Fragrant Hills Park in Beijing

I am tending towards the thought that I must be the only British bird watcher without a tick beside Bohemian Waxwing. Four people of my acquaintance (I hesitate to use the word ‘friends’ for lack of a timely phone call or text), have been able to watch flocks of Bombycillae in their own gardens (within easy reach of a telephone)! The irruption has been very impressive this winter, but as spring approaches, I fear that I have missed out. So it was with interest that I read a blog account of, not just Bohemian, but also Japanese Waxwings in Beijing (Peking). A picture of a mixed flock was a delight to behold and gave me the jolt that I needed to make use of a free afternoon in China.

 The schedule for this trip is not conducive to doing much. After a long flight, we reached the hotel at midday and would return early the next morning. The weather was poor with dreadful light and drizzle. Only the thought of two waxwings in one hit provided enough motivation for this jet-lagged flight attendant to venture out and explore.

It was almost 13.00 by the time I reached the Fragrant Hills. An entrance fee of Huan 10 saw me through the gate where I turned right and followed the paths that meander through the lower gardens.

Bramblings and Dusky (?)(Naumann's) Thrush

My tip for birding in Beijing is to make yourself familiar with the sparrows and magpies to avoid being constantly distracted by them. Eurasian and Azure-winged Magpies were noisy and obvious; Eurasian Tree Sparrows were even more abundant. A drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker drew me into a stand of trees where a small flock of thrushes evaded identification in the stygian gloom. If anyone would care to venture an opinion, I would be pleased. Especially if your opinion leads me to Dark-throated Thrush (but they were probably Dusky)!

A moment’s excitement at seeing a Grey-capped Greenfinch was short-lived when I realised that it was an Oriental Greenfinch using an alias. I tweaked the overexpose setting to get any kind of picture, but could do nothing about the high, silhouetted birds.

A flock of small birds flew in and settled in the top of a leafless tree. Normally Bramblings have enough colour to make them stand out, but even at just past lunch-time, the light was so appalling that I did not recognise them in the photo when I got home. A small tit could have been either Willow or Marsh. The voice might have been decisive if I had recognised it, but after seeking advice, it seems that it was most likely to have been a Marsh Tit.

By following the signs through the lower gardens to Spectacles Lake, I found myself at the bottom of a chair-lift. G.L. (may all the saints bless him) had suggested that I take the cable car to the summit and walk back down. Note the use of “cable car” in G’s suggestion, which gives the impression of an enclosed, warm, comfortable conveyance.

It was a ski-type chair-lift, open to the elements which were currently raining down on me. He also forgot to mention that the lift ascended 400meters vertical height to Xianglu Peak. At the top it was snowing and G’s idea (may he burn in seven kinds of Hell), had lost all of its appeal.

I was astonished to watch locals scaling the hillside as I took the lazy way up, but noticed what I guessed to be votive tokens at the summit. I surmise that the climb is made as a pilgrimage of some sort. The air was regularly split by cries of anguish as the legs weakened, or perhaps they were shouts of self-motivation to complete the undertaking.                      

The precipitous, uneven steps leading down would be perilous at the best of times. In snow, they were treacherous, but I needed to descend as the rain caught in the cups of my binoculars was freezing over and the wind was blowing sleet into my eyes. I was halfway down before any kind of bird watching was possible. Much of the hillside is covered by scrubby bushes which on this first day of April were still bare, but the peach and almond trees were wearing pink and white blossom in anticipation of spring. A Daurian Redstart, his red tail vibrating, picked between the bases of the bare bushes.

The magpies and sparrows were still abundant, but I had learned to ignore them and happily did so in favour of a black squirrel feeding in a small evergreen by the path. I would love to know his name if anyone can tell me. A Goldcrest called from the adjacent conifer. Through the stand of conifers, the path levelled out for a few pleasant moments. A male and female Red-flanked Bluetail skulked in a patch of bushes in the evergreen area.

Soon I reached the lower slopes and found myself at ‘Lotus View’ which used to comprise of viewing towers until 1860 when they were destroyed by the Anglo-French joint forces. A villa stands there now. Great Tits showed briefly with a Meadow Bunting. Oriental Turtle Doves were calling with a coarse tone that did not match the “melodious” description in the field guide. Lotus View would be easy to reach on foot without recourse to the chair-lift and I only saw 2 species above here that I didn’t see elsewhere.

Now that I had returned to the bottom of the hill, I realised that I had not seen any fruit or berry trees that might have attracted waxwings. By April, I am sure that most of the berries would have been eaten or would be giving way to new growth, so the birds that feed on them during the winter would be moving on and that my chance to see the waxwings here had passed also.

