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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MKinHK" data-source="post: 2177103" data-attributes="member: 21760">Mid June is normally a desperate time to be birding in southeast China. Any bird with any sense has fled north to cooler, less mosquito-infested climes, while typhoons lurk and the humidity loiters around the 90% region.However, temptation, in the form of a newly discovered breeding area for Swinhoe's Plover (a hot candidate for a split from the Kentish Plover group) and a nearby site for Purple Swamphen (a mega-rare breeder in China) a couple of hundred clicks to the east of Hong Kong reared its alluring head and  . . . Friday evening I crossed the border to Shenzhen, jumped in a van and headed for Haifeng with top photographer Martin, South China expert Richard, and Brian, whose hundreds of hours of exploring the area had created the platform for the trip.Three hours and a filet-o-fish from the 24hr MacDonald's at the truckstop later we arrived, and checked into the hotel with the hardest beds and the finest array of in-room intimacy enhancements known to man.  Anyone for a "Convulsionary condom" that would "let heartthrob" and "make woman feel joyous immediately". The 5:30 start the next morning suddenly didn’t seem like such a bad idea after all!The early start got us to the first stop - a beach with a pair of shagged out Swinhoe's Plover holding territory every 150 metres or so.  For birds in the height of the breeding season they were in a terrible state - deeply stressed, faded plumage, heavily bleached and worn coverts. According to Brian, who had been coming since March, the birds were just bringing off their second broods and were completely worn out. And watching the way they went about life it was hardly surprising.  They were anxiously shepherding chicks, fiercely chasing off interlopers and constantly bobbing their heads up and down. Great to watch, but a terrible advertisement for parenthood.Despite this, the distinctive features that separate Swinhoe's from Kentish Plovers were evident - longer pale pink legs, a longer and deeper-based bill, white lores, a longer, paler wingbar and pale upperparts were common to all the adults. The breeding habitat was a beach with a rather shallow slope, backed by creeper-covered sand humps (dunes would be far too grand a word).  The sand was greyish and appeared to contain a good quantity of organic matter, while the tideline was littered with some sort of freshwater plant. As it decomposed this provided feeding for large numbers of flies that in turn provided food for the plovers.By 0930 the best light for photography was gone and we headed over to the mouth of a river at the northern end of the beach.  This was interesting for the presence of a sandbar that held some 150 Greater Crested, Little, Common (including a longipennis – with red legs and bill and a darker tibetana), Gull-billed and Whiskered Terns, as well as 20 Common Greenshank, a Grey-tailed Tattler, two Grey Plovers and three Curlew Sandpipers. However with Chinese Crested Terns breeding just 500km up the coast our big hope was of course to find one of these amongst the Greater Crested Terns. Despite the poor light and optimism (always a good combination for a bit of stringing) we were unable to identify any candidates, and agreed to try again later.In keeping with the time of year there were not many other birds around. The dominant species appeared to be Long-tailed Shrikes, at least 30% of which were dark morph “fuscatus” birds, and large numbers of egrets, especially Chinese Pond Herons, Little and Cattle Egrets, while Chinese Francolins called from the hills above the beach.CheersMike</blockquote>

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