Highlights (with approximate counts for some species):

Dapeng Bay:

• Great Knot 8
• Broad-billed Sandpiper 30
• Sharp-tailed Sandpiper 30
• Terek Sandpiper 8
• Grey-tailed Tattler 1
• Long-toed Stint 2
• Red-necked Stint
• Wood Sandpiper 1
• Common Sandpiper 1
• Marsh Sandpiper
• Common Greenshank
• Common Redshank
• Whimbrel 1
• Dunlin 2
• Black-winged Stilt
• Ruddy Turnstone
• Pacific Golden Plover
• Grey Plover
• Mongolian Plover
• Kentish Plover
• Little Ringed Plover
• Greater Crested Tern 72
• Whiskered Tern 1
• Little Tern 5
• Yellow Bittern 1
• Eastern Yellow Wagtail 2

Donggang Bridge:

• Savanna Nightjar 1
• Grey-tailed Tattler 1
• Little Ringed Plover 2

The mudflats and pools at the north-eastern corner of Dapeng Bay are currently a fantastic area to observe a wide range of wader species, with easy viewing from the cycle road, reasonable range, and excellent light in the morning. During a two-hour visit this morning, I observed no fewer than 18 wader species at this one spot, with three additional species elsewhere in the area.

Today’s highlight was a small party of 8 Great Knot, several of which were in full summer plumage. This is a distinctive, attractive and uncommon speciality of East Asia, which I have previously seen on only a few occasions in Korea and Thailand. Nearby, a lone Whimbrel was also a Taiwan and a year tick. It was a pleasure to watch groups of breeding-plumaged Broad-billed, Sharp-tailed and Terek Sandpipers, Red-necked Stints and Ruddy Turnstones, all at close range, pausing here before resuming their northward migrations to Siberia.

Terns were also in evidence today, with a single Whiskered Tern accompanying 5 Little Terns around the pools. Behind them, in the bay, a distant wooden raft had large numbers of Greater Crested Terns congregating around it. I found a closer viewpoint, and counted 72 …. but no sign of the critically endangered Chinese Crested Tern among them. This would probably be an excellent time to see the latter species as it heads to its only known breeding grounds on the Matsu islands.

Heading home, I took a quick look at the marshland around the river under the big bridge at Donggang. Not much around except a single Grey-tailed Tattler and a couple of Little Ringed Plovers. However, at the eastern end of the bridge, I happened to stop in the small village to make a phone call, and to my great surprise saw a Savanna Nightjar flying around in broad daylight. This was a most unexpected way to make up for my failure to find one at Wutai last week.