Summary

After last year’s trip was cancelled because of the outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), we returned to China for WildWings tenth visit to Beidaihe fearing the worst. The fear was not of SARS, but of habitat destruction, which has been increasing alarmingly alongside the extraordinary rate of growth in China during its modern Industrial Revolution. We need not have worried - little had changed this year, although we encountered environmental vandalism taking place around us as we birded in one of our favourite woods. But even if some of the habitat is going, the birds keep coming, and 2004 was one of the best springs we have had at this migration hotspot on the coast of China.

The 2002 trip coincided with a late spring, and this year was the opposite, with a number of regular species appearing a week or even two weeks ahead of their usual arrival dates. There were several large falls and dramatic arrivals of migrants, assisted by some wet and unsettled weather in the middle of the trip. Memorable among these were peak daily totals of 3,000 Yellow-browed and 500 Pallas’s Warblers, 300 Asian Brown Flycatchers, and flocks of hundreds of buntings passing high overhead on some days.

There were some dramatic and unforgettable sights - 1,000+ White-winged Black Terns in summer plumage feeding over rice-fields; 10 Pied Harriers (mostly males) going north low over Beidaihe in a morning, where ten days later 18 Needletails powered through in just two hours; close and prolonged views of a Brown Hawk Owl sitting a few yards away staring at us with its penetrating and fearsome yellow eyes; and visible migration as most of us have never seen before, where hundreds of warblers, flycatchers, thrushes, chats and buntings drop out of the sky into a small coastal wood and the trees are filled with their calls as they immediately set about refuelling on their long journey northwards to the forests and lakes of Siberia.

The most unusual species included Chinese Egret (three together), Black Baza (two individuals), Greater Painted-snipe, Little Whimbrel (four together), Grey-tailed Tattler, Relict Gull (up to 8 together), Saunders’ Gull (but many fewer than usual), Hodgson’s (aka Northern) Hawk Cuckoo, Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike, Long-tailed Minivet, Red-flanked Bluetail (five in a period of three days), Plumbeous Redstart (male), Grey-crowned Warbler (a split from Golden Spectacled), Chinese Leaf Warbler, Blue-and-White Flycatcher (two males), Elisae’s Flycatcher (three), Tiger Shrike (two males), and Bull-headed Shrike. New on WildWings China trips were Slender-billed Gull, Isabelline Shrike and Winter Wren, and in the mountains at Old Peak several members of the group were lucky enough to watch, for half an hour, a wild cat which has been subsequently confirmed as an Asian Golden (aka Temminck’s) Cat.

This year’s group of 27 included a number of experienced, knowledgeable and well-travelled birders, who contributed greatly to the success of the trip. Several were proficient at digiscoping, which again proved its value in helping immediate identification of some of the trickier species. Most participants ended up with more than 100 new species out of the total of 245 recorded.

Beijing

On arrival in Beijing, we were met by Jean, our very experienced and capable and guide, who was to travel with us and look after us daily throughout the tour. We spent 3-4 May there, combining birding with some sightseeing in and around the city. People appreciate the opportunity to visit Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, which we do on the first afternoon soon after our arrival. In addition to the three resident species of magpie (Azure-winged, Black-billed and Red-billed Blue), Spotted Doves, Large-billed Crows and an Oriental Greenfinch, we found some migrants in a small grove of trees. Surprising for the centre of this huge city, there were a Pallas’s and half a dozen Yellow-browed Warblers, and three Black-faced Buntings, while overhead passed a Eurasian Hobby and Red-rumped Swallows. Later in the afternoon we walked from our hotel to the local Yuan Yan Tan Park, where despite crowds of people out enjoying themselves in the warm sunshine of a public holiday, we found a surprising variety of migrants. Star bird was a White’s Thrush, typically mobile and elusive; there were 10 Yellow-browed and a Pallas’s Warbler; three Yellow-throated and single Tristram’s and Little Buntings; and Asian Brown and Taiga Flycatchers. Probably resident were Grey-headed, Grey-capped and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Crested Mynas and Yellow-bellied Tits.

