in the reeds.
Highlights 9/10 January 2016, Yancheng, Dongtai and Yangkou
(CT) Mute swan, 1 sub-adult at Dongtai coast on both 9 and 10 Jan
(CT) Smew, 20 birds around Yancheng
Goosander, 1250 birds at Yancheng
Oriental stork, 2 at Yancheng, usually the biggest bird around, dwarfed by the RC cranes.
(WT) Red-crowned crane, 9 wild birds at Yancheng
(WT) Brown-cheeked rail, 1 at Yangkou

Very busy for the next few weeks so birding likely to be a minimum
Thanks to Stephan and Xueping for sharing the attached photos

The coldest day

Freakishly cold over the weekend, I joined Craig and Elaine on Sunday to check out Dishui lake and Nanhui coast. -8 C was a record low for Shanghai and nothing to complain about but combined with a howling NW gale which just ripped your face off, very difficult to bird in the wind.

Full details at http://www.shanghaibirding.com/2016/01/25/cinereous-vulture-in-shanghai/

The highlights on Sunday 24 Jan 2016 were:

Slavonian grebe, still 2 at Dishui lake, same place as back in November just starting to get duskier necks, no sign of black-neck grebes today.

(CT) Red-throated diver. 3 birds together in the half-frozen canal behind clump 2. One of the birds had an oiled belly and did not look well. The other two (family members?) looked OK

Not much else of note, off on my CNY hols so back birding in a few weeks.

Cherry blossom in Century park

Today, Sat 27 Feb I did a quick visit to Century park in the spring sunshine. The park was heaving with visitors mostly taking pictures of the lovely pink and white cherry blossom. I walked round to the quiet NW edge, to the west of gate 1. The area under the trees can be good for thrushes in the leaf litter, however it seems to have been “tidied” and other than a couple of pale thrush flying away I only saw Chinese blackbird. The only bird of note was a female elegant bunting.
Last Sunday, 21 Feb, I took the metro line16 down to Dishui lake and then a cab out to clump 2. I walked the coast down to the grandstand. No sign of migrants, all very quiet except for the reedbeds which had many calling reed parrotbill, some giving close views.

Roll on spring!

Pulling the plug on reed parrotbill

Last weekend, Sunday 5th March, I took the metro line 16 to Dishui lake and a cab out to clump 2. I then had a long walk to the Holiday Inn and grandstand via the best bits of the reedbed. I found an access point into the northern end of the grandstand lake and was able to properly check through the big flock of duck there (mostly tufted). The reedbeds were full of the call of reed parrotbill and I had great views of pallas’s reed bunting and Chinese penduline tit. Bird of the day was a pair of rustic bunting on the embankment at the grandstand. The colour of the rump of a breeding male rustic is just about unique, it is probably matched by one of the rosefinches but for me it is closest to the colour of a Nauman’s thrush.

Yesterday, Saturday 12th March, I repeated the trip with Craig and Elaine. We started by taking a cab up to the northern clumps (very little) before walking from clump 2. I wrote before of how the good reedy areas just below the landward side of the sea wall have all been scraped, well they have been busy planting trees into this area for most of the entire stretch from the northern clumps down to south of the dowitcher pool. The trees are over 3m tall and spindly, thousands have been planted so if they establish and grow there will be a huge increase in habitat for passage migrants.

That is the good news, the terrible news is that they have started to drain the two best expanses of reed bed, (the very best habitat for reed parrotbill) and plan to replace them with “trees”. All of this started in just the last week, given the rate at which water is streaming out of the reed bed the place will be dried out and cleared within a few months.

We encountered some large flocks of PRB and CPT in the reeds and often heard reed parrotbill. We had a single barn swallow as a sign of spring but otherwise just wintering stuff.

We took the metro back and decided to check out the bund for gulls. We walked through packed crowds of shoppers from Nanjing Road East metro and spent some time carefully checking the many gulls on view. Most were smart adult birds which I think were Mongolian type but we all need help on this group. There were few BH gulls but nothing better.

Roll on Spring!

mjgrunwell said:

... the terrible news is that they have started to drain the two best expanses of reed bed, (the very best habitat for reed parrotbill) and plan to replace them with “trees”. All of this started in just the last week, given the rate at which water is streaming out of the reed bed the place will be dried out and cleared within a few months.

