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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

China 2010 (2 Viewers)

Thanks Andrew, you're welcome. Good point about the thrill of the chase (I've never really cared very much if I don't connect... as long as I give "it" the best possible shot and enjoy the journey).

Thanks Lewis. your reference to The "roof" is well-appreciated. I wonder who was the first to see the Falconets "up on the roof" (ie earlier than 2004 but a long-time after the song of that name)? Continuing the music of yester-year theme, is it just me, or do The Falconets conjour images of a platform-soled 70s pop band?

Cheers Gretchen. You're making me feel that I should be in Beidahe (not least because that's where my family will be during the holiday).

Great to know Mike. Heard and read very good things about the area. Worry, though, that the tidal wave of China's development has already struck (no recent information about the place).

That's so true Richard. I've found it surprisingly hard to photograph cranes. There are only a couple of shots over the years that I've been pleased with (Watch this space!).

So, I think it's fair to deduce that the jury is leaning towards a trip to Jiangxi.

Thanks, all, for your comments> Much appreciated.

Voting closes 24 hours from now!

Cheers.


Shi Jin
 
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Thanks McMadd

You may be interested to know that there's a bus, twice-a-day, from Shanghai directly to Wuyuan, which takes about 6 hours. Alternatively, you could fly to Huangshan, and take a car for about 2 hours.

So, with the votes all in, I can announce that its Option "C" by a landslide.

Will leave tomorrow.

Fingers crossed for good weather and some interesting birds.

Cheers.

Shi Jin
 
Ah well... best of luck then! (supposedly our super windy weather here will let up tomorrow - so hopefully I'll get out to see something myself!) Sure you'll have good pics of some interesting birds, regardless.

Cheers!
 
Well, Shi Jin, I don't know what you're meeting in Jiangxi, but given the weather here this holiday break, you can be thankful that you didn't opt for Beidaihe! Fog, dust, and strong winds alternating!

Hope the last day(s) go well - looking forward to the report....
 
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Gretchen

Noted on the Beidaihe weather... "fog, dust, and strong winds".

Compared with the weather I've had to endure in Wuyuan, Jiangxi, in the past three days, I have to say I'm a bit envious.

It hasn't just rained most of the time, but the rain has been of the ferocious cats and dogs variety (spots the size of those on Dalmatians).

It's been so wet that here I am sitting in Huangzhou airport, waiting for my flight back to Beijing, with soggy boots and something close to "trench" foot.

Let me begin at the beginning:

Sunday, 29th April 2012; Wuyuan, Jiangxi province

"You should have been here yesterday," said my driver, "The weather was lovely".

The window wipers of his Nissan were struggling to cope with force of the downfall.

"Where do you want to go again?"

I repeated the name of "Location A", now worried that he had pretended to know where it was, just to get me into the car.

I had asked half-a-dozen people the previous day if they knew where it was, but no one had heard of it.

"No problem," he reassured me.

Sure enough, he managed to find the place easily and, what's more, the rain had almost stopped.

Alas, in the one hour search, there was no sign of Courtois's Laughingthrush, one of the world's rarest, and most local birds (hence me using "Location X", etc). There was not much sign of any other bird either, other than the ubiquitous Collared Finchbills, Chinese Blackbirds, and Chinese Bulbuls.

At "Location 2", there were again remarkably few birds, although a few more than at "1": several Red-billed Starlings, a few Black-collared Starlings; 5 Grey-headed Lapwings; a few snipe, a Masked Laughingthrush. But again, no sign of Courtois's.

"Location 3" was a bit more of a long-shot than "1 & 2". Made even more of a long-shot by the heavy rain. I worked out that the only two sites that had the necessary tall, old trees, were the police station and the government office compound.

First I tried the police station. "Excuse me, I'm here looking for a special bird. May I go behind your police station to look at your tall trees please?" The policeman laughed, and asked me to repeat my strange request. He laughed again, before telling me to go ahead.

No sign of Courtois's.

The large trees that were inside the government office-building compound proved to be a harder nut to crack. The security gate was locked. So, I gingerly pushed at the barrier, which sprang open with an almighty clatter.

I entered the government compound, trying to make my camera and large lens look less conspicuous by tucking it against my side.

I saw someone inside the building and entered a room with four people...

"Hello, may I go behind your office building to look at your tall trees please."

An avalanche of questions followed: "Why; where are you from; what are you doing here; why are you carrying such a big lens; where are you staying; who are you with..."

