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Sichuan Birding (4 Viewers)

Some more calls from my last trip - this time from Moxi.
There are some great locations at Moxi, and with the weather knocking out the access road from Dujiangyan to Wolong, and persistent rain threatening the alternative longer route over Jiajing Mountain - it makes a pretty good substitute destination. Roads are good and its only 6/7 hours drive from Chengdu and 4 hours drive from Wawu.
Moxi town is a rather tacky tourist magnet where you find the gates of Hailuogou Glacier Park - John and Jemi Holmes have photographed Gould's Showrtwing inside the park and last year Roland got Streaked Barwing from this site. however its very noisy and crowded once the tour groups start to enter around 8 am - so for those who cherish a bit of piece and quite with their birding - its best to head down the road that leads over a 4000m pass to Kangding.

Although mist and rain were extremely troublesome - this last trip easily notched up - Himalayan Rubythroat, Alpine Leaf Warbler, White-browed Tit Warbler, Rosy Pipit, Rufous-breasted Accentor, Chinese White-browed Rosefinch, and Streaked Rosefinch around the 4000m lake at the top of the pass.

Lower down we got Three-banded Rosefinch, Spotted Laughingthrush, Chinese Shortwing (White-bellied Redstart) but other birds we've found in this habitat like Per David's Tit, Great and Brown Parrotbill played hard to get - and we missed out on them.

In the forest trails at the forestry station at the start of the protected area we got many Chestnut-headed Tesia.

Calls
- one of the Chestnut-headed Tesias as it "roared" out of the bamboo!!!!!!

- Spot-breasted Parrotbill - another bird that can generate quite a noise for its size!!!!!

- Pygmy Wren Babbler - with a call rather than that familiar three blind mice song. It was actually unusually easy to locate it using this recording - wonder if it will work again?

- Rufous-breasted Accentor - birds calling out the mist

A finally a historic broadcasting first - Saker saying hi to all you nice folks and thanks for your notes of congratulation
 

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  • Spot-breasted Parrotbill Moxi .mp3
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  • Pygmy Wren Babbler Moxi.mp3
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  • Rufous breasted Accentor Moxi.mp3
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  • Saker's thankyou.mp3
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Chinaguy,

I wonder if you are posting these recordings on Xeno-canto or some other repository? It's great to have them as references.

The one of Saker shows your great parental ability to interpret primitive speech already!
 
Hi Gretchen - so far all these calls are only uploaded onto this thread as a bit of a hiddly-piddly sound resource for Sichuan birders. We have just registered a new company that allows us to organize bird tours - so all my calls, in a more organized and systematic form, will eventually go onto a new Sichuan birding site, that not only advertises our services, but will act as a general Sichuan birding guide.

Calls are everything in so much of Sichuan birding - it can't be emphasized how important they are in not only locating birds, but being able to establish more positive ID's between species that are so similar in plumage.

A classic case are the Seicercus Warblers - a group of 6 Sichuan skulkers of which, apart from Chestnut-crowned, can give a few problems if you're just going to rely on plumage ID.
Part of the ID can be based on altitude of observation - but some species will occur in the same habitat.
The first couple of recordings- are calls of Bianchi's and Marten's both recorded very close to each other on the East side of the Old Erlang Road

1 - is Bianchi's call
2 - is Marten's - which sounds a little like another Seicercus, Grey-crowned, but less slurred and more disyllabic

the second two recordings - are the songs - Martens giving trills, while Bianchi's give none.

3 - is the song of Bianchis from the old Erlang Road - no trill what so ever to this song
4 - song of Martens, this time from Wawu - you can hear the trills in the song from both main subject and bird in the background.
 

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  • Bianchi's Warbler call Old Erlang Road.mp3
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  • Marten's Warbler call Old erlang Road.mp3
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  • Bianchi's Warbler song Old Erlang Road .mp3
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  • Marten's Warbler song Wawu .mp3
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Re #521

That Saker call/song/gurgle/etc. is the best recording I’ve heard on BirdForum. (I’m not sure where you’d put it on xeno-canto, tho’.)

Just got back from Spain and, to reiterate what I’ve previously told you in private:


MANY, MANY CONGRATS TO YOU AND MEGGIE ! ! !
 
Hi John - just did a check of of Xeno-canto - still no section for birder's babies!!!!
This year we guided, Dutch birder, John van der Woude and his wife Nollie - these guys were among the very first contributors to Xeno-canto.

And I've just obtained a recording of a species not available on the Xeno-canto site - Grey-hooded Parrotbill
Yesterday I returned from a quick visit to Wawu to pick up one of my birders who had been taking a few days solo - other Parrotbill calls I got on this trip were Brown and Ashy-throated - I've also included the flock noise of Golden Parrotbill taken on the west of Wawu.