The following morning was spent at the Summer Palace, with its beautiful lakes, willow trees and ornate bridges. This experience continues the introduction to far-eastern birding, and despite the presence of many other visitors, we found an impressive variety of local and migrant birds. These included Chinese Pond Herons, a very nervous flock of six Ruddy Shelducks, Spot-billed Ducks, two Amur Falcons passing overhead, a Gull-billed Tern, Rufous-bellied Woodpeckers, Olive-backed Pipits, Chinese Bulbuls, Eye-browed Thrushes, Taiga Flycatchers, Vinous-throated Parrotbills, Chestnut-flanked White-eyes, White-cheeked Starlings, Chinese Grosbeaks, and Black-faced and Little Buntings. Particularly welcome were the range of phylloscopus warblers, with singing Pallas’s and Radde’s, some 70 Yellow-browed, three Dusky and a single Hume’s Leaf Warbler.

A return visit was made to the local park in the afternoon, where there was still a White’s Thrush and several of the previous day’s other species, plus a Eurasian Wryneck, three Siberian Stonechats, a Dusky Warbler, and at the end of an enjoyable visit, a stunning male Daurian Redstart which we were able to show to a keen Chinese lady birdwatcher and her family. Each year we are surprised by how many migrants drop in to this relatively small area of trees and bushes in the centre of the city.

Beidaihe

We made an early start on 5 May for the coach journey from Beijing to Beidaihe along the relatively new motorway. Previously we have gone by train, but this new door-to-door service from hotel to hotel, with plenty of luggage space beneath the coach, took only three-and-a-half hours and overcame the logistical and luggage problems we used to experience in using the train. Soon after 9.0 am we arrived at the Jin Shan Hotel where a full English breakfast awaited us. Hundreds of buntings, wagtails and pipits were pouring westwards over the town and breakfast was consumed very quickly. As on several previous trips, we had hit the ground running on our arrival in Beidaihe, carried along on an ornithological magic carpet which did not stop throughout our stay.

Our Tour Leaders judged that in the prevailing conditions the Lotus Hills would be a good starting point today, followed by a visit to the Yang He Estuary and wood to the south. From the hills we had an excellent raptor watch, with five Crested Honey Buzzards, a male Eastern Marsh Harrier, four unidentified harriers, a Japanese and two Eurasian Sparrowhawks, five Amur Falcons, four Eurasian Hobbys, and to everyone’s great excitement, ten Pied Harriers, most being stunning males and passing low overhead. Surprising were 17 Oriental Pratincoles passing north over the town during the morning. More usual were half a dozen Oriental Turtle Doves and two Blue Rock Thrushes.

The estuary held several wader species, including a single Grey-tailed Tattler, 15 Pacific Golden Plover, and a Terek Sandpiper. Fleeting views were had of a first-summer Saunders’ Gull flying off as we arrived, leaving 30 Black-tailed Gulls present, and four Pacific Swifts passed overhead.

The lagoons nearby revealed two lovely summer-plumage Cattle Egrets, seven Purple Herons passing over, three Japanese Quail, four Grey-headed Lapwing, three Red-necked and three Long-toed Stints, seven Sharp-tailed and seven Curlew Sandpipers, two Pintail Snipe, two Whiskered Terns, two Asian Short-toed Larks, two Richard’s Pipits, two Red-spotted Bluethroats, , 40+ Siberian Stonechats, and a Chinese Penduline Tit. Buntings here and in and around the wood included Yellow-browed, Yellow-throated, Yellow-breasted, Black-faced, Tristram’s, Little, Chestnut and Pallas’s Reed, reflecting the substantial passage seen over the hotel on our arrival in the morning.

The small isolated wood held more birds. A Large Hawk Cuckoo was seen well, trying to hide in a densely-leaved tree, two Olive-backed Pipits, male and female Daurian Redstarts, three Radde’s and four Dusky Warblers, five Taiga Flycatchers and four Brown Shrikes.

It had been quite a day, but as we were going to discover, it was by no means unusual. Exhausted but elated, we celebrated in the evening with the first of our excellent Jin Shan dinners, the menu chosen by Mark and Jean, and costing about £2.50 including plenty of the good local beer.

We spent the next four days in and around Beidaihe, working the regular areas which include the Jin Shan Hotel gardens, the Jin Shan Field, Lighthouse Point, ‘Suzie Wong’s’ (a garden by the hotel north entrance, full of large trees), the Sandflats, Sandflats Wood, the Wader Pools and the nearby Heng Ho Reservoir. The occasional visit was made to Eagle Rock Gully, where the small stream has all but dried up, and to Radar Marsh where only a tiny patch of marsh and stream remains. We found that Legation Gully, formerly a great migrant magnet, was now completely built up and birdless, and that Fishook Point and Eagle Rock’s Pigeon Park, each with its small wood and coastal bushes, had both been turned into fenced-in theme parks. We made an outing to the Great Wall on 7 May and revisited the Yang He Estuary and Wood on 8th and 9th.

