Grey Combo

It was a while since i have been to Hengsha, I told my idea of check up on waterfowls to Kevin H and we decided to hit there on 2nd November, as the weather forecast on “Accuweather” showed slightly better day. After hitting the island and birding for couple of hours we realized that weather forecast was not even slightly close. The grey sky remained throughout the day. There were more security guards at the gate and many thanks to Kevin who persuaded the guards to let us in. We stopped to check in a huge flock of “Oriental Greenfinches”, on the mudflats i found a single “Chinese Egret” along with a good supporting cast of 250+ “Dunlins”.

“Dagger” bill

On the scrub side of the sea wall, i noticed a black & white bird, the flight behavior didn’t match the White Wagtail and it kept perching on dry branches, my first thought  was Chinese Grey Shrike?, we moved closer to have a good look and it was indeed a “Chinese Grey Shrike”. Plenty of Pipits and Skylarks were airborne. I could only safely ID Buff-bellied, Richards & Olive backed Pipit. There were couple of Pipits with very fine streaking all the way to their belly, we didnt nail the ID as we dint get good looks/Shots. Out on the reclaimed mudflats, plenty of scattered Red-necked Stints, Dunlins, Kentish and Little Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Common Greenshank were wading for their brunch while Kevin indulged in some portraits and landscape photography.

Grey sky + Chinese Grey Shrike = “The Grey combo”

We had the big break of the day when we spotted a flock of Black-faced Spoonbills, we stopped and doing a count. Few more spoon-bills joined shortly making a record breaking count of 35 with a lone Eurasian Spoonbill. Earlier this spring we had 28 Black-faced Spoonbills in Hengsha. There were also lot of Spotted-Redshanks, Common Teal, Eastern Spot-billed Duck, Northern Shoveler among the spoonbill flock.

The Endangered flock

I was whining to Kevin that no raptors were seen given the good no of waterfowls, Pipits and Skylarks. “Speak of the Devil”, two Peregrine Falcons were going after the airborne Pipits, Skylarks and Egrets. One of the Peregrine Falcon which dived into the Egret flock didn’t come up for a long time. Hope it managed a delicious meal. The other raptor of the day showed right after the hunt scene, a “Common Kestrel” disappeared into the reeds after seeing us.

We stopped at the “Jacana Track” to check for more passerines but it was far more disappointing in terms of Passerines but a distant unID’d raptor flushed a huge flock of Ducks. Thanks for the grey skies of the day, all the shots were underexposed even with a +2 exposure adjustment. Later on the mystery ducks were revealed by the “Digital Darkroom”, there were Northern Pintails, Eurasian Wigeon, Mallards and the jumbo duck of the day “Falcated Duck”. There were atleast 250+ Falcated Ducks in the flocks which flew overhead.

One of the “Falcated Duck”flock

Waterfowl paradise

We hit the orchid afterwards for passerines but the orchard was void of Thrushes and Starlings. The consolation came in the form of 100+ Bramblings on their eveneing roosting spot. We then chased a ghost bird which kept taking off and we could not nail an ID. Finally when the bird perched on a pole for a second, i could clearly see it was an “Eastern Buzzard”, case closed.

The disaster struck when we decided to wrap the day. Arriving at the pier, i was shocked by the vehicles lined up for the ferry. Something was not right, Kevin went to enquire while i was trying my best to understand the guard answering to the other drivers “no ferry untill tomorrow”. Sweet lord, now we are stranded on the islanded. Kevin came back with a better answer, the steel plank, connecting the bridge and the ferry was broken and they dont know when it will return from the workshop. We decided to wait and finally the ferry services resumed by 7.30, after a chaotic hustle with trucks, we finally made it to the ferry. I always had the nightmare what will happen if the ferry services are interrupted, i got an answer.

Species List: