Today was wader day. And after travelling to Jinshitan (just north of Dalian city) yesterday afternoon, we stayed overnight in a very cheap (but functional) hotel ahead of our 5am pick up. Our destination was Pikou, a relatively small town (or so it appears on the map, but actually looks larger than many UK cities!) north of Dalian on the east coast of the peninsula. The journey, which without stops should take less than an hour and a half, is peppered with good birding sites and there are lots of mudflats all the way up, providing good habitat for wading birds. Tom showed us some fabulous sites and I am indebted to him for his guidance, expertise and company today – thanks Tom!!
The highlight was undoubtedly the 6 Black-faced Spoonbills at Zhuange (north of Pikou) with a supporting cast of over 50 Chinese Egrets, 400 Great Knot, over 1,000 Dunlin of the very smart race sakhalina, 300+ Bar-tailed Godwit, 450+ Red-necked Stint, 150+ Terek Sandpiper, 40 Lesser Sand Plover, 2 Greater Sand Plover, 26 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, 7 Grey-tailed Tattler and Saunders’ Gull.
After enjoying the Black-faced Spoonbills (almost all of the total breeding population in China!), we experienced a stunning encounter with a host of waders at a site just south of Zhuange where we sat and watched the waders come towards us as the tide came in, giving us fabulous views of Great Knot, Bar-tailed Godwit, Red-necked Stint, Grey Plover, Lesser Sand Plover etc all in superb breeding plumage. A real bonus was finding 15 birds with coloured rings or flags on their legs. These birds will have been ‘marked’ by ornithologists studying migration routes and I will report these birds (7 Bar-tailed Godwit, 5 Great Knot, 1 Red Knot and 1 Grey Plover) in the hope of discovering something about their history. Many will almost certainly have been ringed in Australia, illustrating just how far these birds travel every year from their breeding grounds near the Arctic circle to their wintering grounds in the southern hemisphere.. truly remarkable.
The drive back ended with a Little Owl just outside Jinshitan – the first time I have seen this species in China – and we arrived back too late to catch the last train back to Dalian and from there to Lushun. So we will begin tomorrow by travelling to Lushun, checking in to our hotel and probably won’t reach Laotieshan until late morning. So we will miss the early hours of migration but it was worth it!
I was a bit lax on the species list today, simply because we stopped at so many sites and saw so many birds! So the following species list is not comprehensive but hopefully gives a flavour of the day…
Whimbrel (300+)
Kentish Plover (12)
Chinese Egret (56)
Chinese Pond Heron (1)
Oystercatcher (6)
Black-tailed Gull (150+)
Peregrine (1)
Grey-tailed Tattler (7)
Black-headed Gull (400+)
Little Egret (6)
Common Sandpiper (4)
Intermediate Egret (1)
Wood Sandpiper (16)
Black-crowned Night Heron (8)
Grey Heron (5)
Common Pheasant (8)
Barn Swallow (300+)
Red-rumped Swallow (25+)
Fork-tailed Swift (60+)
Kestrel (3)
Little Tern (8)
Pacific Golden Plover (57)
Richard’s Pipit (4)
Turnstone (43)
Red-necked Stint (428 including 385 just south of Zuanghe)
Bar-tailed Godwit (300+)
Eurasian Curlew (35+)
Far Eastern Curlew (40+)
Meadow Bunting (3)
Grey Plover (85+)
Terek Sandpiper (c160)
Lesser Sand Plover (34)
Black-tailed Godwit (43)
Saunders’ Gull (5)
Black-faced Bunting (4)
Red Knot (15)
Dunlin (1,000+)
House Martin sp (6)
Yellow Wagtail (14)
Sand Martin (14)
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (38)
Great Knot (c400)
Black-faced Spoonbill (6)
Caspian Tern (1)
Common Shelduck (240)
Chinese Penduline Tit (1)
Blue Rock Thrush (2)
Moorhen (1)
Coot (1)
Little Grebe (2)
Little Owl (1)