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A balmy high of
0 degrees today. But the force 3 to 4 easterly wind made it feel even colder than the previous two days.
At least
the wind, which had sprung up during the night, had cleared the lingering mist. It had also moved the sea around to the extent
that most of the ice in the Beidaihe bay (west of Lighthouse Point) had melted.
I left home at 7am, and headed
to Lotus Hills, where three hours of effort yielded a few things of interest: a flock of c20 Long-tailed Tits, c40 Eastern
Great Tits, a hungry-looking Rufous Turtle Dove, a Coal Tit, and two Grey-capped Pygmies (woodpeckers that is).
Then on to the Stone Garden to look for the pair of Brown-eared Bulbuls, which I had found on the 7th. No sign of them when
I arrived, but I did find 3 Chinese Grosbeaks (1 male). As I was photographing one, I was distracted by the sound of
a feeding flock of Yellow-bellied tits that had flown in to the conifer tree I was standing under. I counted about 20 of these
wonderful birds and watched them for 30 minutes or so as they moved from tree to tree, at about 5 minute intervals.
Then I heard a shriek, followed by various raucous sounds from a bird with an attitude problem. I quickly found the bird
responsible - a Brown-eared Bulbul. I followed it around the small park for the next 20 minutes as it flew from tree to tree,
scaring off anything in its path. It was particularly rough with the Chinese Bulbuls, non of which stopped to argue with their
giant cousin from the "east side".
My next stop was Lighthouse Point, where I managed to get photos of
all 3 of Beidaihe's woodpecker species, including a memorable shot of 2 pygmies hammering at opposite sides of the same tree
trunk (the first time I have seen two of them so close together). Remarkably, a pair of Great-spotted Woodpeckers were feeding
very close together on the next tree.
The ice in the bay had melted, much to the relief no doubt of the 200 or
so Goldeneyes that were bobbing about. A sign of spring was to be seen in the form of a pair displaying to each other.
A further sign of spring was the first migrant wader of the year (at least it was the first I had seen in three days
there) - a Eurasian Curlew.
I'm looking forward to seeing the other 50 or so species of wader that will follow
on behind when the weather warms up a bit. Let's pray that Spoon-billed Sandpiper is one of the returnees - photograph or
no photograph.
12 photos of 12 species
6 species "new" for 2010
Red-billed Blue
Magpie, 6
*Rufous Turtle Dove, 3
*Chinese Grosbeak, 3
Yellow-bellied Tit, c20
Brown-eared Bulbul, 1
*Chinese Bulbul, 19
Oriental Greenfinch, 2
Great-spotted Woodpecker, 3
Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker, 4
*Grey-headed Woodpecker, 1
*Eurasian Curlew, 1
*Common Goldeneye, c200
Other birds seen:
Collared
Dove, 1
Coal Tit, 1
Marsh Tit, 1
Eurasian Sparrowhawk, 1 male
Long-tailed Tit, c20
Eastern Great
Tit, c50
Red-breasted Merganser, 2 females
Magpie, c30
Vega Gull, 3
Black-headed Gull, c40
Kamchatka
Gull, sev
2010 = 82 species photographed
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