Wednesday 14th May

Warmer on the island today. Sunny and calm. Out and about from 5am...

New birds keep on coming -

Siberian Thrush 1 male, after missing one yesterday I was over the moon to find my own only yards from our hut.
Oriental Honey Buzzard 1



Elisae's Flycatcher 1 in same place as Sibe Thrush.(above)


Chinese Egret 1 'twitched' on the mud flats. A world rarity.(above)

Other birds -

Sibe Blue Robin 1 male
Mugimaki Flycatcher 6
Brown Flycatcher 5
Grey streaked Flycatcher 2
Taiga Flycatcher 2



Yellow rumped Flycatcher 2 males (above)
Dusky Warbler 20+


Two barred Greenish Warbler 1 (above)



Pale legged Leaf Warbler 5 (above)
Eastern Crowned Warbler 2
Blyth's( Claudia's) Leaf Warbler 2



Red flanked Bluetail 1 female (above)
Hawfinch 1 female
White throated Needletail 1
Chestnut Bunting 5



Oriental Scops Owl 1 (above)
Lesser Sandplover 18+

Tuesday 13th May ...

Above - Chestnut Bunting.

Still on Happy Island. At last a brighter day with no rain at all. Cold dewy and calm like an October day but with more Sibes!

Highlights for the day were -

A walk around the raised bunds overlooking the flats -

Pacific Swift 2
Sharp tailed Sandpiper 1
Red necked Stint 45
Lesser Sandplover 13
Asian Dowitcher 26
Terek Sand 20
Kentish Plover 12
Marsh Sand 3
Great Knot 6
Black winged Stilt 4
Saunders Gull 10
Relict Gull 1
Rubythroat 1
Eye browed Thrush 5

After breakfast...

Dollarbird 2


Tristrams Bunting 1 (above)
Yellow throated Bunting 1 female
Brown Hawk Owl 1 flushed
Ashy Minivet 1 perched up


Grey streaked Flycatcher 1 (above)
Sooty Flycatcher 1
Mugimaki Flycatcher 10+
Taiga Flycatcher 4
Brown Flycatcher 3
Chestnut Bunting 3
Dusky Thrush 1

Then after lunch...

White throated Rock Thrush 2 males


Blue and White Flycatcher 1 male (above)
Yellow browed Bunting 1
Tristrams Bunting 3
Olive backed Pipit 12+


A flycatcher day today with 7 species...

Monday 12th May...

Torrential rain again through the night but by dawn it was much dryer.

Another early start, 5.20am, found us foraging around all areas of the island, breaking only for meals...
New birds today -

Grey sided Thrush 2


Two barred Greenish Warbler 1 ( above)



White throated Rock Thrush 1 male ( Above)
Blyth's Leaf Warbler ( Claudia's Leaf Warbler) 1 very distinctive behaviour feeding up and down tree trunks and branches like a Nuthatch!
Chestnut Bunting 1 male.
'Chinese' Blackbird 1 male
Pallas's Reed Bunting 2, male and female.
Chestnut eared Bunting 1 male.
Yellow browed Bunting 1
White throated Needletail 3 and 5. One gave a fly past that the Red Arrows would have been proud of. Not often do you see a bird getting a round of applause and cheers! Richard got some good photos as it flashed past.


Yellow breasted Bunting 2 male and female. The male is the most pristine bird I have seen, exactly like a field guide plate. Dazzling. ( Above somewhere in there is the brightest bunting of the trip!)
Rufous bellied Woodpecker 1

All of those plus the commoner Amur Falcons, Mugamaki and Yellow rumped Flycatchers, Jap Quails etc.
Out along the raised bund veiwing the vast mud flats...
Oriental Pratincole 1
Asian Dowitcher 3
Plus a close ringtailed Pied Harrier, Saunders Gull, 20+ Black faced Buntings another Two barred Greenish, many Pallas's and Yellow browed Warblers,Siberian Blue Robin and Yellow rumped Flycatcher side by side, 13 Great Knot, 2 Far Eastern Curlew, Lesser Sandplover etc...




Above - Lesser Sandplovers, Siberian Blue Robin on the beach and Yellow rumped Flycatcher.

Sunday 11th May

Cool with some very heavy rain eventually soaking us to the skin.