"I'm English, I live in Beijing, I've come to look for and photograph a bird that only occurs in Wuyuan... and no other place on Earth."

Rather than telling me to bugger off, or calling the security forces, the man who was clearly the senior person there, said something that gave me hope:

"Oh! You've come to see Courtois's Laughingthrush," he said.

"Yes! Can you help me?" I replied.

"Well, they used to breed around here for years, up until the year before last... last year they didn't show up... and none this year."

"Do you know where they are now, or where they were seen last year?" I asked.

"No. But go and have a look at our trees if you want... you never know".

No sign of Courtois's. But a Eurasian Jay, and several Ashy Minivets there.

No sign of Coutois's at "Location 4" either, and now with the rain pelting down, I tried "Location 5", the only one of the locations that is outside of Wuyuan county.

It took over an hour to get to the spot, and an hour waiting in the car for the torrent to stop before I was able to venture out.

Cattle Egret; 4 Dollarbirds; three Pied Kingfishers; 2 Rustic Buntings; 1 Dusky Warbler; but no sign of Courtois's.

It was getting dark, and I had spent the entire day trying - and failing - to piece together a jigsaw puzzle of information, some of whose pieces were more than a dozen years old, to work out where I could find The world's rarest laughingthrush.

Desperate situations call for desperate measures so, that evening, I resorted to asking various taxi drivers if they knew the whereabouts of "Wuyuan's special, beautiful yellow bird".

My hopes were raised when one taxi driver confided:

"Sure, I can take you right to the place."

"That's great!" I said, "Where is it? And can you pick me up from my hotel at 7am tomorrow to go there".

"There's no need to wait until then," he told me, "I can take you there now!"

I looked around me. A thunder storm was raging. More implausibly, it was two hours after dark.

I guessed, there had been a misunderstanding, so I repeated the brief:

"Wuyuan's special, beautiful yellow bird".

The penny dropped when I heard his reply:

"That's right. She's 18 year's old! Very beautiful! Jump in."

It then dawned on me that the Chinese for "yellow" huangside translates as the English for "blue" (ie "pornographic", or "dirty").

As the News of the World reporters used to say, I made my excuses and sent the taxi driver away empty handed.

I retired to my hotel room to soak my wet feet, and to hope that the following day would bring better weather, as well as the only kind of "Wuyuan's special, beautiful yellow bird" I was looking for.

Shi Jin
 
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Hi Shi Jin

Well, certainly an adventure, sorry the weather and the birds didn't play along though!

Lets hope your day 2 report contains more birds and less dalmatians!

Andrew
 
Monday a.m. 30th April 2012; Wuyuan, Jiangxi province

The weather couldn't get any worse, I thought. But, I was wrong. The rain had given way to dense fog.

Regardless, I countinued with my plan to return to "Location A".

On arrival, the fog had lifted and it wasn't raining.

The previous evening I had continued looking through ancient reports for clues to the whereabouts of Courtois's Laughingthrush at this location.

I asked one of the locals if there was a certain something in the village. He directed me down a narrow alley that seemed to offer little hope. But after a couple of wrong-turns, I then saw the "certain something", and beyond it a beautiful wood that I had not found yesterday.

I entered, and waited.

After 30 minutes, I heard unfamilar calls to my right, about 50 yards away.

I looked upwards into the canopy, and saw something flit from one branch to another.

Raising my bins, I took a deep breath.

And there, in sharp focus, was a quite spectacular bird. A Courtois's Laughingthrush no less... and then another... and another... and a few more.

In all, a flock of about 20 birds were moving through the canopy.

I fired off a few dozen record shots (the birds were right above my head and "against the light").

After watching for 15 minutes, the flock then flew out of the wood to a clump of low bushes in the distance.

I ran towards them, breathlessly picking up my camera to get some reasonable shots of the most delightful laughingthrush I have ever seen.

I felt privileged to be able to watch and photograph them in this area for about an hour.

386 Courtois's Laughingthrush, Wuyuan, Jiangxi province

With noon fast-approaching (torrential rain was forecast in the afternoon); I tore myself away from the laughingthrushes and headed for Xiaoqi, a village that is famous (if you're a birder that is) for being the only known place in China where Pied Falconets breed.

Would I get there before the rain though?
 

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Especially love the first pic! I guess once you find one, you may have more than one or two ... looks like great views.

(Have you read many classical Chinese novels - every chapter ends in a cliff-hanger!)
 
Cheers Andrew, Larry, Gretchen, Mike

The story continues:

I arrived at the bird-famous restaurant in Xiaoqi and asked if I could go up to their roof.

