Last day in Wuhu (for this trip).
I decided to see if I could find some decent habitat on the river side on the south side of town. I started at the Zhongjiang Tower and headed south on the walkway on top of the levee. I discovered that while the city side of the levee is pretty and landscaped, the river side is industrial and gritty, with parked ships as far as the eye could see. And given the pollution, that wasn't too far. The only birds were light-vented bulbuls, tree sparrows, a great tit, and a long-tailed shrike (and feral pigeon).
Eventually, the walkway ended and I started walking along the top of the levee. The flood plain got wider and there were a few small farm plots. I added a flock of spotted doves and a few more shrikes, one of whom was imitating a greenshank.
Finally after a long hot slog, I came to a place where the levee was further away from the river and the flood plain opened up into a mixture of treelines between farm fields, crisscrossed by small canals. One swampy area had an adult night-heron. A concrete canal had a little egret in it, and when I went to get closer, surprised a white wagtail and a marsh sandpiper. There was also a fly-by flock of light-vented bulbuls - at least 100 of them.
I headed into the fields on one of the dirt paths, and spooked another night-heron in a canal, this one a juvenile. The fields were quiet, save for a lone olive-backed pipit. So I made my way back to the tree-line along the levee. On the way, I spooked a small "Swintail"-like snipe, and found a moorhen with a couple large gray juveniles in a small pond. At the treeline I found a "flock" consisting of a couple olive-backed pipits and a few yellow-billed grosbeaks.
It was now past noon, so I climbed back over the levee to the main road and caught a bus back into town. So ends the saga of Wuhu, Fall 2011, with a grand total of 46 species. Not bad for a business trip to an industrial zone in a city of over a million people!
Until next time.
