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

Sichuan Birding (2 Viewers)

Just Back from a trip - which I'm afraid was a bit of disappointment. I had a group that was focused on finding Red Panda - but on this species, although we found fresh skat at two sites, we drew a blank.
Our problems partly lay in the fact that with horrible bad luck we arrived at Wawu on the very day they decided to close the park for a week of cable-car maintenance - which meant we could only get to our best Red Panda site on Wawu summit for just a single morning's watch that started at around 9.00am.
In an attempt to compensate for our Wawu woes we took off to the forest areas 2 hours to west at Longcang. Here at levels around 2300m plenty of Red Panda skat and great birding - Grey-hooded Parrotbill on three days (with all the other Parrots that are found at Wawu) - but no Pamda sighting. However we did get a stunner - an Asiatic Black Bear holed up in a hollow tree - quite a sight through the scope!!!!!!!
Moving onto to Wanglang we got a great close-up view of Leopard Cat, Complex-tooth Flying Squirrels, Chinese Serow, plenty of Blue-eared Pheasant, Chinese Grouse, a brief glimpse of an Owl carrying prey that must have been Chinese Tawny, Three-toed Woodpecker and last but not least Red-throated Thrush. But here again mammals - the focus of our tour - were few and far between.

One exciting bird I though we'd found was a Common Starling - rare to this part of the world. But getting home and examining pics I found it was one of our famous Sichuan dyed cage-bird escape Starlings - a black dyed White-cheeked!!!!!!! This is the second time I've found a black dyed version of this bird - which I'm sure has been used in attempt to sell a fake Myna.

The pic is of our bear from Longcang. This location offers birding that really compares with Wawu.

The calls are - Black-faced Laughingthrush song (to go with the call a few posts back)
Buff-barred Warbler song - a common sound at both Longcang and the top of Wawu.
Russet Bush Warbler which can be heard - during the evenings - at the very bottom of Wawu Park.
And another bird I from this area I don't see on too many lists - there were a few of then calling just a dusk - Asian Barred Owlet
 

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Just back from another frustrating trip - this time foiled in the search for Parakeets because of a police roadblock, which was stopping foreigners from traveling the road from Danba to Bamei. There has been some recent "happenings" in Sichuan's Eastern Tibet, and as an excuse to deny me entry I was told by the police that road construction meant it was too dangerous for me to carry on in my 4WD drive jeep. This info was made especially galling, since the beginning of May is a national holiday and Chengdu registered saloon cars, full of mum, dad grandparents and the toddler, were left to happily drive further. The block was only 10k's from my chosen destination - but no amount of argument would allow me through.

In such situations - and with the limited time I had - well its a case of finding a village and somewhere to park, put on the rucksack and cut your birding losses by camping out in nearest good habitat. Having eyed out a likely spot, and finding someone to keep an eye on the jeep, I walked some steep hill tracks until I hit on a spot where I saw a Koklass Pheasant and decided that was good sign to put up camp.

Although no Parakeets plenty of nice birds and lovely habitat - birds included Temminck's Tragopan, lots of heard but not seen Koklass Pheasants, singing Emei Leaf Warbler, many Indian Blue Robin, a pair of Niltava which I couldn't separate between Fujian and Rufous-bellied and Mountain Hawk Eagle.

At the same time as my foreshortened trip Roland, together with two Austrians, drove his jeep into the "forbidden area" via the Kanding/Tagong road - meeting no road blocks any only friendly policemen!!!!!
Lets hope my luck changes.

Pics - an Indian Blue Robin. Taken with flash in typically shady habitat.

Camberwell Beauty butterfly - when I was a small kid I used to collect tea-cards and one of my sets was of British Butterflies (you have to drink a heck of a lot of PG tips tea to get the full set). The one butterfly I particularity admired was the beauty - which is a rarer migrant to the UK and named after the district of Camberwell in London - but I had to wait till I got to Sichuan before I saw it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The last pic - a birder sets up camp. Luckily in Sichuan there are still plenty of areas for rough camping.
 

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I also encountered Indian Blue Robin near Danba. Quite easy to find and not rare at all!

In the same bushes there was a Three-banded Rosefinch trying to do something against its hunger. Here the "long-necked" version.