Click to expand...

I am afraid that they dry off the reed beds to give way for a huge development area which will be called 'Harbour City' (that's what the signboards say).

I've been there today and birding was really nice (apart from the absence of any wader on the sea side of the wall):

There must have been more than a thousand Chinese Penduline Tits in a bigger party, together with a hand full of Reed Parrotbills, and a few hundreds of Pallas' Reed Buntings. Latter were scattered throughout the whole reed area, whilst the Tits were concentrating in the last corner were the Oleander Trees haven't been cleared yet.
It was quite sad witnessing the diggers coming closer and closer.

I also could observe a Peregrine trying to get hold of a Common Teal.

Another bird of surprise was a Black-throated Loon (I guess that's what it is; see pictures attached) on the lake behind the Holiday Inn. It was suddenly dropping from out of the sky and landed amid somewhat 160 Tufted Ducks and 80 Gadwalls.

A Siberian Weasel searched for small worms through the mess that the diggers just have left an hour before.

Nanhui and Yangshan island, dipping on loon

Firstly thanks for your your post Roland, I only saw it on the way down today and was very keen for a look as the photo shows a hint on a neck collar (Pacific rather than BT?) unfortunately no luck today.

Today out with Stephan and Xueping. Started at Yangshan island, the rubbish dump gate was open and a large worker’s camp had been built since my last visit. Apparently they are building a new power station, the implications for future access are not good. Very thin at the dump valley, we walked over to the temple mount area. The best here was a large flock of dusky thrush with a nice Naumann’s thrush. We drove to the east of the island and found a few birds on a bushy slope and checked out quite a sizeable marsh by the side of the road.
We then headed back to the mainland and methodically worked the whole of the “Nanhui coastal patrol”, the seawall from the large river in the north, under the Dongtai bridge and down to the fishing town. The total distance is about 24km. We made the usual detours into the reeds and were rewarded by many calling reed parrotbill. We also checked out most of Dishui lake
and thoroughly checked out grandstand lake in search of the reported loon.

Complete list of birds seen, Saturday 19th March 2016, Nanhui and Yangshan island.

Gadwall 70+ on grandstand lake (GL)
Wigeon 100+ on Dishui lake (DL)
Shoveler 1 on GL
Tufted duck, many distant on DL, 30 on GL
Greater scaup, 11 on GL
Dabchick, many
GC grebe, 30+
Eurasian spoonbill, 50+ at Nanhui
Great bittern, 1 seen flying over the reeds 1 km south of the grandstand
BC Night heron, 2 on YI, 2 in clump 4, 15+ over the motorway
Eastern cattle egret, 1
Grey Heron, 30+
Intermediate egret, 6
Little egret, 150+
Kestrel, 1 on YI
Coot few
Moorhen 3
BW stilt, 2
LRP, 20+
Kentish plover, 10+
Dunlin, distant flock
Common snipe 5+
Swintail, probable Swinhoe’s 3
Spotted redshank, 2
Wood sandpiper, 8
Sanderling 1
Spotted dove, few
Hoopoe, 4
LT shrike, few
Common magpie 1
Large-billed crow, 4 on YI
Japanese tit, 3 on YI
Chinese penduline tit, some very large flocks today, Roland’s figure of 1000 could well be about right today.
Black-throated tit, 4+ on YI
Skylark sp few
Zitting cisticola one
Chinese bulbul, 20+ today
Pallas’s warbler, 2 on YI
VT parrotbill, 20+
Reed parrotbill, many calling today, heard only
Crested Myna, 10+
Silky starling, 80+ on YI, a high count
White-cheeked starling, 10+ on YI, 30+ on Nanhui
Pale thrush, 2
Dusky thrush, 25 on YI, 20+ Nanhui
Naumann’s thrush a nice male plus at least 2 female or poss intergrades on YI
Daurian redstart, 5+
Stejneger’s stonechat, 1 cracking male Nanhui
Tree sparrow, few flocks
Eastern yellow wagtail, 3 taivana today at Nanhui
White wagtail, 20+ all leucopsis
OB pipit, 3 on YI
Buff-bellied pipit 20+ at Nanhui
Brambling, 1 smart male at clump 2
Chinese Grosbeak, 7
Tristram’s bunting, 2 on YI
Chestnut-eared bunting, 1 at Nanhui
Little bunting, 8+ today
Black faced bunting, 5 today including a bright male matching sordida
Pallas’s reed bunting, several large flocks encountered in the reeds.

