Strange weather in Beijing today.  I heard from a friend who was birding at Wild Duck Lake today that he had to throw in the towel by 11am because it was too windy.  Some 30 miles south of there, in the south-west of Beijing, there was no wind whatsoever.  Not only that, it was brilliantly sunny all day and, at long last, a couple of degrees above freezing point.  Ideal conditions, but would the Pallas's Sandgrouse and Mongolian Larks - birds that had been pushed here by the hard weather - have sniffed the air and flown north? 

   We fanned out across the open, rough ground - which a few years ago was the basin of the Yong Ding river (Beijing's only "river", which has been dry for years).  

   Within 50 minutes we had connected with the first of our targets - a flock of 50 Mongolian Larks flew high overhead, but continued northwards (towards Mongolia?). 

   Two hours later, there was still no sign of the sandgrouse, although I had seen a Saker (a scarce winter visitor and passage migrant in these parts). 

   A phone call from a group of Beijing birders, one mile to the north, delivered the hoped-for news.  A flock of sandgrouse had been found.  Alas, my dash to join them was in vain, because they had flown off "northwards" shortly before I arrived.  As luck would have it, they thought better of the idea of a northward move, and the flock of 6 sandgrouse flew back to exactly the same place - literally over my head.  The photos show exactly how close they were!

   Then the sky was full of larks.  A flock of  about 600 - mostly Asian Short-toed; but with many "giant" Mongolians among them - whirrled and twisted in the clear blue sky.  Seeing Mongolian Larks is one thing, but getting any kind of shot of the 100 or so birds around me was far more challenging.  The attached photos are the best I could muster.

   My favourite shot of the day was saved to last, when a Chinese Grey Shrike decided to pose in the brilliant, low sunlight that was streaming in from behind me.  I've photographed this species several times before, but the birds have been too distant, or against the light, or too distant and against the light.

   As I was waiting for a taxi, a female Eurasian Sparrowhawk flew low over the road.  My policy of always having my camera ready paid dividends as I was able to get my best ever shot of this usually difficult to photograph species.  A great end to a wonderful day in Beijing.

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