On the Siguniang side of the Balang Mountain Pass I ran into a big flock of various warblers, tits and nuthatches. Look at the back toe of the White-cheeked Nuthatch and you'll understand why nuthatches prefer to climb upside-down the trees: they look loke huge hooks.
 

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On Balang Mountain Pass I took the chance to camp for a night and enjoy a wonderful sun rise on a warm morning. It brought me Wood Snipe and a pair of tame White Eared Pheasant. Both just right on the Monal slope - this time without Monals unfortunately.

Also close to the pass Asian House Martins were busy with building nests on almost every cliff and bridge.
 

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Here I still have some nice shots of bigger birds from my last trip:

At 4200m, just in front of the mighty Mt. Chola (chin. Mt. Que'er) we saw this Little Owl sitting on a post next to the road.

Two more pictures from a flock of Himalayan Griffon. They were just feeding on a dead horse. When we arrived a big Tibetan Mastiff was scaring them away and didn't let them share their breakfast anymore.

On another pass close to the Tibetan (TAR) border I found a pair of Tibetan Snowcock. They were so tame that it wasn't difficult to get very close at all.
 

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Wow, lots of nice birds! Little owl picture particularly nice. Like the action shots of griffons and rosefinch as well. Very impressive picture of the nuthatch's hind claw as well.

Thanks for sharing details of your trip!
 
Wonderful pic of the Snowcock! I didn't know they were ever tame - far too tasty for that I would have thought.

Cheers
Mike
 
Just back from a trip and have just seen Roland's great images!!!!!! But impressive claw pix - well I can trump his - with a claw gift we got from our stay at our Wolong hotel - not often we come home from birding with a free smoked leg of ham - shame I've been veggie for nearly a year.

This was just a short trip to Wawu and Wolong/Balang - but all went very nicely. The road to Wolong is as prone as ever to landslide, we had to delay our trip from Chengdu for a few hours because the Police had closed the road after a rainy night. But it's good to see that one short dangerous stretch - between Genda and Wolong Village, that has claimed many cars - is now much improved and looks a lot more stable. Also the path up to Wuyipeng has been repaired - so getting around last years new mudslides is now much easier than it was during winter.

Most interesting bird of this trip was a Black Eagle over Wawu - there have been other recordings - but first time I've seen this bird outside Yunnan.
The photographers on this trip got a stunning Bluethroat at the base of Balang.
Another stunner is the Moth I found at Wawu - anybody have any idea on the ID?????

Just like Roland's trip we had lots of Indian Blue Robin - all in the Wolong area. You can even find them singing away in scrub around the buildings at Wolong Village. However getting decent views can be difficult - I've uploaded a song I recorded.

Another Robin we got on this trip was Himalayan Rubythroat - song 2

And finally the song of Songar Tit - Giant Laugher can be heard in the background.

Perhaps the best calls however came in Chengdu. At our favorite city birding spot - our Chinese Grosbeak, Long-billed Plover river-side site in the south - there was a large fall of warblers in the trees. That gave us an unusual sound - Large-billed Leaf Warbler singing in the city!!!!!!!!
 

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Wonderful pic of the Snowcock! I didn't know they were ever tame - far too tasty for that I would have thought.

That's what one of the locals said, too. Very tasty!

There are some very big and important Lamaseries around. Maybe that's the reason why this bird doesn't get too much hunting pressure and is used to people.
 
Thanks to firstreesjohn - I got that Moth, from a couple of posts back, ID'ed as Brahmaea wallichii
http://huffmantaxidermy.com/oehlke/BrBramophthalmawalwal.htm
- thanks John