Hoping to return again in a few weeks when spring passage properly underway.

April coastal migration

Very busy, so little time to write.
I have been out birding for the last four weekends. Complete lists and nice photos can be seen at
http://www.shanghaibirding.com/2016/04/12/103-species/

http://www.shanghaibirding.com/2016/04/20/egret-pale-yangshan/

http://www.shanghaibirding.com/2016/04/26/spring-mig-pageant/

Rather than repeating info found at the website I want to summarise migration here on a species-by-species basis, as I see it.

The first of May in my view marks a key date between the protracted early spring migration and the start of the large movements of the northerly breeders. In my experience in Nanchang the second week of May was the peak for Spring passage, as the Shanghai coast was a good week earlier for autumn passage I am guessing it will be a week later for Spring.

Key species seen on the Nanhui coast during April 2016
YI = Yangshan island

Ducks: Not a great place for ducks. Tufted duck and gadwall lingered into early April, falcated and wigeon until mid April, a few garganey and teal, a few passing spotbill and mallard but nothing exciting.
Spoonbill, some flocks of Eurasian through April a few black-faced looking superb in breeding dress.
Eurasian bittern, heard booming at Nanhui mid April, do some stay to breed?
Chinese Pond heron, very much a summer visitor to Shanghai, numbers building late April
Purple heron, following on from a wintering record, few seen early April but not many.
Grey heron, just a few lingering by the end of April
Great white heron, always a few around
Intermediate heron, not obviously seasonal, a few through the winter, no clear sign of a Spring increase
Chinese egret, 3 seen on a mooring chain on a ship on YI, 2 cracking breeding birds on the beach at Nanhui on 30 April. Not common on passage, seem to go up in April and back early September
Raptors: Harriers do not winter at Nanhui, very little passage this April, a few osprey and eastern buzzard, the first Chinese sparrowhawk on 30 April
When are we going to see passing Oriental honey buzzard and grey-faced buzzard?
Rails and crakes: A very few coot by the end of May, we found a brown crake on the “South lawns” in mid April
Common snipe less obvious by the end of April, plenty of “swintail” seen at the end of the month.
I missed the sole record at Nanhui this spring of oriental dowitcher on 24 April, hoping to get lucky in early May.
Small numbers of waders often showing well on the pools behind the sea wall. The muddy fields held good numbers of sharp-tailed sandpiper and long-toed stint at the end of April.
Gulls and terns notable by their absence bar a few gull-billed and whiskered tern.
Large hawk cuckoo, one at Nanhui on 1 May
No cuckoos yet
Barn swallow very common, a few red rumped. A very few sand martin “type”.
Pacific swift in first two weeks of April but not later
Swinhoe’s minivet, a notably early migrant through Nanchang, one mid April on the coast.
A few bull-headed shrike seen on most days out, the first brown shrike at the end of the month. On 30 April saw the usual cristatus and lucionensis plus an obvious cinnamon “Japanese shrike” superciliosus
First black drongo on 30 April
Huge numbers of Chinese penduline tit early April, all gone by month-end
Canturians bush warbler, very commonly heard mid April, a bird that is very scarce through Nanchang, whilst brown-flanked is very common in spring around Nanchang but obviously less so on the Shanghai coast.
Asian stubtail, 1 at YI on 30 April
Oriental reed, well established and noisy in the Nanhui reeds by end of April
Black-browed reed, a few singing on 1 May
Dusky warbler, not common here, 1 on 30 April
Pallas’s warbler, this is a very common bird in Nanchang, peaking in late March, very much less common on the coast.
YB warbler, like Pallas’s a very common bird in Nanchang but with an obvious peak mid-April, plenty on the coast but nothing like the abundance on passage seen around Nanchang.
Arctic warbler type; very much a mid May bird in Nanchang, only one or two seen yet by me this spring on the Shanghai coast.
Pale-legged/Sakhalin leaf warbler, We had a few pale-legged in song on YI mid April (but never clearly seen) and a few seen but not heard at the end of the month. We always try to get them to respond to either PL or Sak songs but so far no luck.
Eastern crowned warbler, the commonest of the early warblers
Not yet seen two-barred greenish or any locustella or any interesting acros
Rufous faced warbler; a few wanderers on the coast mid month
Pale thrush, plenty around through to 1 May
Grey-backed, just a few by month-end
Japanese thrush, numbers peaked mid April
Eye-browed thrush, a May bird, the first on 1 May
Brown-headed thrush, a real skulker, very shy and often run fast. We had up to 6 birds being difficult on the coast 1 May
Dusky thrush, plenty early April, none by month end
Siberian blue robin, notorious skulkers, usually to be found in thick undergrowth in damp culverts. We had three on 1 May. I guess that peak spring passage is quite early, perhaps mid to late April but with so few records difficult to find a pattern, they are certainly early returners, most passage over by the end of August
Red-flanked bluetail, still a few lingering at the end of April
Flycatchers. Brown from around 15 April. Narcissus peaks third week of April; an absolute stunner of a bird. A few grey-streaked at end of month and a few mugimaki. Yellow-rumped and dark-sided not yet through. Blue and white perhaps the earliest of all with some great looking male nominate and intermedia on show.

