South Korea and Taiwan - 10th February (Day 16)

We headed back up to KM108 at Alishan Forest Recreation Area again this AM for our final mornings birding in the area. We wandered up and down the road and also a short way up the track to the visitor centre seeing much the same as yesterday and missing all remaining targets for the site. Highlights were a pair of Yellow-throated Marten foraging around the car park, great views of Steere's Liochichla, Taiwan Rosefinch and White-browed Bush-Robin. At around 10:00 we began the long drive south to Kenting National Park. My eBird checklist can be viewed here.

Yellow-throated Marten - Alishan National Forest Recreation Area, Taiwan

Steere's Liochicla - Alishan National Forest Recreation Area, Taiwan

Taiwan Rosefinch - Alishan National Forest Recreation Area, Taiwan

Taiwan Rosefinch - Alishan National Forest Recreation Area, Taiwan

Taiwan Rosefinch - Alishan National Forest Recreation Area, Taiwan

White-browed Bush-Robin - Alishan National Forest Recreation Area, Taiwan

Taiwan Fulvetta - Alishan National Forest Recreation Area, Taiwan

Taiwan Fulvetta - Alishan National Forest Recreation Area, Taiwan

Taiwan Fulvetta - Alishan National Forest Recreation Area, Taiwan

We arrived at Kenting National Park in the far south of the island just before 14:30. The park is just above sea level and this was the first lowland birding we had done on the island and it was noticeably warm and with a strong sea breeze blowing. We quickly located our target here, the now rare and localised, Styan's Bulbul but it took some time before we all had obtained satisfactory views. Other species here included a range of familiar wildfowl seen from the very plush hide. My eBird checklist for the site can be viewed here.

After Kenting we headed back north to Pingtung University arriving just as it was getting dark at 17:30, we sussed out the site for tomorrows birding and had some nice views of Savanna Nightjar as darkness fell. After dinner we headed to our accommodation at the Hakka Eco-Farm where we heard more Savanna Nightjar and a booming Malayan Night-Heron. My eBird checklists for these two sites can be viewed here and here.

Brown Shrike - Kenting National Park, Taiwan

Scaly-breasted Munia - Kenting National Park, Taiwan

Styan's Bulbul - Kenting National Park, Taiwan

Styan's Bulbul - Kenting National Park, Taiwan

Black Drongo - Kenting National Park, Taiwan

Links to Other Days of the Trip (Click to View)

South Korea

26th January (Day 1 and 2) – International flight then Han River area.

28th January (Day 3) – Songdo Tidal Flats and Korea National Arboretum.

29th January (Day 4) – Seosan Reclamation.

30th January (Day 5) – Seosan Reclamation then Geum River.

31st January (Day 6) – Yubu Island, and Han River.

Taiwan

1st February (Day 7) – Fly Seoul (South Korea) to Taipei (Taiwan) then Dasyueshan Forest Reserve.

2nd February (Day 8) – Dasyueshan Forest Reserve.

3rd February (Day 9) – Dasyueshan Forest Reserve.

4th February (Day 10) – Dasyueshan Forest Reserve.

5th February (Day11) – Dasyueshan Forest Reserve then Huisin Forest Reserve.

6th February (Day 12) – Huisin Forest Reserve then Blue Gates Trail.

7th February (Day 13) –  Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area.

8th February (Day 14) – Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area then Firefly Lodge.

9th February (Day 15) – Alishan.

10th February (Day 16) – Alishan, Kenting National Park and Pintung University. 

11th February (Day 17) – Pingtung University then international flight.

Shetland - 14th October

My plan today was to bird the west coast of mainland Shetland tin the hope of finding a mega yank warbler, I was aiming for Tresta and then around the coast via Walls and then to Sandness.

I was on the road at 07:30 and stopping at a view point on the A971 as it swings around the Hill of Sound I scanned into Weisdale Voe hoping for an Orca fin. Looking at the village of Cott below I noticed a great deal of scrub and woodland and so I back tracked and spent the first few hours birding the gardens and the small graveyard which has a number of mature sycamore. It was a great area but there was not a lot to be seen, I recorded three Blackcap, four Goldcrest, 35 Redwing and 10 Fieldfare, still it was a great area and definitely worth a visit.

