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Page 1 of 27
ANN AND ROLAND GO BIRDING IN CHINA
APRIL 24TH
– MAY 8TH, 2017
Travel
We flew from Manchester to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Chengdu and back.
Ground arrangements
Our tour was arranged by Sid Francis of Sichuan Birding http://sichuanbirding.cloudaccess.net/
We had no itinerary as such but all went well apart from the weather! Sid cannot be faulted on his
bird knowledge or persistence and our days in the field were long.
We paid him a fixed cost of vehicle hire, driving and guiding of 1100RMB per person
On top of that we had to pay the variable costs of fuel, road tolls, food, accommodation and
ticketing for the 3 of us.
Below is Sid’s map of where we actually went.
DIARY
Page 1 of 27
Page 2 of 27
Sunday, April 24th and Monday, April 25th
.
We flew to Amsterdam on the 17h30 flight and then on the 21h30 flight to Chengdu. There weren’t
many westerners on the Chengdu flight and the Chinese who boarded were very loud and excitable.
They kept swapping seats and every time they did so, they moved their vast amounts of hand
luggage too! It was all quite hectic and I had no fewer than 5 different passengers coming to sit next
to me! Eventually, everyone seemed to be happy and the noise subsided a little. Apart from that, the
flight was uneventful. The plane was a nice new one with all mod cons but a lack of space in
economy of course. As we left the plane, I spotted our birding friends, Tom and Julia, from York. It’s
a small world. They too were going to be birding Sichuan and then they were going up to Lhasa with
their guide, Summer Wong. There was a bit of a wait at immigration and once we had got through
there and collected our cases, it was time to meet Sid, our guide for the next two weeks. We were
very excited about this trip as it had been booked some 18 months earlier! It wasn’t hard to pick Sid
out in the small waiting crowd and we were soon loaded up and on our way in his Great Wall
vehicle. Visibility wasn’t best because of the pollution and rain but we were headed towards
Longcanggu where we hoped the weather would be better. We made a couple of birding stops on
the motorway and as and when and also after we had left it. Our first Chinese bird was a Spotted
dove and I was delighted to see a Red-billed leothrix later on at a roadside stop It was a bird I had
wanted to see in India but which had eluded me. We had picked up 26 species by the time we got to
our hotel in the early evening. We were staying at the Gatekeepers Hotel in Wawu according to Sid
but I have been unable to find a hotel of that name anywhere! The weather was pretty grim by now
– it was a bit like being in cloud forest. Our room was ok – cold because it was cold and damp
outside and the windows were wide open but we soon fixed that and got the air-conditioning on to
give us some warmth. We also switched the electric blankets on! We ate downstairs in a draughty
room. Sid did the ordering: 3 dishes with rice – spicy chicken, egg and tomato and vegetable.
Swimming in grease but tasty. There was a group of drunken youngsters hanging about making a lot
of noise with the sound system (gangsters, Sid said) but they left after a while. We went straight to
bed being somewhat tired and we had to be up bright and early the next day.
Ashy-throated Parrotbill
Blue-winged Minla
Brownish-flanked Bush-Warbler
Collared Finchbill
Common Sandpiper
Crested Myna
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Gould's Sunbird
Grey Wagtail
Himalayan Swiftlet
Japanese Tit
Japanese White-eye
Little Bunting
Little Egret
Long-tailed Minivet
Long-tailed Shrike
Olive-backed Pipit
Oriental Greenfinch
Plumbeous Redstart
Red-billed Leiothrix
Red-billed Starling
Red-rumped Swallow
Page 2 of 27
Page 3 of 27
Siberian Stonechat
Spotted Dove
Sulphur-breasted Warbler
White Wagtail
White-cheeked Starling
Tuesday, April 25th Day 2
Breakfast was at 6h30 in Sid’s room. This was to become a familiar pattern. Tea, toast, cheese, jam.
Outside it was chucking it down and visibility was somewhat poor as we set off up Wawu mountain.
