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China Birding Trip: September-16-30, 2013 |
Day 2 September 16 -
Arrival
Bird of the day: Eurasian Wryneck (only
seen by Rick and Sharon, unfortunately)
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Photo by Rick Collins |
We looked from the plane with interest as we descended into
Beijing.
As soon as we collected our luggage, we
left the secure area and were greeted by “June” (her
English name), Chendu Overseas Travel.
Soon we were on our trip bus with our
bus driver, “Mr. Lee“, and headed over to Terminal 3
where we met “Kevin”, June’s boss. They would work
with Dave Milsom, our Canadian birding trip leader.
Bill had a Starbucks with Ian, one of the birders, who had
arrived from Toronto while waiting for Dave and the others to
arrive. Rick and Sharon, who were on the same fight as us from
Ottawa, birded in the parking lot and, besides seeing numerous
Eurasian Tree Sparrows, got an amazing photo of a Eurasian
Wryneck Woodpecker.
A few hours later, the other birders, Hugh, Felice (known as
Phil), Nunzio and George arrived on a flight from Toronto. In
total, nine Canadian birders joined Dave and his wife, Liz, for a
birding group of 11. As well as Kevin and June, we would have a
PhD ornithology candidate, PJ, to guide us.
We hopped on our large comfortable bus. We quickly experienced
the very heavy traffic and air pollution in Bejing. It took over
an hour to arrive at the Beijing Exhibition Centre Hotel but, once there, we were enjoying a fine Chinese
dinner and reflecting on our upcoming adventure together.
English sign of the day:
