Yesterday Dev & I motored on down to Little Yangshan Island (XYS), checked out the Turf Fields (dead) and the Magic Car Park and Reed Beds of Nan Hui. This is our usual full birding day and about a 350 klms round trip from home for me. A lovely day photographically (bright with a few clouds) and temperature-wise in Nan Hui, 27-31C (after lunch) but just a little too warm, 31-35C, on Yangshan in the morning.
XYS turned out to be a major disappointment, after the excitement of last week, with the Rubbish Dump area producing very very little, as an indication on a walk up the path to the tunnel, & back, I saw only 2 Bulbuls ! Eventually we found one tree with half a dozen warblers and there were some Meadow Buntings down below …. but that was pretty much it.
Over to the Magic Valley and there were more birds here, no doubt because it was more sheltered. Mostly flycatchers but the highlights being 2 cuckoos, a Lesser Coucal, the Grey Nightjar still hanging out here (and still averse to having it’s photo taken !) and a Lifer for Dev and I in the form of a much smaller Lesser Cuckoo (pic attached), barely bigger than a large Dusky thrush !
After checking the weather reports again I’ve a feeling the very fresh (20kph+) Easterly blowing in from the sea may have had a lot to do with it as birds would have had to have fought the wind for 30+kms just to reach the islands.
Nan Hui Magic CP didn’t produce much but there were lots of flycatchers and both a female and a splendid juvenile male were resting up here. Lots of terns were on the move over the reed-beds, shrimp ponds and small lakes. The highlight of the Nan Hui visit though came close to dusk when we went to check out the Reed Parrotbill (heard not seen) haunts and ended up on the reed bed boardwalk (now without much in the way of reed-beds in this area but after rain it is a swampy, grassy, area with one or two largish wader-depth patches of water and some irrigation canals).
There we found at least hundreds, if not thousands, of small waders, egrets and a few ducks. Small waders, Snipe and Sandpipers, constantly being flushed 5-10m from us as we walked the boardwalk hoping to reach the viewing hut (but the ca. 1km long boardwalk has been destroyed just 50m short of the hut). We had been alerted by a Marsh Harrier (our first raptor of the Autumn in over 20 hours of raptor-less birding of XYS and Nan Hui) aggressively hunting the vicinity & flushing small clouds of waders & egrets. A fine end to what turned out to be a very decent day indeed after the shock of the very quiet XYS Rubbish Dump.
Note the file names of the attached pics may not correspond to the actual bird as I forgot to change a couple after exporting :eek!:
#2 shows the swampy ground at dusk.
#4 shows the tailless LT Shrike seen again this week in the same spot (or 'Pitta Shrike' for short)
The bird seems to be surviving well despite it's handicap and seems well fed and able to fly without difficulty.
#5
needs an ID please !
65 species (Dev knows the wader numbers since he ID’d them) !
Bittern, Yellow (1)
Bulbul, Chinese (numerous)
Bunting, Meadow (<10)
Bunting (sp.)
Coot (3)
Coucal, Lesser (2)
Cuckoo, (sp. Eurasian/Oriental - 2)
Cuckoo, Lesser (1)
Curlew, Eurasian
Dove, Spotted
Duck, Mallard (3)
Duck, Spot Billed (10)
Egret, Cattle (<10)
Egret, Little (numerous, in the hundreds)
Flycatcher, Asian Brown (<20)
Flycatcher, Blue & White (M&F)
Flycatcher, Dark Side (<10)
Flycatcher, Grey Streaked (<20)
Flycatcher, Japanese Paradise (one female and one juvenile male)
Flycatcher, Yellow Rumped (1 female)
Godwit, Black-tailed (>20)
Grebe, Great Crested (2)
Grebe, Little (3)
Greenshank, Common
Gull, Black-tailed
Heron, Black-crowned Night (300-500, at dusk it was a procession) !
Heron, Chinese Pond (<5)
Heron, Grey (>10)
Heron, Purple
Marsh Harrier, Eurasian (1)
Myna, Crested (3)
Nightjar, Grey (1 – assumed same one as last week, same location)
Parrotbill, Vinous Throated (small flock)
Plover, Kentish
Plover, Little Ringed
Prinia, Plain (3 plus others heard)
Robin, Siberian Blue (ca. 6-7 M, F and Juveniles)
Ruff
Sand Martin (over Reedbeds)
Sandpiper, Common
Sandpiper, Green
Sandpiper, Marsh
Sandpiper, Sharp-tailed
Sandpiper, Terek
Sandpiper, Wood (2-3)
Shrike, Brown (>50)
Shrike, Long Tailed (100+)
Snipe, Common (assumed)(numerous – see shot attached)
Stint, Long-toed (numerous)
Stint, Red-necked
Swallow, Barn (numerous)
Sparrow, Tree
Tern, Gull Billed (ca. 6)
Tern, Little (2)
Tern, Whiskered (ca. 10)
Tern, White-winged (ca. 6)
Tern, (sp.) (ca. 50-70 in several small flocks)
Thrush, Blue Rock (3)
Tit, (Eastern)(3-4)
Turnstone, Ruddy (1)
Warbler, Arctic (<5)
Warbler, Claudia's (1) (flicking wings)
Warbler, Eastern Crowned (<15)
Warbler, Pallas’ (2-3)
Wagtail, White (>10)
Wagtail, Yellow (thousands juveniles)
Whimbrel (2)
Also :
Reed Parrotbills (heard not seen)
Black Naped Oriole (reportedly in the Magic CP)
Asian Stubtail (seen by another birder)
Grey Nightjar (another birder saw 4 of them)
Black Capped Kingfisher (seen by another birder)
