To the growing list of my Shanghai butterflies, the newest addition is the “Old World Swallowtail”. I saw the first one during the last weekend of September, although it was a fleeting view of a zipping one, the bright yellow color was unmistakable opposed to the pale “Asian Swallowtail”. On 2nd October, during the National Holidays, i was finally able to photograph one in XiaoYangshan. Although, the butterfly handbook states the distribution is widespread across China, this is the second ever instance of my sighting of the “Old World Swallowtail”. The first one came in Wuyuan, Jiangxi province, a year ago.
Old World Swallowtail
Asian Swallowatail was present too
The below photos of the Old World Swallowtail (Papilio machon) is from Wuyuan, Jiangxi. The handbook for the butterflies of China describes the distribution for the Old World Swallowtail is throughout China. Despite that, i saw that only once in Jiangxi province and the recent one is the second time. Perhaps, the Old World Swallowtails are not very common in East China. The butterfly expedition to Jiangxi province can be found here.
Old World Swallowtail in Wuyuan
Dorsal View – Old World Swallowtail
Coming back to the fall migration, it all started on September 1st in Dongtai along with Roger T. We carried the good streak and the intent all the way to the end of the October. With Roger being in Shanghai for business we were able to get out on almost every weekend and Roger’s expertise in Owls came handy once again. We began our coastal watch on 24th September with visiting birder Luis Baia from Portugal. A quiet morning started with an “Oriental Scops Owl” came out of nowhere, perched up for few minutes and disappeared as it came. Suddenly, the activity started to pick up as we noticed good no of Blue and White Flycatchers.
“Lucky Me” – Oriental Scops Owl
Extra care was given for every individual as i have missed a potential bird through the years and as i expected, a male “Zappey’s Flycatcher” was among the bunch. Many thanks to Paul Leader who confirmed that it was indeed a Zappey’s. Later in the day, we picked up a good shorebird flock, Red-necked Stint, Sanderling and Terek Sandpiper.
Zappey’s Flycatcher
Little Stints were not common birds around Shanghai
Chennai memories – Black-winged Kite
“Raptor Collection” – Juvenile Eastern Marsh Harrier
There was good fallout of passerines on the October 1st week. Here is the pick of the bunch.
Female Rubythroat had no spectators compared to the male
The bird of the fall award goes to White-throated Rock Thrush
Rufous-tailed Robin/Swinhoe’s Robin were numerous
One more lifer added – Radde’s Warbler
one of many “Taiga Flycatcher”
Prized Catch – Lesser Cuckoo
Second weekend of October, we had a guest from UK, John Pilgrim. We started the morning with a modest no of Raptors (9 Species in total) with very close view of “Oriental Honey Buzzard”.
Honey Buzzard – not so common bird
The Gem and a crowd puller – Male “Rubythroat”
Headshot – White’s Thrush
Yellow-bellied Tit were in good no’s
1st Winter Male Grey-backed Thrush
Later in the evening, we hit XiaoYangshan at dusk in hope of some Owls and we were absolutely rewarded with a Northern Boobook. This individual stayed for almost two weeks and rewarded us with close views for consecutive weeks.
Hello there – Northern Boobook
Hello Again – Northern Boobook on 2nd Week
Another Owl in the bag – Short-eared Owl
Always seen in flight
The last Flycatcher – Mugimaki Flycatcher (female)
Male Daurian Redstart
Handywork of a Bull-headed Shrike (Taiga Flycatcher)
When we thought migration came to a halt by November, there were bagful of surprises. On November 10, we teamed up with Steven Bonta. We saw plenty of photographers at the Nanhui Car park which suggested there was something there. A quick chat with the photographer revealed that there were two male Japanese Robin were present a day before but they were absent in the morning. We strolled around the car park and picked up a first “Chinese Thrush” of the season. Our good morning streak and probably my best fall birding in recent times came just about to get started. We picked up a very confiding Hair-crested Drongo followed by my first patch tick, a “Carrion Crow”. I mistook the birds for a rook as its bill had some dry mud giving it a pale appearance.
Hair-crested Drongo
A deceptive Carrion Crow
Flight mode – Carrion Crow
We met with Mr.Lu at Microforest 2 and he said he has a doubtful individual lurking in the undergrowth. After several attempts we had a glimpse of a female “Japanese Robin“. The news spread quickly and the photographers arrived with their tools of the trade and in no time tamed the skittish robin.
My boogey bird of all time – Japanese Robin
We left the Robin with the photographers as it started to crowd. We hit XiaoYangshan again at dusk to give one last crack at the Owl. The Owl didn’t stay longer but we were duly rewarded with a cracking male “Verditer Flycatcher”.
Male Verditer Flycatcher
Statistically, this has been a fantastic fall for personally as my personal count for Shanghai went to 281 species and 214 for Zhejiang respectively. We also had a very early Common Starling on October 10th with John Pilgrim, at the same time we picked up a male Pied Harrier at the exact same spot from last fall. A new butterfly (Old World Swallowtail), 3 new lifers, several raptors and owls sums up a successive fall season.
Many thanks to the Owl Whisperer (aka) Roger Timmermann for a great company throughout the season. Check out his photo here. Most of the shots will be identical but he has a superior technique than mine.
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