Regardless of weather, which was generally fine and sunny with winds between east and south-west, migrants poured through every day. With first useable light about 4.30 am, many of us were up before then and out all day until dusk fell at about 7.00 pm. Often the day would start slowly, so that by breakfast there had been just a few arrivals on Lighthouse Point and around the hotel gardens. After breakfast, people would arrange their programme for the rest of the day, usually being spent around the Sandflats and the Reservoir, reached by bike or by taxi. With the group split up into several smaller ones, communication was maintained by text-messaging on mobile ’phones, establishing a local pager service! This included regular two-way contact with Paul Holt and his Sunbird group, which enabled both groups to see birds they might otherwise have missed.

Highlights during these four days included up to three Striated Herons, a Chinese Egret on the Sandflats and three together on the Yang He Estuary, a Eurasian Spoonbill, 30 White-winged Scoter off Lighthouse Point (where usually it is numerous - these were the only ones seen this year), an early Yellow-legged Buttonquail and two Baillon’s Crakes, and a male Greater Painted Snipe on the Yang He Lagoons. There was a good wader passage on these four days, with up to 9 Lesser and one Greater Sandplover; a Great Knot; 20 Red-necked, two Temminck’s and three Long-toed Stints; three Sharp-tailed, five Marsh and six Terek Sandpipers; up to eight Far-eastern Curlew; a Little Whimbrel passing north over Lighthouse Point on the evening of 8th; and plenty of commoner species.

Gulls included up to 47 Black-tailed, 12 Heuglin’s, an adult and four immature Vega, and on 6th a passage of 25 Eastern Mew Gulls past Lighthouse Point. An extraordinary record was of an adult Slender-billed Gull on the Sandflats on 6th, first seen by a few of our group among Black-headed Gulls out at the edge of the flats in the morning just before they all flew off out to sea, and later watched at close range by other observers on the Wader Pools near the Reservoir and photographed A Caspian Tern and the first few Little and White-winged Black Terns appeared. Oriental Turtle Doves peaked at 16 and one was found dead; the first of our six Oriental Scops Owls was found; up to four Rufous-bellied Woodpeckers were seen daily; and on 9th a Mongolian Lark was watched on some rubble-strewn ground by the Sandflats Wood. Unfortunately it showed distinct signs of feather wear and evidence of captivity, it was approachable and was reluctant to fly, so had to be placed firmly in Category D (species for which ‘there is reasonable doubt’ that they have occurred in a natural state)! This decision was vindicated when the bird was still in the same place some ten days later. This contrasts with the five previous records on WildWings trips, where each bird has been in immaculate plumage and difficult to approach.

A Pechora Pipit was on the Sandflats on 9th; up to three Forest Wagtails seen around the Reservoir; small numbers of Yellow Wagtails (up to 20 in a day) included all four races to be expected here, and up to six White Wagtails of the regular two races occurred; a Long-tailed Minivet was found on Lighthouse Point early on 9th; up to 14 Siberian Rubythroats and 15 Siberian Blue Robins were seen daily, often in the hotel gardens; as many as 100+ Siberian Stonechats passed through in a day; and the first of some 20 White-throated Rock Thrushes, a handsome male, was found. Other thrushes were by now arriving, with a lovely male Siberian on 9th, up to six White’s in a day, two Grey-backed, up to five Eye-browed and seven Dusky, with one Naumann’s, and three single Chinese Song Thrushes.

Warblers poured through every day in ever-increasing volume and variety. A particular gem was a skulking Asian Stub-tailed Warbler which spent two days in a hedge near the hotel restaurant, and which needed much patient waiting and watching before it would come out into the open, but gave cracking views when it did. There was a resident Zitting Cisticola at the Sandflats (with a song so different from the European form that it should surely be considered for a split!). Among the scores of Yellow-browed and Pallas’s passing through the trees, we picked out the first Two-barred Greenish, Eastern Crowned, and Pale-legged Leaf, while closer to the ground were Radde’s (up to 20 per day) and Dusky Warblers (up to 100). Single Grey-crowned Warblers (a split from Golden Spectacled) were seen on 7th and 8th.

