“The
following sentence opened last year’s Northern China Tour Report ‘So there we
have it, 278 species, a respectable tally in anyone’s book, some truly
outstanding birds and some undoubtedly long lasting memories’. It applies equally well as an introduction
to this year’s trip – we encountered almost exactly the same number of species
(273 and again including a few leader only birds) and certainly had some
fabulous encounters and a myriad of long-lasting memories. However, this year’s bird list was
surprisingly different to that of 2005.
In 2006 we did extremely well up on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau seeing
virtually all of the area’s specialities while last year we had more migrants
on the coast at Beidaihe.
This year it wasn’t a game bird that headed the end
of tour ‘Bird of the Trip’ poll - it was the first of the two species of
sandgrouse that we saw. We saw both
species well but the first, a scattered party of Tibetan Sandgrouse, were among
the biggest surprises of the entire tour.
(The accolade for biggest surprise must surely go to the Eurasian Golden
Plover we saw on one of the excursions we made south of Beidaihe). Waddling up to a desert drinking hole the
fragmented flock of no less than 22 Tibetan Sandgrouse treated us to
outstanding and prolonged views!
Pallas’s, the other species of sandgrouse we encountered in the same
desert near Chaka, garnered just one quarter as many votes in our poll and
finished a lowly seventh despite the fact that we also had excellent views of
birds in flight and an equally prolonged encounter with a cooperative pair at
rest.
Other ornithological highlights of the Plateau
included both Rusty-necklaced (a roadside covey close to the sandgrouse pool)
and Tibetan Partridges, an elusive Eurasian Eagle Owl, numerous majestic
Black-necked and one distant flying flock of Demoiselle Cranes, good numbers of
Upland Buzzards and perhaps as many as five different Saker Falcons. The most memorable raptor encounter wasn’t
either of these nor the Pallas’s Fish or Steppe Eagle however but a fantastic
roadside adult Lammergeier that treated us to a circus performer-like bone
swallowing act before joining its mate for an equally enthralling sequence of
aerial acrobatics! Songbirds weren’t
neglected either – a pair of Wallcreepers put on a stupendous performance as,
eventually, did a couple of male Kessler’s Thrushes, all six species of
snowfinch and that taxonomic enigma the Pink-tailed Bunting. We also saw three Rufous-tailed Shrikes and
our first male Desert Wheatear near the gloomy Chaka Salt Works and three of
Mongolian Ground Jays on our drive out.
The first two Ground Jays were spotted sitting on top of an earth bank
way off in the distance, we approached and they did their usual vanishing act –
tunnelling perhaps? Our later encounter
with this notoriously difficult species was truly superb.
Soon enough it was time to move to Huzhu
Beishan. On most of our previous visits
we’ve camped here, but we opted not to do that this year – and inclement
weather (that kept us from seeing the mountains that the Tibetan
Snowcocks were on last year let alone the snowcocks themselves!) proved that
we’d made the right decision. The guest
house (not, incidentally, the one we’d planned to stay at) proved OK after a few
adjustments and a spot of digging and there were of course lots of birds. We had three primary targets at Huzhu
Beishan - Blue Eared Pheasant, Chinese Grouse and Gansu Leaf Warbler and by the
end of our first day in the reserve we’d seen all three! The pheasant’s put on an even better
performance at their usual site when we left two days later and we tallied an
impressive 24 individuals. Other
goodies included Black Woodpecker, Siberian Rubythroat, umpteen ‘Himalayan’
Orange-flanked Bush Robins and very large numbers of redstarts with our
White-throated and White-bellied encounters perhaps being the most
memorable. Both nuthatches (Chinese and
Przewalsky’s) cooperated and put on fine performances, as did both Grey-headed
Bullfinch and White-winged Grosbeak.
Sadly however we didn’t hear a peep from the Blood Pheasants we’d seen
so well on our last two visits to the reserve and the Chestnut-throated
Partridges called once and then slunk away before we had a hope of seeing them.
Our time on the Hebei coast at Beidaihe well to the
east of Beijing was a change of pace and a markedly different avifauna. We stopped off on the Sand Flats and added
Relict Gull to our already burgeoning list even before we’d reached the comfortable
Jin Shan hotel. Umpteen new birds
ensued over the next four days with highlights including gaudy Red-billed Blue
Magpies and a fine male Siberian Rubythroat right outside the hotel’s dining
room; an immature Grey-backed Thrush and several Rufous-tailed Robins minutes
further away. Our explorations took us
quite well away from Beidaihe and one particular excursion, on the 28th
September, took us south in search of ducks.
