13th May – A whole day to concentrate on the two woods near Lao Yu Jian; the ‘Magic Wood’ and the ‘Big Wood’. The Magic Wood couldn’t live up to the previous days fall, but we scored with Pechora Pipit early morning, then transferred to the Big Wood and on, later, to the harbour. Highlight of the day was a ‘Golden Spectacled Warbler’, which after much deliberation was identified as Grey-crowned. (It should be noted that the Seicercus group recently split into a number of species is now extremely hard to sort out in the field. For example, three birds trapped on Happy Island in 2000 were identified as three different species, but DNA work based on feather samples proved them in fact to be all the same – Grey-crowned.) The only other new bird for the day was White-breasted Waterhen, but add in all of the rest and it was another great day.
14th May – To Happy Island again, early morning, though not before a quick walk in Magic Wood. Things even quieter than yesterday, with small numbers of most migrant species; the threat of and small amount of rain in the afternoon promised much though produced only little. It was a good day for Lancies – I saw over ten (eight in Magic Wood and one singing on Happy Island). New birds for the trip on Happy Island included (amazingly) our first Striated Heron, Von Schrenck’s Bittern (I didn’t see it), Grey-sided Thrush, Siberian and Asian Paradise Flycatchers. Other species seen: Thick-billed Warbler – six; Eyebrowed Thrush – 15; Two-barred Greenish, Eastern Crowned, Pallas’s (60), Yellow-browed (22), Radde’s (50) and Dusky (75) Warblers; two more Grey-crowned Warblers (one, Happy Island, the other Magic Wood). At Magic Wood, a small Phylloscopus warbler was almost certainly a Chinese Leaf, but we couldn’t clinch it. Another look for Relict Gull at Lao Yu Jiang, got us Grey-tailed Tattler, over 40 Asian Dowitchers, 12 Saunders’s Gulls, and several distant hazy gulls. We would have one more chance the next day for Relict.
15th May – The Magic Wood, early morning, provided a good opportunity to study Brown, Grey-streaked, Siberian and Taiga Flycatchers alongside each other, but was generally quiet. The Big Wood was also quiet, though a check of the nearby paddyfields got us our first Baillon’s Crakes (a world tick for Graham, but we’ll keep that to ourselves) and a male Blue-and-white Flycatcher that flew along a ditch and landing in a tree, before flying off into the distance. A last check at Lao Yu Jian provided good views of five first-summer Relict Gulls (perseverance paying off) – I entertained the crowds of fishermen with my inept drawing skills (Rolf Harris eat your heart out). Extra value was present in the form of two Grey-tailed Tattlers, plus many other waders on the falling tide: 75 Asian Dowitchers, 1200 Dunlin, 500 Great Knot, etc..
On our return to Beidaihe, the winds picked up and terrific sand storms put paid to the planned stop at the Yang Ho estuary. In fact this was to prove serendipitous. As the last of the bags were unloaded from the coach – some of us were in our rooms by this time – Tony looked up and noticed a bird flying low over one of the hotel buildings. Cries of "Black Baza" echoed down the corridors of the hotel and soon the whole group were having great views of this most unexpected of birds as it fought against the wind. It was apparent that the wind and dust was forcing incoming birds close to the ground, so after an unsuccessful search for an Elisae’s Flycatcher in the hotel wood, we went up to Jin Shan field for the visible migration.
Pacific Swifts were coming through in good numbers; this had to be the moment for White-throated Needletail. After an hour or so, as I checked through the swifts again, two low flying birds coming straight towards me cried out - there was no mucking about, no jinking, just coming straight as an arrow. I switched to my scope and shouted to the others (rather loudly) "get on these two swifts", and the penny dropped: "Needletails". One flew right over out heads at a height of c.30 metres, in the scope it paused to scratch itself in disdain at Ken’s extremely ill-disciplined and excited screams ("Nailed you bastard!", I think was how it went – Ken is a poet). What an end to the day.