The weather continues to misbehave. The end of last week was relatively mild but then, just as people began to talk about the winter being over at last, three inches of snow arrived on Sunday. This had mostly gone by Wednesday, with the wind turning to the south for the first time in ages. The forecast is for yet another cold front to arrive tomorrow, with strong winds, so I thought I would check out the largest expanses of open water in central Beijing before the weather changes for the worse.

Yuanmingyuan, the "old" Summer Palace was relatively birdless, with just a Great Crested Grebe, 2 Little Egrets, and 2 Goosander on and around the main lake. But, just as I was leaving, I was delighted to find a passage migrant that is quite scarce in central Beijing: a Long-billed Plover.

I made the short trip over to the "new" Summer Palace (Yiheyuan), where the main "Kunming" Lake was teeming with bird life. I was amazed to see a large flock of Bewick's Swan feeding in the shallows, very close to where thousands of people were walking past. Numerous lenses, from pinhole camera phones to the largest telephotos were pointed at the swans, who seemed to be totally unconcerned by their star status.

"Swan Lake" held no fewer than 133 Bewick's, 10 Whooper and, by far the rarest of the three species present, a party of four adult Mute Swan - a very scarce bird in Beijing.

The supporting cast comprised 10 species of duck, including presumably the same male Red-crested Pochard that I had found last week.

8 species photographed, 7 of which (numbered) are "new" for 2010

199 Great Crested Grebe (nom. ssp cristatus), 2
200 Long-billed Plover (monotypic), 1
201 Large-billed Crow (ssp mandschuricus?), few
202 Bewick's Swan (ssp bewicki), 133
203 "Oriental" Magpie (sp/ssp sericea), many
204 Mute Swan (monotypic), 4
205 Taiga Bean Goose (ssp middendorffii), 7
Whooper Swan, 10

Other birds seen but not photographed:

Shelduck, 5
Ruddy Shelduck, 3
Falcated Duck, 2
Mallard, c50
Eastern Spot-billed Duck, few
Pintail, c15
Eurasian Teal, c20
Red-crested Pochard, male
Tufted Duck, few
Goosander, c30
Heron, 1
Little Egret, 2
Buzzard sp, 1
Coot, 1
Black-headed Gull, sev
Gull sp, 2
Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker, 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 Grey-headed Woodpecker, 1
Oriental Crow, sev
Daurian Jackdaw, 2
Eurasian Skylark, 1
White-cheeked Starling, few
Brambling, c50