The Deskbound Birder: China Wetlands (Birdquest) Tour

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.