I was cold and wet, my gear was soaked and my lenses were fogging up. I decided to call it a day.

As I passed through the gate a flock of birds flew across the small square and into the bare crown of a tree on the other side. I took a look through my binoculars out of habit more than anything else. Crests! They had crests! Waxwings, a hundred plus, but which ones? The light had not improved all day and I was unable to see any colour at the end of the tail. Bohemians would have had yellow tips, while Japanese sport a red terminal band, but it was simply impossible to pick out any detail. This was not how I had hoped my first picture of a Waxwing would turn out!

I tried to get closer, but they were in a tree beyond a wall with no access to get any closer. I tried to adjust my angle to make the best use of the available light. Some birds had shaggy crests and light patches visible on the wings by which I was at last able to identify them as Bohemian Waxwings. But what of those without light patches? I took photos with the intention of brightening, super-zooming and colour-enhancing. I managed to get the tiniest hint of yellow on a few, but more than half of them still remain a toss-up.

Thank you to Terry Townsend for the inspiring picture of the mixed flock of waxwings, for his reply to an RFI and his thoughts on tits. Thank you also to Birding Pals Jianqiang Li and Lijin Zeng for putting me on the right route for info.

Fragrant Hills will soon be connected to the city when the new subway station opens there. Since that was unlikely to be completed by this afternoon, I selected the taxi option which took 30 minutes and cost Huan 85 (@9.5 = £1). The park is about 10 kms beyond the Summer Palace in the northwest of the city. The journey will take you past the Botanical Gardens which are within walking distance of the entrance Gate to Fragrant Hills. From the hotel (by the north-east section of Beijing’s 3rd ring road), it can take much longer than half an hour, depending on traffic. It took an hour for the return journey. The subway will take approx 50 minutes when complete and involve two changes of train. The chair-lift ride cost Huan 50.

Also known as Xiangshan Park, Fragrant Hills Park can be found at Google Earth ref; 39°59'22.82"N 116°11'24.70"E.

Species seen; 17

Oriental Turtle Dove 6, Eurasian Collared Dove 1, Spotted Dove 4, Great Spotted Woodpecker 2, Bohemian Waxwing 120, Red-flanked Blue-tail 2, Daurian Redstart 2, Goldcrest 1, Marsh Tit 1, Great Tit 2, Azure-winged Magpie 120, Eurasian Magpie 35, Large-billed Crow 4, Eurasian Tree Sparrow 200, Brambling 80, Oriental Greenfinch 1, Meadow Bunting 1.

Beijing, PEK, Fragrant Hills

Eagle Heights Bird of Prey Centre

A Cheetah has just chased its prey across the grassland overlooking the valley and is trying to bolt down the rewards of the hunt before the scavengers come looking for unguarded morsels. The cat alternates between gulping down his meal and darting worried glances towards the sky. All too soon, the Maribou Storks arrive. Drifting in on huge wingspans, they try to challenge the cheetah at the carcass. A Hooded Vulture is attracted by the activity and so is a Tawny Eagle. The Cheetah has worked hard for his meal though and will not allow it to be taken from him, so the scavengers have to make do with titbits scattered around the scene.

 Tawny Eagle 

If you can’t get to Africa this afternoon, perhaps a small town near Junction 3 of the M25 can provide you with a believable alternative. I would love to be able to tell you that these close-ups are the result of incredible patience, superb camouflage and skilled field craft. They actually come from a visit to Eagle Heights, a bird of prey centre near Eynstone in Kent, where the ‘African scene’ is definitely the highlight of the afternoon.

Boumani

Using a zip wire and a harness, Boumani the Cheetah chases a lure down the hill and into the display area where he is rewarded with a meal of proper meat and a round of applause from the excited spectators. This is the only place in Europe where you can see a Cheetah running down his dinner like this and the addition of the scavenging birds brings a real feel of the Dark Continent to Kent.

Martial Eagle gets a 'pedicure'

 

Visitors can get up close and personal with other animals during the daily mammal and reptile encounters. A small circle is enclosed by benches, but there is no barrier between the stars and the audience. During the Meercat encounter, the rocks and logs within the circle, which children had been playing on moments before, are liberally scattered with mealworms which the meercats seek out with relish. Coatis and porcupines take their turn on stage, alternating with the suricates, but the snakes have a show of their own.

Lanner Falcon

(PS in the pictures above and below indicate that a photoediting software program has been used to remove unsightly bits from the original picture)

Every day there are two bird of prey shows when some of the centre’s 150 birds get their moment in the limelight. Owls, White-tailed Sea-eagles, Lanner Falcons, Striated Caracara and even a Griffon Vulture named Harold are shown during the displays.