Flycatchers included daily Taiga, and on 8th an arrival of two Grey-streaked, 10 Asian Brown, two Mugimakis and three Yellow-rumped Flycatchers. The first of the three Elisae’s Flycatchers of the trip was in the hotel garden, by the front door of our accommodation, on 9th. At the Reservoir a pair of attractive Vinous-throated Parrotbills had a nest and were seen every day. Up to 50 Penduline Tits and 20 Chestnut-flanked White-eyes passed high overhead daily, their high-pitched calls being rather similar. Lovely Black-naped Orioles and smart Brown Shrikes were appearing in increasing numbers, and the first few Black Drongos, Common Rosefinches and a Daurian Starling arrived.

Buntings are most numerous at the beginning of each trip, and following on from the big arrival on 5th, we found five Chestnut-eared and three Japanese Reed on 6th, as well as further small numbers of the other species already recorded. On 9th some 500+ passed over Beidaihe, but were not identifiable.

The Great Wall

On 7th we made a visit to the Great Wall at Jiaoshan Mountain, about an hour’s drive to the north of Beidaihe. This is usually a guaranteed site for a number of mountain species, but on this occasion, because of the week-long public holiday, there were large numbers of people everywhere and birds were hard to find. Three Amur Falcons, two Eastern Marsh Harriers, a Eurasian Hobby and two Common Kestrels passed over the mountain, where a male Blue Rock Thrush, four Siberian Meadow Buntings and two Eastern Rock Buntings were found. An arrival of warblers in bushes and trees by the entrance gate provided a diversion from the noise and disturbance. Ominously, a second and much bigger cable car lift was being constructed which will clearly cause infinitely more disturbance, so we will be visiting a quieter part of the Wall in future.

Happy Island and the southern woods

After the usual early morning birding at Lighthouse Point and around the Jin Shan Hotel on 10th, we left by coach after breakfast for a five day visit to the area some 80 kilometres to the south of Beidaihe. As always this proved to be outstandingly successful, with superb birding at various stopping points en route, on our two day trips to the legendary Happy Island, and in and around ‘The Magic Wood’ and ‘The Big Wood’ on the coast nearby.

Da Pu He

We stopped at this area of woodland, grassland and wetland en route on 10th, and were well rewarded. A flock of 19 beautiful Cattle Egrets, an unusual pair of Common Pochard, 100+ Pacific Golden Plover and two Oriental Pratincoles heading north overhead, and a varied selection of waders (2 Red-necked and 8 Long-toed Stints, 5 Curlew Sandpipers, 12 Pintail Snipe, 9 Marsh Sandpipers, 20 Common Greenshank, 80 Wood and a Terek Sandpiper) were found. In the woods were the first Common Cuckoo, 10 Olive-backed Pipits, a flighty male Siberian Thrush and an Eye-browed, small numbers of leaf warblers, and five Taiga Flycatchers, five Asian Brown, a first-summer male Mugimaki and a Grey-streaked Flycatcher. In the grassland area and on the edge of the woods we found two Asian Short-toed Larks, three Richard’s, a Blyth’s and two Red-throated Pipits, two Rubythroats and five Blue Robins, and three Black-browed Reed Warblers. Flocks of Penduline Tits, totalling 70, passed noisily overhead. We had the feeling that migration was by now in full swing, and anticipated some good days ahead.

‘The Magic Pool’

We stopped a few kilometres before the woods to look for two Little Whimbrel seen earlier in fields by a large roadside pool. We soon found the Little Whimbrel feeding in a ploughed area with a small flock of Pacific Golden Plover, and eventually located four which we happily watched for about an hour. On the pool were many waders and terns, including 40 Red-necked, two Temminck’s and a Long-toed Stint; 12 Sharp-tailed and 70 Curlew Sandpipers; nine Marsh and 100+ Wood Sandpipers; with 100+ Whiskered, 20 Little, 10 Gull-billed, six White-winged Black and two Common Terns. We reluctantly dragged ourselves away - the day was far from over.

Over the next few days we made several visits to the pool, which continued to hold similar numbers of waders and terns. We added three Little Stints to the list on 12th, when Red-necked Stints peaked at 85, Temminck’s at six and Curlew Sandpipers at 80. The Little Whimbrel were not seen again, but White-winged Black Tern numbers increased on 12th to a quite remarkable 1,000+ over nearby rice fields, all in summer plumage. The trip’s only Citrine Wagtail was seen here, also on 12th.

