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China Birding Trip: September-16-30, 2013 |
Day 3 September 17 -
Beijing Mountains
Bird of the day: Vinous-throated Parrotbill
As is his habit, Dave starts the day at dawn searching for
“early birds”. Our first morning in Beijing we were
happy to discover that our hotel was close to a large pond. At
6:30am we explored the hotel gardens and the pond. Beijingers
were also up, some swimming lengths in the pond and others
fishing, or cycling to work. In the low light, we saw Carrion
Crows, Large-billed Crows, White-faced Starings and both Common
and Azure-winged Magpies.
Breakfast was an amazing assortment of Chinese food.
Soon we were on the bus in heavy traffic. Mr. Lee, our driver,
honked frequently and sped past other vehicles, breaking hard at
points. We made sure our cameras and scopes were secure. At stops
he quickly hopped off the bus and lit a cigarette. We soon
learned that smoking is common in China.
June gave us a short Chinese lesson.
We made one stop near the original
Great Wall, where we saw a Crested Myna and some pipits.
We spent the day exploring a natural mountain region, including
Baihe Ecogeographic Wetlands Park a few hours north of Beijing.
June had arranged a Subway picnic lunch to eat at the park.
More birding along the river after lunch. We spotted Hill
Pigeons, Pallas's Leaf Warblers, Arctic Warblers, Vinous-throated
Parrotbills, an Eastern Marsh Harrier, several Little Grebes, a
Long-tailed Tit, a Gray Wagtail, a Grey Heron, a Striated Heron,
and some Red-billed Blue Magpies.
Dave had three target birds for today: Long-billed Plover, Ibis
bill and Crested Kingfisher. We did not find any, in spite of a
lot of searching – very disappointing. We hiked along a
river where road paving was in progress and we had to carefully
skirt our way around it. Dave checked with Vaughan Ashby, a
British Chinese birding expert, who let him know he feels the
recent denigrated condition of the rivers in this region caused
by construction and pollution have forced these birds elsewhere.
He tipped him off about another location we may try later in our
trip.
When we started back to Bejing, the sun was going down and lit up
the Great Wall Towers as we passed. We saw an incredible 9 Amur
Falcons pass over in migration. We made a few birding roadside
stops and were surprised to see several Mandarin Ducks. A good
way to end the birding day.
Tonight June had arranged a Peking Duck dinner for us at a nearby
restaurant where we had our own room. We toasted “Gan
bei” – Cheers!
After dinner some of us hiked with June to a shopping centre
where we checked out the supermarket and a few stores. We learned
the quick traffic dodging skill of crossing a large intersection
in Beijing.
English signs of the day:
