China Trip (Part I): Shanghai

4th - 18th October 2025

We decided to spend the whole of October in China on a trip divided into two parts. Part 1 would involve a 2 week stay in Shanghai, the first week of which we would be based in Nanhui which is ca. 30 minutes south of Pudong airport and an area well known for seeing birds on migration. Thereafter we would move closer to the centre of Shanghai for a week ostensibly taken up by visits to the University to deliver some lectures.

Saturday 4^th October: Our trip got off to a bad start with the flight from Manchester to Heathrow being heavily delayed due to fog which meant that we missed our connecting flight to Shanghai. So having spent the night in London we finally departed and arrived in Shanghai on the Saturday morning, a day later than expected.

Sunday 5^th October: The weather was unusually warm/hot and the forecast was for mostly sunny days with temperatures >30oC. We took a taxi to Cape Nanhui which was close to our accommodation and on the coast. Walking along the sea front our first birds were Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Black-collared Starling, several Long-tailed Shrike, Asian Brown Flycatcher and a Gray-breasted Flycatcher. On the shoreline were Far Eastern Curlew, Little Egret and Great Egret. Also seen were Crested Myna, Light-vented Bulbul, Plain Prinia, Little Grebe and Great-crested Grebe. On the way home we saw a female Blue-and-white Flycatcher and also our first two butterflies of the trip, a Blue Admiral and several Asian Commas.

Black-collared Starling

Long-tailed Shrike

Plain Prinia

Gray-breasted Flycatcher

Light-vented Bulbul

Asian Comma

Late afternoon when it started to cool down we visited a park near our apartment in Lingang where we saw a Hoopoe, several Azure-winged Magpies, Asian Tit and Spotted Dove.

Monday 6^th October: On the Monday morning we decided to back to the same park early and found a Chinese Pond Heron, White Wagtail, Crested Goshawk and Chinese Blackbird. Later in the day we walked onto the island on Dishui Lake where there were some small flocks of Eastern Yellow Wagtail as well as an Asian Brown Flycatcher and White Wagtails.

Chinese Pond Heron

Chinese Blackbird

Eastern Yellow Wagtail

Tuesday 7^th October: Another early morning trip to the coast at Cape Nanhui where we found a lot of different birds compared to the first visit including Common Cuckoo (adult and juvenile) and Kestrel and some ‘firsts’ such as Oriental Magpie-Robin, Arctic Warbler and Oriental Magpie. On the shoreline were Greenshank, Whimbrel, Grey Heron, Little Egret and a Gull-billed Tern flew by. In the trees along the road we saw Asian Brown Flycatcher, Azure-winged Magpie, Crested Myna, Tree Sparrow and a Blue-and-white Flycatcher. In terms of butterflies there seemed to have been a mass emergence of Long-tailed Blues as well as Asian Commas and a Clouded Yellow.

Cuckoo

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Long-tailed Blue

Wednesday 8^th October: We decided to hire bikes and cycle out to Cape Nanhui but via a different route. To our delight en route we saw a Black-winged Kite sitting on a telegraph wire. At Nanhui a Yellow Bittern flew from a pond and we also had good views of a Dark-sided Flycatcher and an Arctic Warbler. Close inspection of the Egrets on the shoreline revealed that there were two Intermediate Egrets amongst the many Little Egrets.

Black-winged Kite

Dark-sided Flycatcher

Arctic Warbler

Intermediate Egret

Intermediate Egret

Little Egret

Thursday 9^th October: A final walk around Dishui lake with several Spotted Doves, Crested Mynas and Eastern Yellow Wagtails.

Spotted Dove

Eastern Yellow Wagtail

Crested Myna

Friday 10^th October: This was our transfer day from Nanhui to central Shanghai close to the East China University of Science & Technology (ECUST). For the following week until Saturday 18^th October we were mainly occupied giving lectures and having meetings at ECUST. The temperature was still around 30oC but we did manage a couple of early morning visits to Shanghai Botanical Garden where we saw White-rumped Munia, Chinese Blackbird, Tree Sparrow, Azure-winged Magpie, Little Grebe and Asian Brown Flycatcher, Light-vented Bulbul and an Eastern Pale Clouded Yellow.

Azure-winged Magpie

Light-vented Bulbul

Eastern Pale Clouded Yellow

Close to our hotel was a small park, Kangjian Park which had a colony of Black-crowned Night Heron as well as some Oriental Magpie-Robins, White-rumped Munia and a Red-billed Starling.

Black-crowned Night Heron

Oriental Magpie-Robin

White-rumped Munia

Finally we made a visit to Century Park, Shanghai’s largest park, where there were many butterflies amongst the flowerbeds including Common Bluebottle, Tropical Fritillary, Common Rose Swallowtail and Common Mormon Swallowtail.

Common Bluebottle

Common Rose Swallowtail

Common Mormon Swallowtail