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Beidaihe, Hebei

CHANGING CURRENTS
20 YEARS of REFLECTIONS
BIRDS IN CHINA - PHOTOS
CYCLING to XANADU
THE CHINESE DREAM
CHINESE NEW YEAR ADS
The MEDIUM, the MESSAGE and the SAUSAGE DOG
ANYONE FOR TENNIS?
VIEWS FROM ABOARD THE CHINA EXPRESS:
1 Zola and Retail Marketing
2 Playing the Waiting Game
3 Beware the Ides of March
4 The county not on a map
5 Chinese Chess in Beijing
6 Build it and They'll Come
7 Riding the Water Dragon
8 The Best of Both Worlds
9 Storming the Great Wall
10 Welcome to the Wangba
11 The Catcher in the Rice
12 The Marriage Business
13 The Crouching Dragon
14 Counting the Numbers
15 A Century of Migration
16 Shooting for the Stars
17 Rise of Yorkshire Puds
18 Harry Potter in Beijing
19 Standing Out in China
20 Self-pandactualisation
21 Strolling on the Moon
22 Tea with the Brothers
23 Animated Guangzhou
24 Trouble on the Farms
25 Christmas in Haerbin
26 Dave pops into Tesco
27 A Breath of Fresh Air
28 The Boys from Brazil
29 Rolls-Royce on a roll
30 The Great Exhibition
31 Spreading the Word
32 On Top of the World
33 Moonlight Madness
34 Beijing's Wild West
35 Avatar vs Confucius
36 Brand Ambassadors
37 Inspiring Adventure
38 China's Sweet Spot
39 Spinning the Wheel
40 Winter Wonderland
41 The End of the Sky
42 Ticket to Ride High
43 Turning the Corner
44 Trouble in Toytown
45 Watch with Mother
46 Red-crowned Alert
47 In a Barbie World
48 Domestic Arrivals
49 Tale of Two Taxis
50 Land of Extremes
51 Of 'Mice' and Men
52 Tour of the South
53 Brooding Clouds?
54 The Nabang Test
55 Guanxi Building
56 Apple Blossoms
57 New Romantics
58 The Rose Seller
59 Rural Shanghai
60 Forbidden Fruit
61 Exotic Flavours
62 Picking up Pace
63 New Year, 2008
64 Shedding Tiers
65 Olympic Prince
66 London Calling
67 A Soulful Song
68 Paradise Lost?
69 Brandopolises
70 Red, red wine
71 Finding Nemo
72 Rogue Dealer
73 Juicy Carrots
74 Bad Air Days
75 Golden Week
76 Master Class
77 Noodle Wars
78 Yes We Can!
79 Mr Blue Sky
80 Keep Riding
81 Wise Words
82 Hair Today
83 Easy Rider
84 Aftershock
85 Bread vans
86 Pick a card
87 The 60th
88 Ox Tales
CHARTS
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2010
2009
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2001 to 2007
BIRDING in CHINA
PORTS of CALL
FROM BEYOND THE WALL
ABOUT

Sunday, 7th February 2010, 11am to 3pm

I took the 7.50am train this morning from Beijing to Beidaihe.  It was cold (much colder than Beijing), snowing and quite foggy when I arrived (at 11am).

I resisted the temptation to go and sit in front of the fire and, instead, took a taxi from the station to the Yang He bridge. The river was frozen except for a small area of open water on the east side (c10 Little Grebe and 2 Goldeneye).

20 minutes drive to the west, I noticed a large raptor sitting at the top of a tree - an Upland Buzzard no less.

I went as far as the Da Pu bridge, but that river was also frozen. It's the first time I've been there and never seen a single bird (I've been there every winter for the past 12 years).

On the way back I stopped at the Dai He bridge and noticed that there was a stretch of open water with 4 ducks on it (1 pair large, one small). I picked up my bins and was surprised to see a male and female Smew (and a pair of spot-bills). Smew is quite an uncommon winter visitor here.  Also, an Eastern Great Tit was calling loudly near here.

The fog was closing in, it was snowing more heavily, and it was getting darker; but just past the south side of the smaller Dai River bridge I heard something that brightened up the day. I had no idea what was singing, but I did know that it was bound to be interesting.

I immediately located the bird and was delighted to discover that it was a Siberian Accentor (I guess if you are from Siberia, today must seem quite spring-like)!

I managed to get some reasonable photos of this stunning bird(there were actually two birds in the same area). And then, just as I the two accentors flew further away, a Great Spotted Woodpecker landed within 10 yards of me, followed closely by an eye-level Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker.

I was delighted, as well as surprised I'd actually found anything at all on such a seemingly miserable day, but things actually got better...

I stopped off at the stone park, which is always worth a look in winter, particularly the berry bushes that are on the side of the stream that runs down to the (completely frozen) sea.

No sooner had I got there, I saw something that stopped me in my tracks: A Brown-eared Bulbul no less (an at-best scarce and probably rare visitor to Beidaihe). So scarce, in fact, it's a "new" bird for my Beidaihe list - not that I take this seriously, but I did know it was my 280th!

The battery in my camera was on the way out, but held on for me to get some okay shots (there were actually a pair of them there). They were in the same berry bush as 4 Chinese Bulbuls (showing just how large Brown-eared really is). And, playing the part of the icing on the cake, a Naumann's Thrush popped into the same frame.

At 3pm I tried to get into the south side of the Lotus Hills, but they've locked the gate for the winter it seems, and I didn't fancy trekking down from the north gate; and so, with the weather worsening, I decided to quit while I was ahead.
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11 photos published today of 7 species
(5 species not photographed before in 2010)
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2010 = 72 species photographed

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