Thursday, 17 November 2016

China Wetlands (Birdquest) Tour - 17th November (Day 14)

It was a relative lay-in today and we were up for a 06:30 breakfast. This had potential to be a milestone in my birding, I was on 5,999 species for my world list and needed one more for the 6,000, I had hoped that this would be Cabot’s Tragopan at Emei Feng Mountain but it was not to be.

Today we were heading on a short boat trip to Shanyutan Island which was planned to leave at 09:00 on the rising tide. We started by birding the wetland reserve and agricultural area on the mainland opposite the island at Xinyuantou. This produced good numbers of common bird species including Richard’s Pipit, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Oriental Skylark, Yellow-bellied Prinia, Plain PriniaYellow-browed Warbler, Dusky Warbler, Japanese White-eye, Daurian Redstart, Sand Martin, Barn Swallow and a single Black-browed Reed Warbler. Our local guides had got the tide time a little wrong and it was not until 10:00 that we boarded the small handmade boat to take us to the island. The journey was through tall reeds and we were soon at the island, a journey of no more than 500m or so, the island being separated from the mainland by reedbeds and a channel. In the reedbeds we recorded a single Oriental Reed Warbler and 15 Oriental Penduline Tit. The island had been planted with pines and was being utilised as a duck-farm. Apparently, this is a military area and was the reason why we had needed permits to visit but there was little evidence of a military presence and no-one checked our permits.

Japanese White-eye - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

 Black-crowned Night-heron - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-shouldered Kite - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

 Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Chinese Pond-heron - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-faced Bunting - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-faced Bunting - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

 Daurian Redstart - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Daurian Redstart - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Oriental Greenfinch - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Plain Prinia - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-faced Spoonbill - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Eastern Buzzard - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Eastern Buzzard - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Dusky Warbler - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Richard's Pipit - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

The main reason for visiting the island was for its wader roost and on arrival there was evidently a large roost already gathered on the sandbar. We waded across a channel and positioned ourselves a few hundred metres from the roost and began scanning. The bulk of the roost was made up of Dunlin with smaller numbers of Kentish Plover, White-faced Plover, Sanderling, Grey Plover and Curlew. Amongst the waders were also a small number of Red-necked Stint (five), Great Knot (12), Red Knot (20), Turnstone (one), Greater Sandplover (five), Lesser Sandplover (five), Whimbrel (one) and Oystercatcher (three). And then Hannu spotted our main goal, a Spoon-billed Sandpiper, a winter plumaged bird amongst the Dunlin. We enjoyed views of this exquisite little wader with its peculiar spoon-shaped bill but at a range a little more distant than we had hoped. Also on the island were 51 Black-faced Spoonbill, some of which showed very well, two Saunder’s Gull, Black-tailed Gull, Mongolian Herring Gull, Heuglin’s Gull and Whiskered Tern.

Black-faced Spoonbill - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-faced Spoonbill - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-faced Spoonbill - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-faced Spoonbill - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-faced Spoonbill - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-faced Spoonbill - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-faced Spoonbill - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-faced Spoonbill - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-faced Spoonbill - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-faced Spoonbill - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Mixed waders (mainly Dunlin and Sanderling with White-faced Plover, Kentish Plover and Red-necked Stint) - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Mixed waders (mainly Dunlin and Sanderling with White-faced Plover, Kentish Plover and Red-necked Stint) - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Mixed waders (mainly Dunlin and Sanderling with Oystercatcher and Red-necked Stint) - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

White-faced Plover (2nd from left) and Kentish Plover  - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Greater Sandplover (nominate subspecies), Dunlin and Sanderling - 
Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

White-faced Plover 
Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Saunder's Gull  Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Saunder's Gull - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Saunder's Gull - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Saunder's Gull - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Lesser Black-backed Gull of subspecies heuglini - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Lesser Black-backed Gull of subspecies heuglini - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Caspian Tern - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Caspian Tern - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Arctic Herring Gull of subspecies mongolicus - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Arctic Herring Gull of subspecies mongolicus - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Arctic Herring Gull of subspecies mongolicus - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Spoon-billed Sandpiper - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Red-necked Stint - Shanyutan Island, Changle, Fuzhou

Back to ‘shore’ we then birded the agricultural area once again, here we added, Siberian Rubythroat, Osprey, Scaly-breasted Munia and White-breasted Waterhen to our daylist. Perhaps most notable was a Pacific Swallow, a vagrant to China

Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Asian Brown Flycatcher - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

 Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

 Cattle Egret - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Light-vented Bulbul - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Long-tailed Shrike - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Long-tailed Shrike - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Pacific Swallow - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Pacific Swallow - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Chinese Penduline-tit - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Scaly-breasted Munia - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Scaly-breasted Munia - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-faced Bunting - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Black-browed Reed-warbler- Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Yellow-browed Warbler - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Osprey - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Osprey - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

Yellow Wagtail of race taivana - Xinyuantou, Changle, Fuzhou

So, I had reached 6001 species during the course of the day number 6,000 was White-faced Plover and 6,001 was Spoon-billed Sandpiper.

After beers and final trip round-up in a local restaurant and some packing I crashed at around 22:00 at Jinfeng Guohui Hotel, Changle.

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