Traveling Across The City and Back

May 18th, 2023--First Time Birding On A Raining Day

My alarm woke me at 4:30 AM. It was a rainy day, but I still decided to go birding. I cooked my breakfast, rode the bike to the bus station, and rode the bus to MiShiDu Park in Songjiang, about 60 kilometers away from home. At 6:30 AM, I arrived at the park eager to see some unique birds because I thought the rice was planted in the paddies. When I arrived, however, the paddies weren’t in the ideal condition I had imagined: the water filled the paddies and there wasn’t any rice planted. This scene meant that there weren’t going to be any migrating birds here. I wandered around in vain, not knowing what to do. It was raining and muddy and there was no one in the park.

A Flock of White Winged Tern

I scanned the paddies and found a lot of egrets: there was the Medium Egret, Great Egret, and Little Egret. In between them, there was an egret that had an orange shade on its head and wings. Although this specimen was far from me, I managed to see it through my binoculars. The orange shade was like the color inside a grapefruit. Furthermore, the neck of this egret was slightly shorter and thicker than the other three egrets I saw. I immediately searched it up and found that it was called the Eastern Cattle Egret and its distinctive grapefruit color is due to feathers that emerge during the breeding season. Normally, the feathers are all white. In addition, the beak of the egret also turned orange-red, which differed from its yellow beak during nonbreeding seasons. 

A Eastern Cattle Egret in the bottom right corner

When I was about to leave the park, I heard an ethereal soft hooting coming from far away. It was the sound of an Indian Cuckoo. The four hooting sounds made up a pattern and the first two notes were a soft and short "hu-hu" sound. The third note was a higher "hu" sound, sounding more like a "buh" sound. The last note was a softer "hu" sound compared to the first two notes but similar. The sound was so beautiful that I stood in enjoyment and listened for ten minutes straight.

Sharp Tailed Sandpiper, Breeding

After an entire morning of observing the Egrets, I headed to Century Park to try to observe any new species. I joined the people who stood beside the pond. I waited for a while and then saw a Black Bittern emerge from the faraway bushes. The Black Bittern was so far away that my binoculars weren’t enough for clear observation. I just managed to see a medium-sized black figure shaped like a Night Heron. I turned my binoculars to a lotus pond nearer to me and scanned the lotus leaves. Hiding among the lotus leaves was a Yellow Bittern. I got a chance to observe this Yellow Bittern closer. The bittern was smaller in size compared to herons and their necks were shorter and thicker. When it tucked its neck in, it was rounder and smaller in size than the herons. 

Little Egret

Although the weather was humid and rainy and the number and species of birds and the conditions of birding weren't ideal, it still didn't hinder my enthusiasm. On the contrary, I decided to use more methods to find more birds and eventually succeeded in adding five new species to my life list!