Sichuan Birding (2 Viewers)

Dogs

Hi Ed,

Dogs immediately react on stones or simply the gesture of throwing stones. It might sound a bit bizarre to us western animal lovers to throw stones at dogs, but this is the language they speak here; they grew up with this kind of 'education' after all.
Sometimes it may be enough to bend down and pretend to pick up a stone, this way you don't have to feel too bad about it

The only dogs I'd really advice to avoid always and ever are the Tibetan Mastiffs. These dogs usually are chained and watch nomad's tents on the Tibetan High Plateau; but sometimes they roam around in the tent's vicinity. Worst situation is to approach a sleeping dog without knowing; when he get up it might be too late already. A stone, best you always keep a big one in the pocket, might be a temporary solution, it at least gives you the chance to draw back; but it's always better to retreat as soon as you spot such a beast. Here some pictures of this dog:
http://www.thedogsbreeds.com/tibetan-mastiff/

I'll write something about your intrusion question tomorrow

roland

sichuan jiujiu said:

Hi Ed,

Dogs immediately react on stones or simply the gesture of throwing stones. It might sound a bit bizarre to us western animal lovers to throw stones at dogs, but this is the language they speak here; they grew up with this kind of 'education' after all.
Sometimes it may be enough to bend down and pretend to pick up a stone, this way you don't have to feel too bad about it

The only dogs I'd really advice to avoid always and ever are the Tibetan Mastiffs. These dogs usually are chained and watch nomad's tents on the Tibetan High Plateau; but sometimes they roam around in the tent's vicinity. Worst situation is to approach a sleeping dog without knowing; when he get up it might be too late already. A stone, best you always keep a big one in the pocket, might be a temporary solution, it at least gives you the chance to draw back; but it's always better to retreat as soon as you spot such a beast. Here some pictures of this dog:
http://www.thedogsbreeds.com/tibetan-mastiff/

I'll write something about your intrusion question tomorrow

roland

Click to expand...

Christ, I'm a dog lover but I'd give that one a wide berth!

sichuan jiujiu said:

Hi Ed,

The only dogs I'd really advice to avoid always and ever are the Tibetan Mastiffs. These dogs usually are chained and watch nomad's tents on the Tibetan High Plateau; but sometimes they roam around in the tent's vicinity. Worst situation is to approach a sleeping dog without knowing; when he get up it might be too late already. A stone, best you always keep a big one in the pocket, might be a temporary solution, it at least gives you the chance to draw back; but it's always better to retreat as soon as you spot such a beast. Here some pictures of this dog:
http://www.thedogsbreeds.com/tibetan-mastiff/

roland

Click to expand...

:eek!::eek!:

What a scary beast!

D

Dahe said:

The other question regards intrusion. The existence of the majority of the paths in the countryside is to provide access to people’s homes. When exploring, I regularly find a that a path appears to terminate at a house, but I know that often that the path will continue behind the house. To find out, I’d have to skirt round the property and scout around a bit to see if I could find if the path continues; I’d have to behave in a way that in the UK we’d find intrusive. It can be frustrating to retrace steps every time this happens because it occurs frequently. When I have met locals in circumstances when I have felt like I was intruding, generally after initial surprise, they have been very friendly and helpful. I’m pretty sure culturally people in the countryside in Sichuan have a more tolerant attitude to us in the UK about people crossing their land and even walking past their windows etc, but the question is to what degree? What exactly is acceptable, and what would people feel uncomfortable about? Knowing the answer to this question would help reduce the amount of backtracking I have to do.

Click to expand...

It surely is a sensitive topic and I certainly don't want it to look like encouraging everybody to move like a burglar. But in general, it seems to be quite OK to cross farmer's land or pass their houses.
If there's anybody nearby, I usually ask for permission, ask for a cup of water or say some greetings. If they don't want you to continue, they'll tell you straight away.

If there's apparently nobody in or at the house, it sometimes helps to shout out some loud "hello". If still nobody shows up, it generally is OK to continue walking. Here it would be good to keep an eye on potential dogs behind the corner!
I have copied these methods from local people – villagers as well as urbanites, and it seems to be very common, not to pay too much attention on privacy.
By the way, following this pattern I've never encountered any unfriendly people.

In any case, I would not sneak into their doors or try to get a view through the windows. It is good to behave more loudly (than usual) to give them a chance to hear you and to obviate any suspicious behaviour.

Good luck
r

Thanks for the tips Roland, exactly the answers I needed to know. I suspected the pick up a stone trick might deal with aggressive dogs, but I needed the reassurance to know this was the best way. I've not yet been high enough to encounter Tibetan Mastiffs, but of course I've heard of their reputation!
And the advice regarding intrusion will mean I will do less frustrating backtracking, or worry less that I was being impolite. Like you, (in my limited experience), when I've been out exploring countryside I've never met unfriendly locals (just dogs), and often they are very nice.