It's easy to work out that you're at the right one - just look for the giant "birdnet.cn" banner on the restaurant wall that has hundreds of Chinese birders' signatures on it (photo below).

I recognised the tree stump immediately - it must be the most photographed tree stump in China. The very place that Pied Falconets love to rest, preen, mate; and hunt and munch from.

After a few minutes, I heard the high pitched call of a distant falconet, which I managed to locate at the top of a very tall tree. But far too far away for any kind of shot.

Dark, threatening rain clouds were gathering overhead as thunder rumbled in the distance.

Just as thoughts of "you can't win 'em all" were drifting through my mind, I looked back at the stump and was astonished to see that - without me realising - the bird had flown back to its preferred look-out point. Despite the fading light, I was able to get some quite pleasing shots of this tiny falcon in the 30 minutes it sat in front of me.

387 Pied Falconet, Xiaoqi, Wuyuan, Jiangxi province

The bird flew off just as the first, large rainspots began to fall. I looked at my watch. It was exactly 12 noon.

I went downstairs to have lunch with the owners, who showed me a coffee table book with about 100 photographs of Pied Falconets - all of which had been taken from their rooftop.

I signed my name on the "birdnet.cn" wall hanging and said farewell.

"Where to now?" asked Mr Ou, my driver. The sky was dark; rain was falling in buckets. Where to indeed. "To Hongcun valley," I answered. "But it's miles away, and it will rain all afternoon," pleaded Mr Ou.

"But there's a special bird," I explained, "A bird I have never seen before...at least I have to try."

Mr Ou shot me one of those "You're completely mad" looks, before starting the engine and turning the windscreen wipers on the fastest setting.

It was a indeed a long shot, but I couldn't resist the tempation to try for a triple-lifer day.

Not least because I love pheasants. Particularly ones that have names that commemorate the great ornithologist-explorers of China.

"Keyi jia you ma!" (Can you please go faster) I urged Mr Ou.

"Xia yu, xiade feichang da" ([But] It's raining really hard). polnted out mr Ou.

"Neige difang you tesede shanji deng wo, wo pa ta dei feizou" (That place has a special pheasant waiting for me, I'm worried that it will [get bored with waiting and] fly away).

Mr Ou again gave me one of those knowing "You're completely mad" looks.

"Wo zhidao." (I know), I said with a a slightly crazed laugh, as we sped through the gloom to find out just how mad I was.
 

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See what you mean about the distinctive banner! I like the capture in the 4th pic of the falconet calling - interesting mouth shape.
 
Calling? It's yawning Gretchen!!

Shi Jin...epic narrative...I'll be sending a PM regarding logistics if you don't mind?

Quality birding!!

br
Mark
 
Judging by the number of BF messages I've had, there is quite a bit of interest in the whereabouts of Courtois's.

The best way of seeing it is to call Mr Yu (who I bumped into at the Pied Falconet restaurant, having already found Courtois's - but spending more than a day looking for it).

Mr Yu will pick you up from the airport (Huangshan is by far the closest, but also Hangzhou is doable); take you to the Laughingthrush; the Pied Falconet; and give you a shot at Elliot's Pheasant. He will also arrange for you to stay at the Pied Falconet place.

His number is +86 13767390001

Please note that Mr Yu doesn't speak English.
 
Now, where was I...

Yes, that's right, in a car, in a thunderstorm, in darkest Jiangxi province.

Miraculously, the rain stopped as we pulled in to "The Valley".

I then walked for three or more miles along the track of the valley, which runs between superbly-forested mountains. What's more, this is lowland forest - a rare habitat in China.

However, it was mid-afternoon and quite warm, so there wasn't much happening on the birding front. But it was a nice walk nevertheless.

I then gauged I'd gone far enough (ie leaving plenty of time to stroll the three or so miles back to the car before the light gave out).

No sooner had I turned 'round, two pheasants exploded from the undergrowth in front of me.

I judged I had only a few seconds before they would disappear over the brow of a hill.

What to do?

a) Pick up my camera and hope that I could beam my autofocus on one of the birds (and not on much-further-away hillside trees)

b) Pick up my binoculars.

c) Get caught in two minds, and do nothing.

If I had seen Elliot's before, I would have gone for option "a". As it was, I went for the bins, and was pleased I had.

I chose to focus on the left hand bird that just happened to be a simply-stunning male Elliot's Pheasant B :)

Wow!

And what a day, a hat-trick of lifers no less.
 
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