The Dog's Dinner
Or to put it another way, Mark's leftovers :eat:
My favourite spot, the Secret Oasis was relatively quiet for the first time ever (the only bird of note being a
G.S Woodpecker) ! Though the scrub in the surrounding area yielded plenty of thrushes, robins and buntings.
Eye Browed Thrush (M&F)
Siberian Thrush (F) ? Take a look at the pic (Pic #5) and confirm or deny !
Siberian Rubythroat (M&F) (pic#8)
And the bunting below (Pic #4) that needs an ID.
Rustic or Elegant perhaps ?
Moving onto the Magic Woods a group of 4 friendly Chinese togs meant I was only going for a cursory look see before I scurried over the hill to follow the path all the way along the ridge to the ruins.
Varied Tits (now it seems only 3-4 remain),
Chinese Bul Buls, Tree Sparrows, White Wagtails, a Grey Wagtail, Bluetails, a huge White's Thrush sitting in a bush that dropped onto the ground and vanished as soon as I appeared,
Daurian Redstarts (I saw them in every location, both Yang Shan and Nan Hui, today),
a pair of Kestrels up high, a lovely
L.T. Shrike ( I keep hoping that one of these days it will be a Rufous Backed),
Yellow Browed Warbler (please confirm from pic here :
http://frogfish.smugmug.com/Categor...ow Browed Warbler - XYS - November 2012-M.jpg),
Japanese Thrush, what I thought was a
Sib. Chiffchaff but now I'm not so sure because of the bright rufous underside of the tail (see poor pic #6!), 4
Yellow Browed Buntings (pic #1), a pair of Elegant Buntings, Tristram's Bunting (F) and a Sib. Stonechat (please confirm or deny via pic #7).
A quick 7kms dash to the outlaying islands provided those
Kestrel shots 5 posts above this, a
L.T. Shrike, some thrushes scurrying away into the undergrowth and this
Bunting (see pic #2) that I can't ID. Another
Kestrel (or the same one) and close by
13 Grey Herons.
The car park in Nan Hui contained a few thrushes that I didn't chase down as they played hide and seek on the other side of the low bushes staying only long enough to park my car. On the other side of the hedge was where the action was with a flock of
20+ Elegant Buntings and a bevy of Bluetails plus one lost AB Flycatcher. and what looks like another flycatcher but it's tough to pull and ID from the two shots I have and I'll try the ID section here for confirmation.
As I left the car park area I flushed a
Pheasant which quickly flew low out of sight. A side road detour picked up the lovely bird below that I'm seeking the ID for (pic #3).
The pool with the most activity contained
50+ Grey Herons
100+ Egrets
The
Greenshank flock that Maddy had the day before,
Eastern Spot-billed Ducks (20+ see pic, in a different pool) but sadly even the bins couldn't pick out the 2 Black-faced Spoonbills ... if they were still there.
Great-crested Grebes and Little Grebes a plenty plus
Moorhens brought the day to an end !