More Rarities at Wuyuan....

Left the hotel at 5.30am in a light drizzle and drove through the rural Jiangxi countryside for ten minutes before pulling up at the rustic Shimen Village. Walking down to the river, an inquisitive pair of Rufous-faced Warblers came out of a stand of bamboo to call back at us before we found a small feeding party of Courtois’s Laughingthrushes high in the canopy of some riverside trees. It was such a relief to get the main target bird so easily as the dark skies seemed to indicate that the threated weather forecast of heavy rain all day was going to come true. Fortunately this was not the case and after a few light showers the gods were kind to us and we enjoyed a rain-free morning’s birding. Once the laughingthrushes had moved out of sight we drove around to the other side of the river, stopping for a White-browed Laughingthrush that was singing from a telegraph wire. We parked the bus beside the start of the path to the island where the laughingthrushes breed  and enjoyed a nice field breakfast. A few birds were seen here including our first Chinese Hwamei, a pair of Dollarbirds, Chinese Pond-heron in fine breeding plumage, several Collared Finchbills, Chinese Blackbird and a pair of White-rumped Munias.

Courtois's Laughingthrush habitat

A short walk down to the island led us to the breeding site of Courtois’s Laughingthrushes and we spent a pleasant couple of hours observing the antics of many individuals, getting close views in the process and watched them feeding on the floor, scavenging in the canopy above and even watched a pair building a nest overhead. A real privilege indeed when you consider they were only refound in the year 2000 and that the world population is only around 250 individuals, and they are all in one small area near Wuyuan town. 

We spent quite a long time admiring Courtois's Laughingthrush

We also found a few other good birds here with pride of place going to a pair of Japanese Waxwings scoped at the top of a tall tree and a very exciting sighting indeed. There was also Grey-capped Pygmy, Great Spotted and Grey-headed Woodpeckers, Swinhoe’s Minivet, Eurasian Jay, and Grey Treepie.

Leaving here we drove for half an hour to a secluded river, seeing Black Eagle along the way, followed a narrow trail and this turned out to be very productive as one of the first birds we had here was a fabulous little Short-tailed Parrotbill that showed very well at the edge of a stand of bamboo. Wow! Unfortunately no photos of this cracker, but it was a lifer for yours truly and a bird i've waited years to see...... Would have loved a photo though......

Continuing along the trail we had Rufous-capped Babbler, Yellow-bellied Prinia,  several Huet’s Fulvettas (a recent split from Grey-cheeked Fulvetta), some pretty decent views of Grey-sided Scimitar-babbler, Chestnut Bulbul, and a flyover Bay Woodpecker. So by now it was early afternoon and the showers were becoming more frequent and we decided to return to the bus for lunch – a good move as it turned out as just after we had arrived the heavens opened and it rained constantly for the rest of the day. We returned to the hotel in Wuyuan around 4pm and enjoyed some time off to rest and relax. 

  

Leaving Paradise..!

My spider senses were telling me that with only two hours to bird the Temple Wood that something would happen to delay our departure to the airport for our flight to Wuyuan. So it was no surprise that 5 minutes before we were about to leave, the ‘biggie’ that we had been waiting for appeared. News filtered through of a Japanese Paradise-Flycatcher on the other side of the Temple resulted in mass panic and a sweaty run around to the far set of trees, but fortunately the bird remained obliging and everyone saw it. 

Record shot of Japanese Paradise-Flycatcher

We had been enjoying a reasonably calm, quiet mornings birding prior to this with flocks of Eye-browed Thrushes flying around, another fine male Siberian Thrush, female Daurian Redstart being new, a couple of Radde’s Warblers, Eastern Crowned Warbler, Chestnut Bunting, Mugimaki Flycatcher etc. It was all rather sedate and there had obviously been no significant fall, so the star bird of our time here just had to turn up at the most awkward time. Well that’s birding!