Ed

After a rather long silence we're back in business. At the Moment I'm just finishing a bird recording stint in NE Sichuan - and in just under a week I'll be starting 3 week trip, which, will be a real tester on conditions for the 2012 season.
So far the signs look promising, Roland has just driven out to Wolong/Balang with an English birder - and apart from a new one-way rule (one day in- one day out) there were no special complications - and, most importantly, no restrictions for foreign travelers. One potential problem, the checkpoint at Genda (about 40km before you get to Wolong village), which, this winter, required all travelers to register, is now unmanned. However we still don't know if the checkpoint at Rilong is operating - and if access to Mengbi is fully open.

As for me - well no travel restriction in the NE apart from some unbelievably bad roads. Most of our time has been spent in marginal farming land, between 400 and 700m in altitude, listening for calls of male Golden Pheasant. Still a lot of these birds left out here - but as ever a lot harder to see than hear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pictures -
1; caught somebody else who could have been doing a bit of Pheasant watching - a Crested Goshawk. Just after taking the pic the bird made a stoop from that branch onto something just bellow him - but we never got to see what it was.

2; at last a half decent photo of Tristram's Bunting - we had just one day where we had many sightings of this species, in ones and twos in Little Bunting flocks, and then nothing!

Calls
1; Speckled Piculet - drumming on cultivated bamboo - which gives a lot of resonance to the drumming of this tiny woodpecker. There were two birds. You can faintly hear the other bird giving a trill. Other calls in there are Eurasian Jay and Sulpher-breasted Warbler.

2; Another small bird from a couple of day's ago - Fork-tailed Sunbird. For most Sichuan trips Mrs Gould's is the common Sunbird - but you can pick up Fork-tailed in places like Emei. Background calls include - Hwamei, Brown-flanked Bush Warbler , Black- streaked Scimitar Babbler, and Rufous-capped Babbler, Collared Finchbill

Talking to Roland on the phone - today on the Balang Pass, after a lot of cloud, they finally got a hole through which they could see Chinese Monal. But craziest was yesterday - they got two male Temminck's Tragopan at the Monal stake-out!!!!!
Never heard of this bird being spotted up there - but they say there's still a lot of snow in the area - so this could be playing a part in this unusual record!!!!!! Last year we got Three-toed Parrotbill at the same spot - a bamboo species that is found in more typical Tragopan habitat - so there must be bamboo somewhere close.

Finally got back from a tightly scheduled but successful trip to Wolong and Labahe.
Still got a lot of fresh snow up on Balang Mountain. However sun was melting it away quite quickly.

The pictures attached are both from Labahe. The park is open, however, some construction work still is going on: A four Star Hotel at the Sambar Deer feeding site.

Scaly-breasted Wren Babbler (Pnoepyga albiventer albiventer) was quite common in higher elevation.
Never seen so many Yellow-browed Tits (Sylviparus modestus modestus) at once. We got a decent flock (5-6 birds) quite a few times.

We're out on our first big trip of the season, and so far have had no problems in getting into western areas such as Labahe and Moxi. We've now veered north and are at Wanglang.
Birding at Labahe gave us many of the birds we would have expected at Wawu - Lady A Pheasant, Brown, 3-toed, Great, Fulvous and Golden Parrotbills - and we got the bonus of some great views of Rufous-tailed Babbler.
Moxi gave us lots of Long-tailed and Plain-backed Thrushes - and we picked up Sharpe's Rosefinch and Emei Leaf Warbler on the Old Erlang Road.
At Wanglang we've just ticked off both Tit-Warblers, Sichuan and Hodgson's Treecreeper and Snowy-cheeked Laughingthrush. From here we'll be hoping for open roads so we can bird our way back to Chengdu.

Attached is a recording of the Rufous-tailed Babbler at Labahe

hey sid, glad to hear that some areas in sichuan are still accessible and I'm incredibly envious of those birds (particularly the lady amherst's pheasant! what a marvelous bird). That sucks about Wawu Shan---out of curiosity, was it a 景区 (erm, "scenic area"?) or a proper protected area (保护区)? And if it was a protected area, I imagine that there might have been some form of ongoing research from local universities in Sichuan and perhaps even the CAS (Chinese academy of science) up in Beijing. Would those entities still have access to the area or is it completely closed?

best wishes for this upcoming season and looking forward to your posts (and photos)!

-char

Great to see your posts again. Hope you Meggie and Saker are well.