Recordings

1- Grey-hooded Parrotbill - a flock of around 15 birds - we ran into this bird 3 times during this last visit

2 - Brown Parrotbill - around 20 birds, including young

3 - Ashy-throated Parrotbill calls - from a a location outside the park

4 - Golden Parrotbills - a flock in the rain
 

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  • Grey Hooded Parrotbill Wawu.mp3
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  • Brown Parrotbill flock Wawu.mp3
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  • Ashy Throated Parrotbill call Wawu.mp3
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  • Golden Parrotbill flock W of W.mp3
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Wow, I love that panda! Great to see the old pale Red Panda is still about (the last photo), I remember speaking to Robbie the researcher in June and he hadn't seen that individual all year - have you seen him this year often Sid?
The first photo looks like the same one we saw in June.

James
 
Hi James - that bear, and all the the other photos are blocked out here - can't have been enough Red in the Red Panda, so must be a dangerous enemy of the state!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I must admit my Red Panda sightings haven't been too numerous this year - however got to see one last Thursday - but not the pale animal. The only time I've ever seen a really pale Red Panda was last year, during May, at the bottom section about 5km from the park gate - we got one going through the grass on the verge and then crossing the road. This was the only time we've made a sighting of this species away from the top.

Luckily Peter and Michelle have sent me some of their photos - I was quite excited about the Plain-backed Thrush!!!!!!!

Here are some more Wawu calls from my last trip

1 - another incredible Bush Warbler song - this time Spotted.
And on the subject of Bush Warblers my last trip, that ended a couple of days back, gave us more fun with Chestnut-crowned. We were lucky enough to get some nano-second glimpses - but that bird is just brilliant at being able to sing at arms length distance, while still remaining perfectly hidden in the bamboo!!!!!!!

2 - another loud and noisy bird - Buffy Laughingthrush from the mid section.

3 - a rather more sedate noise - Greenish Warbler

4 - and finally a Chinese endemic - Slaty Bunting. This is a Female with two young that were flying but still being fed
 

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  • Buffy Laughingthrush Wawu.mp3
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  • Greenish Warbler Wawu.mp3
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  • Slaty Bunting Female and 2 young Wawu.mp3
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post?

Hi China Guy,

So why not post those recordings on xeno-canto and help us all out?

We are always happy to offer new functionality at x-c, so if you could explain what you meant by "birder's babies", maybe we could help out.

happy birding!
Bob
xeno-canto.org
 
Hi Bob - I've made a lot of use of your collection at Xeno Canto - a fantastic resource for all birders. You Xeno canto guys are true ornithological heroes!!!!!!
This evening I registered and uploaded the Grey-hooded Parrotbill call - I'll follow up with more recordings.
As for the birders babies - well that was just a joke about a recording of my new-born son that I uploaded here at birdforum - I don't think his or any other hungry baby squeals will be much use on your site.

I can also see that Delia Todd is using my calls for the Opus -
Delia - you uploaded a recording of the Pygmy Wren Babbler call - however a more useful sound for finding this bird would be the highly characteristic three blind mice song of this bird (sometimes it'll sing just the first two notes) - which I've uploaded here on this post. A bird which is much heard but often very difficult to see.

Another Timaliidae call I recorded on this last trip was Red-tailed Minla - from the west of Wawu.

And a couple of Yuhina calls from the top of Wawu -
The first is Stripe-throated Yuhina (in the background you can hear my Dutch guest making a commentary as he videos the birds).
And the second is the manic call of White-collared Yuhina.
 

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  • Red-tailed Minla W of W.mp3
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  • Stripe-throated Yuhina Wawu.mp3
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  • White collared Yuhina Wawu.mp3
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New baby has meant me being rather grounded over the last few weeks - but Saker is such a good little boy, that we're now talking about getting out and about again for some birding.

Last week I went with Roland to Qinglong Lake, inthe East of Chengdu. No Pheasant-tailed Jacanas but my first Purple Heron for the Sichuan.

This summer gave us some great guests - including two sets of very nice Dutch birders who both made online reports of their visits -

This link is to the report from John and Nollie Van Der Woude -
http://www.jvanderw.nl/tripreports/China2011/report.html

A nice relaxed trip - we got a decent list even though we gave Jiuzhaigou a miss.
Highlight bird for me on this trip was the singing Gansu Leaf Warbler at Baxi - otherwise we got our Monals and some late snow gave us gripping views of large flocks of Grandala.

The second report from Ben Dielissen is in whole other format - a picture album. These photos - there are a lot of scenery/culture pics - really captures the mood of a Sichuan birding trip, with the habitat we bird, the places we visit and the people we bump into. You can see Ben's work, China 2011, here -
http://www.albelli.nl/onlinefotoboek-bekijken/e5854ac4-5c41-47e7-88b2-2f67caf9f421

The comments are in Dutch - but the images do all the talking.

Both trips ran into the danger of me having to give up the tours and head back home to aid a pregnant Meggie - and during Ben's trip she delivered! Luckily Meggie's brother could take over the driving - and I rejoined his trip at the very end to take him through Wawu.

