Paul Holt has just finished his detailed trip report from his visit to Liaoning in May. Bai Qingquan, Tom Beeke and I were lucky enough to accompany him for parts of his trip that included two firsts for the Province – Kamchatka Leaf Warbler and Black-winged Cuckooshrike – plus some impressive counts of waders, including a high count of up to 19 Nordmann’s Greenshanks, Bar-tailed Godwits (10,000), Eastern Curlew (4000), Great Knot (4600), Dunlin (10,400) and Broad-billed Sandpiper (1117). You can download the full report here:
A perfect example of how an report has to be. Thanks Terry. You might be bored of my words but i should reiterate, being an amateur birder, your every post is educating me about birding. Completing one year in china, i found how difficult birding is here especially getting info from others. Eventhough it wil take years for me to fly to Dalian for birding, i wil treasure the report.
Dev, whilst I am happy to accept your thanks, I feel honour bound to pass them on to Paul Holt who authored this report (and was kind enough to add my name!). His attention to detail and willingness to share information is to be applauded.
Awesome report. Incredible count of Broad-billed Sandpipers. That’s 4% of the East Asian population! Not a China record though – there were 1,476 at Yacheng in 1991. Mind you, there were more mudflats around in those days.
Yes, some good counts.. Ironically, fewer mudflats might lead to higher counts, at least in the short-term, as birds become more concentrated (I think this has happened with Red Knot in the Bohai Bay). But of course that’s not sustainable as the density of birds may be too high for optimal feeding. I wasn’t aware of the Yacheng count from 1991, so thank you!
The Far Eastern Curlew count is pretty impressive too