If you by any chance have photos of the Emei this would be great as we do not have any photos of them. Also the Rufous tailed Babbler would be a welcome one as well as we just have a slightly fuzzy one by James [ no offence intended James if you read this]

Just a quick note from Ruoergai - since internet is so bad here, and to get a decent connection i'm on at 3.30 in the morning!!!!!!
The Grasslands are open - Police have been strict but friendly with our hotel registration - but it looks like all will be good for this season. Just to make sure we would have the least birding bother we managed to clean up many of the best ticks in just one day - Black-necked Cranes, Tibetan Partridge, Tibetan Lark, Saker Falcon, Cinereous Vulture, Steppe Eagle, Golden Eagle, Lammergeier, Himmalayan Griffon, Upland Buzzard, White-browed Tit, Sichuan Tit, Robin Accentor, White-rumped and Rufous-necked Snowfinch, Alpine Leaf Warbler, Dusky Warbler, Kessler's Thrush, Brandt's Mountain Finch, Pink-rumped Rosefinch - and a lot of the other usual suspects aren't too bad for a day's birding which took us up the road from Songpang County to Ruergai town and a quick afternoons look around the Flower Lake area. Other Bonuses were two Tibetan Foxes - one of which, very close to the road, was hunting Pika within a flock of Sheep!!!!!
In the Jiuzhaigou area - my guests decided not to go into the park - gave easy Spectacled Parrotbill in two locations and Chinese Nuthatches.
Tomorrow Baxi and then a final drive through Rouergai with main focus on Tibetan Shrike

Hi Marmot - I got one terrible recording of Emei Leaf Warbler - I'll upload that, together with a pic of Rufous-tailed Babbler, when I get a more civilized connection.

Char - your post deserves an answer that should fill a whole essay. Even without the bad internet it will take me several days to compose myself enough to write a balanced piece on my thoughts on local conservation strategies. While in Wanglang we bumped into one of the researchers who had been working up on Wawu - none are now up on the mountain - and the new development work seems to be taking place without any expert guidance to preserving wildlife habitat. We are not sure of the protection status of Wawu - but because it is classified as a tourist area, the park management may be able to get around some of the environmental protection laws that apply to any Chinese development project and slip out of some of the rules that govern nature reserves. It you have any influential local contacts you could mention the case of Wawu - otherwise as is the case with a lot of other environmental destruction, nobody seems to realise or care about what's taking place.

Sid,

Just a quick tip! You can re-post your guest post which you made in Terry's website. That will answer all.:t:

Around Wolong

Hi all,

I am posting in the hope that somebody might be able to provide advice about the best places to go when staying at Wolong, especially if you are on foot. I visited last year for three day, and I’d love to go back, though I didn’t always know where the best places for enjoying the natural history and scenery were.

The first afternoon I climbed up to Wuyipeng. There was a path that went further into the forest behind the research station there, but I wasn’t sure if people were allowed to follow this?

The second day I got a lift to what I believe is Yinchang Gou looking at the maps now on the internet. It had a big sign next to the main road advertising its existence, but the path was terrible after a very short distance up the valley, and hardly looked like it was used. The path ended when the valley became a gorge; the river sandwiched between two cliffs. I did try wade in the river further u/s, but the water was so cold it felt like it was burning my skin, so I was forced to turn back after getting not very far up the valley. So I walked back towards Wolong, and tried the next valley with a sign on the opposite site on the road (south side), but the workers building a hotel at the bottom urged me not to go as it was too dangerous.

As I was leaving in the afternoon of the third day, in the morning I asked at the hotel if there was a path into the mountains local to Wolong (I think the place I was staying was called something like Three Girls Hotel on the outskirts of the western side of Wolong, who were great hosts). They directed me behind the hotel, but try as I might I was unable to find any path, other than a road up a valley that was blocked after 100meters or so by a check dam. Exasperated, I walked along the main road towards Balang, and took the next small local road on the righthand side that zigzagged up the mountainside, served farmers, and terminated before too long at a temple. Undeterred I continued uphill behind the temple clambering through the shrub and wading through tall vegetation, but after a while of slow progress I discovered the bottom of my trousers (and fortunately I was wearing trousers) were covered in ticks. Given that I didn’t have too long left before leaving, and I didn’t fancy any ticks getting under my clothing, I gave up and decided to spend my remaining time doing a bit of birding on the road up to the temple I had originally climbed up on.

Despite many unsuccessful forays off the main road, I really enjoyed the trip and want to go back. But I would be grateful if anybody could share some knowledge on where there are other good paths at Wolong, in terms of enjoying the natural history of the reserve, the scenery, and giving you chance to have a good walk and getting away from the main road. I know other paths exist as the nephew of the hotel owner showed me plenty of great pictures he’d taken around Wolong.

Thanks very much

Ed

promising prospect for our feathered friends

Dear friends,
the birth of my son Leonard here in north east Sichuan, Bazhong, enables me for the first time to comment on Sichuan affairs (and not to Tibet, my usual living place).