This period has also been used to build my new website. Still not finished it's starting to take shape and can be seen here - http://sichuanbirding.cloudaccess.net/

You can see my calls are going down on the site - http://sichuanbirding.cloudaccess.net/sichuan-bird-calls.html
There's still a lot left to upload. Here are 5 more calls -

1 the first call is something I found in my old recordings - Grey-sided Bush Warbler - an ancient MP3 I made on Emei in 2009. This would have been a great call for an uncommon Sichuan bird - but then came that tour bus tearing up the mountain, and for some reason I wasn't able to get another chance!!!! Not my greatest effort - that's unless your a rabid bus enthusiast - then you should be able to ID manufacturer and how many passengers its carrying.

2 Still on the Bush Warbler theme - Yellowish-bellied Bush Warbler - made during Ben's trip, in the rain, from the West of Wawu. You can hear other YB Bush warblers calling in the background - I agitated them all with a bit of Owl - a Lesser Cuckoo pipes up and right at the end there's a overhead Minivet.

3 Claudia's Leaf Warbler - this recording taken by the hotels at the mid section of Wawu during a May visit. The other Leaf Warbler you can hear is Large-billed - both faint calls and a more distinctive song

4 Spotted Laughingthrush - from the west side of the Old Erlang Road made this August. During that little trek we were actually after Barred Laughers - but could only pick them up from distant calls - without being able to get them to move in closer. Calls in the background include a Claudia's LW, Elliot's Laugher and those grating calls are from a mixed flock that were made up of Tits (Green-backed, Yellow-browed and Rufous-vented) and White-browed Fulvetta.

5 here's a great duet - lead in bird is Daurian Redstart - but main vocals get taken over by a rather loud Chinese Bamboo Partridge. there's actually a second Partridge in there answering the main call - other birds are Oriental Greenfinch and a very brief Bulbul - which I'm nearly sure is Brown-breasted.
 

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  • Yellowish bellied Bush Warbler West Wawu August 2011.mp3
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  • Claudia's.Leaf Warbler Wawu May 011 .mp3
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  • Spotted Laughingthrush Old Erlang Road August 011.mp3
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  • Daurian Redstart and Chinese Bamboo Partridge NE Sichuan April 011.mp3
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Sid and Meggie,
Belated congratulations from us on your recent addition to the "Sichuanbirding" Team !
There are many great photos on the new website. Liked the photo album by the Dutch guy, too.

J & J
 
The new site looks great - lots of info and great to have so many photos. This should be very helpful to people wanting to know about sichuan birds.
 
Yes,the new website is really good with lots of information,well done,Sid.I would love to see you again after next year.
 
I can also see that Delia Todd is using my calls for the Opus -
Delia - you uploaded a recording of the Pygmy Wren Babbler call - however a more useful sound for finding this bird would be the highly characteristic three blind mice song of this bird (sometimes it'll sing just the first two notes) - which I've uploaded here on this post. A bird which is much heard but often very difficult to see.

Thanks very much Sid. I've uploaded this one in addition, along with your helpful notes.

Sorry for the delay in responding to this, I've got a bit behind hand trying to catch up on everything after a holiday in Abergavenny.

Hope the bairn is doing fine.

D
 
Thanks a lot for all that positive feedback on the site. Still want to add a lot more - butterflies and insects, flowers and more general info on ordinary, but always important stuff that were always getting asked, like money changing, Sichuan weather, local food and what clothing to take. I'll get there eventually!!!!!!!!

However - as you can see from the photo - most work at the moment is getting the new birder in our team a little up to scratch with his new vocation. That pic shows new-guy getting to grips with some optics - and what a start to his birding.
First trip out to Jinma River and he got in to a fall of Wryneck - I must have seen 5 birds - looking over my back he could of seen more, but he never tells me what he sees (hope he isn't going to turn out to be a selfish birder).

Second day out with Roland - we got two new birds for our Sichuan list on the river near the Chengdu exhibition center - 3 Marsh Sandpiper and a single Ruff. A few other waders about - with about 7 Black-winged Stilt and many Wood Sandpiper and Temmincks Stint.

And today I visited one of my old haunts in N Chengdu - and one of the species seen was Red-billed Starling, which so often appears on visitor's wish lists. I've seen this bird several times in this area where old railway sidings border old brick buildings, trees and overgrown areas of semi-scrub. My best area for this tick within the city.

Delia its great you're using the calls - and your mention of Abergavenny brought back pleasant memories.

here's some more calls

1 - Black-faced bunting one of the birds seen on Saker's first birding trip - here's the song from the Jiuzaighou area recorded during June

2 - Chinese Grosbeak - a bird seen on Saker's second birding day even though I only got a brief view out of the car window. Here's the song recorded in May from NE Sichuan

3 - Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler - once talked in a post ages back about how this species sometimes gave a call I likened to the sound of "sweet birdy." You can hear it if you use a tad of imagination. Again a call from NE Sichuan. Possible to see in a Chengdu park - but not a common city bird .

4 - Lesser Cuckoo - maybe the most rousing of this post's calls. From just outside Wawu this June
 

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  • Black faced Bunting Jiuzhagou june 011 .mp3
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  • Chinese Grosbeak NE Sichuan May 011 .MP3
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  • Streak breasted Scimitar Babbler sweet-birdy call NE Sichuan May 011 .mp3
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  • Lesser Cuckoo Wawu June 011 .mp3
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