“Angry” Annie, the African Fish Eagle

“Angry” Annie, the African Fish Eagle (named because of her loathing of the centre’s owner and her habit of attacking him), demonstrates how to catch fish from a small pool as she swoops down to pluck a meal from the surface of the water. All the encounters are accompanied by an informative and often humorous commentary by an experienced keeper. It is clear that they are very close to their charges, especially Harold the Vulture.

Peregrine Falcon

All the birds at Eagle Heights have been born in captivity or rescued and the centre is having considerable success with its own breeding programme. Just now, Bald Eagles, Martial Eagles and Peregrine Falcons are sitting on eggs or feeding chicks. The first hope for rescued birds is that they will return to the wild and Eagle Heights provides a safe environment while they recuperate. The resident birds are used to promote education and conservation with many projects including cheetah conservation being supported by the centre.

Bald Eagle

Details of the conservation projects initiated and supported by Eagle Heights can be found by following this link to their website. The site also contains general information about the centre and its birds.

Martial Eagle

Tyson's Corner, Virginia, IAD

If you are a regular reader at Redgannet, you will know that at least once during every trip I do something daft to spoil the day and then try to blame either someone else or beer. If I am honest most of these incidents can be put down to simple stupidity.This month alone I have been stuck in soft sand, been diverted by a mountain on fire, been held up by horrible traffic, called from standby at a moment's notice, and last night I left my glasses in the bar and didn't get them back until nearly midday.

It was cold during the morning and I was pleased to see that it had warmed up by the time I managed to retrieve my spectacles and get out. I visited a thin ribbon of woodland that passes behind the malls at Tyson's Corner. A tarmac path leads off in both directions from the southern end of Westbranch Drive (Google Earth ref; 38 55' 31"N 77 13' 19"W), dead-ending one way and leading to a small pond the other.

I chose the south-easterly direction to start me off. American Robins were picking through the leaf litter. This individual was sporting the filoplumes much beloved of Jochen and Owler. A Carolina Wren called from a tangle. A small brown bird in the undergrowth caught my attention and shortly a Hermit Thrush came out onto the path, pumping its tail.

A small barrier at the dead end would not stop an intrepid explorer and a deer path continues past it. The White-tailed Deer were feeding in the scrub beyond the barrier, but spooked when they saw me. The group of about a dozen trotted with their tails high to the far side of the meadow and watched me from there.

I returned to the road, passing a pair of Downy Woodpeckers on the way. The path continues on the other side of Westbranch Road and heads north-west. I suspected that a Cooper's Hawk had a nest here after seeing him the day before, flying into an evergreen with a small stick in his beak while the female soared overhead. Sure enough, he was perched on a nearby branch that arched over the path and stayed very close to the evergreen when he flushed as I passed beneath.

Further on were some Carolina Chickadees, but also a couple that had a much slower call. This area is close to the overlap zone for Carolina and Black-capped Chickadees, but I hear that songs and calls are learned and are not a reliable way of distinguishing between the two species, so I shall stick with the Carolinas.

A Northern Mockingbird, on a rustic wall near the supermarket was the only bird all day that had sat still for a photograph.

The biggest surprise of the day came almost back at the hotel when a large raptor was seen overhead. I had been seeing a lot of Turkey Vultures and Red-tailed Hawks over the last couple of days, but this one caught my eye with a different flight style and silhouette.

It was a Bald Eagle, soaring over Tyson's Corner.

Species seen; 21

Turkey Vulture 8, Bald Eagle 1, Cooper's Hawk 2, Mourning Dove 4, Red-bellied Woodpecker 2, Downy Woodpecker 3, Tree Swallow 50, Carolina Wren 2, Northern Mockingbird 2, American Robin 30, Hermit Thrush 1, Carolina Chickadee 5, American Crow 3, House Sparrow 8, House Finch 3, Song Sparrow 3, Dark-eyed Junco 5, Northern Cardinal 5, Common Grackle 15, Brown-headed Cowbird 3.

The Tree Swallows were seen from the window of the bus as we returned to the airport. They were swooping over a lake close to IAD.

In case the picture above leaves you none the wiser about Bald Eagles, but wanting more, this is what they are supposed to look like. This was taken at Eagle Heights, a bird of prey centre in Eynstone, Kent.

This post links well with the Great Falls Park article as they were part of the same trip.

