Bristol to Kagu ? (1 Viewer)

[Shi Jin]

BTW, if you are in Beijing this week, please do let me know, I'd like to buy you both a pint or three of Guinness (yes, indeed, all the way from Dublin's Liffey).

Another reason to celebrate is that this is your 1000th reply!!

Cheers!!

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Nice one you lot, and congrats to H for post #1000 and Shi Jin for reply #1000. Shi Jin, we are actually leaving for Beijing tomorow, so I'll PM you.

To expand on some of your posts:

Yes Chlid, we feel quite fortunate to have not been turned over before now. It could have been a lot worse, because a lot of more important stuff, eg passport, money, ATM card, memory stick, camera etc. were normally in that bag, but weren't at that moment. In hindsight it was a pretty clever set of moves that led to the theft, including shouting distractions, and we strongly suspect involvement of the staff of the internet cafe too. When we realised what had happened (merely seconds after I'd last seen the bag), there was nothing we could do about it because none of the many people around could speak one word of English. I'm normally super careful, even perhaps overparanoid about this sort of thing, even at home, so I'm kicking myself for not having slightly quicker reactions.

Unfortunately, being down to one slow-focus pair of bins is a bit of a blow, especially now that Nicky's got so into it! With Beidaihe being the last "heavy" birding site we intend to visit, it doesn't seem worth getting another pair till we get home, but it's bound to be a pain in the. Losing the notebook could well be disastrous in the future for armchair ticks. Especially for the Philippines, where I wrote down everything just in case. With my memory like it is these days, I can see problems in future thinking "did I see that?" With my memory like it is I can see problems in future thinking "did I see that?"

Thanks for looking things up for me too. It's amazing what you learn. I had no idea of Pallid Swift's range for example. I guess that makes Common Swift a trip tick. Guess the corvid must have been a Collared Crow. Nice photo of Rosy Pipit. Looks like I remember this sp, but our birds seemed to pretty much lack streaks altogether and were less pinkish and more peachy below. It was one of those situations where we simply didn't have time to stop and look at pipits properly, when we had ibises to look for. Very poor birding, but what can you do? Are Water Pipits supposed to be common in that area? And presumably Buff-bellied Pipit is always streaky below? (Hoping to add Water Pipit to trip list!!)

A book had crossed my mind Allen, especially now that panic's set in about what on earth to do when we get home. Trouble is though, this is sort of already a book, and one that's written by lots of people (as this is) is surely better than one written by one bod alone. Anyway, this is more like a raw live gig vs a sterile slick studio produced album. Keepin it reel roodboy. Did I really write that? Bet I'll regret it when I'm sober in the morning.

1766 Common Swift

 

[Jacana]

74 Water Pipit

Already on there!

 

[halftwo]

Hi Larry,

Water pipit is the only likely candidate for an unstreaked pinky pipit. Even a japonicus Buff-bellied has streaking on the breast at least.

Enjoy those Guinesses if you manage to meet up with Shi Jin - after all Beijing's just a little village!

H

Edit : Didn't realise I'd done the 1000th! Yay!

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Already on there!

Blimey Jacana, I'd totally forgotten that we squeezed in a day at Rainham Marsh near the start of the trip! Spotted.

Today we went for a pleasant stroll in round a section of the inner city wall, where a narrow strip of park between the wall and the moat held a few birds, as well as lots of excercising and music-making people.

There were plenty of Chinese Bulbuls, Tree Sparrows and a Collared Finchbill in the densely pink blossom covered trees. One such tree had a feeding party of c20 Chinese Grosbeaks in it. We watched a Hoopoe for a while, probing away on a tiny strip of grass. It would fly up into a low tree whenever anyone got too close. A fair few Daurian Redstarts about, a Coal Tit, and plenty of Swallows over the moat.

Off to Beijing in a few hours, another step nearer home. Home. Aaaaah. A land where, as I remember it, a cheeky Robin Redbreast tops every garden spade, peanuts in red string bags drip with plump happy dangling Blue Tits, and beer's 2 'n' 6 a pint.

 

[edenwatcher]

Home. Aaaaah. A land where, as I remember it, ... and beer's 2 'n' 6 a pint.

You have been away a long time Larry.

Rob

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Beijing

We were planning on being in Beidaihe this weekend, but trying to sort out visa for our train journey to Helsinki has been an experience akin to trying to eat thin custard with chopsticks. We've been having a very stressful time, but there has been a haven in the storm in the form of Shi Jin. He met up with us after our first day of running around getting nowhere, and treated us to a fabulous evening out. Shi Jin has also lent us his East Asia field guide, and treasured pair of vintage Leiz bins, a particularly brave move given our recent track record!