Eastern yellow wagtail. Very common on the coast in mid-late April. A good mix of taivana and tschutschensis. A real birding highlight to get a close view of the males.
Citrine wagtail, up to three birds seen on the coast 23 April
White wagtail. lugens peaks early April, ocularis peaks late April, leucopsis always about
Olive-backed pipit, a common spring bird right through April
Red-throated pipit, not many, mostly mid month.

Pechora pipit, the highlight of last weekend. I found two skulking on the evening of 30 April. The next day was very warm and sunny, we found a few early on then I heard a song reminiscent of serin, it was a singing Pechora pipit atop a newly planted tree along the seawall! We spent time checking along the seawall for Pechora and counted a minimum of 26 birds, a quarter of which were singing! Perhaps the newly planted trees with the damp base reminded them of their taiga breeding habitat? Whatever the reason it was a very unexpected sight in Shanghai to see and hear Pechora pipit so well. The plumage and song were that of the widespread nominate race. Apparently menzbieri which breeds in north-eastern China has a quite different song and is a strong candidate for a future split as Menzbier’s pipit. See Craig’s amazing photos at the site quoted above.

Buntings. Tristram’s is very much a March/April bird, always associated with undergrowth with trees, never common, up to 6 in a day.
Chestnut-eared, a winter visitor, usually associated with more open areas near water, seemed to peak mid April
Little bunting, a mix of wintering and early migrants, always on the day list.
Yellow-browed bunting, not at all common on the coast, just the odd record in April.
Rustic bunting, a classic March bird, early to leave.
Elegant bunting, a winterer, early to leave
Yellow-breasted, a scarce migrant but seen on a few days through April, 3 on 1 May
Chestnut bunting, scarce, shy and difficult to get good views. We had a cracking male on 1 May
Japanese yellow bunting. The outstanding bird on the outstanding first of May! A cracking male on what will now be forever called “yellow bunting lane” see map

Black-faced bunting the commonest bunting, many about at the end of April
Pallas’s reed bunting, a common bird at Nanhui in March, numbers dwindling through mid April, none seen on 30 April

I am particularly keen to find a Japanese reed bunting, clearly not a winterer around here, will we get a May migrant?

Hoping to get out as much as possible over the next few weeks.

Last few maps of Nanhui

Two more maps

Autumn birding, part 1

Long time no write.
A nice trip to Qinghai in late June/early July, see http://www.shanghaibirding.com/2016/09/02/qinghai-2016-week-1-2/ for nice pictures and a list of birds seen. Qinghai birding can be summed up in one word: thin. Thin air and thin birding. It takes real time and effort to pick up all the species needed. On my trip I saw almost everything I wanted, the biggest misses were Tibetan sandgrouse and Rusty-necklaced partridge. The highlights were Mongolian ground jay, all the snow finch except small, Przevalski’s finch, Tibetan bunting, Tibetan rosefinch, Tibetan babax and Ala Shan redstart.
After a summer in Europe back in Shanghai and out birding every weekend since Aug 20.
My target wader for this Autumn was Asiatic dowitcher. Discovered that on the Nanhui coast they are uncommon in small numbers, usually with black-tailed godwit. I had good views on three successive weekends, a mix of adults and juveniles.
My other tick of the Autumn was Fairy Pitta, see http://www.shanghaibirding.com/2016/09/04/pitta-nanhui/ for a nice picture.
Over 1-3 October I travelled up to the Rudong coast, spent a whole day on the Dongtai coast (see earlier threads for maps) scored with both Nordmann’s and SBS. On 3 October we found a huge dry high-tide wader roost near Yangkou.
Rather than give a day-by-day breakdown I thought it would be best just to review by species for early/mid Autumn.

