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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MKinHK" data-source="post: 2179082" data-attributes="member: 21760">Next morning we returned to the sandbar where we’d seen the terns but again had no viable candidates for Chinese Crested Tern.  We decided to try the spit just south of the sandbar, which had held a couple of Grey Plovers and a Greater Sandplover the day before. Once again we found numerous Swinhoe’s Plovers, giving us a total of about 120 birds over the two days.  While there were still several pairs holding territory we also found a loose group of about 15 post-breeding or non-breeding birds. Amongst them was a single male Kentish Plover, which allowing a direct comparison. Apart from the obvious differences in plumage it was interesting that the Kentish looked to be in pretty good nick, without the wear and bleaching of the Swinhoe's, suggesting either a different moult strategy or that the rigours of breeding are just as bad as the Swinhoe's made them look!The big surprise here was coming across two Little Tern nests. It is astonishing to me that any ground-nesting seabird can survive on mainland China, so it was with real delight that I looked down to find two brown-blotched eggs in a shallow hollow in the sand.  We immediately backed off and two pairs swiftly returned, allowing Martin to nail the shot of the trip of one of the adults on the point of landing, wings aloft, with the upper edge of the eggs clearly visible above the rim of the nest.  This is a somewhat precarious place to be nesting. The beach is used daily by fishermen who drive motorbikes to their beached boats, and tideline scavengers for recyclable plastic.  We were therefore delighted to find a couple of fully-fledged juveniles which had clearly prevailed over the human disturbance, potential predation (we saw adult terns chasing off both Chinese Pond Heron and Little Egret),and, being less than 20 cm above the high tide mark, the slightest storm surge on what is a  typhoon-scourged coastline.The other significant discovery here was the tideline corpse of a Streaked Shearwater, which, although somewhat macabre, is the first record from mainland Guangdong. Coming hard on the heels of yesterday’s Short-tailed Shearwater it suggests that mid-June may reveal other pelagic surprises. By 10am we were completely baked, but after stopping to rehydrate we made another visit to the swamphen site.  Once again an adult Purple Swamphen showed right away, but while there were no juveniles on view we quickly realized the adult was nest-building!  A highly dodgy digiscoped video clip can be seen <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMoHPuErgSc" target="_blank">here</a>.  As we parked we found a sign that showed that both the beach and the egretry were part of WWF’s Haifeng reserve.The final stop of our trip was a large area of paddy fields close to the swamphen site, where we’d driven past numerous egrets and several Whiskered Terns the morning before. Despite the rising midday heat this turned out to be surprisingly good as we found 16 Red Turtle Doves, 9 Chinese Spotbills, breeding Black-winged Stilt with two rather wobble-legged chicks, 30-odd Oriental Pratincoles (including 8 juveniles) and an unseasonal Wood Sandpiper, although whether it was late, early or over-summering we couldn’t tell.  And that was it. We jumped in the minibus, stopped briefly for a rather dubious lunch and were back in Hong Kong by 4:30 Sunday afternoon. In all we managed 67 species at a normally very dull time of year with some terrific highlights amongst them. We did have a few other interesting birds – a coupe of flyover Cinnamon Bitterns, three or four Yellow Bitterns, Chinese and Silky Starlings and several Hoopoes, while a Black-shouldered Kite was our only raptor. The area clearly holds huge promise for the cooler, birdier seasons, and we will definitely be back.CheersMike</blockquote>

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