• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

China observations (1 Viewer)

Xiaoming, I was on those islands last June as part of a WWF Black-faced Spoonbill count. It's an amazing place! Saw Pelagic Cormorant there but I would imagine there is more ocean birds there now in the winter.

Gretchen, Japanese Quail are the little guys that fly up after you nearly step on them in short grass.

Dongbei,what petrel/shearwater did u see in June?I'm thinking of chumming in Lianyungang this summer to see if there're others besides Swinhoe's Stormpetrel and Streaked Shearwater.
Very interesting to know there have been so many BFS in HK.My first record of BFS passing by Shanghai area was on 31 Oct and 1 Nov.
Then one juv was found within a flock of ES in Nanjing on 14 Nov,and I saw two BFS flew by with one ES in Shanghai on 15 Nov.
 
Sid, glad you don't have to keep a pocket full of invertebrates to make friends with cranes (really I guess I had no idea what they ate ).
Cranes are omnivorous - so pocket full of grubs and amphibians or even the odd mouse would also go down a treat. One of the interesting observations at Crane feeding areas were lots of small holes in the grassland - which at first we took as the work of some rodent - but latter found out were made by the cranes in their efforts to dig out a goody or two, which, listed as part of their diet, could well have been a rodent. Other birds we saw hunting in the grass, after a voles and mice - were Kestrels, a Hen Harrier, Grey Heron and interestingly a Purple Heron (that must have froze its butt during the nighttime frosts)
And the Cranes at Dashanbao aren't just Black-necked, although they make up the vast majority of birds - you can see a Common Crane in the pic - and last winter they had a Demoiselle.
A good Crane resource is the Crane Foundation - here's their page on the Black-necked Crane
http://www.savingcranes.org/blackneckedcrane.html
An interesting fact given here is that the Black-necked, because of its remote habitat, was the last Crane to be discovered - in 1876.
 

Attachments

  • common.jpg
    common.jpg
    48.3 KB · Views: 101
Last edited:
mcaribou and others,

Yes, I know Bai Qingquan in Dandong quite well and have been in contact with himmany times. Dandong gets a much greater variety of ducks and sea birds than where I am. The river between China and N. Korea there is excellent around this time of year.

Didn't sea any Petrel or Shearwater there in June.

Tom
 
Most interesting birds were buntings in the grasses on the sandflats. There were maybe 4-6 up high near the seed heads eating, but even so were quite tricky to see with the movement of the grasses. I mostly saw some almost blindingly white breast (well, in the low angle sunlight), and white malar stripes (maybe black beneath the beak? maybe black on head?). With the few glimpses I got, there are still a lot of bunting possibilites, ...

A little more on this. I relistened to my notes, and noted one of the buntings sort of shaking (almost shivering?) its tail. That was interesting - don't know if it was typical.

I got a little bit of audio to accompany the buntings. I tried Xeno-canto, but didn't succeed in finding all the birds I wanted, nor in finding many calls (mostly songs there). So I'm attaching the same recording in noise reduced and original versions, if anyone has interest and thinks anything sounds familiar...
 

Attachments

  • nov bunting noisred.mp3
    184.3 KB · Views: 176
  • nov bunting.mp3
    184.3 KB · Views: 153
Cheers Mike - actually up on the plateau, at heights around 3,000m, blue winter skies can also give off some solar radiation - as long as you haven't got a wind you actually get a feeling of warmth. The cold only really sets in during the night when clear skies means a big freeze.
While down here in the Sichuan basin - at a measly elevation of 500m, it's the usual winter grey day after grey day - no warmth at all.
Winter holidays in Sichuan - go high!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
2 Sandhill Crane,70+ Lapland Longspur,72 Common Starling and 1 Upland Buzzard in Yancheng on 24/25.
Zhang Lin from Poyang Lake
 
Wow! 2 Sandhill and 72 Lapland Longspur one of either of those would cheer up our winter in Hong Kong.


actually this week has been pretty good - first HK records of Northern House Martin and first Dark-throated Thrush - and then 3 of each in total! - The downside I didn't see any of them.

