I checked out a ‘new’ site at the Sun River (Sun He) this morning for a couple of hours. The walk, along the southern bank of the river, was pleasant by Beijing city standards and meandered past a disused golf course, a few paddies, an apparent landfill tip and some recycling plants. It produced some birds, highlights being 4 Long-billed Plovers, 4 Grey-headed Lapwings, 2 Little Ringed Plovers, 4 Black-winged Stilts, 3 Hoopoes, 8 Buff-bellied Pipits and 18 White Wagtails, mostly of the subspecies leucopsis but including one adult male ocularis.
Full Species List
Mallard 12
Pintail 2
Eurasian Teal 41
Grey Heron 14
Little Egret 5
Kestrel 1
Common (Eastern) Buzzard 3
Black-winged Stilt 4
Grey-headed Lapwing 4
Long-billed Plover 4
Little Ringed Plover 2
Common Snipe 8
Green Sandpiper 6
Oriental Turtle Dove 2
Hoopoe 3
Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker 2
Grey-headed Woodpecker 2
Rook 3
Carrion Crow 10
Great Tit 2
Barn Swallow 22
Skylark 4
Chinese Bulbul 4
Vinous-throated Parrotbill 4
Crested Myna 6
White-cheeked Starling 22
Naumann’s Thrush 5
Daurian Redstart 2
White Wagtail 18 (17 ssp leucopsis, 1 ssp ocularis)
Buff-bellied Pipit 8
Little Bunting 12
Pallas’s Bunting 3
Hi Terry, I and my friend visited Sha He Reservior in the morning, then went to the Olympic Forestry Park yesterday, quite birdy at Sha He, bird list as follows:
Mallard +50
Pintail +1 pair
Eurasian Teal +30
Goldeneye +100
Gadwall +2
Falcated Duck +1 pair
Ruddy Shelduck 2+2 (latter 2 in the Park)
Northern Shoveler +20
Spot-billed Duck +1 pair
Grey Heron +15
Intermadiate White Egret +1
Cormorant +6
Kestrel 1 male +2 (should be at least 1 male, latter 2 seen in the Olympic Forestry Park)
Sparrowhawk +1
Grey-headed Lapwing +25
Northern Lapwing +20
Long-billed Plover 4+4
Little Ringed Plover +15
Kentish Plover +1
Avocet +10
Common Snipe +20
Green Sandpiper +5
Black-headed Gull >20
Oriental Turtle Dove +1
Spotted Dove +6
Hoopoe +4
Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker +2 (in the Park)
Grey-headed Woodpecker 3 (only seen 1, another 2 just heard, powerful druming)
Carrion Crow +20
Skylark +2 (heard often)
Chinese Bulbul (just heard)
White-cheeked Starling +30
Red-billed Starling +1
Common Starling +15
Naumann’s Thrush +5 (1 might be intermadiate type with the Dusky)
Red-throated Thrush +3 (1 male)
Bluetail 1+1 (latter one in the park)
Daurian Redstart +1 male
White Wagtail >30 ( ssp leucopsis, at least 3 ssp ocularis and 3 baicalensis)
Water Pipit +10
Buff-bellied Pipit +10
Little Bunting >30 (a flock in the Forestry Park contains at least 10 birds )
Pallas’s Bunting +3
Reed Bunting +2
Rustic Bunting +1
Some nice records there, Robbi. It’s a great time of year!
A decent variety of stuff, I’d say…. Grey-headed Lapwings are very attractive in a modest sort of way, aren’t they ?
Yes, they are. And a sure sign that Spring is here! I don’t think they breed around here – I tend to see them only on passage – but always a welcome sight.