Beijing to Beidaihe
12th May - today was a long transfer day eastwards to the coast at Beidaihe, apparently much easier these days due to an expressway for the whole journey. Driving eastwards out of Beijing and the time it took to clear the city’s extremities, made us realize just how huge a city it is. A fuel stop at a service area on the way, gave us our only sighting of White-cheeked Starling and also Chinese Pond Heron, Oriental Turtle Dove and Light-vented [Chinese] Bulbul. The latter proved to be as common as Tree Sparrow throughout. We eventually arrived at the Jinshan Hotel, which has a series of accommodation blocks dotted around pleasant gardens. My notes are not clear as to the order in which we did things after lunch but we visited the grounds of a nearby hotel, the Friendship Hotel, which has very extensive grounds, which prove attractive to migrating birds. We also made a first of several visits to what are known as the Sand Flats, a very large expanse of sand at the mouth of a small river in Beidaihe, which flows out of a reservoir located behind the coast road. This area is viewed either from a busy road bridge or a boardwalk. The hotel grounds produced Eurasian Hobby, Spotted Dove, Common Cuckoo, Eurasian Hoopoe [a pair had a nest in a tree there], Great Spotted Woodpecker, a stunning male White-throated Rock-thrush, Eyebrowed Thrush, Yellow-browed and Dusky Warblers, Grey-streaked Flycatcher, Taiga Flycatcher, Japanese Tit [split from Eastern Great Tit], Chestnut-flanked White-eye, Brown Shrike [another very common bird throughout], the stunning Red-billed Blue Magpie, 3 Red-billed Starlings, and Tristram’s Bunting, and other common birds. I should also mention the stunning male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher [aka Korean Flycatcher] which was in a tree beside our accommodation block, before we set out for the afternoon.
At the Sand flats we saw the usual Egrets, and new waders were 4 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, 2 Ruff, Whimbrel, Eurasian Curlew, and Spotted Redshank. There were many Black-tailed Gulls out towards the seaward side, mostly immature birds but obvious with their broad black tail band when in flight. From the inland side of the road ridge by the stream, we had Common Kingfisher and a male Siberian Blue Robin.
At the Sand flats we saw the usual Egrets, and new waders were 4 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, 2 Ruff, Whimbrel, Eurasian Curlew, and Spotted Redshank. There were many Black-tailed Gulls out towards the seaward side, mostly immature birds but obvious with their broad black tail band when in flight. From the inland side of the road ridge by the stream, we had Common Kingfisher and a male Siberian Blue Robin.