Left Beidaihe at 4.30am to head to Happy Island, birding en route.

In some rice paddies we had 34 Whiskered and 9 White winged Black Terns, 1 Chinese Pond Heron, 1 Marsh Sand and 10 Wood Sands, 10+ Gull billed Terns, 3+ Yellow Wagtails, 1 Eastern Cattle Egret.

Then into the fabled 'Magic Wood'. A small open plantation wood that was quite easy to work, and it was lifting with birds. As some of us walked in, flocks flew out!

The first birds seen were a few Radde's Warblers, then me and JWR parted and moved off left. Here above a ditch a movement cought our eye in a small bush. The bird was back on to us and we suspected another Radde's. As we strained for a closer look the bird turned its head to see us. You'd think we had been struck by lightning. A full adult male Siberian Rubythroat in all its glory. What a belter.

Further on we flushed a nice male Sibe Blue Robin that did two obliging fly pasts.

Other fantastic birds followed, Tristram's Bunting, Rufous tailed Robin, Japanese Quail, White's Thrush sat in the open, 5 Eyebrowed Thrushes in a dead tree, Pale legged Leaf Warbler, an arctic look a like with a squeaky bike call note, 30+ Pallas's Warblers, many Yellow broweds, 8+ Brown Shrikes, 10+ Dusky Warblers.

By now the rain was so heavy we had to give up, cut our losses and head for Happy Island.

The crossing was very uncomfortable in the torrential rain on a boat without cover, but good birds continued to be seen - Great Knot, 2 Far Eastern Curlews and another 2 Saunders Gulls.

Happy Island 11am.





Above - These were taken from inside our bedroom through my window! YBW, Daurian Redstart and Radde's. Happy Island Garden Birds...


Unloaded and into our accomodation, wooden porta-cabin style huts that were very basic but not as bad as the nightmare scenarios that people had told us about. A quick change to dry off, the rain easing to just 'pouring' and off we went with high hopes. Try this for a list -

Blue Rock Thrush 2
Eastern Marsh Harrier 3
Radde's Warbler 7
Dusky and Yellow browed common, uncounted.
Daurian Redstart 1 male.
Hoopoe 4
Pale legged Leaf Warbler 1


Above - Japanese Grosbeaks

Japanese Grosbeak 25+
Oriental Scops Owl 1 sitting next to us in a bush.
Yellow rumped Flycatcher 1 female and 2 males.
Mugimaki Flycatcher 3
Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo 1 sitting for all to see, possibly bird of the trip.
Eastern Crowned Warbler 1
Taiga Flycatcher 4+
Chinese Grosbeak 1
Pallas's Warbler 20+
Chestnut flanked White Eye 40+
Olive backed Pipit 11



Above - Little Bunting.

Little Bunting 6+
Japanese Quail 2
Hobby 2
Oriental Turtle Dove 3+
Black naped Oriole 1 male
Black faced Bunting 3
Brown Shrike 4+

That beats Holy Island!

Saturday 10th May.

Top - Saunders Gull.
Above - 2 Relict Gulls ( on the RIGHT).

After an invigorating 3 hours sleep, we were up at 4am for today's excursion to the Great Wall. Our hotel, the Beidiahe International Club was quite comfortable and welcome after our mammoth trek yesterday...

Three taxi's collected us at 4.30am and we drove about 40 minutes to the Great Wall north of Beidiahe. On route we had our first Chinese Pond Heron, 7 Little Egrets and 25+ Night Herons.

We hiked up the wall into the wooded hills until lunchtime, returning by chairlift as the crowds of locals began to build. Birds noted -
Many Yellow browed Warblers, 1 Common Rosefinch, 1 Japanese White Eye, 3 Red billed Blue Magpies, Hoopoe, 5+ Pere David's Laughing Thrush ( a site speciality recently split from Plain Laughing Thrush, known now to our group as Craig David's Laughing Thrush. Bo selector!), Dusky Warbler, Asian Brown Flycatcher, 3+ Chinese Hill Warbler ( another speciality), 4 Olive backed Pipits, 3 Godlewski's Bunting, 5+ Siberian Meadow Buntings, 8 Japanese Sparrowhawks, 1 Yellow bellied Tit, 8 Hobbies migrating, 50+ Chestnut flanked White Eye, 2 Blue Rock Thrushes of the red bellied race, philipinensis, Red rumped Swallows, Common Pheasant ( wild ones!), 1+ Black naped Oriole, 2 Grey capped Greenfinch, 3 Oriental Turtle Dove, 1 male Daurian Redstart, 1 male Brown Shrike, Long tailed Tit, 2 Chinese Bulbuls.



