As a superb year for birding in the Chinese capital draws to a close, I bring exciting news that a group of Beijing birders is working on a “2013 Beijing Bird Report”, to include information about all known significant sightings.
Here are the six new records for Beijing in 2013 that we are aware of:
Black-winged Kite: 1 over the Baiwang Shan watch point on the 16 April (鶽鴞 小关 等等 via BirdTalker)
Sandhill Crane: 1 at Bulaotun, Miyun reservoir on the 8 Dec. (ZHU Lei, WANG Yu-ting, JIN Yan-fei, MA Zhe, LEI Ming and JU Ming) was still present on the 15 Dec. (Jan-Erik Nilsén)
Bar-tailed Godwit: 1 at Miyun reservoir on the 13 April (Jan-Erik Nilsén) with eight at Shahe on the 22 June (Colm Moore)
Long-tailed Jaeger: 1 near adult photographed at Shahe on the 22 June (Colm Moore)
Western Yellow Wagtail: 1 male melanogisea (now subsumed in feldgegg) photographed at Shahe reservoir on the 12 May (Colm Moore)
Tree Pipit: 1 photographed in the British Ambassador’s Garden, Guanghua Lu, on the 13 May (Terry Townshend).
It’s likely to be a little while before we complete the annual review and, in the mean time, we are interested in any records for inclusion. Please comment on this post if you have any contributions.
And so, all that remains for me to say in this last post of 2013 is “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” to all the readers of this blog.. and a big thank you to everyone who has contributed, commented and spread the word about birding in Beijing. Here is a festive cartoon, courtesy of my very talented friend, Li Xiaomai… enjoy!
EDIT: It has since come to light that another new bird was seen in Beijing in 2013 – a SANDERLING was photographed at Ma Chang in September (awaiting further details). So that’s 7 new birds in 2013!