Much colder today with the temperature down to 10 degrees Celsius at 0530. A brisk north-east wind kept it cool all day but, on the plus side, visibility was the best I have seen in China and it was sunny all day.
A hawking Grey Nightjar was a nice welcome as we arrived at the car park at dawn and other highlights included 2 Greater Spotted Eagles (one of which we watched migrate out to see towards Shandong Province – something like 60+ kilometres away), over 20 Grey-faced Buzzards and this…..
We think we know what it is but do you?
There was a significant fall of phylloscopus warblers today, especially Radde’s and Dusky warblers.. but the number of birds moving was definitely down on the last few days. The forecast for Saturday is for moderate westerlies and mostly clear skies with the temperature increasing slightly. It’ll be interesting to see whether the volume of migrating birds increases again… and with Tom Beeke and his crew arriving for the day tomorrow, we’ll have more pairs of eyes watching the skies.. it promises to be a good day whatever we see.
Was having difficulty deciding between Siberian (Baikal) bush warbler and Chinese BW until I read this in “Reed and Bush Warblers” by Kennerley and Pearson… “Undertail-covert patterning provides and extremely reliable means of separating these species. In Baikal Bush, the individual feathers are dark brown with conspicuous broad white tips, giving evenly spaced pale and dark bands or barring, whereas the pale tips in Chinese Bush are shorter, less contrasting and easily overlooked.” This says it’s Baikal BW to me.
Yes, I tend to agree on Siberian, it seems to have a supercilium though not well marked behind the eye, and lacks pale lores. Obviously you guys think it is something more noteworthy since you’ve had several SBWs already 🙂
Haven’t had a chance to comment this week, but just want to say thanks for taking the time to share! It’s great to hear what you’ve been seeing, and it’s been helpful weather forecasting for me!
Thanks Gretchen! Glad the weather forecasting has helped.. it’s been (surprisingly) pretty reliable over the last 10 days..! Terry