It didn’t yield any and we’d have to wait a couple of days longer for a
truly memorable duck fest back at Beidaihe and instead we had to be satisfied
with China’s first Eurasian Golden Plover and close range encounters with a
Grey-tailed Tattler. At the end of a
busy day and while heading back to Mr San’s coach we spotted an ‘Eastern’ Water
Rail and moments later our only Baillon’s Crake of the tour. Both were unusually obliging.
Beidaihe’s early morning movements of passerines are
often impressive, as are its days of raptor passage but perhaps our most
memorable experience locally was the 20 minutes we had besides the town
reservoir that gave our waterfowl list a much needed boost. 15 Falcated Duck, ten Baikal Teal a single
Mandarin and last, but far from least, a Baer’s Pochard all within the space of
20 minutes left us rocking. The latter
is now East Asia’s most difficult duck.
There were so many other highlights – the close range, diminutive
Pallas’s Warbler and the fly-bye Little Curlew being just two.
There were numerous surprises during the tour – the
Parasitic Jaeger (Arctic Skua to a couple of us) over Qinghai Hu, the massive
flock of House Sparrows (yep House Sparrows!) outside our comfortable Niao Dao
guest house and the two Long-billed Plovers south of Beidaihe. There were some equally memorable spectacles
– ranking high among the latter were the myriad larks on the Qinghai-Tibetan
Plateau and the early morning flights of passerines over the Sand Flats at
coastal Beidaihe.
Once again however we experienced much more than just
an impressive tally of birds and mammals.
We experienced the real China.
Yes there was the starring and the spitting (but both in significantly
lesser doses than was the case ten years ago) but there was also the warm
hospitality, the friendliness of our guides and agents and of course the
food. The varied and plentiful food is,
for many, a particularly appealing feature of Sunbird’s China tours and, even
at remote Huzhu Beishan, the culinary delights never ceased. Despite a typically busy schedule we even
found time to do the tourist route around Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden
City in a rapidly changing Beijing.
Even though we experienced some heavy rain during our
last day up on the Plateau and our first day at Huzhu Beishan the weather was
mostly kind to us and I doubt that the rain cost us many birds.
The views we had up on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
were often truly spectacular. Distant
snow capped peaks, rolling Tibetan steppe grassland dotted with domesticated
yaks, goats and sheep and with the turquoise waters of Qinghai Hu as a
back-drop. Who wouldn’t have been impressed…”
Paul Holt.
Bird List:
This is a list of all the species seen
during the last three tours to Northern China.
Column A = Number of tours on which
this species has been recorded.
Column B = Number of days this species
was seen on the last tour.
Column C = Maximum daily count for this
species on the last tour.
H =
Heard only
(H) =
Heard but not seen
A B C
|
1 |
Tibetan Snowcock
|
|
|
|
Tetraogallus tibetanus |
|
1 |
Chestnut-throated Partridge |
1 |
1 |
H |
Tetraophasis obscurus |
|
1 |
Rusty-necklaced Partridge |
1 |
7 |
|
Alectoris magna |
|
1 |
Daurian Partridge
|
|
|
|
Perdix dauurica |
|
3 |
Tibetan Partridge
|
1 |
5 |
|
Perdix hodgsoniae |
|
3 |
Japanese Quail
|
2 |
1 |
|
Coturnix japonica |
|