‘The Magic Wood’

To our relief, after our two-year absence, the small Magic Wood appeared to be mostly intact when we arrived on 10th, although encroached upon by some newly-planted saplings where some large old trees had been felled. We lined up at one end of the wood with the light behind us, to do a slow sweep through the trees and bushes. The whole place was alive with birds, flying from tree to tree and bush to bush, and the air was full of chacking, ticking and squeaking calls. We scarcely moved for about half an hour as we worked through the warblers, chats, thrushes and flycatchers which made up the bulk of the migrants present. Totals were of four Rubythroats; 10 Blue Robins; a male White-throated Rock Thrush; a White’s Thrush, two male Siberian, five Eye-browed, two Dusky and a Naumann’s Thrush. Warblers totalled three Eastern Crowned, three Two-barred Greenish, 100+ Pallas’s Leaf, 500+ Yellow-browed, 10 Radde’s, and one Dusky. Flycatchers were 15 Asian Brown, five Red-throated, and three dazzling Yellow-rumped.

Larger birds included a colourful Dollarbird (aka Broad-billed Roller) doing a circuit, three Oriental Turtle Doves, an Oriental Scops Owl hiding low down in a dense bush, a spectacular Brown Hawk Owl roaming the wood, no fewer than three Grey Nightjars, doing their best to remain invisible in the trees, and a Rufous-bellied Woodpecker which hid round the trunk of a tree it was sharing with a Grey Nightjar - perhaps it thought it was a raptor! There was a tiny Japanese Sparrowhawk racing back and forth through the wood, striking fear and panic into many of the birds. Add a Black Drongo, two Brown Shrikes, 100+ White-eyes, a Common Rosefinch and Black-faced, Little and Yellow-breasted Buntings, and you have a reasonably good afternoon’s birding... More beers than usual were sunk that evening at the end of a spectacular day.

We returned to the Magic Wood each day, and always found it full of birds, often seeing them dropping out of the sky into the trees and passing through in great waves. To our great horror, on our second visit we found a digger and dumper trucks working there, removing earth and knocking down trees. They were taking the earth only a few hundred metres down the road to use for planting willow saplings at the side of the road. This environmental vandalism was utterly senseless, and we asked Jean to see if it could be stopped. This happened after two days, during which about one third of the wood, and many of its best and biggest trees, had been demolished, leaving a scar the width of a motorway through it. We noted the beginning of a large hotel development immediately to the north, with an artist’s impression on an enormous hoarding of the proposed site, including landscaped gardens and lakes, so this may be the last we will see of our Magic Wood.

The further visits to the wood produced some terrific birding, with memorable sights. These included several huge White’s Thrushes charging through the trees, a male Siberian Thrush sitting right out in the open (eventually!), flocks of Eye-browed Thrushes in the treetops, shy Rufous-tailed Robins occasionally venturing out into the open to feed, a Lanceolated Warbler freezing at the base of a tree for all to see, scores of Brown Shrikes with a male Tiger Shrike and a female Bull-headed (with a Yellow-browed Warbler in its larder) on the same day, a variety of buntings, Thick-billed and Manchurian Reed Warblers, a Crested Honey Buzzard low overhead, and another buzzard, at the time of writing still unidentified, but possibly an Upland Buzzard. We enjoyed wonderful views on every visit of so many migrants seeking shelter, food and water on their urgent northward migration. There can be few places in the world where this intensity and volume of migration can be experienced in such a tiny area.

‘The Big Wood’

We made two visits here, and were rewarded with similar species to those in the Magic Wood, in often very large numbers but without the concentration. A male Blue-and-White Flycatcher on 14th was very special, as was a Brown Hawk Owl perched low down by a track and staring at us with those piercing yellow eyes. On 12th our first Black-capped Kingfisher was seen here and there were no fewer than 10 Mugimaki Flycatchers.. Some of the migrant numbers really were impressive. On 12th we estimated 3,000+ Yellow-browed, 500+ Pallas’s and 30 Pale-legged Leaf Warblers, while over 200 Asian Brown Flycatchers were seen on 14th, when there were also 100+ in the Magic Wood.

