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Hebei, Beidaihe area

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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2001 to 2007
BIRDING in CHINA
PORTS of CALL
FROM BEYOND THE WALL
ABOUT

Saturday, 3rd April to Thursday, 8th April

Saturday, 3rd April, 1.30 to 6pm

The plan was straightforward: Go to the Sandflats while keeping an eye on the sky and fingers firmly crossed in the hope that a flock of cranes would make a grand entrance.

A walk around the sandflats for a couple of hours yielded a flock of c130 Kentish Plover, I Grey Plover, 1 Great Knot; several hundred black-headed, c20 Mongolian, several Vega, c100 Kamchatka, and 1 Black-tailed Gull (photo).

The ponds to the east of what used to be the reservoir held 6 Garganey, 3 Shoveler (photo), a couple of Teal; as well as a few Daurian Redstarts, c10 Vinous-throated Parrotbills, and a few Rustic Buntings.

The Sandflats' woods hosted c30 Red-flanked Bluetails, 1 Naumann's Thrush, 2 Elegant Buntings and my first phylloscs of the year in Beidaihe: 2 Pallas's (photo of 1) and 1 Yellow-browed. The reedbeds near here held 1 Kingfisher (photo) and several Pallas's Reed Buntings.

Just as I was about to leave I saw 9 cranes... Alas, they were of the all too familiar constructionemesisi variety ;-(

Will try Qilihai (again) tomorrow

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Sunday, 4th April, 9am to 4.15pm

Beidaihe, Nandaihe and Qilihai

No Vs, Ws, Ys, or whatever in the way of crane sky-writing. Which, given that the flying-conditions were more or less perfect, doesn't bode well (for would-be crane-watchers that is). In fact, there was nothing whatsoever in the sky (moving purposely in a northish direction) all day.

I started off at the Nandaihe ponds - several of which, very sadly, have already succombed to the march of "progress" (note to self: take a deep breath and try to avoid setting off on a thousand word rant). All I will say at this point is that the saddest sight I've seen for a while was a pair of kingfishers taking turns to drill out a nesting hole in a temporary sand bank made by the bulldozers. The futility of this was just too upsetting to photograph.

Not the best start to the day (for them or for me).

The Grey-headed Lapwing I saw here - my first of the spring - did nothing to lift my spirits.

On to Qilihai - which I'm liking more and more, because it's the one place in the region where you can't hear and see construction work.

It's interesting to see the turnover of birds in a short period of time (this was my 3rd visit there in 6 days). The new arrivals were a pair of Black-winged Stilts [I had seen a dozen earlier at the Yang river in Nandaihe, with 4 Garganey there also], a Common Sandpiper, 2 Siberian Stonechats, c50 Far Eastern Curlew (I didn't see a single Eurasian today), and far more Hoopes (c20 here).

Avocet numbers were down to c100 (from c400 on the 30th March); and Eastern Black-tailed Godwits to c60 (from c100).

Will try again for Eastern Water Rail and Japanese Reed Bunting tomorrow at Sandflat's reedbed, while keeping an eye out for approaching cranes (and bulldozers).

Photos of:

245 Grey-headed Lapwing (monotypic)
246 White Wagtail (sp leucopsis)
247 Black-winged Stilt (monotypic)
248 Common Sandpiper (monotypic)
249 Common Teal (nom ssp crecca)
250 Japanese Quail (monotypic)

and a flock of Shelduck and Black-tailed Godwit

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Monday, 5th April, 7.00 to 12pm

Beidaihe, Sandflats and "Reservoir"

A bitingly cold and penetrating easterly wind, gusting to gale force, made birding on the Sandflats challenging to say the least.

A Spotted Redshank (251) was new for the year as were chapped lips and chin.

The drained reservoir provided ideal conditions for pipits.  Thee birds fed in close proximity: a Water Pipit ("first" photo) and two Buff-bellied Pipits (252) - 2nd and 3rd photos of the two birds (The first bird appeared marginally leucistic).

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Tuesday, 6th April, 9.30 to 6pm

The Lotus Hills were quite lovely, as was the view from the top, from where you could see beyond the white igloo monstrosity just before Qilihai, about 20 bird-miles away. The thing that struck me as I stood on top of the highest peak there was the complete lack of visible migration. There wasn't a single bird in the azure sky - despite the seemingly ideal migration conditions. How odd.

But birds had arrived. I saw more Red-flanked Bluetails (photo) here in a few hours than I'd ever seen in a single day anywhere. About 50 birds.

An "Asian" Goldcrest (253), ssp/sp japonensis, which I rank as quite a scarce passage migrant in these parts, was new for the year; as was the Black-faced Bunting (254) . Also, several Brambling, 3 Elegant Buntings and a few Daurian Redstarts (photo) were also nice to watch.

The Friendship Hotel at Beidaihe is one of the migration hot-spots in May. Today, though, I didn't even see a single Bluetail here, which is surprising given that a plane load had touched down a mile or so to the west. Just outside the gardens, though, was a small group of Chinese Grosbeaks (photo), including an immaculate male that very kindly twisted its head in my direction as I was lining it up in the viewfinder.