Being snookered till tomorrow when it comes to getting any further with a visa, we finally made it out to a couple of Beijing's birding spots and took the Leiz for a spin. It was a crisp cold day, and there were a couple of lifers to find that have been about. Getting to the New Summer Palace from central Beijing on public transport is now quick and easy with the newish metro line. Get off at Beigongmen, which is right outside the north exit. The Beijing metro system is fantastic, as you can go anywhere for 0.2Q! We walked up the hill from where you can scan the largest lake. There have been lots of wildfowl here recently, including Whooper, Bewick's and more importantly Mute Swans, as well as Taiga Bean Geese and lots of ducks. I was particularly keen to see the "real" Mute Swans, as I've been gradually coming to terms with the idea that this species shouldn't really be on the trip, and also my life, list. When I slung off all the intros, I overlooked this one, as I've only recently heard that the European birds are introduced. Can anyone confirm if this is true, and whether it's on cat A or cat C (or both) of the British list? As eg Canada Goose won't be on my list until I see a real one, I guess Mute Swan shouldn't be either. If I count Mute Swan on the trip (and life) list, I'll have to count Wild Turkey in NZ and Tanimbar Corella in Singapore too, to name but a couple.

Unfortunately however, our luck wasn't in. Virtually all the big waterfowl had moved off, leaving the big lake empty, and just a few duck on the smaller lakes. A single remaining Bewick's Swan was new for the trip though, as we'd narrowly missed some seen by Jos when we birded with him in Lithuania. We also saw a male Red-crested Pochard in with 20 or so Pochard, and 4 Falcated Duck. my best view of obviously wild Falcated Duck since the Northamptonshire bird. Goosander were in fairly good numbers, and there were a few Teal and Mallard.

After birding the New Summer Palace, we took bus 331 from outside the east gate, and got off at the Botanical Gardens. It was very busy and we probably should have birded here first. My main target here was Chinese Nuthatch, the one new species I'd banked on for Beijing. Nicky's main target was eggs in tea. After 3 hours of searching, we'd both dipped catastrophically. I concentrated on birding the conifers along and near the main track from the south gate to the Wofu Temple. There were lots of Brambling, a couple of Marsh Tits, Japanese Tits, a Naumann's Thrush, and big numbers of Azure-winged and Common Magpies.

We bumped into a local who was photographing birds, and I showed him the picture of the nuthatch in the book and started making "where?" gestures. He showed me some pics of Grey-capped Greenfinch that he'd just taken, and pointed to the nuthatch picture in the book and made some sounds. We couldn't tell whether he was trying to demonstrate what Chinese Nuthatch sounded like, or telling us what it's name was in Chinese.

Our current plan is to head off to Beidaihe on Monday, but this could have to change due to unforeseen visa problems. Everything is very confusing.

so with Mute Swan struck off -

1766 Bewick's Swan
1767 Red-crested Pochard

 

[Jacana]

mute swan's on A and C Larry

 

[Larry Sweetland]

mute swan's on A and C Larry

That's interesting. Does anyone know why it's on A? Is it because of recovered ringed or known vagrants (like Canada Goose), or because the UK population is thought to have come from wild birds too?

 

[davercox]

Certainly there are Mute Swan remains in England from the Neolithic and Bronze Age.
Where did you hear they were introduced ? (cos I've heard that too but can't remember where).

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Cheers Dave. Heard it a few times word of mouth.

1768 again then for the trip!

Don't suppose there are any Neolithic Lady Amherst's Pheasant remains near Little Brickhill are there?

 

[birdboybowley]

I always thought Muties were brought over by the Romans...so there shouldn't really be any probs in ticking them Larry. Personally if a bird has a self-sustaining population then it goes on mine...Little Owl on your UK list?? It's a weird way of doing things as most birds have been 'helped' by us...Barn Owls here have had their numbers boosted by reintros, same with Red Kites, WT Eagles, Capers....pretty sure your Crested Ibis have had a hand along the way too....still, not a weird as the guy I birded Gambia wth who didn't tick flying birds....!! Really - Bateleur never made it on his list as we only saw about 5 in flight (but he makes allowances for swifts and tubenoses!)....told ya, we're all a bit odd when it comes down to it....