I reckon than Autumn migration down the Shanghai coast can be broken into 4 chunks.
1. Late summer. This is from late July to third week of August. This period is the best for waders passing through. Very few passerines
2. Early Autumn. Last week of August to Third week of September. Good numbers of waders but sibe blue robin and Japanese paradise flycatcher dominant passerines of interest.
3. Mid Autumn, from the arrival of the first White’s thrushes around 23 September to the first Pallas’s reed bunting at the end of October. This is the time for thrushes and interesting passerines.
4. Late Autumn, from the end of October to early December, buntings, ducks and thrushes.

Highlight Species list for Autumn 2016 around Shanghai, from 20 August to 3 October 2016

Common pheasant, resident, always seen in small numbers
Chinese bamboo partridge, 1 calling at Yangkou on 3 Oct, I have heard this bird here before, strange occurrence, either a relict population or feral origin.
Ruddy shelduck, one at Nanhui 24 Sep
Very few other ducks except good numbers of garganey early Sep. Many ducks were flying in but too distant on 24 Sep.
BF spoonbill, 35 at Dongtai on 2 Oct
Yellow bittern, few, no Shrenck’s this year yet.
Striated heron, few on the coast mid Sep
Chinese egret, 5 at Dongtai on 2 Oct, a few others around Nanhui. Not common but can be found by scoping through little egrets. Leg colour is variable in Autumn, yellowish black is usual but one had fully greyish green legs, legs noticeably thicker than little. Bill structure diagnostic; slightly taller with a distinctive very slight droop on the distal third.
In flight I can see no difference in structure from little.
No pelicans so far this autumn
Raptors: very poor on this coast, best was a movement of Hobby in late September. Still waiting for a passing grey-faced buzzard.
Japanese sparrowhawk, a few on 1 and 2 Oct
Complete list of waders:
1. Oystercatcher, hundreds of the osculans race at Dongtai on 2 Oct. This is a potential future split as Korean Oystercatcher.
2. Black winged stilt, usually a small flock to be found at Nanhui
3. Pied Avocet, a few at Nanhui late Sep. Commoner later.
4. Grey-winged lapwing, obvious movement late Sep/early Oct. 50+ seen around Chongming on 1 Oct.
5. Pacific golden plover, an earlier bird, small numbers late August/early Sep
6. Grey plover, big numbers on mudflats at Dongtai 2 Oct
7. Common ringed plover, a single tundrae at the Pudong sod farms on 3 Sep, a rare bird in China.
8. LRP, a common bird on dry flats
9. Kentish plover, thousands at the roost at Yangkou on 3 Oct
10. Lesser sand plover, thousands at the Yangkou roost on 3 Oct
11. Greater sand plover, a much scarcer bird than lesser, perhaps half a percent are greater.
12. Pintailed snipe, common early September.
13. Swinhoe’s snipe a few late August. IMO
14. Common snipe, arrive mid September, only snipe seen on 2 Oct
15. Asian dowitcher, perhaps 8+ individuals at Nanhui over three weeks
16. Eastern black-tailed godwit, some big flocks of 500+ late August at Nanhui
17. Bar tailed godwit, not common, a few on mudflats.
18. Little curlew, one at Yangkou roost 3 Oct
19. Whimbrel, variegatus race a strong candidate for splitting as Siberian Whimbrel, commonest mid August
20. Eurasian curlew, hundreds at Dongtai 2 Oct
21. Far-eastern curlew, 30+ at Dongtai on 2 October, I was identifying the bird on their more strident, rasping flight call at Dongtai.
22. Common redshank, not common, a few small flocks on fresh pools at Nanhui.
23. Spotted redshank, by far the commonest wader in the Chinese interior, just a few birds at the coast this Autumn.
24. Marsh sandpiper, commonest in August
25. Common Greenshank, common on the mudflats and pools
26. Nordmann’s greenshank, one hanging around Nanhui through September, 29 counted in front of a quickly-rising tide at Dongtai on 2 October.
27. Green sandpiper, a few on fresh marshes
28. Wood sandpiper, peaks in late August/early Sep
29. Grey-tailed tattler, peak numbers late August, 30+ on a good day.
30. Terek Sandpiper, I counted 155 at roost on a lakeshore at Dongtai on 2 Oct
31. Common sandpiper, always around in small numbers
32. Ruddy turnstone, small numbers at the sod farm 3 Sep a few elsewhere.
33. Great Knot, peak counts of 60+ in late August at Nanhui
34. Red knot, a good year for counts at Nanhui, peak counts of over 100 birds
35. Sanderling, few
36. Red-necked stint, peak in late august, still plenty to see on drier mudflats at Dongtai on 2 Oct
37. Temminck’s stint, 10+ at sod farm 3 Sep, never common.
38. Long-toed stint, peak early September, not really coastal.
39. Sharp-tailed sandpiper, peak counts late August/early September, scarce by October.
40. Curlew sandpiper, peak count of 23 birds on 20 August
41. Dunlin, later to go through and winters on mudflats
42. Spoon-billed sandpiper, I saw two birds on the mud just 80m from the Dongtai seawall road on a falling tide on 2 October, at 3pm I said goodbye with genuine sadness and walked off to find passerines. My companions continued to watch as they came even closer with a peak count of 13 birds including 2 flagged individuals, green left 29 and yellow left 59. Just so sad when you know there is no hope of more than pushing out extinction date by a decade
43. Broad-billed sandpiper, small numbers through Autumn, perhaps more later in season on mudflats.
44. Ruff, I had one in flight early September at Nanhui and just missed another at Nanhui on 25 Sep.
45. Red-necked phalarope, one at Nanhui on 27 Aug
46. Oriental pratincole, 600+ at Pudong sod farms early Sep.