Mugimaki Flycatcher

Following this excitement we then drove just over 3 hours to the domestic airport in Shanghai, took the short 1 hour flight to Huangshan and then drove for an hour to a picturesque little village surrounded by forested hills and a river. This is the famous site for Pied Falconet and we stood on the roof of a restaurant waiting for one to appear. 

Nice habitat around the falconet's village

Scoping the Pied Falconet

It took around an hour and was just after 6pm when a falconet flew by and landed in a tree maybe 200m away and although not the crippling point-blank views you can get, through the scope it still looked rather sexy. As we were waiting we also saw Plumbeous Water-Redstart, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Collared Finchbill, Red-billed Blue Magpie, Black Bulbul and a perched Chinese Sparrowhawk.

More Magic Migration Mania...!

A quiet morning in Temple Wood and Magic Wood after the excitement of the previous few days and the only new birds noted were Red Collared Dove, Asian Koel, Taiga Flycatcher, Ashy Minivet, Black-naped Oriole, Hair-crested Drongo, Radde’s Warbler, Richard’s Pipit and Chestnut Bunting, but it was a shame that a Thick-billed Warbler was only seen by one person. Other birds seen in and around the woods included Grey-headed Lapwing, another Northern Boobook, a flock of Eye-browed Thrushes, a flyby Siberian, Dusky and Pale Thrushes, Chinese Blackbird, an unidentified cuckoo species, many Chinese Grosbeaks, Japanese White-eyes, flocks of Asian Azure-winged Magpies, and another Asian Stubtail.

Asian Stubtail

Chinese Grosbeak

A distant Dusky Thrush

Heading over to Yangkou mudflats before lunch we decided not to walk out and scan the waders, but instead waited along the seawall where a Japanese Sparrowhawk flew over. There were lots of waders present with the pick of the bunch being a few Far Eastern Curlews being a good addition to our list. We then drove inland a short distance and walked out to some lagoons where many shorebirds were roosting. Amazingly, Steven spotted another Spoon-billed Sandpiper, again in fine breeding dress and roosting with some Red-necked Stints and Terek Sandpipers, but too far for a photo. We spent the next couple of hours checking several pools and scoping big numbers of shorebirds with some Broad-billed Sandpipers, possibly a couple of hundred Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, lots of Long-toed Stints and many others present. 

Lots of shorebirds were present

Kentish Plover

Long-toed Stint

Long-toed Stint

Red-necked Stint

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

It was fun scoping all these shorebirds

Flocks of shorebirds flew around us

There were so many waders in the pools all around us...

Curlew Sandpiper

Terek Sandpiper

The spectacle really was quite something and with no pressure to find a Spoonie we thoroughly enjoyed our time here. Whilst scanning the shorebirds an Oriental Pratincole, Pacific Golden Plover, Eurasian Hobby and an Amur Falcon flew over, whilst 10+ Pechora Pipits were found. Sadly, only a couple of people managed to get on an Asian Buff-bellied Pipit in Steven’s scope. There was also some more nice views of an obliging Reed Parrotbill.

Reed Parrotbill

Returning to Temple Wood in the late afternoon produced much the same as the morning’s session with slow birding. However, a Blue Rock Thrush was new and Hadyn found a fine male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher. 

Common Tern (Tibetana race)

Saunders's Gull

Common Tern and Saunders's Gull

Whiskered Tern

A small congregation of terns at the dam held 2 Whiskered, a cracking White-winged and lots of Common (Tibetana race) Terns along with a Saunders’s Gull, and with the late evening sunshine and the birds flying close below our vantage point, it certainly was a nice sighting.

Wader Heaven....

Well a lot of things had moved out of Temple Wood overnight, but the good news was that a superb male Siberian Thrush was new in and what a cracker it was too! We enjoyed repeated great views during our time here and got really side-tracked enjoying this beauty. 

