2015-APR-20
My wife, ChunXia made the first spot of the day just outside our 14th floor window. She spotted (2) Eurasian Sparrowhawk working out apartment complex and apparently deciding it suited them as they finally landed on the roof of our building directly over us. She was excited about that and decided that it was a good day to go back to Gedalou Reservoir at Dawa. Yeh! I was wanting to go back anyway.
They apparently drew a lot of water from the reservoir when they filled the irrigation ditches as it was down about a meter since last time. Unfortunately that doesn't help the shore birds and waders as the Japanese lined it with cut stone at least that deep when they built it. Had a good day spotting though. This was the first time that there was enough visibility to see even half way across the lake and we were able to see the far shore clearly. There was little wind this time and the biggest hazard was dodging the cars, trucks and motorcycles that all apparently thought they were in a road rally. In typical Chinese fashion there was no slowing down for pedestrians. If you have to walk you are not important enough to worry about and if you are too stupid to get out of the way, it is your own fault if you get hit. We only covered about ¼ of way around the lake before our ride showed up and I was reluctantly dragged away by my wife.
The big swarm of Gulls was gone from the restaurant area but through the hike we still saw our share. Only (8) Herring Gull this time, but (60) Black-headed Gull were evident. Two separate flocks of B-hG over the small ponds, especially the drained ones and one flock floating on the lake. About equally divided into 20 individuals each.
Just as we started out we found a flock of (10) Yellow-bellied Tit that made themselves easier to count by coming out to scold the dog. Mixed in with them were (2) Little Bunting. BTW, eBird flagged my report of 75 Yellow-bellied Tit on the 17th as not likely for my location and date but I sent them photos and they then accepted the report. A little bit further on was (1) Azure-winged Magpie. First time I have seen one without some mates around.
Fish were jumping along the shore of the lake, which delighted the wife. She stopped to talk with some commercial fishermen who were mending nets and I overheard that I was Russian that day. She varies my nationality according to political situation amongst other reasons that I don’t always grasp. If I ask about it she usually just shushes me and changes the subject. I am Canadian anytime the US and China are in a spat about anything and American again when she wants the status connected with that. I think the reason this time was just that Russian was not interesting and they would just leave me alone.
On the lake, floating in individual pairs, I counted (12) Great Crested Grebe.
Both scattered in individuals and pairs and in one larger group, I counted (50) Eurasian Coot.
Nearby was a group of (27) Common Pochard.
Across the road one of the fish ponds that they were in the process of draining was a big draw for the waders. In that one pond were (20) Common Redshank on the south side and (10) Black-tailed Godwit probing the mud on the north end. Then just as we started to walk away, (11) Black-winged Stilt flew into the west end of the pond! Black-headed Gull were landing and working the shallow waters like waders in the middle of them all along with (6) Mew Gull.
As I mentioned, our daughter and her husband showed up to pick us up, but I spotted an interesting looking pair out on the lake and took off in the wrong direction with my wife threatening to leave me there. Good call on my part as it turned out to be (2) Little Grebe. Then just 20 meters short of making it back to the car, I was again distracted by another pair of ducks swimming together. Just as I was being pried away, I spotted another isolated pair. At that point the wife was getting really insistent, so I had to leave. I got good photos despite being rushed, but I can’t seem to ID either of them so I will include with this. With the two unidentified I had seven new species for the day!
(2) Eurasian Sparrowhawk - Accipiter nidus
(8) Herring Gull - Larus argentatus
(60) Black-headed Gull - Chroicocephalus ridibundus
(6) Mew Gull - Larus canus
(10) Yellow-bellied Tit - Periparus venustutlus
(2) Little Bunting - Emberiza pusilla
(4) Daurian Redstart - Phoenicuous auroreus
(1) Azure-winged Magpie - Cynopica cyanus
(12) Great Crested Grebe - Podiceps cristatus
(50) Eurasian Coot - Fullca atra
(27) Common Pochard - Aythya ierina
(20) Common Redshank - Tringa totanus
(10) Black-tailed Godwit - Limosa limosa
(11) Black-winged Stilt - Himantopus himantopus
(2) Little Grebe - Tachybaptus ruficollis
and my two as yet unidentified pair attached.