Above - Chinese Hill Warbler.



Above - Craig David's Laughing Thrush...


Visible migration over head included 9 Ashy Minivets, 1 female Pied Harrier, 12 Grey faced Buzzards and the Hobbies mentioned earlier.

At 4pm we were back at Beidaihe and decided to pop to the mudflats just across the road from our hotel. What a relief to find that the high tide had pushed some birds up close enough to view well - 5 Relict Gulls, 1 Saunders Gull ( one of the rarest larids in the world), 7 Black tailed Gulls, 2 Terek Sandpipers, 27 Greenshank, 11+ Kentish Plovers, 2 Caspian Tern, 1 Lesser Sandplover and 10 Whimbrel. In the bushes were 1 female Japanese Reed Bunting, 1 male Amur Falcon, 1 Black browed Reed Warbler, 1 Japanese Grosbeak, 1 Brown Shrike, 1 Black faced Bunting and a female Siberian Rubythroat.



Above -Siberian Rubythroat female.

As if that wasn't enough we wandered over to some partly filled in pools and found 15 Wood Sands, 4 Black winged Stilts, 5 Marsh Sands, 6 Long toed Stints, 3 Great Egrets, 1 Chinese Pond Heron and 1 Night Heron.



Above - Long toed Stint

Not a bad first full day in China!.

North East China May 2008.

Some 18 months ago a chance discussion between Bob Biggs and myself found us getting some lads together and booking 11 days holiday in North East China. The main object of the trip was to see the migration of siberian passerines, waders and raptors through Beidaihe and Happy Island, and to catch up with some of the special non migrants of the region. Many of these species are much sought after by European Birders as they are mega rarities this far west.

Our guide, Jesper Hornskov, was booked and we were on our way. Jesper is a Dane who has been living in, and birding around, China for 20 years. We found him to be an excellent all round guide with birding skills and knowledge of these eastern palearctic birds that are second to none. It was a pleasure to learn so much from him during our time together, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him to anyone. He also has a great sense of humour to match our own, no mean feat for a non brit, and the man is afforded rock star status by the many birding visitors from Europe and the locals alike!

We left Newcastle at lunchtime on 8th May 2008, stopped off at Paris for four hours, then travelled to Beijing, arriving lunchtime on 9th ( local time, 7 hours ahead). We were met by Jesper and two drivers before heading off immediately to the Bai He river, north of Huairo, about an hours drive north. Despite 24 hours on the go, we went straight out birding, and this proved to be the pace for the rest of our visit. Not one for the faint hearted...



Above - Shingle river habitat, home of the Ibisbill.




Above - Ibisbills. 2 pairs were seen. Quite large waders, whimbrel sized but with a Common Sandpiper jizz.



Above - Red billed Blue Magpie. Large and gaudy, a cracking bird.



Above - Long billed Plover. 1 pair near the Ibisbills.

On route here we saw our first birds. Most notably for me were 8 Azure-winged Magpies, several White cheeked Starlings and several Large billed Crows.

At the river, we walked along the adjacent road seeing 1+ Songar Tit, 1 male Taiga Flycatcher, 4 Ibisbills, 2 Long billed Plovers, 2 Red billed Blue Magpies, 10+ Vinous throated Parrotbills, 1 Crested Kingfisher, 1 Spot billed Duck, 2 male Godlewski's Buntings, 1 Grey capped Pygmy Woodpecker, 2 male Daurian Redstart and 2 Grey capped Greenfinch as well as 2 Little Buntings, Dusky Warbler, Black Stork, 2 Olive backed Pipits.

From here, a three hour drive to Beidaihe and to our hotel after a gruelling 32 hours without sleep...

See Ipin Blog and Richard Dunn's website for more pics. Richards are tremendous and professional quality, Ipin has some great images of the Parrotbills...