So 46 species of wader so far this autumn, it must be possible get the magic 50 in a season if we get lucky with say Pec sand, white-rumped sand, buff-breast, long-billed dowitcher and a rare plover?

Gulls, never seen Saunders’s at Nanhui but counted 430 at the Yangkou roost on 3 Oct.
Black-headed gull, start to move through late September, plenty at Dongtai and Yangkou early October.
Vega gull, the common large gull, now includes Mongolian
Black-tailed gull, looks a proper big gull in flight but when roosting just a bit bigger than black-headed, common gull sized. Peak counts around 20.
Heuglins, a nice adult at Dongtai on 2 October.
The Nanhui coast is very poor for gulls, still looking for Relict and slaty-backed as well as any white-winged gull in winter. Common gull is a major bogey on my China list.
Sea Terns. Caspian and gull-billed regular at the coast. Common tern in very small numbers a few little terns. No other sea terns yet seen.
Marsh terns, white-winged tern peaked at 3000 on 17 Sep at Nanhui, whiskered tends to become commoner later.
Red turtle dove, 10+ around the southern patrol at Nanhui through early September
Cuckoo’s: Very hard work in Autumn, presumed mostly common in late Aug and through September, 3 Lesser cuckoo seen well at Yangkou 3 Oct
Lesser coucal, presumed an elusive breeder at Nanhui, a few seen.
Himalayan swiftlet, not a vagrant to the coast but and uncommon early autumn migrant seen most weeks in late August/early Sep
Fairy Pitta. The stand-out bird of the Autumn. We refound a bird in microforest 2 on 3 Sep, this bird hung around until the next weekend attracting a huge crowd of photographers. We found another on 10 Sep at MF 4. It is clear that Fairy Pitta is a regular migrant on the Nanhui coast. By far the best bird I have seen this year.

Part two to follow…

Autumn birding part 2

On Thursday 6 October I took the metro to Dishui Lake and a cab out to MF8. I worked the northern clumps then walked south. It was blustery and started to rain. I got a lift down to the hotel area thereby missed the southern clumps. I briefly checked the carpark and GPS grove. All rather quiet but an obvious arrival of grey heron, several hundred, along with a single purple heron. A lot of distant ducks flying about but we have never been able to nail down exactly where they are. Small numbers of flycatcher and only two arctic-type warblers. The highlight was a total of 3 Woodcock seen well. This brings the wader count for the coastal area to 47 this Autumn. If we include Jacana as a wader then the PT Jacana seen at Nanhui this week takes the total to 48.
I do wonder if any other area can claim so many species of wader in a single season? Other than the east-asian flyway I cannot think that north America or Europe could deliver 48 species in a single season (say within a 160km/100 mile radius). Open to suggestions.

