And you thought YOU were having a bad day

Taken in Qinghai Province in August, a Little Owl preying on a juvenile Pika

Birding in Hainan Island, China

We were at Jianfengling, Hainan, from 17th to 24th October. It's quite a comfortable place for the casual birder, and they've got some good birds as well.

This is the place where, in 1963, Chinese ornithologists discovered that the Yellow-billed Nuthatch, Sitta solangae, occurred in China - it was known to occur in Vietnam already.



Robert Swinhoe shot a specimen of Orange-bellied Leafbird there in 1860. It had a blueish crown, hence the race lazulina



Hainan has many distinct races - some more distinct than others.....

Black-tailed Godwit lecture

We get two different kinds of Black-tailed Godwits here, according to the ever-readable "Avifauna of Hong Kong". The wintering population are an odd long thin-billed form, while the ones that pass through in spring are noticeably thicker-billed.


Winter



Spring




It is still a mystery where the thin-billed birds that winter here breed.

Black-capped Kingfisher

Most of our Black-capped Kingfishers winter here in HK, here's one I took on 6th October at Mai Po. I'd have posted it earlier here, but I forgot my code... yes,yes, I'm hopeless.

Urocynchramus pylzowi

Well, I don't know whether to call it a Bunting or a Rosefinch, so you'll have to settle for the scientific name. Seen in August 2007 near Qinghai Lake. A splendid Chinese endemic discovered by Nikolai Przewalski on one of his four great chinese ornithological expeditions. Old "Prezza" is not around any more, but his discovery still is -




Isn't nature wonderful? Hey, hey, yeah yeah yeah YEAH

John

Summer Indolence

There are lots of things more tiresome than people who don't update their blogs, but in the "blergershere" who needs a sense of proportion ?

Here are a couple of pics about a place we saw (I think) a Gentian "Gentiana sino-ornata" Discovered by George Forrest in NW Yunnan province in 1904 and described as "one of his finest introductions... exquisite beauty...late and prolonged flowering in autumn" Seen in 99 Dragon Pools, NW Yunnan in Oct 2005, this should be the one.



Here's a general view of the scenery there



Laojunshan, about four hours from Lijiang