As for gamebirds and hunting - well they can take a fair bit of predation (formerly from a whole range of natural enemies but now it seems that man has taken over the role of main hunter) - hence the numbers of Chinese Bamboo Partridge that can still be found within traditionally farmed Sichuan countryside - despite the shooting, trapping and even poisoning. In the days when animal predators were common then I'm sure that gamebirds - especially the showy males were important prey species. last year a couple of Belgian birders told about the gripping sight of Leopard Cat walking over a Wawu road clutching a male Lady A in its Jaws (I think that was the only male they got to see). With the harem breeding system used by "chickens" the males are more expendable than females - one fit and dominant male is able to serve a lot of ladies. We're out at our survey area in NE Sichuan and here, with the amount of open hunting of gamebirds we've witnessed, I'm just amazed by the numbers of Bamboo Partridge and Golden Pheasant that we still record in suitable habitat. The secret to their existence is high breeding rates and their ability to survive in relatively small islands of marginal land, where modern farming is impossible to implement. However Common Pheasant seems to have a more difficult job in hanging on - in lower, agriculturally richer areas, our sparsity of recent recordings suggest they have problems competing with the new techniques of industrial farming.
As for those animal predators - I'm afraid, at least in this area, they've been nearly wiped out. Yesterday we met a villager, in his 90's, who told about forests and Leopards of his youth - today not a tree is left from those times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A couple of pics from this trip -
Male Swinhoe's Minivet - these birds breed in this area

A Black Drongo in a very dignified pose

and calls -
the dominant call of this trip, hearing it everywhere - Indian Cuckoo - a Bamboo Partridge pipes up halfway through the soundbite

Swinhoe's Minivet - flying around my head

And a mystery Leaf Warbler that I couldn't get out - I'm going for Kloss's - anybody else have an opinion???????
 

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We're on the road, so just a quick post - after some confusion whether some parts of Aba would be open this year for birding - the area around Maerkang and Ruoergai - we can bring the good news, at least as far as Ruoergai is concerned, that all is open and foreigners can freely travel through.

The other good news is that we finally sighted Pallas's Cat - one of these beasts walked straight past us as we scanned the grassland from a small hill on the grassland close to flower lake - at quarter to four in the afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nearby on another hill we watched 3 Tibetan Foxes - and a Red Fox also kindly walked past - allowing my visitors to make a very interesting comparison of the two species.

Some pics from this trip -
A Monal at Wolong - got them on the road - and even saw one at 13.30 in the afternoon.

A Siberian Jay - got this at our usual Jay stake-out at Baxi - where we also got a host of other good birds including Chinese Grouse

And a call - Firethroat - had them singing just a meter or so above our heads.
 

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Wow, sounds like you have had a great trip - open roads, permission to travel, and great sightings! Palla's cat - very nice!!! Contrasting foxes too... Looks like some nice birds as well. (I've listened to the firethroat, but would not call him a melodious singer.)

PS - Do all of your jays look so fluffy?
 
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I can also confirm Maerkang to Ruoergai is open though in Maerkang a couple of days ago the police stopped us and held a long discussion with us before letting us head north towards Hongyuan.

The weather has been much kinder this year compared to last. Wawu Shan was great - 9sp of parrotbill in the area though Grey-hooded gave us the run around until the last, foggy minute this year. A lazy Red Panda was the highlight though.
Wolong was exceptional - really nice. A displaying tragopan (one of several) and a stunning Firethroat were the Wuyipeng highlights, followed by Wood snipe on the deck and displaying overhead quickly followed by Koklass and White Eared Pheasants and, best of all, 5 male Chinese Monal (though one was an immature male - attached) feeding and flying around us.
Mengbi Shan was as good as usual, Sichuan Jays, Monal Partridges, Crested Tit Warblers (I'll attach the photo in the next post!), and a Przewalski's Nuthatch nearby (attached, a female of the pair) and White-browed Tit (attached).

Just up at Ruoergai at the moment - beautiful day on the grasslands with Steppe Eagle and over 70 Black-necked Cranes so far, including a single Common. Baxi tomorrow...

Cheers,

James
 

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Attached are 5 photos from the last week:

1, Chinese Babax from Wolong, been waiting years for a photo opportunity of this great species.
2, Crested Tit Warbler from Mengbi Shan, one of my favourite birds, just a shame about that branch!
3, Severtzov's Tit Warbler at Baxi Forest, just an hour after another Crested Tit Warbler!
4, Yellow-streaked Warbler at a random site near to Gansu during a day of exploration around the border..
5, Sichuan Tit from Baxi Forest, a great site for this delightful species.

Jiuzhaigou was great today, amazingly everyone in the group got brilliant views of Rufous-headed Robin on our first morning - just a shame I left my camera 20m behind us when it was sat directly overhead! We easily got our 10th parrotbill of the trip - Spectacled in the afternoon...