2 |
Blood Pheasant
|
|
|
|
Ithaginis cruentus |
|
3 |
Blue Eared Pheasant |
2 |
24 |
|
Crossoptilon auritum |
|
3 |
Common Pheasant
|
6 |
40 |
|
Phasianus colchicus |
|
3 |
Chinese Grouse
|
1 |
3 |
H |
Tetrastes sewerzowi |
|
3 |
Whooper Swan |
3 |
4 |
|
Cygnus cygnus |
|
2 |
Greylag Goose |
1 |
30 |
|
Anser anser rubrirostris |
|
3 |
Bar-headed Goose
|
4 |
60 |
|
Anser indicus |
|
3 |
Ruddy Shelduck
|
5 |
200 |
|
Tadorna ferruginea |
|
2 |
Common Shelduck
|
2 |
7 |
|
Tadorna tadorna |
|
1 |
Mandarin Duck |
2 |
2 |
|
Aix galericulata |
|
2 |
Gadwall |
2 |
10 |
|
Anas strepera |
|
3 |
Falcated Duck
|
2 |
16 |
|
Anas falcata |
|
3 |
Eurasian Wigeon
|
5 |
1500 |
|
Anas penelope |
|
3 |
Mallard |
8 |
100 |
|
Anas platyrhynchos |
|
3 |
Chinese Spot-billed Duck |
5 |
150 |
|
Anas (poecilorhyncha) zonorhyncha |
|
2 |
Northern Shoveler
|
4 |
310 |
|
Anas clypeata |
|
3 |
Northern Pintail
|
8 |
1200 |
|
Anas acuta |
|
3 |
Garganey |
5 |
32 |
|
Anas querquedula |
|
3 |
Baikal Teal |
2 |
11 |
|
Anas formosa |
|
3 |
Common Teal
|
8 |
3000 |
|
Anas crecca |
|
3 |
Red-crested Pochard |
4 |
4000 |
|
Rhodonessa rufina |
|
3 |
Common Pochard
|
4 |
400 |
|
Aythya ferina |
|
1 |
Baer's Pochard
|
1 |
1 |
|
Aythya baeri |
|
1 |
Ferruginous Pochard |
2 |
8 |
|
Aythya nyroca |
|
3 |
Tufted Duck
|
4 |
800 |
|
Aythya fuligula |
|
1 |
White-winged Scoter |
|
|
|
Melanitta fusca stejnegeri |
|
3 |
Common Goldeneye
|
2 |
7 |
|
Bucephala clangula |
|
1 |
Smew |
|
|
|
Mergus albellus |
|
3 |
Goosander |
4 |
12 |
|
Mergus merganser |
|
1 |
Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker |
|
|
|
Dendrocopos canicapillus |
|
3 |
Great Spotted Woodpecker |
4 |
3 |
|
Dendrocopos major |
|
1 |
Rufous-bellied Woodpecker |
|
|
|
Dendrocopos hyperythrus |
|
3 |
Black Woodpecker
|
2 |
1 |
|
Dryocopus martius |
|
3 |
Grey-headed Woodpecker |
1 |
3 |
H |
Picus canus |
|
3 |
Common Hoopoe
|
9 |
5 |
|
Upupa epops |
|
3 |
Common Kingfisher
|
4 |
4 |
|
Alcedo atthis |
|
2 |
Black-capped Kingfisher |
|
|
|
Halcyon pileata |
|
1 |
Eurasian Cuckoo
|
|
|
|
Cuculus canorus |
|
1 |
Common Swift
|
|
|
|
Apus apus pekinensis |
|
1 |
Fork-tailed Swift
|
|
|
|
Apus pacificus |
|
1 |
White-throated Needletail |
|
|
|
Hirundapus caudacutus |
|
1 |
Oriental Scops Owl |
|
|
|
Otus sunia |
|
2 |
Eurasian Eagle Owl
|
1 |
1 |
|
Bubo bubo |
|
3 |
Little Owl |
4 |
3 |
|
Athene noctua |
|
3 |
Rock Dove/Feral Rock Pigeon |
14 |
200 |
|
Columba livia |
|
3 |
Hill Pigeon
|
7 |
80 |
|
Columba rupestris |
|
3 |
Oriental Turtle Dove |
5 |
50 |
|
Streptopelia orientalis |
|
2 |
Spotted Dove
|
2 |
7 |
|
Streptopelia chinensis |
|
2 |
Red Collared Dove |
1 |
4 |
|
Streptopelia tranquebarica |
|
3 |
Eurasian Collared Dove |
2 |
5 |
|
Streptopelia decaocto |
|
2 |
Demoiselle Crane |
1 |
300 |
|
Grus virgo |
|
1 |
Common Crane
|
1 |
1 |
|
Grus grus |
|
3 |
Black-necked Crane
|
3 |
31 |
|
Grus nigricollis |
|
2 |
Water Rail |
2 |
1 |
|
Rallus aquaticus indicus |
|
3 |
Baillon’s Crake
|
1 |
1 |
|
Porzana pusilla |
|
3 |
Common Moorhen
|
2 |
13 |
|
Gallinula chloropus |
|
3 |
Common Coot
|
2 |
1000 |
|
Fulica atra |
|
1 |
Tibetan Sandgrouse |
1 |
22 |
|
Syrrhaptes tibetanus |
|
2 |
Pallas’s Sandgrouse |
1 |
14 |
|
Syrrhaptes paradoxus |
|
2 |
Eurasian Woodcock |
|
|
|
Scolopax rusticola |
|
1 |
Solitary Snipe |
|
|
|
Gallinago solitaria |
|
2 |
Pintail or Swinhoe's Snipe |
3 |
2 |
|
Gallinago stenura/megala |
|
3 |
Common Snipe |