To continue my review of species seen this Autumn:
Tiger shrike, peaks late August early September, max counts over 6 birds
Bull-headed shrike, first of the season this week
Chinese grey shrike, we had a single adult at Dongtai on 2 October
BN Oriole, comes through all autumn in small numbers.
Black drongo, sometimes hard to distinguish migrants from resident birds, tend to move quite late.
Hair crested drongo, usually solitary and found in trees, not perched up like black. One at Dongtai on 2 October.
Ashy drongo, much commoner through Nanchang in autumn than the Shanghai coast.
Amur paradise flycatcher, one or two females this September.
Japanese paradise flycatcher, peaks from late August to mid September, max counts around 10 birds along the Nanhui coast.
Yellow-bellied tit, an uncommon but regular migrant on the coast, 1 at Dongtai on 2 October
Barn swallow. A very common bird on the coast, always hundreds in a day from late August into October
Sand/pale martin, seemed to peak late August, probably sand
Asian stubtail. In past autumns I have seen dozens in a day in early October, very small numbers so far this year.
Acrocephalus warblers: Other than oriental reeds hanging around or migrants moving through just nothing!
Locustella warblers: A complete blank so far this Autumn
Dusky warbler, always later, a few in Yangkou 3 Oct
Pallas’s leaf, the first through the Jiangsu coast 2 Oct
Yellow-browed, peaks late September
Arctic warbler, the most apparent warbler from August to mid October, probably a range of populations (and species?) passing through over the season.
Pale-legged leaf warbler, fairly common late August to early October
Sakhalin leaf warbler strongly suspect but until criteria sorted cannot be sure, a few early September? Maybe 90:10 Pale-legged:Sak around Shanghai??
Two-barred greenish, uncommon, not seen one this year
Eastern crowned warbler, fairly common from late August right through to early October
White-eyes, not many yet this year, passing groups may harbor chestnut-flanked
Sibe thrush, the classic thrush of late September/early October. A few at Nanhui and Jiangsu coast
White’s thrush, a few early ones on 23 Sep but still awaiting for the big arrival
Grey-backed thrush, odd ones reported but, as with White’s still to arrive en masse
Japanese thrush, no records yet, very much a late October bird
Eye-browed thrush, the odd report
Siberian rubythroat, still to arrive along with bluetail
Siberian blue robin. The signature bird of the micro-forests late August/early September. Need sibe blue robin? Fly to Shanghai Pudong airport around 1 Sep. Take taxi to Nanhui coast, carefully check microforests 4/5 and 1/2, should score easily! Peak counts this year were 15+ early Sep, need settled, hot weather for birds to build up in microforests.
Daurian redstart, still to arrive.
Flycatchers:
Grey streaked, tend to be mid Sept on
Dark-sided, maybe different populations passing as can occur right through autumn
Asian brown, by far the most numerous, every day from late August to late October
Yellow-rumped, the early species, peaks early Sep, though can get singles into October
Narcissus, seems to be strictly spring passage (third/fourth week of April), no records this autumn
Chinese flycatcher, very scarce, still waiting
Mugimaki, the late one, first of season around 20 September
Taiga, fairly regular from mid September
Blue and white, the commonest fly in the microforests late September, a good mix of adult males, first-year males and females this year.
Asian verditer, one reported
Forest wagtail, can occur at coast in September, but still waiting for my first in China
Eastern yellow wagtail, more difficult to race the birds in autumn but some very big movements in early September.
Richards pipit, common late September
Olive backed pipit, the first of season at Yangkou on 3 Oct
Pechora pipit, scarce, a few early September
Red-throated pipit, often heard overhead early Oct
Buntings: A few yellow-breasted in September at Nanhui, the first black-faced and little arrived Dongtai on 2 Oct.

My key late autumn targets are:
Japanese robin, Japanese reed bunting, Japanese grey bunting, white-bellied pigeon plus any Acro or Locustella.