In April I took a journalist from The Global Times – Jiang Yuxia – to Ma Chang to experience birdwatching as part of her research into birding in Beijing.
Yuxia getting to grips with birding by watching a Baer’s Pochard at Ma Chang in April.
Yuxia has subsequently written and published this article.
It’s a good read with honourable mentions for a few of Beijing’s birders!
This article follows a similar article in The China Daily a few weeks ago and reflects the growing interest in birding among Chinese citizens – a welcome development in a country with serious environmental challenges.
A big thank you to Yuxia for a well-written and positive article about birding!
On Friday I visited Ma Chang with Global Times journalist Jiang Yuxia (writing an article about birding in Beijing) and Jennifer Leung. After a few days of cold and windy weather, the forecast was for a change in the wind from a cold northerly to a light southerly and for temperatures to soar from the recent chilly highs of 10-12 degrees Celsius to over 20 degrees C.
After a 0500 start we reached Ma Chang at around 0630. It was a stunning morning with good visibility, clear skies and almost no wind, disguising the -2 early morning temperature. Along the entrance track we encountered Jesper Hornskov with a couple of clients. They were watching a party of Bohemian Waxwings feeding on the buds of some large trees – a nice start to the day. At Ma Chang, as expected at this time of year, we soon spotted a group of ORIENTAL PLOVERS and a count revealed over 60 birds present – a fantastic total.
Oriental Plover, Ma Chang. Getting bored of these yet?? The flock now exceeds 60 birds.
We moved on to the spit and settled in alongside the local fishing folk for a little visible migration.
Yuxia speaks to the local fishermen about life at Ma Chang…
A few Buff-bellied and Water Pipits, with the odd White Wagtail, flew overhead and a couple of tightly packed flocks of Greater Short-toed Larks wheeled around the remnants of last year’s maize stubble. A Black (eared) Kite lumbered past and two female Eastern Marsh Harriers caused havoc among the flocks of Eurasian Teal.
With not much happening we decided to move on and, after a short stop at a flooded field to admire two stunning BAIKAL TEAL, we headed to the ‘island’ to the north of the desert area to look for duck… Jesper and his clients were already in situ and, although quite distant, it was clear that there were lots of duck present. Two relatively close (but distant to photograph!) Red-breasted Mergansers represented bird species number 299 for me in Beijing… result!
Red-breasted Mergansers, Ma Chang. A scarce bird in the capital. Looks as if this pair has had a quarrel…
With the duck distant, I knew that moving to the location from where I had seen the Baer’s Pochard last Sunday would again be a good vantage point. We headed to the spot and, sure enough, we were treated to stunning views of a large mixed raft of duck with the sun behind us and no wind… perfect, and very unusual, conditions at Wild Duck Lake.
We quickly found a drake BAER’S and, almost immediately, spotted another drake. There were two!
The two BAER’S POCHARDS at Ma Chang on Friday. With Ferruginous Duck, Gadwall and Common Pochard.
As on Sunday with the single drake, the two Baer’s were consorting with Ferruginous Duck and both were seen displaying… fabulous! It was from here that we also enjoyed some stunning views of Falcated Duck (including one very unusually marked male which sported a yellow mark on its lower cheek), Tufted Duck, Common Pochard, Smew, Shoveler, Gadwall, Mallard, Common Teal, Spot-billed Duck, Coot and Little and Great Crested Grebes. It was a great morning’s birding!
The gang at Ma Chang after seeing the two Baer’s Pochards…
A short time later, a couple of Black Kites appeared and, as our eyes began to be distracted from the duck to the skies, it wasn’t long before I spotted an aquila eagle some distance away… My instinct was that it was probably a Greater Spotted Eagle, the most common aquila eagle at this site at this time of year. However, as it soared, Jesper immediately suspected it was an IMPERIAL EAGLE… and he was right!
It circled distantly and was soon joined by a second, but smaller, eagle.. This second bird had a notably square tail, pale markings on the upperwing coverts and mantle and, as it turned, it was even possible to glimpse the ‘landing lights’… wow.. A BOOTED EAGLE! Two very good eagle records for Beijing in the same scope view!
Both appeared to drift away and were lost from view without allowing me to capture any photographic record. However, fortunately, the Imperial soon re-appeared, this time closer, and I grabbed the camera to capture a few record images before it drifted into the mountains to the north. The bulging secondaries, typical of immature Imperial Eagle, can be seen very well, as well as the pale markings on the under- and upperwing. The ‘jizz’ was slightly different to Greater Spotted, too. A useful lesson for me (I have only ever seen one Eastern Imperial Eagle before).
Immature Eastern Imperial Eagle, Ma Chang.Eastern Imperial Eagle (upperparts).
Unfortunately the BOOTED EAGLE didn’t return but maybe it will linger in the area.. it’s a fabulous Beijing record with only a handful of previous sightings in eastern China. It also represented my 300th species in Beijing [NB Stop Press: Booted Eagle seen at Miyun Reservoir on Saturday by Jan-Erik Nilsen – the same bird?] It’s hard for me to see new birds in the capital now, so to see two new species in one day was pretty special..
The infamous NW Wild Duck Lake wind suddenly got up at around 1130 and Jesper and his clients decided to head off to check Yeyahu NR. We decided to stay and enjoy the Baer’s Pochards a little longer. We gave it another hour or so before calling it a day and heading back to Beijing.. another cracking day at this world class site.