Liao Yu Jian Harbour

Despite extensive development of the harbour from where we catch the ferry to Happy Island, there were still plenty of waders and gulls on the mudflats at low tide. Here we saw up to 8 Relict and two Saunders’ Gulls, 6 Asian Dowitchers, 100+ Lesser and two Greater Sandplovers (all in summer plumage), 500+ Dunlin (of the race sakhalina, which is larger, brighter and paler than the nominate alpina of Europe), and 40 Great Knot.

Happy Island

The only new development is still in progress - refurbishing the Puti Temple and erecting several similar buildings, all being walled in, but this does not affect the birding. We visited the island for the day on 11th and 13th, when there were some 40 other birders staying. Birding was good, and we added to the list Broad-billed Sandpiper, Hodgson’s (or Northern) Hawk Cuckoo, our first Oriental Cuckoos and Red-flanked Bluetails, a Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike, three Pallas’ Grasshopper Warblers (all on 13th), Oriental Great Reed Warblers, Blyth’s Leaf Warblers, Siberian Flycatcher, up to 100 Brown Shrikes, six Daurian Starlings, and 1-2 Japanese Grosbeaks. Only about 10 Saunders’ Gulls were seen around the island, and none flying over it, as they always used to; there has been a serious and worrying drop in numbers since we were last here two years ago.

Back at Beidaihe

We returned to the familiar and comfortable Jin Shan Hotel on the evening of 14th, and spent 15th and the early part of 16th birding Beidaihe. On a hunch, our Tour Leaders decided on a morning visit to the Lotus Hills on 15th, as a last throw of the dice for Needletails. It worked, and we saw 18 in two hours passing low overhead, including one unforgettable flock of seven. Not only that, we watched a Black Baza, only the second ever here for WildWings, heading north, mobbed by an accipiter, plus an Eastern Marsh Harrier and a Chinese Goshawk. A very strange record was of two male Grey Nightjars in flight among the trees, mobbed by Black-billed Magpies!

After all this excitement, we went to the Reservoir and Sandflats for the afternoon, where a good selection of birds was found, including at least 10 Yellow (or Chinese Little) Bitterns, single Schrenck’s and Cinnamon Bitterns, three Baillon’s Crakes, four Broad-billed Sandpipers, a Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike, three Lanceolated Warblers, an Elisae’s Flycatcher and the last (male) Siberian Thrush of the trip. An Isabelline Shrike, the first on any WildWings tour here and possibly a new species for Beidaihe, was found in the hotel gardens.

Well after dark hundreds of Common Greenshanks could be heard calling over the Jin Shan Hotel as people made their way to bed or to the bar at about 10.0 pm. On the 16th, a Lanceolated Warbler was found actually inside the bar at the hotel.

Old Peak

After early morning birding on 16th, which produced a Grey-faced Buzzard calling as it flew low over Lighthouse Point and a selection of the more usual migrants, we headed off north-westwards in three minibuses to stay overnight at Old Peak in the Laolin Forest Reserve, two hours from Beidaihe. It started to rain lightly as we left, and by the time we reached the entrance to the Park it was falling steadily. Here we found Yellow-streaked Warblers, Daurian Redstarts and a nice surprise, a male Plumbeous Redstart feeding along the river bed. Despite the damp weather, Eastern Rock Buntings, Large Hawk Cuckoos and Oriental Cuckoos were singing, and several Hair-crested Drongos flew over. A series of long walks from the hotel into the upper valleys yielded few birds, with virtually nothing singing, but one group were very fortunate to see a wild cat making its way along a grassy ridge near the observation platform at the top. It was subsequently identified as an Asian Golden Cat, also known as Temminck’s Cat.

The 17th dawned clear and cold, as we arose at 3.45 to make a 4.00 am start for our walks up the valley in a fast group and a slow group. Koklass Pheasant was our main target but eluded most of us, as often happens - one of our leaders was the only one to see the bird, although later many of us heard its distinctive deep barking call. But there were plenty of compensations, not least the lovely weather and spectacular scenery. Jagged and pointed mountains could be seen rising steeply out of misty valleys far below, and a long stretch of the Great Wall, with some 20 towers visible, could be seen stretching away into the hazy distant mountains. There was plenty of birdsong, with cuckoos, thrushes and warblers predominating. Oriental, Common, Indian and Large Hawk Cuckoos songs echoed across the valleys; the plaintive double note of a White’s Thrush, the Blackbird-like or Mistle Thrush-like song of a Chinese Song Thrush, and the repetitive melodic notes of a Grey-backed Thrush, rang out through the trees in the cool early morning air. Blyth’s Leaf Warblers sang and flicked their wings alternately as part of their display, and Yellow-streaked Warblers were watched singing in the trees at the observation platform.