I then headed to Tresta and birded the area around the Methodist Chapel recording two Goldcrest and a Yellow-browed Warbler. News then broke of a Brown Shrike at Grutness, I considered my options, continue with my plan or dash down for the shrike. The shrike option won and off I went on the 50-minute high speed drive to the south of the island.

I arrived at Grutness at around 12:00 just as the shrike had flown over the brow of the cabbage field it had been frequenting. I drove around the field and up the road to Sumburgh, parked and went climbed the fence to cross the field to where the bird was, but as I grabbed the fence to climb over I received a bolt of electricity that knocked me backwards and off my feet – I had grabbed the electric fence encircling the field, there was no warning placed on the fence. I picked myself up, dusted myself down and then climbed the gate into the field now with a very numb right arm. I got to the group of birders and was soon on the Brown Shrike, relieved to have the bird but my fingers were so numb from the shock that I could hardly focus my binoculars. I spent the next couple of hours with the shrike as it ranged between Grutness Beach, the lighthouse road out beyond Sumburgh Farm and down to Sumburgh Hotel. It was covering some ground as it ranged the fields. On a number of occasions, it was seen to catch White-tailed Bumblebee and impale them on the barbed wire fence. Eventually I left the bird as it went down to Grutness Beach and travelled along the beach towards the airport.

To the end of 2018 there have been 25 UK records of Brown Shrike in Great Britain with the first being from 1985 from Sumburgh. There has been a single spring record with the remainder occurring in September to November, the peak month being September. Shetland has the largest number of records with eight to the end of 2018. This was my second in the UK after seeing the bird that wintered on Staines Moor, Surrey from 11th October 2009 to 2nd January 2010.

Adult female Brown Shrike - Grutness, Mainland Shetland

Adult female Brown Shrike - Grutness, Mainland Shetland

Adult female Brown Shrike - Grutness, Mainland Shetland

Adult female Brown Shrike - Grutness, Mainland Shetland

Adult female Brown Shrike - Grutness, Mainland Shetland

Adult female Brown Shrike with White-tailed Bumblebee - Grutness, Mainland Shetland

Adult female Brown Shrike - Grutness, Mainland Shetland

Adult female Brown Shrike - Grutness, Mainland Shetland

After grabbing a coffee, I headed north up the island and spent the last couple of hours of daylight birding Stonybrake, Upperton and Netherton recording three Mealy Redpoll, one Lesser Redpoll, Blackcap, Red-throated Diver and a greyish Chiffchaff probably of the subspecies abietinus. News then broke of a Black-throated Thrush on Ward of Scousburgh and so I made a dash for this in the fading light but unsurprisingly was unsuccessful. I headed to the hotel for a much-needed shower and a cold beer.

Starling - Cott, Mainland Shetland

Starling - Cott, Mainland Shetland

Starling - Cott, Mainland Shetland

Goldcrest - Cott, Mainland Shetland

Goldcrest - Cott, Mainland Shetland

Cott, Mainland Shetland

Lesser Redpoll - Upperton, Mainland Shetland

Red-throated Diver - Netherton, Mainland Shetland

A rather cold and greyish Chiffchaff, possibly of the subspecies abeitinus, it gave a mournful bisyllabic call with a downward inflected second part to the call - Netherton, Mainland Shetland

Chiffchaff (same bird as above) - Netherton, Mainland Shetland

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

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

 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 - Haikou, Wuyuan

Blue-crowned Laughingthrush - Haikou, Wuyuan

Blue-crowned Laughingthrush - Haikou, Wuyuan

Blue-crowned Laughingthrush - Haikou, Wuyuan

Blue-crowned Laughingthrush - Haikou, Wuyuan

Blue-crowned Laughingthrush - Haikou, Wuyuan

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.