23rd International Ornithological Congress, China

9-23 August 2002

Photo H.D. Oschadleus	ADU members, past and present and future, that attended the 23rd IOC, Beijing, China. Left to right: Les Underhill, John Cooper, Birgit Erni, Aeshita, Rob Crawford, Dieter Oschadleus.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Fountains at the Beijing International Conference Centre. The fountains were operational on the days the cleaners came! All sessions (plenaries, symposia, orals, posters and Round Tables) for IOC23 were held here. The congress was from 11 to 17 August with one free day.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	One of the most important sessions for me was the Ringing Round Table. Afterwards Dr Chu of the National Bird Banding Centre of China invited us to supper. Starting from top left: Yat-tung Yu (ringer from Hong Kong), Dr Chu, Charles Francis (Canada), Fernando Spina (Italy), Phil Straw (Australia), Prof Busse (Poland), me, Franz Bairlain (Germany), Dr Oaki (Japan).
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Les, John, Mike Brooks and I stayed in the Hui Yuan apartments, Asian Games Village. We were each supplied with slippers, soap, shampoo and toothbrushes - one set for every day!
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Fresh fish at the entrance to many restaurants. Other live food seen included crabs, prawns, tortoises and snakes.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Supper at Clive's favourite restaurant - Clive Elliott, John, Aeshita, Deon Nel, and Mike Brooks. In China individuals do not order their own dishes; rather the group selects dishes which are shared. We quickly learned how to use chop-sticks again!
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	We arrived 2 days before the Congress and could go on a day tour on Sunday 10 August to one of the Ming tombs and the Great Wall. First stop was the Tomb of Ding Ling (Ming dynasty). Shown is the exit of the underground tomb. It was rather crowded inside the tomb with little to see.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	After a lunch stop we proceeded to the Great Wall at Badaling, some 60 km north of central Beijing. Here the walls have been restored and again were very crowded. Note the green vegetation, being summer. The wall is wide enough to carry several horses next to each other.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Watch towers are spaced at 500 m and provided shelter for soldiers, food and weapons. Parts of the wall are very steep, as when exiting this tower.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	A sudden downpour caught many tourists off guard - the towers farther from the centre of the pass have no roofs and thus I was quickly soaked. At least there were few tourists left after the rain storm! I warmed up quickly by running up the opposite side of the pass.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	On the Congress free day Les, John and I took a taxi to Tian'anmen Square. The building in the background is the Museum of Chinese History. Beijing in August is hot and humid. The fogginess in the photo is dust and pollution - the air was like this every day of our stay in Beijing.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	We next explored the Palace Museum (Forbidden City). After the main entrance was an opportunity to dress up in cultural clothes and have your photo taken. We decided that we wouldn't fit the part.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Palace Museum. The whole area consists of a series of halls, pavillions and open squares.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	One of the emperor's thrones in the Palace Museum.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	After the Congress we went on the organised tour to Happy Island (officially Puti Island). The bus drive from Beijing to the coast was some 4 hours. The island lies in the Bo Hai Bay (near the town of Leting). Puti Island is coloured light green, and the mainland ferry point is marked red.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Map of Puti Island, Bo Hai Bay, showing the central fresh water lake.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	We crossed to Puti Island in 2 colourful ferries.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Our accomodation on the island was Yurt tents. We had been warned with "the living will be hard". The tents had plywood interiors, making them quite sturdy.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	John and Les outside our Yurt tent. Chris and I were the 2 other residents.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Inside our Yurt tent: there were 4 people per tent, not leaving much room to move.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	John and Les decided to do a wader count on the island. I followed to scribe.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	We were able to walk round the island with only one obstacle: a water channel.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Tidal mudflats on the left, and prawn ponds on the right. On this stretch of mudflats a host of cigarette lighters had collected.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	John with all the cigarette lighters he gathered. These lighters float until they reach shore; albatrosses swallow these in error for food, so there is value in monitoring the extent of lighters accumulation on different shorelines.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Inland lake on Puti Island - the tower in the background marks the site of the yurts.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Black-capped Kingfisher on Puti Island. Also seen were Eurasian Kingfishers.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Puti Island is a stop-over sit for many migrant birds - waders and seabirds around the shores, and insectivorous birds in the interior bush. In the forest areas were many warbler species and other birds.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Brown Shrike, abundant on the island.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Barn Swallow, another abundant bird in August on the island.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Afternoon sunlight on grass, Puti Island. We stayed on the island for 2 nights and then returned to Beijing.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	We spent our last day in Beijing at the Summer Palace. With the great Wall, this is a World Heritage Site.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Stairs up to Tower of Fragrance, Summer Palace.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha, Summer Palace.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Bronze Dragon, Summer Palace.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	The Long corridor, Summer Palace.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Bird mural, Summer Palace. Birds feature highly in the wall murals. Some are easily identified, as are these Blacknaped Orioles.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	The stunning Lotus flower, Summer Palace.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Lotus flower and cleaner on boat, Summer Palace.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Dragon boat, Summer Palace.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Striped Squirrel, Summer Palace. Also seen was a slightly larger grey squirrel.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Kunming Lake, Summer Palace.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Road sign, Beijing. We had fun observing various signs.
Photo H.D. Oschadleus	Calligraphy. The evolution of the Chinese word for bird: note the progressive changes on the top line from picture to symbol (the symbol on the right is the word used for bird today).

A paper was published on the waders of 'Happy Island' - see pdf here.