This male Siberian Thrush was the star bird of the morning

Siberian Thrush

The Rufous-tailed Robin was still here, and a Siberian Rubythroat showed to a few of the group. There was also at least 2 Hume’s Warblers, male Yellow-rumped and Narcissus Flycatchers, Eastern Crowned and Pale-legged Leaf Warblers, Chinese Grosbeaks, 2 Eye-browed Thrushes and various other ‘bits and pieces’.

Narcissus Flycatcher

After a picnic breakfast we paid a short visit to Magic Wood and walked along the public road here, which resulted in a brief Two-barred Warbler and an Oriental Scops-Owl. 

Magic Wood

We had to curtail our visit as we needed to head off in plenty of time for high tide at Dongtai, around 40kms north along the coast. But walking back to the bus I heard a Siberian Rubythroat call and with a little effort we enjoyed prolonged views of a superb male singing right out in the open. Wow! I never get tired of seeing this cracker.

Siberian Rubythroat showed very well this morning..

So we drove up to the coastal wader mecca of Dongtai, as yesterday a count had been made of 34 Spoon-billed Sandpipers, a bird very high on most of the group’s wish-list. Well upon arrival the tide was way out and we had around 3 hours to wait for high-tide, so explored the area along the road. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many Saunders’s Gulls here and we had terrific views throughout the day of many, many individuals. 

Saunders's Gull

A Chestnut-eared Bunting took a little digging out along the embankment and eventually eluded us, but a female Black-faced Bunting was seen during the search. A good bit of scope work resulted in distant males of both Pied and Eastern Marsh Harriers quartering the grassland. We drove closer for better views and then had lunch.

The search for Spoonie begins....

By now the tide was coming in quite quickly so we donned the dreaded ‘wellies’ and walked out across the mudflats towards the shoreline and after a bit of phaffing around and a long, tiring walk eventually managed to get close enough to begin the search for Spoonie. With a high wind and bad heat haze it was very tricky and only Gary and Michael, who had separated from the rest of us, managed to find a Spoonie initially. It was all very frustrating really and we were continually back-peddling as the water was rising quickly. There were lots of shorebirds and all in fine breeding-plumage such as Great Knot, Dunlin, Lesser Sandplovers, Red-necked Stints, and a few Oystercatchers of the scarce eastern race…

Eurasian Oystercatcher

Another Saunders's Gull

Spot the Nordman's Greenshanks....

Once we had returned to the seawall and the shorebirds and flown off inland we drove back along the seawall road and found a large gathering of waders with 9 Nordmann’s Greenshanks present. Must admit it was a relief to nail one of the ‘big three’ and the views were pretty good. In this flock were lots of breeding-plumage Bar-tailed Godwits, Terek Sandpipers, Lesser Sandplovers, Red and Great Knots, and Curlew Sandpipers. In fact we spent quite a while watching this group before the tide reached its highest point here. So we then drove back and walked down to the lagoon on the landward side of the seawall in a continuing search for Spoonie. A large flock of waders were present but out of reach and roosting on a sandy area that was cut-off to us by a deep channel, so we had to content ourselves with some closer Terek Sandpipers, in fact there were around 50+ of them here.

Terek Sandpipers were very common here

Once the waders began flying back out onto the mudflats as the tide receded we walked out once more and yomped towards the by now distant shoreline. Loads of birds were avidly feeding and after we had walked maybe just over half a kilometre out we began scanning. After quite a long time and a bit of repositioning a superb summer-plumaged Spoon-billed Sandpiper was found and we scoped the little beauty for a while. Frustratingly the group of Red-necked Stints it was with flew off, along with it, and we had to walk further out to find another one. Well it didn’t take too long and another individual was found, and this time we had prolonged views as it fed on the mudflats. The feeling of relief was palpable and after high-fives and quite some time with the spoony we returned to the bus rather elated.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper - the very left-hand bird..... Honest!

But we weren’t done yet and walked along the road bordered by trees either side and scored with Asian Stubtail and Northern Boobook after good work by Gary and Michael ‘going in’. What a day!