The Deskbound Birder: Brown Crake

Showing posts with label Brown Crake. Show all posts

Tuesday, 1 May 2018

South-east China - 1st May (Day 11)

Before heading out into the field today we headed to a local eatery and enjoyed steamed dumplings and dumpling soup for breakfast. We then headed to an area of forest to the south of Wuyuan known as Kengkou which I had last visited on 11th November 2016. We birded the forest trail here until around 10:30. The highlight, and main target, was a flock of three Short-tailed Parrotfinch which I had failed to see last visit. These fantastic little birds eventually showed down to around five metres as they moved hyperactively through the understorey and fed upon bamboo stems. The forest was fairly dense scrub and bamboo and the birding was fairly tough going but in our time here we recorded Grey-cheeked (Fujian) Fulvetta, Dusky Fulvetta, Rufous-capped Babbler, Rufous-tailed Robin in song, Pale-legged Leaf-warbler and Chestnut Bulbul. Heading out of the forest towards the bridge over the Le'an River we spent some time scanning here but recorded little but for Plain Prinia and Brown Crake, the water levels were exceedingly high and hence there was no riverine gravel to check for Long-billed Plover and much of the riparian scrub was flooded.

Short-tailed Parrotbill - Kengkou, Wuyuan

Short-billed Parrotbill - Kengkou, Wuyuan

Short-billed Parrotfinch calls - Kengkou, Wuyuan

Searching for Short-billed Parrotbill in the bamboo

Chinese Pond Heron - Kengkou, Wuyuan

Red-rumped Swallow - Kengkou, Wuyuan

Dusky Fulvetta song - Kengkou, Wuyuan

Chinese Hwamei song - Kengkou, Wuyuan

Black-throated Tit - Kengkou, Wuyuan

Rufous-tailed Robin - Kengkou, Wuyuan

Brown Crake - Kengkou, Wuyuan

Kengkou, Wuyuan

The River Li'an at Kengkou, Wuyuan

We headed towards the small village of Haikou to the south-west of Wuyuan where we had lunch at a local restaurant before heading to their rooftop. Here, a party of around 25 Blue-crowned Laughingthrush showed exceptionally well from the roof-top hide where six Chinese photographers had gathered with their large lenses to photograph these birds. We enjoyed a few hours on the roof top watching the birds foraging in their chosen tree and saw birds socialising, nest building and a single bird seemed to be incubating in a Ginkgo tree. It was great to see these rare birds at such close range and to experience their part of their day to day lives. At 50 yuan per head the house was clearly making some reasonable money from these birds which can only be a good thing for awareness of the species and bird conservation in general.

Blue-crowned Laughingthrush - Haikou, Wuyuan

Blue-crowned Laughingthrush on nest in Ginkgo biloba tree- Haikou, Wuyuan

We spent the remaining couple of hours driving back to the hotel and birding a short forested track outside of Wuyuan but saw little but for Plain-crowned Jay, Brown Shrike and Grey-cheeked (Fujian) Fulvetta. With the rain starting to fall once more we headed for our hotel and were back by 16:45 in time for a productive faff before dinner at 19:00.

Brown Shrike of subspecies cristatus - Wuyuan

Links to Other Days of the Trip (Click to View)
Day 1 and 2 – International flight and Dongtai.
Day 3 - Dongtai.
Day 4 – Dongtai and Magic Wood.
Day 5 - Nanhui then fly to Fuzhou.
Day 6 - Shanutan Island and Fuzhou Forest Park.
Day 7 - Fuzhou Forest Park then Emeifeng Mountain.
Day 8 - Emeifeng Mountain.
Day 9 - Emeifeng Mountain.
Day 10 - Emeifeng Mountain then Wuyuan.
Day 12 – Drive Wuyuan to Dongzhai.
Day 13 - Dongzhai.
Day 14 – Dongzhai then fly Wuhan to Korlor.
Day 15 – Taklamakan Desert.
Day 16 – Taklamakan Desert then Urumqi.
Day 17 and 18 – Nanshan in the Tien Shan Mountains then fly Beijing. International flight.

Saturday, 12 November 2016

China Wetlands (Birdquest) Tour - 12th November (Day 9)

After a wet night we started our birding just outside of Nancheng at Nanxinxiang looking for Brown Crake. The site was a wide and well vegetated channel and after a little tape playing we had excellent views of a pair of birds feeding along the waters edge.

Brown Crake - Nanxinxiang, Nancheng

We then headed north-east to the shores of Paying lake and the Nanjishan Wetland Reserve. On the way I spotted three Siberian Crane from the bus in fields to the north of Shanzizhou. After a hurried stop we had good views of two adults and a juvenile that were soon joined by another family party of two adult and a juvenile. Fantastic birds, rather primitive looking and with very large bills and small red face patches, the combination of which gave the bill a ‘stuck-on’ appearance.

Siberian Crane - Shanzizhou, Nancheng

Siberian Crane, the only shot I got of all six birds together - Shanzizhou, Nancheng

We then birded the wetlands around the Poyang Lake edge at Nanjishan Wetland Reserve. Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China the basin area measuring some 0.16 million square kilometres, although we didn’t see the actual lake! The birding was excellent with a high number of birds. Eurasian Bittern was incredibly abundant and we had excellent views of brids feeding by the roadside, in total we probably saw more than 50 birds. On the water we recorded Tundra Bean Goose and Taiga Bean Geese (of the race middendorffii) in high numbers, the Taiga distinct with their pale swan like necks and long sloping bill while the Tundra are short necked with dark brown feathering and short bill with a steep curved forehead. Other birds on the lakes included Swan Goose, Greylag Goose, Bewick’s Swan, Pochard, Spoonbill, Marsh Sandpiper, Whiskered Tern and Spotted Redshank. While in the vegetation we recorded Yellow Bittern, Purple Heron, Plain Prinia, Zitting Cisticola, Black-browed Reed Warbler, Dusky Warbler, Penduline Tit and Black-faced Bunting. Lunch was at a small restaurant in a tourist trap town, the scene as we walked in was one of utter carnage with food spread everywhere and dogs under the table cleaning up – it was an experience.

Eurasian Bittern - Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Poyang Lake

Oriental Skylark, a bit of a rubbish photograph of a song flighting birds but it shows two diagnostic features that help separate it from Eurasian Skylark, the buff trailing edge to the wing and the tail held closed when in song flight- Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Poyang Lake

Mixed Geese (Tundra Bean Goose, Taiga Bean Goose, Swan Goose, Greylag goose and Greater White-fronted Goose) - Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Poyang Lake

Taiga (of race middendorffii) and Tundra Bean Goose, the Taiga are the rear row of birds and the Tundra the front row. The former are distinctive (even in this long range photograph) in their long swan like necks, long sloping foreheads and paler appearance - Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Poyang Lake

Purple Heron (juvenile of race manilensis) - Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Poyang Lake

Purple Heron (adult of race manilensis) - Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Poyang Lake

Long-tailed Shrike - Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Poyang Lake

White-throated Kingfisher - Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Poyang Lake

Red-throated Pipit - Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Poyang Lake

Amur Falcon (female) - Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Poyang Lake

Amur Falcon (male and juvenile) - Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Poyang Lake

Amur Falcon (juvenile) - Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Poyang Lake

Zitting Cisticola of race tinnabulans - Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Poyang Lake

Black-browed Reed Warbler - Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Poyang Lake

We birded the lake from 10:00 until 16:00 and then headed the three to four hours to Wu Cheng National Reserve at Poyang Hu and checked into the Xinyue Hotel.

Life Birds;