I visited Wild Duck Lake on Sunday with Peter Cawley. The weather was far from ideal and we endured thick fog, with visibility down to around 20-25 metres, for the first few hours. The fog gradually dispersed from around 1000am and, by 3pm, it was a glorious day.. nevertheless, we definitely missed out at what felt like a very ‘birdy’ Ma Chang and, rather unnervingly, almost got lost in the ‘desert’ area… (thanks to the GPS on my phone, we found the right path).
Temp around 15 degrees C at 0600 with thick fog and no wind. From 1000am a very light NE breeze. Temp around 22 degrees C mid-afternoon.
Highlights: a single Short-toed Eagle, Pied, Eastern Marsh and Hen Harriers, 30 Common Buzzards, Goshawk, 2 Mongolian Larks and a Wren (only my second at Wild Duck Lake).
Full species list:
Japanese Quail – 1
Common Pheasant – 6
Bean Goose – 3
Mandarin – 1
Gadwall – 1
Mallard – 26
Spot-billed Duck – 5
Eurasian Teal – 4
Little Grebe – 15
Great Crested Grebe – 7
Black-crowned Night Heron – 45
Grey Heron – 2
Purple Heron – 1
Short-toed Eagle – 1
Eastern Marsh Harrier – 1
Hen Harrier – 2
Pied Harrier – 1 adult male
Eurasian Sparrowhawk – 1
Northern Goshawk – 1
Common Buzzard – 30 (including 28 migrating in one 10-minute spell late morning)
Common Moorhen – 1
Common Coot – 5
Northern Lapwing – 1
Common Snipe – 3
Green Sandpiper – 1
Oriental Turtle Dove – 2
Collared Dove – 8
Long-eared Owl – 1
Grey-headed Woodpecker – 1
Chinese Grey Shrike – 3 (2 heard only in the fog)
Azure-winged Magpie – 1
Common Magpie – 24
Daurian Jackdaw – 1 adult flew east
Carrion Crow – 8
Great Tit – 3
Marsh Tit – 1
Mongolian Lark – 2. An early date and hopefully the precursor to a good winter for this species.
Eurasian Skylark – 8
Lark sp (possibly Greater Short-toed) – 4
Zitting Cisticola – 2
Chinese Hill Warbler – 3
Chinese Bulbul – 13
Black-browed Reed Warbler – 9
Oriental Reed Warbler – 1 probable chattering at Ma Chang in thick fog.
Pallas’s Leaf Warbler – 1
Dusky Warbler – 1
Vinous-throated Parrotbill – 60
White-eye sp – 1
Wren – 1. A very dark individual.
Thrush sp – 1
Bluethroat – 1
Red-flanked Bluetail – 1
Daurian Redstart – 5
Siberian Stonechat – 1
Tree Sparrow – 80+
White Wagtail – 17 (ssps ocularis, leucopsis and baicalensis)
Buff-bellied Pipit – 5
Water Pipit – 1 probable
Chestnut-eared Bunting – 1
Little Bunting – 77
Yellow-throated Bunting – 5
Black-faced Bunting – 14
Pallas’s Reed Bunting – 7
Meanwhile, at Laotieshan, Paul Holt continues to see huge numbers of Amur Falcons (over 1,800 yesterday evening in a pre-roost gathering – the highest autumn count anywhere in China), good numbers of Greater Spotted Eagles (at least 7 and up to 17 yesterday) and Goshawk (64), over 250 Common (Eastern) Buzzards and has also added Japanese Reed Bunting to the species list.
Leave a Reply