Amazingly we've been struggling with two usually relatively easy species - Pere David's Tit and Three-banded Rosefinch, hopefully we'll connect tomorrow!

James
 

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Well done James - looks like you're also having a good time - we also blanked on 3-banded Rosefinch - but partly made up for it just outside JZ with two separate sightings of Long-taled Rosefinch that included a couple of stunning males.

We've just come back to Chengdu after our 15 day trip - some good stuff today on the way back from Wawu - at my Long-billed Plover Stake-out we had 3 Oriental Pratincole - a species that doesn't turn up on too many Sichuan tours.

The bird at Wawu that gave us a big run around was Chestnut-crowned Bush Warbler - but my guests managed to get a brief view - and I got a nice recording that starts with a lot of agitated chatter before it breaks into the distinctive call of this species. .

Another interesting species found at Ruoergai was Daurian Starling - nesting in the hollow of a lamp-post.

That fluffy Jay in my last post is of course Sichuan and not Siberian Jay - put that mistake down to severe sleep deprivation - you usually find this bird very close to the treeline where a good insulation layer of feather will be useful !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

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Finally got the Three-banded Rosefinch and Tit easily enough today - Spending 11 days here years back certainly helped - my old stake-outs working for both, Jiuzhaigou really is a beautiful park - one of my favourites in Asia on a sunny day.

Sid - interesting about that starling - I had one in Ruoergai in 2007, I just assumed it was a migrant, but obviously not. Last year we had Red-billed and White-cheeked in the town - seems a starling hot-spot!
Well done with the Chestnut-crowned BW, we only heard two individuals distantly at Wawu.

Fingers crossed for Pere David's Owl tomorrow pre-dawn before the long drive back to Chengdu.

Some more photos:

1 - Another monal shot, this time an adult. I will post flight shots at some point.
2 - Pere David's Tit - usually an easy bird but gave us the run around until a trail off the tourism zone secured a few of them.
3 - Sukatchev's Laughingthrush - a very range-restricted species, difficult to see well though reasonably common in the right habitat.
4 - An old favourite reminding me of Derbyshire - White-throated Dipper.

Cheers,

James
 

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Again great photos James - and best of luck with that Per David's Owl!!!! Last December we got ours during the late afternoon - but we've heard them calling during the early morning at Wanglang.

Just totted up the list from this last 2 week trip - we've come out at 258 species,which shows that the shorter trips can still give good lists.

Worth noting a couple of changes that have cropped-up on this year's circuit.

At Flower lake on Ruoergai some clown has decided that to make the 3km trip from the gate down to the lake you now have to ride in a Landcruiser - with the usual heavily tinted windows - for the grand price of 78RMB.
For those who want to avoid this dubious pleasure - just walk down towards the wetlands on the open pasture that borders the ticketed area. A 40 minute walk will take you over the grassland to the lusher growth - Tibetan Lark country - that's found closer to water. This year we found far more Lark here than in the ticketed area - and its a far better area to watch for animals. This disadvantage of this is that you don't get such good views of the ducks, geese and waders - but since my guests didn't need any of the waterfowl, great views of the Tibetan Foxes, Sakers and Tibetan Larks more than made up for that.

At the lake they've just constructed a dam to keep the water levels high - so the tourists can take a snap or two!!!!!!!!!!!! I wonder if anyone has tried to work out the ecological impact of this major habitat alteration?????????????????????

Another dubious development at Ruoergai is the erection of Electricity pylons and cables over the grassland - we could see work of attaching the cables and there was no sign of bird warning devices that are sometimes fitted in areas where large birds, vulnerable to cable collision, are present. Lets hope the Cranes aren't affected - and try to look forward to a lot of new raptor nesting sites!!!!!

I'm afraid I wont have that many pictures this year - our number 1 photographer, and my better half, Meggie - is now around 7 months pregnant. Big Tummies and heavy prime lenses ain't a good mix - but hopefully our baby will have heard enough shutter clicking and bird talk to already have caught a bit of the bug.

But here's one of my pics - one of those Tibetan Larks - these birds are brilliant to watch in their slow flapping song flight.

And a couple of calls -
The other Spectacle of JZ - Spectacled Fulvetta

And Sichuan Treecreeper at Wawu
 

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