Follow the links below for other posts from Washington;
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2010/09/raglans-wood-tysons-corner-fairfax-va.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/03/great-falls-park-virginia.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/05/great-falls-park-virginia-april.html

Other trips to USA and Canada can be seen on the dedicated page

High Resolution Images from January 2011

High Resolution Images from January 2011

The images in the main blog have been reduced in size to 600 pixels or less across to facilitate quick loading. It goes against all my sensibilities to reduce the resolution, so each month I shall select a few shots that warrant being seen in in hi-res.
These posts may take slightly longer to load, so please be patient.

The links will take you back to the original post.
 

Common Greenshank, Safa Park, Dubai

Red-bellied Woodpecker, Central Park, New York

African Reed Warbler, Marievale, Johannesberg

Other galleries can be found at the dedicated High Resolution page.

Great Falls Park, Virginia

The Potomac River marks the boundary between Virginia and Maryland. At Great Falls Park (Google Earth ref; 38 59' 49"N 77 15' 17W ), after draining some 11,500 square miles of its rainwater, the river surges through the narrow Potomac gorge and over the rapids for which the park is named, dropping 76 feet in the process. The flow was slightly above normal today and made an impressive sight. Viewpoints have been built to show off the falls at their best, but worryingly, a high water marker shows the levels of dramatic floods that covered these platforms when the river rose to inundate the picnic areas at the top of the bank.

To facilitate supply and trade with the western frontier, the Potowmack Company (founded by none other than George Washington) built a series of canals to navigate the falls. Remnants of one these canals from 1785, are still visible on the Virginia bank and continue to provide a calm water habitat alongside the torrent of the river.

Downstream from the viewpoints, the canal holds water and a rough harmony emanated from it. Frogs were calling and copulating in the sunshine. I watched for a while and loved the standing waves produced by the vibrations when this frog inflated his throat sac to call. Further downstream, signs request no cycling.

By the Visitor's Center an Eastern Bluebird was eyeing up a female who flew provocatively close to catch his attention.

Upstream of the main area a path follows the canal and arrives at the bank of the fast flowing Potomac.
Islands mid-river held some Canada Geese and on the far side a large nest looked to have a white head poking from it. I watched for a while but it didn't move. A ranger told me that it was the nest of a pair of Bald Eagles that return each year to breed, but no-one had seen the birds yet this year.

On the near bank a Great Blue Heron was keeping an eye out for fish. I must admit to being captivated by the river and did not venture very far into the woods away from the water.
The environment inland from the river is mature forest with a lot of dead wood. There were plenty of Red-headed Woodpeckers and a Pileated Woodpecker too. A Downy Woodpecker was heard, but that does not qualify it for the list.
White-breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice and Carolina Chickadees were common in the woods. This area is very close to a point where chickadees could get tricky. These gave a much faster call using the "Mississippi River" rate of about 6 "-dees" per second following the "chic-a" instead of the slower, "Hudson flow" at just 3 "-dees" per second.

To cycle from Tyson's Corner, head north on International Drive. You will soon pass under the 267 Freeway and then cross an odd junction leading into Spring Hill Rd. After about 1.6kms you will reach a crossroads with a gas station. Turn west (left) onto Old Dominion Dr and follow this for 4.3kms. At the junction, Great Falls Park is sign posted immediately ahead and is about 1.7kms into the woods here.
The roads are well paved, but are a little narrow. The trails in the park by the river do not have a hard surface, but were easy to cycle on.
There is more uphill on the way back and it took me approx 45 minutes to return to Tyson's Corner.
There is no taxi rank here. If you wish to visit by taxi, you should arrange a return ride.

Birds seen; 22

Double-crested Cormorant 3, Great Blue Heron 2, Canada Goose 6, Turkey Vulture 12, Black Vulture 1, Cooper's Hawk 2, Red-shouldered Hawk 1, Red-tailed Hawk 3, Mourning Dove 7, Red-bellied Woodpecker 7, Pileated Woodpecker 1, Carolina Wren 2, Eastern Bluebird 3, American Robin 12, Carolina Chickadee 5, Tufted Titmouse 12, White-breasted Nuthatch 2, Blue Jay 4, American Crow 6,

Common Starling 15, Yellow-rumped Warbler 1, Northern Cardinal 6.

Washington, IAD, Virginia, Great Falls Park, Tyson's Corner.

Other posts for Washington DC, IAD, Virginia and Tyson's Corner can be found at the following links;

http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2010/09/raglans-wood-tysons-corner-fairfax-va.html

http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/05/great-falls-park-virginia-april.html

http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/03/tysons-corner-virginia-iad.html

Other posts from North America can be seen on the USA and Canada page.