Big Bully and the Buckwheat

My first outing since the Hengsha-frigatebird combo. By the end of August, we already had Flycatchers in Hengsha. So it’s right time to hit the islands to see the passerine migration and also some possible vagrants(mostly first winter birds).

21st October – I picked up Kevin Pickering at his residence and headed towards Yangshan. We met Jocko who immediately shared the news of the rare vagrant on the east coast. We went looking for the high profile bird twice on the dirt  track but no signs.  We continued further up on the dumpyard to pick up the season’s first Pale-leggedSakhalin’s Leaf Warbler, Black-naped Oriole, Blue and White Flycatcher.

We received real-time updates from Jocko from the temple side where he got a Rufous-bellied Woodpecker, Oriental Scops Owl. We decided to move to the temple valley as it was very active from Jocko’s  sighting. We traced our steps back to the car, again no signs of the vagrant. When i was just thinking “not today”, Jocko who was about to leave Yangshan stopped by and said he saw the bird again when he was leaving.  Kevin was fired up and decided not to let it go. After moving around the concrete tarmac for a while, Kevin finally spotted it. The white rump, basal tail patch and black-terminal band on tail clearly gave away the “high-ranking” vagrant on the east coast, a juvenile “Northern Wheatear”. Probably, the first record for Shanghai and Kudos to Jocko for spotting and sharing the info.

Yay, another vagrant! – The Buckwheat

one more, not so common

As Jocko mentioned, the temple side was really active with numerous Asian Brown Flycatchers chasing each other. Soon, i found a single Bull-headed Shrike perched on the tree. This is “speak of the devil” moment, the same morning, Kevin was asking me if i have seen Bull-headed Shrike or Tiger Shrike in Yangshan and  he also expressed to see one this season. My first n previous Bull-headed Shrike was almost two years ago from a spring moring in Nanhui with Jocko n Mark Maddock. We saw a Great-spotted Woodpecker in the temple side but no rufous-bellied woodpecker, i also flushed out an owl n assumed it was the Oriental Scops Owl which Jocko also flushed earlier that morning. We slowly picked up the regular Phylloscopus warblers. I also flushed out a dark brown Locustella  warbler,  no clues of what it would be as the bird just vanished in the tall grass. A juvenile Common Moorhen kept us puzzling for sometime before Kevin could finally ID it.

Brutal devour…

The Big Bully

Arctic “Type” Warbler

Same Arctic “Type” Warbler

I had bit of a trouble to conclude it’s an Arctic “type” Warbler as i could not figure out about whether the supercilium falls short of the bill base, the lack of grey wash on the underparts, the bill shape. Thanks to Mark Andrews, who confirmed that it’s Arctic “type” Warbler with mottled ear coverts, olive washed rear flanks, dark tipped lower mandible, long primary projection, short fore-supercilium. He also added it could be “borealis”, the real “Arctic Warbler” but the Kamchatka Warbler sharing the same characteristics, it’s impossible to separate without call.

It’s time to hit the Holiday express Inn and to check out what the togs have in their studio. A very nervous juvenile female Siberian Blue Robin was the guest. It gave only split seconds for the togs to burst shutter when it came out of the undergrowth for the meal worms. There were also couple of Asian Brown, Grey-streaked and Blue & White Flycatchers in the car park. While waiting for the Robin, Kevin spotted a female Japanese Paradise Flycatcher. We then left for the reserve area and the locust trees. The reserve area had a super colossal flock of Terns majority of them were White-winged Terns comprising of several adults n juveniles. I also picked up a single Whiskered Tern in that flock.

Juvenile female Siberian Blue Robin

No Blue in tail separates the adult female and first winter females.

We then returned to the car park, it turned out to be very active given that togs have left and the place was void of people and loud talks. Long-tailed Shrike was so happy to pick up the left over meal worms, a female Blue and White Flycatcher seems to be very happy to come back to its perch which was previously blocked by the togs. Overall, a very good start for the passerine migation.

Is there a free lunch? Luckily yes for this Long-tailed Shrike

Few more flycatchers and birds of interest from the day.

Species List :

Species: 50