20th May - based in Beidaihe today, we did the usual pre-breakfast Friendship Hotel visit which produced familiar species but nothing new. The main visit of the day was to the so-called Agngho Reservoir [not sure if that’s spelt correctly, but most tour groups seem to refer to it simply as the Beidaihe Reservoir]. This lies immediately inland of the Sand Flats and is relatively small with well-wooded surrounds with damp areas, and at the extreme inland end, extensive reeds. We collected new species here in the form of 3 Yellow Bitterns, and a Purple Heron together with other egrets and herons already seen, a Black-capped Kingfisher, and briefly, a Grey-capped Pygmy-woodpecker. Mandarin Ducks were our first since first arriving in Beijing. The reeds held the expected Oriental Reed Warblers and Black-browed Reed Warblers, a Chestnut Bunting was seen well, and the pleasant paths and boardwalks through the woods provided familiar common species, and some had good views of a group of Vinous-throated Parrotbills. As it was nearby, we also checked the Sand Flats again, from the road bridge. The waders had clearly mostly moved on, but we did have Whimbrel, Eurasian Curlew, Redshank, and Common Sandpiper. A few Mongolian Gulls were present plus the usual Black-headeds, and also another Saunders’s Gull – so we did very well for this species with 4 individuals in total. Finally we had another go at the Friendship Hotel grounds in the afternoon but turned up nothing new.
21st May – I opted out of the pre-breakfast jaunt this morning but the highlight for the others was 2 Lanceolated Warblers at the Jinshan Fields, a grassy area near our hotel, and Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler at Lighthouse Pt. I did eventually arise a little while before breakfast and had great views of a Two-barred Warbler near our room block [without camera unfortunately]. The rest of the day was spent at the Stone River area that we visited on 13th and 15th. The first good find at Stone River was a Striated Heron which flew around a couple of times. We had a fly-over Oriental Honey-buzzard whilst at the beach area, which also had Pacific Golden Plover, Grey Plover, 6 Red-necked Stints and an impressive flock of 98 Terek Sandpipers! We had a fly-over Grey-headed Lapwing, and the only other raptors were Amur Falcon and Hobby. Little Terns and Gull-billed Terns flew around all day and Black-winged Stilts were numerous. We worked the area pretty thoroughly and checked out all areas. Our hard work was rewarded with further fly-over views of Dollarbird, an excellent close Lanceolated Warbler, an 'unblocker' for me having missed the early morning one due to my lie-in, 2 Blyth’s Pipits, 2 very confiding Radde’s Warblers, Pallas’s Reed Buntings and many other ‘common’ species. An excellent find by Bill was a Yellow-legged Buttonquail creeping though the grass and allowing superb views. Its behaviour was something that even Bill had not seen before – it crept along slowly, rocking fore and aft like a Jack Snipe when feeding. Another stake out was for Baillon’s Crake, which the other group had seen earlier in the week. We had been checking every marshy pool with no luck. Chris had a possible during one of his wanderings, and he told us where. It was the sharp-eyed Anna who spotted a movement, whereupon we had tantalizing views of the back of an immature bird as it crept through the waterside vegetation. Eventually, birded out, we made our way back through the traffic of Qinhuangdao, for a short rest and to start packing for tomorrow’s move up to the mountains. The day was rounded of with yet another excellent evening meal, followed by the usual end-of-the-day checklist, and Prof Bush’s roundup of the best grammatical errors of the day, of which he kept a meticulous mental note.!
21st May – I opted out of the pre-breakfast jaunt this morning but the highlight for the others was 2 Lanceolated Warblers at the Jinshan Fields, a grassy area near our hotel, and Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler at Lighthouse Pt. I did eventually arise a little while before breakfast and had great views of a Two-barred Warbler near our room block [without camera unfortunately]. The rest of the day was spent at the Stone River area that we visited on 13th and 15th. The first good find at Stone River was a Striated Heron which flew around a couple of times. We had a fly-over Oriental Honey-buzzard whilst at the beach area, which also had Pacific Golden Plover, Grey Plover, 6 Red-necked Stints and an impressive flock of 98 Terek Sandpipers! We had a fly-over Grey-headed Lapwing, and the only other raptors were Amur Falcon and Hobby. Little Terns and Gull-billed Terns flew around all day and Black-winged Stilts were numerous. We worked the area pretty thoroughly and checked out all areas. Our hard work was rewarded with further fly-over views of Dollarbird, an excellent close Lanceolated Warbler, an 'unblocker' for me having missed the early morning one due to my lie-in, 2 Blyth’s Pipits, 2 very confiding Radde’s Warblers, Pallas’s Reed Buntings and many other ‘common’ species. An excellent find by Bill was a Yellow-legged Buttonquail creeping though the grass and allowing superb views. Its behaviour was something that even Bill had not seen before – it crept along slowly, rocking fore and aft like a Jack Snipe when feeding. Another stake out was for Baillon’s Crake, which the other group had seen earlier in the week. We had been checking every marshy pool with no luck. Chris had a possible during one of his wanderings, and he told us where. It was the sharp-eyed Anna who spotted a movement, whereupon we had tantalizing views of the back of an immature bird as it crept through the waterside vegetation. Eventually, birded out, we made our way back through the traffic of Qinhuangdao, for a short rest and to start packing for tomorrow’s move up to the mountains. The day was rounded of with yet another excellent evening meal, followed by the usual end-of-the-day checklist, and Prof Bush’s roundup of the best grammatical errors of the day, of which he kept a meticulous mental note.!