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Yeah I know it's all silly Ads, and there's no such thing as "natural" any more, if you mean no human intervention. That's why I thought I'd just set my own limits on "if it's in it's original range I'll have it", though that itself obviously changes without us humans anyway. This means I'm counting reintroductions, but established intros to other parts of the world is a massively grey area as to when it's established enough. It's not that I don't like the birds if they're intros though. I always enjoy seeing Little Owls and Ring-necked Parakeets in the UK. I fear too that the way things are going, we'll all be happy before too long to enjoy seeing any bird that can still survive anywhere, however it got there. But for now I'll stick to my silly rules

Beijing Botanical Gardens again

Had another go at the gardens today, and this time arrived at the south gate by about 9am. More luck today. Crowds of people, but it wasn't long before we were enjoying the antics of a dinky Chinese Nuthatch in the conifers by the toilet block immediately south of the conservatory. We continued along the main track to where there is a small pool on the right, and found that the ditch running away to the right of this was rather productive. We bumped into a young local birding couple here who spoke some english, and together we enjoyed a couple more Chinese Nuthatches, 3 Yellow-throated Buntings, 2 Chinese Hill Warblers, a Sparrowhawk, a Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker, Daurian Redstarts etc. We also saw Grey-headed and Great Spotted Woodpeckers.

Thanks to Shi Jin for telling us which area of these large botanical gardens to look for the nuthatch in.

1769 CHINESE NUTHATCH

 

[Lappkrabben]

Great to see you're alive and kicking ;-)

It's interesting with these species living far apart but seems, from the look, almost as twin species. In China for ex the Azure-winged Magpie.

In 1995 when i saw my first Chinese Nuthatch i thought it looked much like it's Corsican cousin. And i still get that feeling from your photo.

Happy Easter were ever in China you two are!

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Beidaihe

Funny you should say that about the Corsican Nuthatch Mattias. I very nearly posted words to that effect myself.

It was a great relief to get our Russia transit visas on Monday morning (it is no longer possible for non-Chinese residents to obtain tourist visas for Russia from their embassy in Beijing), and to head off on the train to Beidaihe. The wonderful Jean Wang, who had helped us in Dec 2007, met us at the station and drove us to the Jinlong Hotel which she had booked for our stay. We then had a lovely meal with Jean and Shi Jin, where we discussed tactics, and were told about the worrying digging work that is going on at the reservoir at the moment. A brief walk before dinner down to Lighthouse point had produced 4 Red-flanked Bluetail, a particularly gorgeous male Common Pheasant. lots of Goldeneye, and a couple of adult Black-tailed Gulls among the few gulls present.

Collision Tuesday
There is some argument amongst post taxonomists as to the treatment of the Collision Tuesday subpost taxon. We feel it is best retained within post 1015 of the Bristol to Kagu thread, though there are clearly close affinities with post 101 of the China 2010 thread. Perhaps issues such as this are best left unresolved until more knowledge emerges within this new branch of taxonomic study. Further reading for anyone concerned with this issue can be found here : http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=161061&page=5

On Tuesday we met up with Shi Jin and Gretchen for a morning of birding, which was great fun. Shi Jin organised a car, and we set off from Beidaihe shortly after 6am for the c40 minute drive to Qilihai Lake, a tidal lagoon down the coast beyond Nandaihe. Shi Jin had checked the place out the day before, hoping for cranes, and although there were none that day, a Great Bustard had been a zonking highlight. We were all feeling the cold but were in high spirits when we stopped for our first scan of the lake. The morning was mostly spent walking alongside the lake, on the narrow banks between the lake and adjacent pools, and in the lumpy nearby scrub.

For me, the main highlights were 2 Meadow Buntings (at last), some Japanese Quail, and some dashing Peregrine action already described in Shi Jin's thread. Interestingly Shi Jin reported 3 Japanese Quail, but I thought the last bird flushed wasn't one of the two birds that we'd flushed shortly before, so my notebook says 4! I may well have strung one! The quail were all in the grassy vegetation on the narrow banks, which appears to be top habitat to search for them in, as this is where people seem to find them at other sites eg Yangcheng and Poyang Lake.

Other birds seen around here included Naumann's Thrush, Swallow, Yellow-throated and Pallas's Reed Buntings, Skylark, 150+ Avocet, Kentish and Grey Plovers, Redshank, Far Eastern and Eurasian Curlew, Black-tailed Godwit, Oystercatcher, Pintail, Goldeneye, Chinese Spotbill Duck, Teal, Shelduck and Hen Harrier. We didn't have any luck with the hoped for cranes, but a couple of moments of excitement were provided by distant approaching flocks of Cormorants. Until they got too close.

Sadly, Gretchen and Shi Jin could only bird the morning, but on the way back to Beidaihe we fitted in a stop at one of the river crossings before Nandaihe. Here we relocated Shi Jin's wooly hat, which he'd lost there the day before! Some Red-breasted Mergansers close in on the sea on the approach to Beidaihe, including a very smart male, were new for the trip. Again, Shi Jin has reported 3, but my notebook says 4! I think I could be losing my mind.

