china guy
A taff living in Sichuan
Hi James - thanks for the Pika ID info - we'd love it if you sent us the PM. Our last guests were talking about trapping - so we were thinking of looking into the question of traps when we head back to the UK this winter. However in respect to winter trapping - although that Pika could probably survive, if some bedding was provided, a few hours in the sub-zero temps within a trap - I'm afraid smaller mammals that need to be in constant movement to maintain survivable body-temps would likely be recovered as rather stiff and icy specimens - especially if the traps were set-up on an overnight basis. Any of our trapping and measuring activity will wait until warmer periods of the year.
And yes that Gansu Pika of course should be labeled as a possible rather than a positive - and with more research I'm sure that list of probables could be growing.
My bird list is very doable for folk who live in Sichuan - if there was the network of birders giving bird alerts as there are in other parts of the world - them I'm sure 500 would be a real tickers target.
Looking through that list we just added two more forgotten species - Northern Lapwing and real juicer of a tick - our Solitary Snipe from this spring.
There are quite a few birds missing - another Snipe - nobody got up early enough for Wood Snipe this year. In the Leaf Warbler division we don't have a truly positive ID of Kloss's or Gansu Leaf and should have made a more definite ID on at least one more of Seicerus warbler species - and lets not mention the likes of Chestnut-crowned and Grey-sided Bush Warbler. We blanked out on Shortwings (that is if you don't take White-bellied Redstart/Chinese Shortwing into account) - even though we visited one location this year after Gould's. Then there are the enigmatic ticks - no Sichuan Hill Partridge trip this year (also with the lure of Silver Oriole in that area) - but, when we get the time, we've got ideas about sites that are outside the main Loajunshan area - Rusty-throated Parrotbill at Tangjiahe (we were told that Park staff staked out, for 5 days, the area where this bird was first photographed after if disappeared from JZ, without getting anything) and the elusive Chalice for China birders - Blackthroat (I see Jesper H got one on the last trip to Yunnan). Down South, especially the more tropical SW - holds some good stuff we haven't got on our list - some of it in the form of easily found like - White-throated kingfisher, Sooty-headed and Red-whiskered Bulbul, Yellow-bellied Fantail and far easier to find Chesnut-tailed Minla (we got all of these birds, and far more, on the wrong side of the border - Yunnan - this year) - but down there also lies some real goodies like Brown-winged Parrotbill and Biet's Laugher. And Ducks - well we still need that Scaly-sided Merganser (they should sometimes show up here) and of course one rare but annual definite - Baer's Pochard.
Lot of birds there, and of course plenty of other possibilities - which of course makes Sichuan birding such a great sport!!!!!!
Here are some more pics -
pic 1 - Collared Crow - a pretty local species in Sichuan, you can find it in the Tangjiahe area.
pic 2 - a horrible pic of a bird that gave us a horrible time this summer. For all my calls, Przewalski's Nuthatch just wouldn't do the decent things and show this spring/summer (we were starting to imagine their extermination) - and this last week - flocks of them were violating poor conifer cones as if they were taking part in a scene from The Birds!!!!!
Pic 3 - we're getting more mammal interested guests - so we're starting to put more effort in finding the furries. This is a Masked Palm Civet - if you stake out a rubbish dump at night, about the easiest large furry you can find. At Wangland we fed these for a couple of days on dried fish - which allowed us to get close enough for a pic. The cook at the reserve told us that these and Leopard Cat are sometimes inside kitchen when he opens up for breakfasts.
Another good story we heard was from Baxi - on the road (this is the small mountain pass - not the new main road), that eventually leads to JZ - School children in 97 reported seeing a Giant Panda - and then in Nov this year one was reported again about 20 minutes down from the village (JZ direction) - this time several drivers getting pics on their cell-phones. Any Chinese readers of these posts know anything about this - and have maybe seen a pic or two??????
Pic 3 - another Bamboo lover - Takin. This guy -from Tangjiahe, being part of a research project, is wearing a radio sender. Getting Takin at this place is too easy - and some park staff are actually worried that so many Takin are destroying Giant panda habitat!!!!!!
And yes that Gansu Pika of course should be labeled as a possible rather than a positive - and with more research I'm sure that list of probables could be growing.
My bird list is very doable for folk who live in Sichuan - if there was the network of birders giving bird alerts as there are in other parts of the world - them I'm sure 500 would be a real tickers target.
Looking through that list we just added two more forgotten species - Northern Lapwing and real juicer of a tick - our Solitary Snipe from this spring.
There are quite a few birds missing - another Snipe - nobody got up early enough for Wood Snipe this year. In the Leaf Warbler division we don't have a truly positive ID of Kloss's or Gansu Leaf and should have made a more definite ID on at least one more of Seicerus warbler species - and lets not mention the likes of Chestnut-crowned and Grey-sided Bush Warbler. We blanked out on Shortwings (that is if you don't take White-bellied Redstart/Chinese Shortwing into account) - even though we visited one location this year after Gould's. Then there are the enigmatic ticks - no Sichuan Hill Partridge trip this year (also with the lure of Silver Oriole in that area) - but, when we get the time, we've got ideas about sites that are outside the main Loajunshan area - Rusty-throated Parrotbill at Tangjiahe (we were told that Park staff staked out, for 5 days, the area where this bird was first photographed after if disappeared from JZ, without getting anything) and the elusive Chalice for China birders - Blackthroat (I see Jesper H got one on the last trip to Yunnan). Down South, especially the more tropical SW - holds some good stuff we haven't got on our list - some of it in the form of easily found like - White-throated kingfisher, Sooty-headed and Red-whiskered Bulbul, Yellow-bellied Fantail and far easier to find Chesnut-tailed Minla (we got all of these birds, and far more, on the wrong side of the border - Yunnan - this year) - but down there also lies some real goodies like Brown-winged Parrotbill and Biet's Laugher. And Ducks - well we still need that Scaly-sided Merganser (they should sometimes show up here) and of course one rare but annual definite - Baer's Pochard.
Lot of birds there, and of course plenty of other possibilities - which of course makes Sichuan birding such a great sport!!!!!!
Here are some more pics -
pic 1 - Collared Crow - a pretty local species in Sichuan, you can find it in the Tangjiahe area.
pic 2 - a horrible pic of a bird that gave us a horrible time this summer. For all my calls, Przewalski's Nuthatch just wouldn't do the decent things and show this spring/summer (we were starting to imagine their extermination) - and this last week - flocks of them were violating poor conifer cones as if they were taking part in a scene from The Birds!!!!!
Pic 3 - we're getting more mammal interested guests - so we're starting to put more effort in finding the furries. This is a Masked Palm Civet - if you stake out a rubbish dump at night, about the easiest large furry you can find. At Wangland we fed these for a couple of days on dried fish - which allowed us to get close enough for a pic. The cook at the reserve told us that these and Leopard Cat are sometimes inside kitchen when he opens up for breakfasts.
Another good story we heard was from Baxi - on the road (this is the small mountain pass - not the new main road), that eventually leads to JZ - School children in 97 reported seeing a Giant Panda - and then in Nov this year one was reported again about 20 minutes down from the village (JZ direction) - this time several drivers getting pics on their cell-phones. Any Chinese readers of these posts know anything about this - and have maybe seen a pic or two??????
Pic 3 - another Bamboo lover - Takin. This guy -from Tangjiahe, being part of a research project, is wearing a radio sender. Getting Takin at this place is too easy - and some park staff are actually worried that so many Takin are destroying Giant panda habitat!!!!!!
Attachments
Last edited: