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Message: <blockquote data-quote="martintbird" data-source="post: 1644126" data-attributes="member: 18959">Great that Tian Ma Hu proved a good spot, tho surprised no cranes there at the time (or even those Great Bustards - should be good for these too, I think). During visit in May this year, held a few hundred Wood Sands, plus assortment of other birds - even Chough right by the dirt track, around sea level; and we indeed only covered a part of the area.Somewhere to try quite a few times in future, I believe."discovery" somewhat makes up for trashing of coastal habitats to the south - south of Luanhe, where I tried looking in spring, believing that some of areas I'd seen in late 80s must be still around, yet saw roads being built, new factories belching smoke. (Luanhe mouth still looked reasonable, though - not devastated as I'd thought maybe the case. I later had a quick look on Google Earth; should be some more spots on coast, tho the fact cranes roost on mudflats maybe shows the kind of pressure they are under).Hope you've had a look at the crane migration paper, Mark. Inc mention of cranes passing after dark, sometimes well into evening - on days we've heard these, was optimum weather for migration, and I reckoned these were birds from stopovers well north, taking the chance to really move a distance.As I recall, I've only seen small crane parties in morning; guessed they'd put down in so-so places, and maybe moving as looking for someplace better, maybe disturbed by people. Still think there's "bottleneck" for cranes etc along coast here, making them very choosy re weather for passing.Wonder re cranes changing routes past Beidaihe: in spring 85, many were over or inland of Lotus Hills; but in autumns mainly to east of the hills, and tendency for big flocks to cut over the sea - maybe experienced birds leading them on short cuts towards N China Plain.Here in Hong Kong, now cool, but it's been a warm autumn till recently. Wonder if temps in ne China have been warm till lately; if so, cranes may have lingered further north than they might normally have done - so even with strong cold surge, will take time for them to pass Beidaihe.Now, seeing reports of snowfalls in Hebei, lingering birds must move.Maybe useful to note: I've put report for autumns 86-90 at Beidaihe on my website; starts at:<a href="http://www.drmartinwilliams.com/beidaihe-birding/beidaihe-autumn-report.html" target="_blank">http://www.drmartinwilliams.com/beidaihe-birding/beidaihe-autumn-report.html</a>[also see links on left, to full species list, and conclusions]</blockquote>

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