The Deskbound Birder: Nordmann's Greenshank

Showing posts with label Nordmann's Greenshank. Show all posts

Tuesday, 11 February 2020

South Korea and Taiwan - 11th February (Day 17)

After a rather sleepless night on the eco-lodge due to barking dogs we were up 05:15 for our final days birding. We headed the short distance to Pintung University for the two remaining targets of the trip. We walked down the track through forest and secondary growth and set-up on the bund between the two lakes and began scanning. Black Drongo and Light-vented Bulbul began to appear in the tree-tops and then I picked up a bird of different shape and squinting through the gloom of the early morning I could make out some deep red colouration; Maroon Oriole, our first target and one that we had missed earlier in the trip. I shouted and the others got onto the bird fairly quickly. Our first target down. Over the next few minutes we approached the oriole more closely and eventually got great views. Next Ian found a green pigeon perched in a dead tree which was soon joined by others. We identified two species the larger White-bellied Green-pigeon and our final key target, Whistling Green-pigeon. These two species were remarkably similar even when perched together but the orange forehead, heavily marked ventral area and more uniform dull green appearance of the Whistling Green were good pointers. Over the next 45 minutes we had fantastic views of the pigeons eventually seeing 13 Whistling and seven White-bellied. My eBird checklist for the morning can be viewed here.

Maroon Oriole - Pintung University, Taiwan

White-bellied Green-Pigeon - Pintung University, Taiwan

White-bellied Green-Pigeon (lower three birds) and Whistling Green-Pigeon - Pintung University, Taiwan

Whistling Green-Pigeon - Pintung University, Taiwan

Chestnut-tailed Starling - Pintung University, Taiwan

Common Kingfisher - Pintung University, Taiwan

Elated by our early morning success we decided to head north and to the west coast of the island for some wader watching. We arrived at the Qingkunshen IBA at just gone 10:00 and began scanning the large number of waders. The masses were dominated by Dunlin of one of the long-billed races, probably sakhalina. Amongst these were Pacific Golden Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Kentish Plover, Lesser Sand-plover, Red-necked Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Marsh Sandpiper, Black-winged Stilt and Avocet. The star birds were Great Knot some of which were beginning to enter summer plumage and the star, a Nordmann’s Greenshank which eventually gave excellent views . This species is a rare vagrant on Taiwan, this bird has been present at the site since at least the end of 2019. Also at the site we recorded Caspian Tern, Gull-billed Tern, Little Tern and Whiskered Tern. It was now 12:15 and we decided that we should start our journey towards the Taipei. A short stop at a lagoon further along the road produced a Black-faced Spoonbill and a rice paddy a little further on was smothered in Wigeon, Shoveler and Pintail. My eBird checklist for the site can be viewed here, here and here.

The drive north took around 4 hours with a couple of brief stops. We checked into a hotel to change and shower and after some dinner headed to our international flights. Mine departing at 00:20.

Lesser Sand Plover - Qingkunshen IBA, Taiwan

Caspian Tern - Qingkunshen IBA, Taiwan

Pacific Golden Plover - Qingkunshen IBA, Taiwan

Black-winged Stilt - Qingkunshen IBA, Taiwan

Kentish Plover - Qingkunshen IBA, Taiwan

Whiskered Tern - Qingkunshen IBA, Taiwan

The naturalised African Sacred Ibis - Qingkunshen IBA, Taiwan

Marsh Sandpiper - Qingkunshen IBA, Taiwan

Intermediate Egret - Qingkunshen IBA, Taiwan

Great Knot - Qingkunshen IBA, Taiwan

Nordmann's Greenshank - Qingkunshen IBA, Taiwan

Black-faced Spoonbill - Qingkunshen IBA, Taiwan

Black-winged Kite - Qingkunshen IBA, Taiwan

List of Birds Recorded in Taiwan

We recorded 153 species in Taiwan of which 33 were new for me (shown in bold).