I want to contribute an observation about farming and effects on the habitat of birds in this area (which may not be true for the whole of Sichuan though!).

I observed that the rural countryside is emptying more and more of people.
The trend for young people is to leave the countryside to work in the big cities. Children usually are left with the grandparents. Further people move more and more to the local administrative centers, e.g. 乡 - where there is shopping and business opportunities and most important schooling for the children and health care. At least one member of a family, usually grandparents move to the local administrative centers for the schooling of the grandchildren. Also villagers nearby the administrative center all strive to live IN the actual center for convenience, even if their fields are further away. It seems even to be difficult for a young man to marry, if he/ his family does not have a house in an administrative center ... no young lady wants to live in the remote country side with only foot path access. Further there were government campaigns to restore agricultural land to forest 退耕还林 compensating for the loss of fields, additionally encouraging to abandon remote area fields.

The effect is, that houses in the remote rural countryside often are abandoned, or inhabited by elderly people only, who can’t work all the fields anymore and give up the fields most inaccessible - close to forests and higher up in the mountains.

This should be a promising prospect for our feathered friends and us!

Do you agree with my observation?
David (www.tibetbirds.com)

Congratulations on the birth of Leonard, I wondered what had happened to you.

Dahe said:

Hi all,

I am posting in the hope that somebody might be able to provide advice about the best places to go when staying at Wolong, especially if you are on foot. I visited last year for three day, and I’d love to go back, though I didn’t always know where the best places for enjoying the natural history and scenery were.
....

Despite many unsuccessful forays off the main road, I really enjoyed the trip and want to go back. But I would be grateful if anybody could share some knowledge on where there are other good paths at Wolong, in terms of enjoying the natural history of the reserve, the scenery, and giving you chance to have a good walk and getting away from the main road. I know other paths exist as the nephew of the hotel owner showed me plenty of great pictures he’d taken around Wolong.

Thanks very much

Ed

Click to expand...

Unfortunately I can't help out in terms of nice walking options in or near Wolong. My experience has been almost the same as yours (except the ticks).
The valley to the north from Shawan – where the old Wolong Monastery is standing – almost brought me some broken bones though: This valley is nice at the beginning and gives some good birds such as Temminck's Tragopan, Golden Pheasant, Black-faced Laughingthrush etc. but after 20 min you have to cross a stream and then the path ends up in some steep climbs – too steep for me.

I think it might be possible to get further behind WuYiPeng, though I haven't tried yet.
BUT: Wolong again starts with Panda research (after 4 years of a post earthquake break). By hearsay they are trying to release Pandas back into the wild (the birth rate in Chengdu Panda Breeding Centre seems to be too high to keep them all in captivity:-O). The Panda kids from Bifengxia have been shifted to Wolong already.
Thus, I think they will try to prevent intruders.

The only good hiking option I have scouted out actually is in Dengsheng, that's where the first switch-back for the Balang Pass climb starts. At the moment they build two large-scale hotels just right at this bend. From here you walk just straight into the valley. If you are able to find the right path (always keep on the right hand side), you might cross a pass (ca. 4500m) and descent into a valley of Baoxing in Ya'an District. You might need a tent and food for 2-3 days. However, birds were always scarce on my explorations into this valley; at the bend contrarily they always were good though: Plain-backed and Chinese Thrush, Grey-headed Bullfinch and White-winged Grosbeak, Laughingthrushes etc.

Below I got two horribly bad images of Golden-fronted Fulvetta. Not that I am proud of the pictures, rather more that I have found a place where this bird is quite easy to find (on the slopes west of Wawu I saw it every day and every time I have been there so far).

The Crimson-breasted Woodpecker showed its bright crimson – much stronger than I have seen it before. Could it be that it is brighter in breeding season?

One more pic:
A beautiful moth of remarkable size, ca. 15cm of wingspan

Roland: your wonderful photo is of an amazingly striking Brahmin or Brahmeid moth: either Brahmaea wallichii or Brahmaea hearseyi, which are very similar, however, "in the apical patches on the forewings in B. hearseyi the inner margin curves towards the body, while in B. wallichii it curves outwards and is more jagged." Alan Marson.

See: http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/BrBrahmaea.htm

and http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/BrBramophthalmawalins.htm

I'm sure those more versed in this field can 'pin it down'.

Re the woodpecker: p268 of Woodpeckers (1995 Winkler, Christie & Nurney) revealed that there are six races of this species, in “two fairly well-defined groups.”

P. c. pernyii (NW Yunnan to N Sichuan and SW Gansu) has the red on the breast “bordered at sides and below by fairly solid black areas, and undertail coverts much redder.”

P. c. innixus (S Shaanxi, NE Sichuan, C Hubei) is similar, “but much paler (whitish) below, with less black on breast and with streaks on flanks very narrow or absent. May have ivory-coloured lower mandible.”