A thoroughly enjoyable morning thanks to the company of 2 great people we wouldn't have met if not for Birdforum.

From then on we were on our own, but Jean had organised bikes for us to use for the rest of our stay in Beidaihe. Gretchen and Shi Jin had described an area of reed bed at the edge of the Sand Flats opposite the reservoir. Shi Jin reckoned this was our best bet for Eastern Water Rail and Japanese Reed Bunting, both of which he'd seen there. This swampy area is on the right as you head out of Beidaihe, just before the reservoir, around where a small stream runs into the flats. We spent the afternoon here, mostly chasing around scores of Pallas's Reed Buntings, which would disappear into the reeds immediately after flushing, allowing a brief look at one or two of them each time. We also flushed a couple of Common Snipe.

Next day Beidaihe was effectively fog bound. I got up early and headed for the reed bed again. I skirted it to the right, and I'd only been there about 10 minutes when I noticed the reed stubble ahead of me was moving in a way it would move if something like a rat, or maybe a rail, was running on ahead of me. I quickened my pace, and it took to the air, greatly reducing the likelihood of it being one of those options. The next thing I knew I had an Eastern Water Rail in Shi Jin's bins. Fantastic! I spent the next couple of hours pestering Pallas's Reed Buntings. Nicky and I then spent much of the day cycling to a patch of woodland just beyond Nandaihe, recommended as a migrant hotspot by Shi Jin. We are of course too early for the height of the famous passerine migration here, but you never know your luck. Not today though. All we had was a handful of Yellow-throated Bunting, Naumann's Thrush and Oriental Turtle Dove.

Still not convinced I'd looked at every bunting in the small reed bed, I went back for another go. After about an hour and a half I had an inconclusive view of what I reckon was a female (or first year male?) Japanese Reed Bunting. This was enough to keep me at it for another half hour, until I was following a bouncing rather warm-looking rump until it briefly turned before disappearing and, Whoa! didn't that have an all black head? I had to get pretty wet in the smelly mud to flush the same bird again, but this time it perched high on an exposed reed for me, revealing itself to indeed be a cracking male Japanese Reed Bunting! After about a total of 6 hours of bunting bothering. I bet they were glad to see the back of me.

Next morning was crisp and clear, so we went to a watchpoint on a hill top at Lotus Hills to not see any cranes. It was mis vig (to use a term bandied on BF) and no vis mig, except 1 Swallow and 2 White Wagtails going the wrong way.

So Japanese Reed Bunting could well be the last non-armchair lifer of the trip, unless I can string something from the train, or something weird is twitchable between Russia and Bristol. We're getting on the Trans-Siberian tomorrow. It could however still be possible to hit the 1800 mark for the trip before Brizzle . Especially as the trip still needs eg Willow Warbler and House Martin!

1770 MEADOW BUNTING
1771 JAPANESE QUAIL
1772 Red-breasted Merganser
1773 EASTERN WATER RAIL
1774 JAPANESE REED BUNTING

 

[davercox]

Don't come back yet, the weather's terrible.

 

[Shi Jin]

Wonderful!

Great to meet you both and looking forward to welcoming you back to China one day (or maybe there's a chance of a pint or two at Cley before then ;-)

 

[JWN Andrewes]

my best view of obviously wild Falcated Duck since the Northamptonshire bird.

Hear hear!!!

James

 

[Gretchen]

Collision Tuesday
... Interestingly Shi Jin reported 3 Japanese Quail, but I thought the last bird flushed wasn't one of the two birds that we'd flushed shortly before, so my notebook says 4! I may well have strung one! The quail were all in the grassy vegetation on the narrow banks, which appears to be top habitat to search for them in, as this is where people seem to find them at other sites eg Yangcheng and Poyang Lake.

... Some Red-breasted Mergansers close in on the sea on the approach to Beidaihe, including a very smart male, were new for the trip. Again, Shi Jin has reported 3, but my notebook says 4! I think I could be losing my mind.

Not losing your mind in the second (merganser) count I would say, but not exactly sure about your quail count. Of course the counting of quail is quite tricky I would say from that experience! I would guess more than two, but definitely lost track after that. Thought it was 4 mergansers - though they were diving, they were easier to count

A thoroughly enjoyable morning thanks to the company of 2 great people we wouldn't have met if not for Birdforum.

Indeed! o A very nice time.

 

[Shi Jin]

Looking forward to reading about your trans-Siberian journey ;-)