Po Yang Lake, Jiang Xi Province, China. December 1989
I was extremely lucky to be able to go and visit this nature reserve in China. I had been voluntering at Mai Po Marsh in Hong Kong and my friend, Mark Bezuijen, worked for the World Wide Fund for Nature. This trip was organised as part of a series of surveys by the WWF on the birds present at the lake.
I had been to see a talk and slide show by David Mellville on the birds of Po Yang and was gob smacked at what could be seen. It was even more spectacular than I expected. This was my first overseas birding so the notes are not very extensive- I wish now that they were better. I was 19 when I went here and I as Paul Holt said on the trip- I did't deserve to see these birds! The reserve was set up in th early 1980s to protect the wintering grounds of the Siberian Crane. We were the first Westerners to visit the reserve for two years, the last was the King of Sweden!
8th December 1989
We left Hong Kong (saw a Buzzard at Kai Tak) and flew into Nan Chang airport. We flew on China Airlines, which I wouldn't recommend. Started birding straight away and saw a few birds around the airport and on the way to the hotel.
9th December 1990
Awoke early, and Mark and I headed straight out to the small park behind the Friendship Hotel. The park was full of bird song- mainly from caged Hwamei's. On closer inspection the Hwamei cages were a Hwamei trap. The bird in the cage actied as a lure and a cunning trapdoor was liberally sprinkled with mealworms on the roof of the cage. I didn't see it in action but it must be effective although the park was't very big and there were several traps- there couldn't be many Hwameis left to catch!
In the park we saw:
After breakfast we got on the bus and headed off to Po Yang Lake. The bus journey was an experience in itself, liberal use of the horn and breakneck speed were the norm. We kept an eye out from the bus for birds.
We pulled over at some cultivated fields by the Xiu River and scanned around and were amply rewarded.
We then drove on to meet the boat which was to take us to the reserve headquarters were we would stay. It was a lot colder than I expected. Mark had a wooly hat and I didn't. I paid the price on that boat, very sore ears. We pulled into the bank and had a look over the main reserve a couple of times. Spectacular doesn't even come close.
10th December 1989
We went a wandering today to get our bearings and try to get to grips with the vast number of birds. The reserve is big and flat! Mostly grass and a network of waterways. There was also the odd dry gully and a few shrubs and trees. Some cultivated fields were dotted about near small villages. Birds listed in order that they were seen.
An absolutely mind-blowing day. So many rare birds in such numbers! It has taken a few more years birding to work out how good it was, I took it all in my stride then.
11th December 1989
We took a boat trip today to a more distant part of the reserve. We were determined to see (and hopefully ring) Japanese Meadow Warbler.
Where do I start? Great Bustards are huge! We couldn't get very close, there was no cover at all available but we got pretty good views through the 'scopes. The Bar-headed Goose was the first one recorded for three years. It stood out well from the flock of Bean Geese it was feeding with. Probably the most unexpected bird was the Swinhoes Crake. We had seen a slide of a stuffed one before we left (and actually saw the stuffed bird at the headquarters when we got there.) We had joked about seeing it, apparently it is one of Ben King's bogey birds (THE authority on Asian birds has seen just about everything but this!) Anyway, we were walking through shin length grass trying to flush out Japanese Meadow Warbler when this liitle beauty popped up at our feet and dropped down again. Most striking were the small size and pure white secondaries on the upper wing and very pale underwing with a dark leading edge. The rest of the bird was mostly dark, pale belly, yellow beak. It was actually hard to flush, very reluctant to fly. I had it between my knees and even under my hands- it would just sit there and then worm away through the grass at high speed. Squeaks like a rat! No wonder they are so hard to see!
12 December 1989
Excellent views of an adult Imperial Eagle. These are getting scarcer in the area apparently due to poisoning. The locals leave poisoned grain down to kill the geese and ducks for food. They hide close by and as soon as the bird eats the grain they run out, kill it and gut it before the poison taints the flesh. Unfortunately, grain gets left behind which gets eaten by other birds, which die. Along comes the eagle after an easy meal and eats poison flesh and buys the farm. The reserve staff are trying to educate the people living on the reserve to either stop or take more care.
13 December 1989
Believe it or not, today Mark and I experienced birding overload! After two hours we decided we had seen all the good birds and went back to the reseve headquarters, ate a meal for five between us and spent the rest of the day playibg pool. I did say that I didn't deserve to be there, didn't I!
14 December 1989
Our last day at Po Yang. We headed off to the sand dune area today for a quick look before heading back to Nan Chang. Cranes and Stroks were mainly seen flying over. At the main town were we were to meet our bus to take us on to Nan Chang, it wasn't there! We sat down in the street to have a game of cards and the whole town came to a standstill and surrounded the five of us to see what we were doing. This lasted for about ten minutes when a red guard officer turned up and dispersed the crowd. Eventually (and I'm not sure why) we climbed onto the back of a open truck and drove out of town to meet the bus. The bus was waitng by some cultivated field s so we had a final scan around and saw all the birds from Merlin down (on the list above). Paul saw the only Common Crane of the trip here.
I have to say that I didn't fully appreciate this opportunity when I was there both in terms of visiting China and the birds that were there. I even turned down looking at a Baikal Teal because I was watching something else! Mad, I could kick myself now!
China itself was an amazing place. After living in Hong Kong it was like stepping back in time. The trains were still steam trains and I can still hear the whistles blowing. Many of the vehicles on the road were of 1950s design especially trucks and motorbikes. The people were friendly, we were asked to dinner many times when we passed through the villages in the reserve. The children were absolutely stunned when they looked through the binoculars, they ahd never seen anything like it before. They ahd the unfortunate habit of following us though. A line of ten children following you makes sneaking up on a flock of Buntings difficult. The food we had at the reserve was excellent, fresh local produce. The food at the Friendship Hotel was something else entirely. It was foul, I mean really bad! The only palatable thing was chips!
I cannot wait to visit China again. If you have the chance to go take it.