On Saturday I met up with Peter Cawley – from my original local patch at Winterton in the UK – and flew across to Dalian for the onward journey to Laotieshan, the southern tip of the Dalian peninsula. It is here that we will be basing ourselves for at least a week to experience the autumn migration.
We arrived in the late afternoon and met up with Paul Holt who had arrived at lunchtime that day and had managed a few hours birding in the afternoon. Given the recent settled weather, our expectations were not so high but his report certainly whetted the appetite – in just four hours he had seen over 1,000 Oriental Honey Buzzards, over 1,200 Red-rumped Swallows and a good sprinkling of other birds – Amur Falcon, Goshawk, Osprey and White-throated Needletail. Not bad. Sunday was our first full day and it was simply stunning. Over 600 Ashy Minivets, at least 300 Oriental Honey Buzzards, over 100 Black-eared Kites, 3 Black Storks and between 30 and 40 Japanese Sparrowhawks with good numbers of Eurasian Sparrowhawks, Hobbies, Amur Falcons, Kestrel, Osprey and Peregrine as the supporting cast. This site is awesome!
Some early images below……
It’s not just “mouthwatering”, it’s “lip-smackingly” good. More raptors please.
And please give our regards to Paul Holt….
Hi John! Yes, it is “lip-smackingly good”..! Paul sends his regards. He is loving it here… some of the counts are, we believe, China records. Will try to photograph more raptors, although with rain forecast tonight and tomorrow, there might be more of a focus on grounded passerines over the next couple of days. Hopefully the cold front will induce even more birds to move. Cheers, Terry