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Hebei, Beidaihe

CHANGING CURRENTS
20 YEARS of REFLECTIONS
BIRDS IN CHINA - PHOTOS
CYCLING to XANADU
THE CHINESE DREAM
CHINESE NEW YEAR ADS
The MEDIUM, the MESSAGE and the SAUSAGE DOG
ANYONE FOR TENNIS?
VIEWS FROM ABOARD THE CHINA EXPRESS:
1 Zola and Retail Marketing
2 Playing the Waiting Game
3 Beware the Ides of March
4 The county not on a map
5 Chinese Chess in Beijing
6 Build it and They'll Come
7 Riding the Water Dragon
8 The Best of Both Worlds
9 Storming the Great Wall
10 Welcome to the Wangba
11 The Catcher in the Rice
12 The Marriage Business
13 The Crouching Dragon
14 Counting the Numbers
15 A Century of Migration
16 Shooting for the Stars
17 Rise of Yorkshire Puds
18 Harry Potter in Beijing
19 Standing Out in China
20 Self-pandactualisation
21 Strolling on the Moon
22 Tea with the Brothers
23 Animated Guangzhou
24 Trouble on the Farms
25 Christmas in Haerbin
26 Dave pops into Tesco
27 A Breath of Fresh Air
28 The Boys from Brazil
29 Rolls-Royce on a roll
30 The Great Exhibition
31 Spreading the Word
32 On Top of the World
33 Moonlight Madness
34 Beijing's Wild West
35 Avatar vs Confucius
36 Brand Ambassadors
37 Inspiring Adventure
38 China's Sweet Spot
39 Spinning the Wheel
40 Winter Wonderland
41 The End of the Sky
42 Ticket to Ride High
43 Turning the Corner
44 Trouble in Toytown
45 Watch with Mother
46 Red-crowned Alert
47 In a Barbie World
48 Domestic Arrivals
49 Tale of Two Taxis
50 Land of Extremes
51 Of 'Mice' and Men
52 Tour of the South
53 Brooding Clouds?
54 The Nabang Test
55 Guanxi Building
56 Apple Blossoms
57 New Romantics
58 The Rose Seller
59 Rural Shanghai
60 Forbidden Fruit
61 Exotic Flavours
62 Picking up Pace
63 New Year, 2008
64 Shedding Tiers
65 Olympic Prince
66 London Calling
67 A Soulful Song
68 Paradise Lost?
69 Brandopolises
70 Red, red wine
71 Finding Nemo
72 Rogue Dealer
73 Juicy Carrots
74 Bad Air Days
75 Golden Week
76 Master Class
77 Noodle Wars
78 Yes We Can!
79 Mr Blue Sky
80 Keep Riding
81 Wise Words
82 Hair Today
83 Easy Rider
84 Aftershock
85 Bread vans
86 Pick a card
87 The 60th
88 Ox Tales
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BIRDING in CHINA
PORTS of CALL
FROM BEYOND THE WALL
ABOUT

Sunday 28th March, 12pm to 6pm

Spent quite a bit of time looking sky-wards for migrating cranes, but perhaps the wind was too strong (the forecast was for a 4, but at times it felt more like a 6).

The only movement of big birds I saw was a flock of about 20 Bean Geese, flying high over the sea, near the Sandflats... heading north-east.

Star billing among the Sandflats' notables has to go to the flock of six Great Knot - a couple of which were in fairly advanced breeding plumage. One went a bit too far, though, in having a fashion-victim yellow pendant pinned to its upper left leg.

As you can see from the photo, the branding is "AAH", or maybe that's "HAA". I'm a big fan of ringing projects normally, but I must admit to thinking that there has to be a better way of tracking big waders than sticking day-glow yellow flags to their legs (sort of spoils the aesthetics).

On a serious note, if anyone knows how to get the news to whoever, that one of their beacons has been spotted in Beidaihe, then please feel free to make their day. That said, I wouldn't be surprised to find out they've been tracking it on Google Earth.

Other returning waders here were c40 Kentish Plovers, several Dunlin, and an odd couple of curlews... a Eurasian Curlew and a Far Eastern Curlew (that very kindly allowed me to get a shot of its underwing as it flew past me... not a wing tag in sight I'm happy to say).

There were also more than 1000 gulls on the Sandflats. Or maybe more than 2,000 (Don't tell anyone but counting gulls has the same effect on me as counting sheep... I never get past 100 before losing concentration or falling asleep). Most were Black-headed, but there were also a few hundred Kamchatka and 30 or 40 Vega/Mongolian. Despite trying (but not that hard to be honest), I couldn't find a Saunders or a Relict, or even a Black-tailed (but who knows what I may find when I go through the photos ;-).

Here's the list of birds I saw (birds whose photos appear below are highlighted; the 9 new for the year are numbered).

214 Kentish Plover, c40, Sandflats
215 Great Knot, 6, Sandflats
216 Dunlin, sev, Sandflats
Black-headed Gull, many
Kamchatka Gull, lots (outnumbered by BHG by 8:1), Sandflats
Vega/Mongolian Gull 30-40, Sandflats
Eurasian Curlew, 1, Sandflats
217 Far Eastern Curlew, 1
Bean Geese, c20, over sea
Pochard, 17, on sea
Great Crested Grebe, 1, sea
Goldeneye, c100. on sea
218 Common Redshank, 1
Naumann's Thrush, 1, Reservoir
Elegant Bunting (sev, Reservoir; c30 Lotus Hills)
Water Pipit, 2, Reservoir
Red-flanked Bluetail, c15
219 Great White Egret, sev, Reservoir
220 Hoopoe, c12
Pallas's Reed Bunting, 1, Sandflats' reedbeds
Oriental Greenfinch, 1
Night Heron (c doz)
Daurian Redstart, 3
221, Hawfinch, 1, Lotus Hills
Rufous Turtle Dove, c20, Lotus Hills
Chinese Bulbul, 2, Lotus Hills
Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1
Grey-headed Woodpecker, 4
222 Collared Dove, 4
Red-throated Thrush x Naumann's Thrush hybrid ??

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