Taiwan Partridge

Taiwan Bamboo-partridge

Mikado Pheasant

Swinhoe's Pheasant

Tufted Duck

Northern Shoveler

Chinese Spot-billed Duck

Mallard

Common Teal

Little Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Ashy Woodpigeon

Oriental Turtle-dove

Red Turtle-dove

Eastern Spotted Dove

White-bellied Green-pigeon

Taiwan Green-pigeon

House Swift

White-breasted Waterhen

Common Moorhen

Common Coot

Black-faced Spoonbill

African Sacred Ibis

Yellow Bittern

Malay Night-heron

Black-crowned Night-heron

Cattle Egret

Grey Heron

Great White Egret

Intermediate Egret

Little Egret

Pied Avocet

Black-winged Stilt

Grey Plover

Pacific Golden Plover

Little Ringed Plover

Kentish Plover

Lesser Sandplover

Bar-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

Great Knot

Red Knot

Curlew Sandpiper

Red-necked Stint

Common Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

Common Greenshank

Nordmann's Greenshank

Common Redshank

Marsh Sandpiper

Black-headed Gull

Little Tern

Common Gull-billed Tern

Caspian Tern

Whiskered Tern

Collared Owlet

Collared Scops-owl

Mountain Scops-owl

Osprey

Black-winged Kite

Oriental Honey-buzzard

Crested Serpent-eagle

Mountain Hawk-eagle

Black Eagle

Crested Goshawk

Besra

Black Kite

Common Kingfisher

Taiwan Barbet

Grey-capped Woodpecker

White-backed Woodpecker

Peregrine Falcon

Maroon Oriole

White-bellied Erpornis

Grey-chinned Minivet

Black Drongo

Black-naped Monarch

Brown Shrike

Grey Treepie

Taiwan Blue Magpie

Plain-crowned Jay

Southern Nutcracker

Large-billed Crow

Coal Tit

Chestnut-bellied Tit

Green-backed Tit

Yellow Tit

Plain Prinia

Taiwan Cupwing

Asian House Martin

Red-rumped Swallow

House Swallow

Barn Swallow

Asian Plain Martin

Black Bulbul

Collared Finchbill

Light-vented Bulbul

Styan's Bulbul

Yellow-browed Warbler

Arctic Warbler

Rufous-faced Warbler

Brownish-flanked Bush-warbler

Yellowish-bellied Bush-warbler

Black-throated Tit

Taiwan Fulvetta

Taiwan Yuhina

Japanese White-eye

Taiwan Scimitar-babbler

Black-necklaced Scimitar-babbler

Rufous-capped Babbler

Dusky Fulvetta

Grey-cheeked Fulvetta

Taiwan Hwamei

Rufous-crowned Laughingthrush

Rusty Laughingthrush

White-whiskered Laughingthrush

White-eared Sibia

Taiwan Liocichla

Taiwan Barwing

Eurasian Nuthatch

Northern Wren

Brown Dipper

Crested Myna

Common Myna

White's Thrush

Taiwan Thrush

Eyebrowed Thrush

Brown-headed Thrush

Pale Thrush

Dusky Thrush

Small Vivid Niltava

White-tailed Blue Robin

Orange-flanked Bush-robin

White-browed Bush-robin

Collared Bush-robin

Little Forktail

Taiwan Whistling-thrush

Snowy-browed Flycatcher

Plumbeous Water-redstart

Daurian Redstart

Flamecrest

Fire-breasted Flowerpecker

Alpine Accentor

White-rumped Munia

Scaly-breasted Munia

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Olive-backed Pipit

Grey Wagtail

Eastern Yellow Wagtail

White Wagtail

Taiwan Rosefinch

Brown Bullfinch

Grey-headed Bullfinch

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.

Thursday, 10 November 2016

China Wetlands (Birdquest) Tour - 10th November (Day 7)

Breakfast was at 06:00 and we ate noodles, onion cakes and batter sticks at a street-side stand surrounded by dogs urinating on table legs and sniffing each others arses - I felt a little less hungry than I should have done for breakfast. We then headed for the coastal wetlands to the east of Dongtai to the south of Yancheng once again. When we arrived at 07:15 the tide was still clearly along way out so we walked out to the waters edge, around 1km from the seawall. There were many Kentish Plover on the sandflats and once we reached the waters edge it was apparent that there were very large numbers of birds with thousands each of Grey Plover, Curlew and Dunlin. Amongst these were small numbers of Bar-tailed Godwit, Oystercatcher, Caspian Tern, Lesser Black-backed Gull of the race heuglini (Heuglin’s Gull) and Arctic Herring Gull of the race mongolicus (Mongolian Herring Gull). I picked up a very distant (maybe 800m) smaller gull which looked odd, it was running around amongst the waders plover like with a high pigeon breast and a short dark bill, I soon realised that it must be a Relict Gull (probably a second winter) and asked Hannu to confirm this, which he soon did – another dream bird of mine. We decided to wander closer and we managed to half the distance between us and the bird but the bird then flew and disappeared into the distance. We went back to scanning the vast numbers of waders and after 10 minutes or so I picked-up a second Relict Gull flying past us, this was a 1st winter and I managed to rattle off a few rather distant shots of this bird as it flew past and into the distance - a cracking bird and I was chuffed to have seen this species on the trip. Hannu then picked up a Nordmann’s Greenshank with its distinctly greyer upperparts, shorter bill and legs and stumpy rear end when compared to the nearby Common Greenshank. Alec and I tried to approach but they were a little skittish and kept their distance – a Red-flanked Bluetail flew in off the sea and low over the sandflats heading south, clearly a migrating bird. As we scanned around we realised that there were many Nordmann’s Greenshank and at least 75 within visible distance and a brief count. Then an adult Saunder’s Gull flew by giving a very tern like ‘kek’, a stunning little gull and my second gull tick of the morning. It was 09:30 and time to head off, we had a long drive (around 600km) south-west to Wuyuan.

Relict Gull (1st winter) - Dongtai

Eurasian Curlew of race orientalis- Dongtai

Lesser Black-backed Gull of the race heuglini (Heuglin’s Gull) - Dongtai

Dunlin, there are several races that pass winter in the area including sakhalina

and articola - Dongtai

Dunlin (different bird to above), there are several races that pass winter in the area including sakhalina and articola - Dongtai

Image showing the amazing number of wader present at this site. These are

mainly Dunlin, Grey Plover and Curlew with Nordmann's Greenshank,

Common Greenshank and Kentish Plover - Dongtai

Nordmann's Greenshank. Compared to Common Greenshank note the greyer tones and noticeably short rear-end - Dontai

Nordmann's Greenshank. Compared to Common Greenshank note the greyer tones and noticeably short rear-end- Dontai

Kentish Plover - Dongtai

Arctic Herring Gull of the race mongolicus (2nd winter) - Dongtai

Waders (mainly Dunlin and Grey Plover (plus Curlew and Nordmann's Greenshank) - Dongtai

The sandflats to the east of Dongtai the sea can just about be seen in the distance

The drive was unremarkable but we left the industrial landscape of the coast behind for an altogether more pleasant woodland landscape with distant hills and small villages. We passed through the outskirts of Shanghai and over the Yangtse River through Wuxi, Yixing and eventually arrived at Wuyuan at 21:00 and checked into the Huayi Hotel,.