In the further valley we located Chinese Leaf Warblers from their repetitive song, and several people had good close or telescope views. Chinese Nuthatches were calling and a few seen, and two Grey-sided Thrushes were seen. On the way back down to the entrance gate, and around the gate itself, we found a pair of Bull-headed Shrikes on the wires, heard a Manchurian Bush Warbler singing from deep cover, and watched a family party of six Red-billed Choughs feeding together on a hillside. Two Winter Wrens were a surprise, and another new species for the WildWings list. It had been an excellent visit, several people commenting that it was worth it for the scenery alone.

The reservoir which had been under construction during our last visit two years ago was completed, although it held virtually no water. However, more noisy work was under way, including concreting the road up to the mountain at Wangmu Peak (1,348 metres high) and constructing a large cable car lift from one of the valleys far below. It looks as though an alternative mountain location will be needed next year, just as at the Great Wall.


Final days at Beidaihe

Three members of the group had stayed at Beidaihe while most were at Old Peak, and on 16th had recorded a Lanceolated Warbler and a Pechora Pipit at the Sandflats Marsh and three Pintail Snipe at Town Fields. Early on 17th they had found a Pere David’s Laughing Thrush on Lighthouse Point, a most unusual record, and seen a Needletail and a second Black Baza over the Lotus Hills. Two Grey-capped Woodpeckers were also seen at Lighthouse Point.

Our last day, 18th May, dawned clear and sunny, with an increasingly brisk easterly wind. There was no large arrival, but many people took advantage of the opportunity to catch up with some of the species they had missed, mostly around the Sandflats and Reservoir and with a visit to Lotus Hills. Best birds were five Chinese Little Bitterns, Eurasian Spoonbill, a pair of Gadwall (rare here), a Crested Honey Buzzard, a male Chinese Goshawk, a Peregrine, two Ruddy Crakes, 40 Red-necked Stints, a Broad-billed and a Terek Sandpiper, a Dollarbird, a Rosy Pipit on what remains of Radar Marsh, and the last chance to see the much-appreciated chats - single Rufous-tailed Robin and Siberian Rubythroat, three Siberian Blue Robins and four Bluethroats. Four Lanceolated, 12 Black-browed Reeds, a Manchurian Reed, 17 Oriental Great Reed and six Thick-billed Warblers almost outnumbered the phylloscopus warblers, most now in single figures with just 10 Yellow-browed but still 30 Dusky Warblers. Six Arctic Warblers was the peak for this late species. Flycatchers were much in evidence, with still 20 Asian Brown, six Taiga, six Yellow-rumped, male and female Mugimaki, and single Siberian and Grey-streaked. A male Tiger Shrike was seen, only the second of the trip, and Black-naped Orioles reached their peak at 25. There were few buntings left now, three Pallas’s Reed and a Japanese Reed, 10 Little, five Chestnut and two Yellow-breasted. It was not an exceptional day by the standards we had now attained, but nonetheless added up to a remarkable tally for one morning.

At 3.00 pm we boarded our coach for the journey back to Beijing. Our final meal out, an overnight stay in the Ling Nan Hotel, an early coach ride to the International Airport, and soon we were in the air and heading north-westwards over the Gobi Desert on our ten hour flight back to Amsterdam and home.

Conclusion

This tenth WildWings visit to China was among the best we have ever had. Despite steady development over the years at the migration hotspot of Beidaihe, there are still plenty of good places in which to observe some of the most exciting migration to be seen anywhere in the world. Regardless of weather, birds pour through this stretch of coast every day during May on their journey north to Siberia. The trip gives far better opportunities for seeing these near-mythical ‘Sibes’ than trying to watch them in the deep forests and marshes where they skulk and breed. In lovely spring plumage, the variety of colourful herons, bitterns, egrets, raptors, waders, terns, cuckoos, thrushes, chats, warblers, flycatchers, wagtails and buntings cannot be bettered. From the 245 species recorded on this trip, each participant will have taken home indelible memories of some beautiful, charismatic or rare birds - perhaps Needletail, or White’s or Siberian Thrush, maybe Yellow-rumped or Mugimaki Flycatcher, possibly Tiger Shrike, Little Whimbrel or even Relict Gull. There’s something special for everyone here.