SE CHINA MIGRATION SPECIAL

The south-east coast of China is one of the hottest Spring migration destinations anywhere in Asia. Every year this eastern birding mecca plays host to a mouth-watering selection of Siberian vagrants and in the right conditions can produce spectacular falls of migrants. The coast just north of Shanghai has a surprisingly good selection of habitats ranging from coastal marshes, reedbeds, lagoons, scrub, arable fields and pockets of woodland that can entice wave upon wave of tired migrants to linger. Quite often they are exhausted and birds that are extremely shy on their breeding grounds are remarkably tame here and allow unparalleled opportunities to study them up close and personal! We will begin by visiting what has been called the best site in the world for seeing Spoon-billed Sandpipers. This is their last staging post before leaving for their breeding grounds in eastern Russia and we have a chance of seeing one in its breeding finery if we are lucky. A multitude of other migrant waders should also be seen, such as flocks of Great Knots, Red-necked Stints, Little Curlew and hopefully a rare Asian Dowitcher or Nordmann's Greenshank. The coastal wetlands hold Black-faced Spoonbill and Chinese Egret and Saunder's Gulls patrol the area, whilst Chinese endemics Reed Parrotbill and Marsh Grassbird nest in the reedbeds. 

We have timed our visit when Spring migration will be in full flow and we should see a good selection of 'eastern vagrants' as we explore the varied habitats. On previous visits we've been totally amazed at the number of birds moving through Temple Wood and Magic Wood and it's been hard to know where to look fIrst. All those near-mythical Siberian rarities we can only dream about seeing in the UK and Europe are possible such as Siberian Blue Robin, Siberian Rubythroat, Pechora Pipit, Thick-billed, Lanceolated, Two-barred Greenish and Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers, Siberian, White's and Dusky Thrushes, and Black-faced and Pallas's Reed Buntings amongst many others.

If you have ever dreamed of cleaning up on those eastern rarities that occasionally straggle to our shores, then this is the chance.

 Saturday 2nd May - Sunday 10th May 2020

KEY SPECIES

Here are just a few of the key species we will be targetting on this tour:

  • Chinese Egret
  • Black-faced Spoonbill
  • Amur Falcon
  • Yellow-legged Buttonquail
  • Baillon's Crake
  • Great Knot
  • Little Curlew
  • Swinhoe's Snipe
  • Far Eastern Curlew
  • Grey-tailed Tattler
  • Long-toed Stint
  • Red-necked Stint
  • Spoon-billed Sandpiper
  • Nordmann's Greenshank
  • Asiatic Dowitcher
  • Saunder's Gull
  • Northern Boobook
  • Oriental Cuckoo
  • Blyth's Pipit
  • Pechora Pipit
  • Chinese Grosbeak
  • Rufous-tailed Robin
  • Siberian Blue Robin
  • Siberian Rubythroat
  • White's Thrush
  • Siberian Thrush
  • Grey-sided Thrush
  • Grey-backed Thrush
  • Eye-browed Thrush
  • Pale Thrush
  • Brown-headed Thrush
  • Dusky Thrush
  • Japanese Paradise-Flycatcher
  • Asian Stubtail
  • Manchurian Bush Warbler
  • Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler
  • Lanceolated Warbler
  • Marsh Grassbird
  • Thick-billed Warbler
  • Eastern Crowned Warbler
  • Pale-legged Leaf-Warbler
  • Two-barred Warbler
  • Arctic Warbler
  • Pallas's Warbler
  • Radde's Warbler
  • Narcissus Flycatcher
  • Yellow-rumped Flycatcher
  • Mugimaki Flycatcher
  • Blue-and-white Flycatcher
  • Green-backed Flycatcher
  • Reed Parrotbill
  • Chinese Penduline-Tit
  • Asian Azure-winged Magpie
  • Chestnut-eared Bunting
  • Tristram's Bunting
  • Yellow-breasted Bunting
  • Pallas's Reed Bunting
  • Japanese Reed Bunting
Reed Parrotbill

Leaders:  Nick Bray and local guides. 

Ground Price:  £1950.00

Airfare: £550.00 - £630.00 (Approx) - Shanghai/Shanghai

Single supplement: £195.00

Deposit: £350.00

Group size: Minimum for tour to go ahead 5 and maximum 10 with 2 leaders.

Included in cost: Accommodation in twin rooms, all en-suite, all meals from lunch on Day 1 to breakfast on Day 9, all entrance fees, all transport throughout, and services of leaders and an English speaking guide. 

Not included: International airfare (Virgin Atlantic is the preferred carrier for this tour), visa fee, insurance, drinks, tips, and items of a personal nature.

Accommodation:  Comfortable hotels close to the birding sites. 

Tour Code:  Expect good food, decent hotels, and a mixture of weather. Above all, you need to expect the unexpected! We will be out in the field all day, so expect the days to be quite long. The weather is generally unsettled at this time of year, so expect some cooler weather and odd showers mixed in with periods of quite warm and sunny weather. Driving times are minimal and the birding sites at Nanhui and Rudong are under half an hour away from the hotels we stay in at each site.

All photos copyright Nick Bray/Zoothera Birding unless otherwise stated.

Just hover your cursor over each image for info.