You could hardly call it a road and we made slow progress, stopping to look for an Emei leaf warbler
which proved very difficult to find and when we finally saw it out in the open, the light was rubbish
but we did see it! There was evidence of developments along our way but all the buildings appeared
to have been abandoned before they were even put into use! We saw lots of this during our time in
China. After about 8kms, we pulled off the road to walk about a bit. The weather was better than it
had been but there was still a lot of low cloud and fine rain. Sid played his Collared owl (by the end
of the holiday, we were sick of hearing it!!) and lots of little birds came flocking in. Almost too many
to take in at once. I particularly loved the Golden-breasted fulvetta The Red-winged laughing
thrush was so frustrating – we could see exactly where he was moving but couldn’t get so much as a
glimpse of the bird itself. Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse and we eventually
decided to call it a day and go to Nie Beschan (?)in the hopes it would be drier. It wasn’t – but it was
brighter – and the drive was interesting. The motorway took us through beautiful impenetrable
forest where there used to be tigers. Sadly there are only pandas now. We were very surprised to
see how many cherry and almond trees there were in this valley – they were everywhere! Not the
same kind of cherries as ours and very expensive – they probably charged us 10 times the proper
price on account of us being westerners. The Chinese have a habit of doing that. We stopped in
Juixiang for lunch opting for proper food instead of a cheese butty. It was very nice and only cost 56
yuan for 3 dishes: potato, tofu and pork fat. We had noodle water to drink – this is quite common
and you soon get used to it. After lunch we carried on into the National Park and managed to pick
up a few new birds. It was sad to see how much rubbish gets dumped in the countryside. Sid says it
is because of western consumerism – the Chinese want their gadgets, tvs etc but are not educated in
disposing of their packaging sensibly. What we were seeing mostly, though, was the detritus of
people picnicking or snacking and drinking as they walked. Just like back home, really but worse.
We had tea back at the hotel – it was pretty horrid - rib with chips and veg , egg with bitter gourd
and greens with home-made sausage - and even greasier than the previous night. It was 4 degrees C
and all the doors and windows were open in the “dining-room”. We were glad to escape to our room
where we could put some heating on and switch the electric blankets on too.
Ashy-throated Warbler
Black Bulbul
Black-headed Greenfinch
Brown-breasted Bulbul
Chestnut Thrush
Chinese Pond-Heron
Claudia's Leaf Warbler
Coal Tit
Collared Finchbill
Crested Goshawk
Daurian Redstart
Elliot's Laughingthrush
Emei Leaf Warbler
Page 3 of 27
Ann and Roland Go Birding in China April 2017.pdf
Displaying Ann and Roland Go Birding in China April 2017.pdf.
1
/27
Page 1 of 27
ANN AND ROLAND GO BIRDING IN CHINA
APRIL 24TH
– MAY 8TH, 2017
Travel
We flew from Manchester to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Chengdu and back.
Ground arrangements
Our tour was arranged by Sid Francis of Sichuan Birding http://sichuanbirding.cloudaccess.net/
We had no itinerary as such but all went well apart from the weather! Sid cannot be faulted on his
bird knowledge or persistence and our days in the field were long.
We paid him a fixed cost of vehicle hire, driving and guiding of 1100RMB per person
On top of that we had to pay the variable costs of fuel, road tolls, food, accommodation and
ticketing for the 3 of us.
Below is Sid’s map of where we actually went.
DIARY
Page 1 of 27
Page 2 of 27
Sunday, April 24th and Monday, April 25th
.
We flew to Amsterdam on the 17h30 flight and then on the 21h30 flight to Chengdu. There weren’t
many westerners on the Chengdu flight and the Chinese who boarded were very loud and excitable.
They kept swapping seats and every time they did so, they moved their vast amounts of hand
luggage too! It was all quite hectic and I had no fewer than 5 different passengers coming to sit next
to me! Eventually, everyone seemed to be happy and the noise subsided a little. Apart from that, the
flight was uneventful. The plane was a nice new one with all mod cons but a lack of space in
economy of course. As we left the plane, I spotted our birding friends, Tom and Julia, from York. It’s
a small world. They too were going to be birding Sichuan and then they were going up to Lhasa with
their guide, Summer Wong. There was a bit of a wait at immigration and once we had got through
there and collected our cases, it was time to meet Sid, our guide for the next two weeks. We were
very excited about this trip as it had been booked some 18 months earlier! It wasn’t hard to pick Sid
out in the small waiting crowd and we were soon loaded up and on our way in his Great Wall
vehicle. Visibility wasn’t best because of the pollution and rain but we were headed towards
Longcanggu where we hoped the weather would be better. We made a couple of birding stops on
the motorway and as and when and also after we had left it. Our first Chinese bird was a Spotted
dove and I was delighted to see a Red-billed leothrix later on at a roadside stop It was a bird I had
wanted to see in India but which had eluded me. We had picked up 26 species by the time we got to
our hotel in the early evening. We were staying at the Gatekeepers Hotel in Wawu according to Sid
but I have been unable to find a hotel of that name anywhere! The weather was pretty grim by now
– it was a bit like being in cloud forest. Our room was ok – cold because it was cold and damp
outside and the windows were wide open but we soon fixed that and got the air-conditioning on to
give us some warmth. We also switched the electric blankets on! We ate downstairs in a draughty
room. Sid did the ordering: 3 dishes with rice – spicy chicken, egg and tomato and vegetable.