Cheers
Mike
 
I finally got out this afternoon for a little time before it was dark (5:00!). It was a sunny and foggy day - odd weather - and warmish mid 40 degrees. Low sun angle did produce lots of glare and not quite ideal viewing. I went to the reservoir and saw a few interesting things:

  • first Great Tit in ages - I honestly am not sure I can tell from Coal Tit, so I have to keep working on this: it's challenging since they don't stay still too long.
  • a few groups of Elegant Buntings - they remind me of the the White Throated Sparrows at home going through the leaf litter on the ground; these guys with their little squeaks too really did sound like mice.
  • still maybe 3 Little Egrets or so - not in a group, all individuals in different places, some flying between ponds; hope they're going to make it south!
  • a group of 4 distant smallish waders - coloring reminded me of Green Sandpipers (very dark backs), but it seems strange they would be in a group (and late for any waders I guess?)
  • a little flock (7) of small dark ducks - they actually blended in and I didn't see them well at all, but they had fairly slender and dark heads and were dabblers - maybe Falcated ducks??
  • three woodpecker species! - had very good view of a Grey-headed Woodpecker, eating sumac berries, which I had no idea they would do, but have just read elsewhere that some woodpeckers do like sumac
  • had a very brief view of a small woodpecker, which I can't quite identify, in part because it was quickly chased off by a Great Spotted; the little one had a noticeably short and pointy beak, a definitely not white belly (I'm not clear if it was striped or not), a white L shape over and behind the eye, (no red I could see), and I thought a fairly dark back. As I understand, Grey-capped and Japanese Pygmy are both possible here, but I'm a little stuck in that darkest backed (Grey-capped Pygmy) also has the longest bill! Next time I'll get a better look at the color on the face. If anyone has any other thoughts on this, I'm grateful for them...
  • most surprisingly, I saw an Oriental Stork! Seems quite late? (I've not seen any cranes :-C but assumed both storks and cranes had passed by by now.) It stood by itself in the water, moving a little, but I never really saw it fishing.
 
some nice birds Gretchen - especially Oriental Stork!

You can tell Coal Tit from Great Tit because Great Tit has a neck and tail and Coal Tit appears not to.

Sandhill is very rare in China - I had the second ever record in 1999, but since they breed into far eastern Siberia they are probably under-recorded.

Cheers

Mike
 
cranes winter along Yangtze River basin so none of them pass here.
Sandhill is steadily recorded in recent years sucn as Shanghai,Yancheng and Yellow River Delta.
Scaly-sided Merganser passed Hangzhou Bay in early Nov and they're now in their wintering ground--6m&8f in Wuyuan.
 
Coal Tits were very common around here in the winter and now I haven't seen one in 1.5 years. Anyone else had similar experiences?

Finally made it out again yesterday. Gretchen, I know what you mean about the weather. It's supposed to be warm for the rest of this week. I had 34 species but mostly just normal stuff. I did have a group of Pallas's Rosefinch which are not that common here and lots of ducks. I also got some nice photos of a Little Owl sitting on a barn roof. I would have loved to have seen an Oriental Stork. I've only seen them north of here about 2 hours where a group winters each year in frozen rice fields.

Gotta run,

Tom
 
cranes winter along Yangtze River basin so none of them pass here.
Sandhill is steadily recorded in recent years sucn as Shanghai,Yancheng and Yellow River Delta.
So will the Sandhill be wintering in your area? not with other cranes?

I would have loved to have seen an Oriental Stork. I've only seen them north of here about 2 hours where a group winters each year in frozen rice fields.

Ah, so it's not too far north for the guy I saw here - some can make it through the winter up there!!! Brrrrr

Cheers Mike for the tip on GT and CT.

Anyone know if it is possible to see Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker in this area? I had the impression it was possible, but haven't seen it on any of a few lists I checked. Too far south? (I assume you have them Tom?)
 
Never seen Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker in the Dalian area. I assume I will one day because of the suitable habitat. They are abundant around Dandong on the Korean border and I have seen many there, especially around the section of the Great Wall there.

Tom
 
Heading to Malaysia and Thailand for 3 weeks on Saturday! Will actually get out a do some birding there. I have not been out for at least a month here due to work, early darkness, deep snow, and cold cold cold. Hope to get out a lot more in the spring here in Dalian.

Tom
 
Yeah, lots of challenges here too! The days are really short (especially since temps are pretty low when the sun is), and I've discovered that my best walking shoes are not really very good for real cold. Supposed to warm up a bit in a few days, and I'll hopefully get to venture out a bit more. And yes, here's to hoping for more opportunities in the spring!
 
Warning! This thread is more than 5 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top