No matter how old you are, there's always a few new things to see. During my 2 hour walk to Qinhuangdao, I saw three things I've never witnessed before.

The first was a marauding flock of bird photographers. I'd seen them in China before, but never in such numbers, and never so heavily tooled up. BTW I refer to them as "them" because, although I don't have anything against (most) bird photographers, I do have a policy of only taking photographs of birds I find myself , so it's not often I find myself in the their company.

Anyhow, this lot had surrounded a flock of gulls on the beach. They were doing what bird photographers tend to do... inching forwards to get a better shot than the last shot. I went back to watching my "own" flock of gulls, several hundred yards from them. While I was photographing an interesting medium-size gull that was showing characteristics of Common Gull, I heard a man screaming. I turned to witness a very odd sight indeed. One of the photogaphers had broken away from the group and was charging towards the line of gulls, with his camera held out in front of him like a gun. If gulls have ever rolled their eyes and shook their heads before flying off, then this was the time to see it. The bucket and spade brigade often disturb feeding and resting waders and gulls on the Sandflats, but there's now a new threat... the Banchee Photographer.

I re-focussed my attention on the bird that looked like a "Common Gull". I had been looking for one of these (on and mostly off of course) for years, and there it was... a bird that had both things, if my understanding is right, that constitute a heinei Common Gull (255) : pale [khaki?] legs, and a same-colour, ringed bill. It was standing near to a bright yellow-legged and bright-yellow (unringed) billed Kamchatka Gull which helped a lot of course. So, if I'm right (have a look at the photo and decide for yourself), it's a "new" bird not only for the year, but also for my China list. In case you are wondering, The BBBC recognise Kamchatca Gull (monotypic) and Common Gull (ssp henei) as distinct species. And The BBBC list is the list that counts of course. Please

I looked behind me and, seeing that the Banchees were approaching, I decided to get as far away from them as possible... and set-off to walk to Qinhuangdao.  Photos of a Black-tailed Gull (2 photos), a summer-plumage Kentish Plover, and a Mongolian Gull on the way.

After three or four miles, and having survived a raid from a scout, who began waving his camera-free arm at a flock of gulls I was watching (until I shouted at him), I saw something gold ginting on the sea, about a 7 iron (150 yards) out.

This was the third thing I'd never seen before: A Black-necked Grebe actually on the Bo sea (In China, up until then, I'd only seen them on ponds and lakes). I watched and photographed it for several minutes as it was diving and surfacing with glistening small fish, before I noticed another one close by. Getting the two together in the same frame (and both in focus) proved to be too difficult.

As luck would have it, about a mile further down, I found another pair of summer-plumage Black-necked Grebes (256) among a flock of Goldeneye, that were slightly closer-in. Not a great photo by any stretch of the imagination, but getting any photo of a pair of BNG's swimming together on the sea in China can't be that bad a shot.

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Wednesday, 7th April

Yan Mountains

There are some good mountain areas within 90 minutes drive of Beidaihe, and today I visited two locations: "Temple Mountain" and the "East Gate" of "Old Peak".

If you are a bird flying over the area, Temple Mountain must look like an oasis. This pines here are outstanding - not just because the are surrounded by denuded slopes - but also that there were more Chinese Nuthatches (photo) here than I have seen at any other location. I had so many sightings in the two hours there that I tend to think that there were three pairs, although it could have been that one of the pairs was ranging widely.

As well as the nuthatches, there were three or four Pallas's Warblers, at least one Yellow-bellied Tit, one Goldcrest, c40 Vinous-throated Parrotbills (photo), several Brambling and a pair of Songar Tits. I was particularly interested in the Songars because I hadn't photographed them so far this year - but try as I might, I could only manage photos of the branches they had just perched on. Also, the three Bluetails I saw here confirmed what I suspected - that this "oasis" would be a good migrant stop-over.

I also saw a Chinese Nuthacth about 1KM up from The East Gate of Old Peak (which remains a well-forested protected area I'm pleased to report). Also there, several Godlewski's Buntings (photo) and a Songar Tit (257) that did make it on to the memory card.

Near here, a party of 4 or 5 Common Swifts graced the hillside.

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Thursday, 8th April

Qilihai, 3.30 to 5.30pm

If you have a 6 year-old, then the beach at Qilihai is a great place to go.  Sahara-like sand dunes, and the best beachcombing on the coast.  But, as much as I enjoy hunting for beautifully-patterned shells, I just had to take my camera along... "just in case". 

Just as well, because I saw something that I suspect is quite an unusual sight - 3 "bean" geese flying over the sea.  "Bean" geese per se can be expected at this time of year, but I certainly didn't expect to see both types of them flying together.  Unless I've completely lost the plot (don't bet against it), then the photos show a serrirostris ("Tundra"), sandwiched between two middendorffii ("Taiga") 258.  Mark Brazil in his East Asia book sums it up very well indeed: "Taiga slightly larger, with longer, more slender bill and more Whooper Swan-like head and bill shape.  Tundra has shorter, thicker neck, rounder head and stubbier bill..."  

And, would you believe it, I found yet another pair of Black-necked Grebe on the sea (one of which was not quite in summer-plumage).    

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