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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Larry Sweetland" data-source="post: 1082498" data-attributes="member: 27337">Yangcheng and a surprise biggie !BF's mcaribou, also known as Lin, met us at Shanghai train station, and took us back to stay in his flat, very kindly offering us his bed. He didn't catch us at our best as we had terrible colds, and got terribly lost in the station and went through a barrier we couldn't get back through, and got stuck in linguistic-confusion central. We eventually got led to where we'd arranged to meet Lin, all hot and sweaty, by a security lady with a walkie-talkie.Up at 4.30 am for the bus trip to Yangcheng then a taxi to the town next to the reserve, only to scrape in the last hour's birdable light around town. Next day we hired bone-shaker bikes and set off in the fog for what was to turn out to be a hard slog, but with a blockbuster ending. The fog didn't clear until about 11, but we had some fun before then mostly going through flocks of Buntings in the reedy ditches and cotton fields. Rustic Bunting was well into 3 figures, with Little being common too, and there were lesser numbers of Black-faced, Yellow-throated, Pallas' Reed and Chestnut-eared. I didn't get onto a Tristram's found by Lin very well unfortunately and need to check some lit on that one.After the fog lifted we cycled for miles on the bumpy tracks criss-crossing the huge area to the north of the core reserve looking for suitable habitat (we couldn't enter the reserve as we hadn't arranged it before our arrival). There were scores of large fish farming lagoons at different levels of fullness, mostly birdless, and 100s of reed (mostly cut) and cotton fields. By the time we decided to turn back we'd seen some great birds, the stars of the day being the charismatic Reed Parrotbills, about 100 Red-crowned Cranes, and a flock of gulls containing about 150 Saunders' Gulls. Other highlights had been 3 Chinese Grey Shrikes, a party of Chinese Penduline Tits, Falcated Ducks and Bean Geesethat were seen in flight only and quite distantly but thought to look like Tundra. We also saw plenty of Buff-bellied Pipits, Smew, a Marsh Sandpiper, a couple of Hen Harriers, 100 + Common Cranes and Dusky Warbler etc.On the way back from the Saunders' Gull flock, Lin spotted an interesting looking mergus on a lagoon on the other side of a river, in a small gathering of  Pochard and Smew. The more we looked at this bird the more excited we got as it appeared obviously merganser-like, with it's exaggeratedly shaggy rusty crest (though the crest looked longer and more swept back than Red-breasted Merganser) and the bird was large compared to the Pochard and built to recall Goosander. We had to really strain to check the flanks but Lin was convinced he briefly could make out a scaly pattern ! We were in a crazy situation. We didn't have much decent light left but we were'nt going to get conclusive views from this side of the river. We then had to cycle like crazy away from the bird for about 3km of bumpiness, growling and barking dogs at our heels for 1km of it, before we got to a bridge. We then had 2km of crazy pedalling back along the other bank of the river until, we reached the turn off we could see we had to be on to view the bird. On reaching this turnoff we discovered it was a scrubby uncyclable bank, so we did the last 500m on foot panting as we aproached the lagoon. I panicked as the Smew took flight, but they alighted again after circling, but there was at first no sign of the merg in the Pochard flock. It had swum too close to the near bank. Lin spotted it first and we scoped it and......SCALY-SIDED MERGANSER !!!!!!!!B <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />:clap:<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /> . Wow. A bird a never thought I'd ever see and a lifer for Lin too, but I guess if you're going to jam into one then here was as good a place as any. We had a weary cycle back in the dark before we could get any beers.Next morning was too foggy for much but we did see a (presumed) Northern Red-flanked Bluetail before the buses back to Shanghai and saying goodbye to Lin. Without him we'd have found getting to and around Yangcheng very tough indeed and he's a great guy to bird with, thanks a lot bud:t:. Nicky and I Feel a bit like lost kids in a supermarket in China.We didn't connect with a few goodies also possible at Yangcheng. Other birders have see Black-faced Spoonbill, Ochre-rumped Bunting, Japanese Quail, Eastern Marsh Harrier.So from the train to Shanghai and Yangcheng : 151 Long-tailed Shrike152 HoopoeChinese Blackbird (tax)?153 CHINESE GREY SHRIKE154 COLLARED CROW155 RED-BILLED STARLING156 Night Heron157 Great Egret158 Merlin159 PALLAS' REED BUNTING160 REED PARROTBILL161 Rustic Bunting162 BLACK-FACED BUNTING163 Dusky Warbler164 Chestnut-eared Bunting165 Buff-bellied Pipit166 RED-CROWNED CRANE167 Hen Harrier168 Chinese Penduline Tit169 Common Crane170 (Tundra ?) Bean Goose171 Falcated Duck172 Common Sandpiper173 Smew174 Spotted Redshank175 Grey Plover176 SAUNDERS' GULL177 Marsh Sandpiper178 Greenshank179 SCALY-SIDED MERGANSER<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />180 Northern Red-flanked Bluetail181 Woodcockedit: oops, forgot to mention that Lin and Nicky saw Chinese Pond Heron too (would have been a lifer for me !). Apparently they're rare in winter that far north.</blockquote>

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