Yangkou 2015 : Expect the unexpected

Just like every spring, i made a weekend trip to Yangkou this year as well and just like every year, old trails and mudflats have disappeared. It’s a new day and have to start from scratch to find out the best place for birds. Also, the “Good Samaritan’s” far cry for saving the birds of Yangkou from the foreign chemical companies is also because the sea wall road by the temple has been closed and the diversion is through the chemical industry park, if someone had to write a letter to the company it should have been done three years before and not just it’s been noticed recently.

I had a daytrip on May 5 to Yangshan and the passerines were really in less no’s. I was hoping i could see more in Yangkou. There were birds in the temple woods as usual but nothing like a box office crowd. Usually, the temple woods always teeming with passerines with a side show from resident Hoopoe, Red-billed and White-cheeked Starlings.

Most of the day was spent searching for birds as the best places from last year has been already disappeared. I still remember my first visit in 2011 October, the clouds of Shorebirds were very hard to miss even from a very long distance. Such a sight is no more possible and there were birds but nothing in those no’s. Bar-tailed Godwits were the majority among all the birds, they have clearly outnumbered the other commoners Terek Sandpiper, Grey Plover, Dunlin & Red-necked Stint. Also, for the first time i noticed the huge flock of Ruddy-Turnstones, 500+ birds during the high tide time was a treat to watch, they are splendid looking birds in their breeding plumage.

I wasn’t keen on finding Spoon-billed Sandpiper(though i would like to see a Nordmann’s Greenshank) as i have seen it in the past couple of years when Yangkou was just started getting the global attraction and the reclamation was in its toddler steps. I was mostly looking for the shorebird congregation. I was going up and down along the coast looking for mudflats and resting grounds during high tide time. Despite the scouting, the only thing i could find was extensive land reclamation and ferocious speed of new windmills being built on the mudflats.

When the tide started to rise, there were birds crossing the sea wall in small batches, again the majority were Bar-tailed Godwits, I dint notice a single Black-tailed Godwit in the high-tide flock despite scanning the birds for an hour. There was a single flagged Bar-tailed Godwit, probably flagged in Chongming. Before the tide came in, i sat down near one of the seashell collecting stand to see the smaller birds which are wading in a small puddle. There were 4 “Great Knots” were wading along with “Far Eastern Curlews“. Recently, Australian Government, listed “Far Eastern Curlew” and “Curlew Sandpiper” as Critically endangered. Which makes those two as high profile birds. There were good no of  “Far Eastern Curlew” in Yangkou but i had tough time finding the later. In a total of two days, i came across only 25 Curlew Sandpipers which used to be thousands in the mudflats and pools. Even in Shanghai, there were only single bird in last autumn n spring. Perhaps, another bird looking at a grimm future?

 

 

Back in the woods, local passerine breeders showed up very well, that includes Forest Wagtail and Yellow-rumped Flycatcher. This year is a glorious year for the “Marsh Grassbird“, witnessing a large no of birds (atleast 50-100) in Shanghai, i soon found them here as well, not in great no’s as in Hengsha but about 10 birds were nicely displaying in the marshes. A single “Pallas’s Reed Bunting” was is no mood for breeding, this is a very late bird for this region.

The local breeders also include the vulnerable “Saunder’s Gull” and the “Common Tern”. More details about the Gulls n Terns in the next post.

Saunder’s Gull is the most dominating character i have seen, they always seem to attack any bird despite the size to steal their catch. They are doing very well in Yangkou given they face so many hurdles like habitat loss, people stealing their eggs.

Few other common birds found in Yangkou during migration.

There was also macronyx subscpeices of Yellow Wagtail but I was’t able to photograph.

Now, is the time for some bragging. Seeing a Spoonie is ain’t a big deal in Yangkou, there will be always one in a flock.

Correction : Initially, i thought the below shot is of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper but actually it’s a Red-necked Stint with a muddy bill.Check out the discussion in Flickr. Have to get the Nordmann’s and Spooner in Shanghai, if the mudflats are left untouched for next couple of years.

Species List :

Species	Count
Japanese Quail	2
Common Pheasant	2
Little Grebe	10
Grey Heron	4
Great Egret	2
Intermediate Egret	1
Little Egret	15
Chinese Pond Heron	3
Black-crowned Night Heron	20
Common Moorhen	5
Eurasian Coot	10
Eurasian Oystercatcher	4
Grey Plover	100
Grey-headed Lapwing	4
Lesser Sand Plover	200
Kentish Plover	20
Little Ringed Plover	5
Terek Sandpiper	300
Common Sandpiper	50
Spotted Redshank	35
Common Greenshank	100
Marsh Sandpiper	10
Wood Sandpiper	5
Common Redshank	15
Whimbrel	12
Far Eastern Curlew	50
Eurasian Curlew	4
Bar-tailed Godwit	300
Ruddy Turnstone	100
Great Knot	2
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper	50
Curlew Sandpiper	25
Spoon-billed Sandpiper	4
Red-necked Stint	100
Dunlin	300
Saunders’s Gull	50
Whiskered Tern	2
Common Tern	50
Spotted Dove	3
Common Cuckoo	1
Common Kestrel	2
Amur Falcon	3
Brown Shrike	3
Black Drongo	5
Azure-winged Magpie	10
Eurasian Magpie	2
Oriental Skylark	4
Barn Swallow	50
Japanese Tit	2
Light-vented Bulbul	10
Manchurian Bush Warbler	5
Pallas’s Leaf Warbler	4
Yellow-browed Warbler	3
Arctic Warbler Complex	3
Pale-legged/Sakhalin Leaf Warbler	2
Oriental Reed Warbler	10
Marsh Grassbird	8
Zitting Cisticola	3
Hill Prinia	5
Vinous-throated Parrotbill	10
Chestnut-flanked White-eye	10
Oriental White-eye	5
Asian Brown Flycatcher	3
Grey-streaked Flycatcher	6
Yellow-rumped Flycatcher	4
Mugimaki Flycatcher	2
Eyebrowed Thrush	2
Crested Myna	10
White-cheeked Starling	20
Eastern Yellow Wagtail	100
White Wagtail	10
Richard’s Pipit	50
Forest Wagtail	4
Meadow Bunting	12
Tristram’s Bunting	5
Chestnut Bunting	6
Black-faced Bunting	12
Pallas’s Reed Bunting	1
Chinese Grosbeak	20
Eurasian Tree Sparrow	15