|
China Birding Trip: September-16-30, 2013 |
Day 11 September 25 -
Birding our way to Tangshan Harbour
Bird of the day: Spot-billed Duck
Bill went off to Lighthouse Point with the early morning birders.
On the way back to bird at the hotel, an army group quickly
jogged by. Back at the hotel, our group birded in the courtyard
where June had hung out her birding dress to dry. A real skulking
Lanceolated Warbler, first thought to be a Middendorff's
Grasshopper Warbler, required checking in the bird book.
.JPG)
We were off on another adventure, this time to Tangshen (phoenix
capital), Jing Tang Harbour district, for three nights. Tangshen
Harbour, in the Tianjin muncipality, experienced a major
earthquake July 28, 1976, 8.2 on the Richter scale. This
virtually obliterated the city – 240,000 residents were
killed. A new city was reborn – now known as the phoenix
city. Stunning modern architecture lights up the revitalized city
at night.
On our trip to Tangshan Harbour, our first stop was the Dapuhe
River where we hiked along an embankment beside the river and saw
several Common Snipe, some adult and juvenile Common Moorhens, a
Wood Sandpiper, some Temminck's Stints, agroup of flyover
Spot-billed Ducks, and a Eurasian Kestrel. On the other side of
the bridge, there were several Whimbrels, a Chinese Pond Heron
and a Far Eastern Curlew.
Soon we were at our second stop, Chi Li Hi/Seven Mile Sea, where
we birded beside a family fishing. All the good stuff was really
distant, but we could make out half a dozen Swan Geese. We tried
a dike on the other side of the bay, but were unable to get
close.
After a detour, we arrived at our third stop on the Luan estuary.
This was in a corn farming area and we saw many buildings with
roofs covered in drying corn. On the estuary we scoped Curlew
Sandpipers. A Saker Falcon cruised by and put everything up. Then
a large number of Black-tailed Godwits came in. On the far side,
there were many Pied Avocets.
We had another picnic lunch courtesy of June, Nuncio and Phil.
More flies to swat!
As we approached Tangshan Harbour, we picked up “Snow”,
a local official who would stay with us the next few days. We
checked into Changsheng International Hotel (a small apartment in
Bank of China building).
We explored the famous Magic Woods just outside Tangshan Harbour.
We had good close views of the Oriental Honey Buzzard which flew
over our trail. We also saw Several Oriental Turtle Doves and
Chestnut-flanked White-eyes. Barbara and Ian saw a Grey Wagtail.
PJ was happy to see some of his friends who were also birding in
the woods.
We enjoyed an excellent supper at a restaurant in a large hotel
(we were the only ones there). We got our first taste of the
lighted city.
English sign of the day:
