The Deskbound Birder: Siberian Crane

Showing posts with label Siberian Crane. Show all posts

Sunday, 13 November 2016

China Wetlands (Birdquest) Tour - 13th November (Day 10)

Today we birded the area around Wu Cheng within the Poyang Hu Reserve all day. We had experienced heavy overnight rain but this eased off over breakfast to give damp and cloudy conditions with mist and occasional showers - far from ideal conditions for birding a marshland. Our first stop was a tower hide but views of the marsh were obscured by fog but we did see our first Chinese Hwamei plus Grey-backed Thrush. Pallas’s Warbler and Black-collared Staring. Next, an area of rice paddies dropping down into marshland. The rice paddies were alive with birds with Black-faced Bunting, Chestnut-eared Bunting, Little Bunting, Oriental Sky Lark, Buff-bellied Pipit, Water Pipit, Daurian Redstart, Black-collared Starling, Red-billed Starling and Stejneger’s Stonechat. On the marshland we recorded our first, distant, White-naped Crane and a Marsh Grassbird which showed reasonably well plus Common Crane, Oriental Stork, Eastern Marsh Harrier, Hen Harrier, Tundra Bean Goose and Taiga Bean Goose. A short walk into arable fields produced two Chinese Hwamei, White-browed Laughing Thrush and large numbers of Pallas’s Warbler plus Yellow-browed Warbler and Dusky Warbler. We then birded the causeway extending through vast areas of marsh and mudflats seeing many Greater White-fronted Goose, Tundra Bean Goose, Taiga Bean Goose plus Chinese Pond Heron, Temminck’s Stint (two), Red-necked Stint (one) and many Kentish Plover but the fog and rain hindered our viewing and we decided to head for lunch.

Marsh Grassbird of race sinensis - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

White-naped Crane, my first and a little distant - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

Water Pipit of race blakistoni - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

Daurian Redstart - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

White-browed Laughing Thrush - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

Chinese Hwamei - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

Dusky Warbler - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

Pallas's Warbler - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

Tundra Bean Goose and at least five Taiga Bean Goose (rear left of centre - paler, longer and more swan like necks and long sloping bill and forehead) - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

Spotted Redshank - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

Greater White-fronted Goose - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

Chinese Pond Heron - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

Hooded Crane - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

After lunch we pretty much repeated our footsteps from this morning mainly looking for Lesser White-fronted Goose but with no success. The highlight of the afternoon was driving a raised embankment at the end of the causeway and scanning a large flock (perhaps 1,500 birds) of Taiga Bean Goose and Tundra Bean Goose mixed with a few Greater White-fronted Goose while in the same fields fed 12 Siberian Crane around 50 White-naped Crane, two Hooded Crane and around 50 Common Crane – it was quite a spectacle. The views of the cranes were probably our best yet and we spent a while watching this spectacular birds. A final stop at a view point on the way back to the hotel produced a lovely flock of six Black-throated Tit but the views were hampered by mist.

Buff-bellied Pipit of race japonicus - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

Greater White-fronted Goose - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

White-naped Crane and Common Crane - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

Greater White-fronted Goose - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

White-naped Crane and Siberian Crane - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

White-naped Crane - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

White-naped Crane and Siberian Crane - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

Rice Paddies where the above cranes and geese were feeding - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng

We headed back to the hotel and spent the last 30 minutes of day light scanning the river adjacent to the hotel and walking to a temple view point but appart from a Peregrine and Asian Brown Flycatcher we saw little.

Discussions over dinner focused on a potential change to the itinerary given the poor weather and that we had seen most of the birds available here. We would see what the weather in the morning brought before deciding.

Wu Cheng

Selling fish in Wu Cheng

Well stocked fridge in our restaurant at Wu Cheng

Our guides and driver at Wu Cheng - note the dish in the middle of the table that consists almost entirely of green chillies!

Life Birds;

White-naped Crane
Marsh Grassbird
Chinese Hwamei
White-browed Laughingthrush

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

Day 1 and 2 - Travel and Beijing Area

Day 3 - Ming Tombs

Day 4 - Yancheng Nature Reserve, Yengdu

Day 5 - Yancheng Nature Reserve, Yengdu

Day 6 - Yancheng Nature Reserve, Yengdu and Dongtai, Yancheng

Day 7 - Dongtai, Yancheng

Day 8 - Kengkou, Wuyuan

Day 9 - Nanjishan Wetland Reserve, Nancheng

Day 11 - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng and Emei Feng, Taining

Day 12 - Emei Feng, Taining

Day 13 - Emei Feng, Taining and Changle

Day 14 - Changle, Fuzhou

Day 15 - Nanshan Park, Changle and travel

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;