Spring Break Update : Week 6

Almost summer has passed, Autumn is very close as per the Chinese Calendar and i’m still stuck with spring report. Thanks to my old laptop which crashed a while a ago left me thinking whether to replace the expensive motherboard or go with a new one. Finally, a new iMac arrived at my desk a month back and it took a while to set up the application and the transition from windows to mac osx.

18th May – Me and Kevin saw ourselves on the road again heading to Yangshan. It was raining throughout the weekend and 18th  looked better with slight drizzle and an easterly wind. The sweet lifer of the day started with “Jonathan Martinez” of Tragopan-asie(tragopan-asie.com).

Two pairs of “Black-naped Oriole” are the first for this year’s spring. Asian Stubtails were still hanging out (where you guys have been in the past three years?) A Chinese Sparrowhawk was playing hide & Seek. We finished the garbage dumpyard site and moved on to the temple site. “Spangled Drongo”, the bird which i have missed couple of times finally showed up, spiking the spirits in the rain. “Swinhoe’s Robin”  flicked its Rufous-tail for a fraction of second and disappeared in its world of undergrowth again, another long awaited bird. A 2nd CY female Chestnut Bunting which i thought might be a Japanese Yellow bunting was ruled out after a careful analysis by Jonathan & Anders. An “Amur Falcon” glided past, giving another first for the spring and my second sighting in Shanghai. To add fuel to the lifer list, couple of  “Thick-billed Warblers” were hanging around in the temple valley.

This must be the mystery Acrocephalus warbler from the previous week. The light was getting slightly better and we decided its time to see Nanhui to add some shorebirds to our birding. Right after the maritime university, a “Cinnamon Bittern” flew across the road showing its bright Cinnamon wings. A very hard to see bird, gave superb views when we just drive past the intersection. No togs at the car park but few whom we met along the sea wall said there was a White-throated Rock Thrush hanging in the car park for couple of days. We searched for a while and left to check the locust trees and mudflats. Couple of female Asian Paradise Flycatchers were as usual hunting in undergrowth of the locust trees, seems like their usual spot on migration.

Mudflats held reasonable size of goodies, Red-necked Stint, Greater Sand Plover, Curlew Sandpiper were few highlights. A leucistic Red-necked Stint  was mid-identified as Red Phalarope, Jonathan did a brief analysis and finally ruled out that. Me and Kevin returned to the car park to check the White-throated Rock Thrush for one last time before calling off the day and to our monster luck the bird came in to car park for couple of seconds to conclude our very productive day.

Species List :