Swimming in grease but tasty. There was a group of drunken youngsters hanging about making a lot
of noise with the sound system (gangsters, Sid said) but they left after a while. We went straight to
bed being somewhat tired and we had to be up bright and early the next day.
Ashy-throated Parrotbill
Blue-winged Minla
Brownish-flanked Bush-Warbler
Collared Finchbill
Common Sandpiper
Crested Myna
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Gould's Sunbird
Grey Wagtail
Himalayan Swiftlet
Japanese Tit
Japanese White-eye
Little Bunting
Little Egret
Long-tailed Minivet
Long-tailed Shrike
Olive-backed Pipit
Oriental Greenfinch
Plumbeous Redstart
Red-billed Leiothrix
Red-billed Starling
Red-rumped Swallow
Page 2 of 27
Page 3 of 27
Siberian Stonechat
Spotted Dove
Sulphur-breasted Warbler
White Wagtail
White-cheeked Starling
Tuesday, April 25th Day 2
Breakfast was at 6h30 in Sid’s room. This was to become a familiar pattern. Tea, toast, cheese, jam.
Outside it was chucking it down and visibility was somewhat poor as we set off up Wawu mountain.
You could hardly call it a road and we made slow progress, stopping to look for an Emei leaf warbler
which proved very difficult to find and when we finally saw it out in the open, the light was rubbish
but we did see it! There was evidence of developments along our way but all the buildings appeared
to have been abandoned before they were even put into use! We saw lots of this during our time in
China. After about 8kms, we pulled off the road to walk about a bit. The weather was better than it
had been but there was still a lot of low cloud and fine rain. Sid played his Collared owl (by the end
of the holiday, we were sick of hearing it!!) and lots of little birds came flocking in. Almost too many
to take in at once. I particularly loved the Golden-breasted fulvetta The Red-winged laughing
thrush was so frustrating – we could see exactly where he was moving but couldn’t get so much as a
glimpse of the bird itself. Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse and we eventually
decided to call it a day and go to Nie Beschan (?)in the hopes it would be drier. It wasn’t – but it was
brighter – and the drive was interesting. The motorway took us through beautiful impenetrable
forest where there used to be tigers. Sadly there are only pandas now. We were very surprised to
see how many cherry and almond trees there were in this valley – they were everywhere! Not the
same kind of cherries as ours and very expensive – they probably charged us 10 times the proper
price on account of us being westerners. The Chinese have a habit of doing that. We stopped in
Juixiang for lunch opting for proper food instead of a cheese butty. It was very nice and only cost 56
yuan for 3 dishes: potato, tofu and pork fat. We had noodle water to drink – this is quite common
and you soon get used to it. After lunch we carried on into the National Park and managed to pick
up a few new birds. It was sad to see how much rubbish gets dumped in the countryside. Sid says it
is because of western consumerism – the Chinese want their gadgets, tvs etc but are not educated in
disposing of their packaging sensibly. What we were seeing mostly, though, was the detritus of
people picnicking or snacking and drinking as they walked. Just like back home, really but worse.
We had tea back at the hotel – it was pretty horrid - rib with chips and veg , egg with bitter gourd
and greens with home-made sausage - and even greasier than the previous night. It was 4 degrees C
and all the doors and windows were open in the “dining-room”. We were glad to escape to our room
where we could put some heating on and switch the electric blankets on too.
Ashy-throated Warbler
Black Bulbul
Black-headed Greenfinch
Brown-breasted Bulbul
Chestnut Thrush
Chinese Pond-Heron
Claudia's Leaf Warbler
Coal Tit
Collared Finchbill
Crested Goshawk
Daurian Redstart
Elliot's Laughingthrush
Emei Leaf Warbler
Page 3 of 27
Ann and Roland Go Birding in China April 2017.pdf
Displaying Ann and Roland Go Birding in China April 2017.pdf.
