I made two trips to Hangzhou Botanical Garden on Jan 12 and Feb 03,2013. Winter has comfortably settled in Shanghai and the city parks are filled with Winter residents. Even though, Hangzhou is 180 Km away from Shanghai, one day birding trip is very much easy with the help of the frequent G-trains from Shanghai Hongqiao Railway station.
As a coincidence, i was in the same park Feb 03 2012. I found the Herbarium is one of the potential birding spots with lot of trees still had berries. From, the west gate. I went straight to the Herbarium. To my disappointment, this part of the park is no more open for visitors. Birders know no boundaries, i jumped over the gate in a fraction of sec before any one could catch me for trespassing. As soon as i jumped into the gate, i had surprised a flock of Chinese Bamboo Partridges. They immediately took off to a very far away bushes. I did not pursue those poor chickens unlike the rest of the paparazzi’s here do. I just let my “lifer of the day” to have their peaceful time.
The main reason of going to the Botanical garden is to have a little variety when the winter is settled in Shanghai. Like, the Chinese Bamboo Partridge. I also came across a pair of Japanese Thrush in the herbarium. To my surprise, there were atleast 5 Red-flanked Bluetails in the small area. Shanghai city parks hardly had one male in winter. The no of males in Hangzhou Botanical garden is simply amazing. I came across atleast 10 males in the park.
As the berry trees had no more berries, i explored my way to the east gate looking for the Mountain Bulbuls and Chestnut Bulbuls. Before, finding the Bulbuls, i found my big lifer of the winter, the Japanese Waxwings. A flock which consists of 30+ birds were perched upon a tree top.
The resting waxwings were flushed out by a hungry Crested Goshawk which was so desperate for the morning breakfast.
The Bulbul’s stayed low for their life as well as the berries. It’s such a relief to see a different variety other than Chinese Bulbul
On Feb 03, I visited Hangzhou again with my Shanghai birding buddies Kevin n Mark. Mark was hoping for the Chinese Bamboo Partridges but we were not able to pick that small chicken this time. However, we came across a nice flock of Grey-headed Parrotbills and a lonely Fork-tailed Sunbird.
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