Before anything else: please don't use drones to watch birds!
Spring has truly arrived; on the walk home from school I keep seeing Barn Swallows wheeling through the sky. It's migration season, and just like this time last year, I chose the horse ranch for birding, for it was at exactly this time last year that I crossed paths with three Oriental Plovers there. The Oriental Plovers have already been in Shanghai for two or three days, so they should be reaching Beijing soon, I thought. (Last year's encounter: A Leopard Cat brushed right past me!)
We reached the horse ranch at noon, and the moment I stepped out of the car, two Common Starlings came straight toward me, as if to welcome me.
Along the water's edge, there were at least four subspecies of White Wagtail this time; their numbers this year are remarkably high.
A few Kentish Plovers fed in the distance, and two of them even got into a fight. Beneath that adorable exterior, a Kentish Plover hides a surprisingly feisty heart.
Suddenly the White Wagtails in front of me began alarm-calling, and a dark shape sliced across the sky, plunging down like a sword: a Peregrine Falcon hunting.
At Kangxi Grassland, the water's surface was a dense mass of little black dots, perhaps a thousand waterbirds on this one stretch, among them several obvious white ones: a group of Tundra Swans. Near the swans was a flock of geese, Taiga Bean Geese, Greylag Geese, and Greater White-fronted Geese mixed together.
In the water, Eurasian Spoonbills and Pied Avocets were feeding, each with its own special technique. Both strain the water like scooping from a hot pot: the spoonbills slide their bills through the water as if the pot were nearly empty, while the avocets scythe so fast it's as if the pot were full of goodies, grab whatever you can!
Suddenly a small group of Northern Lapwings flew past with three sandpipers mixed in. Two Spotted Redshanks and a Ruff, no less! They followed the lapwings down into the grass, fed a while, then moved onto the grassy shoal in the water.
I never expected to see a Ruff here; before this I had only ever seen one at Nanbao, so this was a Beijing lifer! The horse ranch in migration season always has surprises.
Just as I was watching them from afar, the water suddenly boiled over. The lapwings and the Ruff took off, the ducks quacked in alarm, the geese called warnings, and the resting Tundra Swans stretched their necks toward the sky, wary. With one great whoosh the ducks all flew, circled once, and left, only the swans remaining on the water.
The cause was a drone harassing the birds. Flying a drone into a flock like this is truly unacceptable; I once watched a flock of Hooded Cranes at Guanting scattered by a drone the same way.
The sun was about to set and the birds were settling to rest, until the drone shattered the calm. (Cranes dancing over Guanting.) I'm asking everyone, please don't watch birds with drones. They give birds an enormous fright.
Because of the drone's mischief I only got a short while with the Ruff. I'll come back tomorrow morning and try my luck again.
In the morning the sky was grey and sunless, bitterly cold, and the birds seemed less active for the weather. Yesterday's Kentish Plovers didn't show. But there were raptors everywhere: Common Kestrels, a Peregrine Falcon, Eurasian Sparrowhawks, a Hen Harrier, and Black Kites patrolling the sky, plus a Common Buzzard and a Northern Goshawk perched in trees.
Perhaps it was still too early, but today the Common Pheasants were remarkably friendly, strolling right beside the car. This was the first time since I started birding that I'd watched pheasants this closely; usually they either run off far away or explode from underfoot and scare me half to death.
Far fewer geese and ducks remained on the Kangxi Grassland water; had yesterday's drone scared them into moving elsewhere? The Ruff was still feeding among the Northern Lapwings, though it kept to the far distance, visible only now and then through the scope.
I left the horse ranch without the Oriental Plover, but these two days gave plenty in return. What new arrivals might next week bring?
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