Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
A flock of Common Starlings - that's exciting for us!!!!
You can have some of ours. Far too many flocks of them 'round these parts.
A flock of Common Starlings - that's exciting for us!!!!
That demolition work is quite an eyesore at Wuyipeng and makes a mockery of its conservation aims.
You recommended Dengsheng a while back and I had planned to hike that valley last year but unfortunately had to cancel because of the floods and landslides. Hopefully this year I’ll have opportunity again.
Just back from latest trip with Ron and Sue McIntyre - where we combined Red Panda and a journey south into the warmth of the of the Xichang lake and Miyi areas.
We got our Red Panda at Longcanggou - but, mainly due to foggy weather, it took a couple of days watching. For our journey it made more logistical sense to take Longcanggou over Labahe, since our journey was taking advantage of the G5 motorway - which gives very quick and easy travel into that part of Central South Sichuan that juts into the Yunnan border around Panzhihua.
As far as Labahe is concerned - it's apparently very recently reopened, but we still don't know the situation with regards to access for the best Red Panda areas - and if the track leading to our Panda sites is again open to tourists.
At Longcanggou you can find autumn Red Panda behaving in the same way as the Labahe animals - climbing and feeding off berry bearing trees.
We saw our RP near the top of the of the track - but about a week before our trip started Robbi got one much lower down - for those who know the site, below the area of this year's Grey-hooded Parrotbill nest site. The animals should be looked for in all the areas where the natural mixed forest takes over from the the lower plantation and broad-leaved forest areas.
On the subject of the Parrotbill - just as we watched the Red Panda - a pair of curious Grey-hooded Parrotbill came in and stayed around for a good while. There were also a flock of Three-toed Parrotbill in the area.
Another exciting thing about this trip was the ease with which we found Yunnan Nuthatch around Xichang (and further down the road at Miyi) - which is just around 3 hours drive from Longcanggou. You can find them in the hill pine plantations - in some areas they appeared as abundant!!!!!
The other exciting bird that should appear in this area is Brown-winged Parrotbill - but although we've found it in the Ninang area, on this trip we were unlucky.
Pics come from Ron and Sue - they show me and Ron scoping our Red Panda - while the habitat pics shows, with the area marked where our Red Panda berry tree was found, how difficult it can be to find the animals in the 'tree clutter.' Thanks to Ron's sharp eyes we got it - I'd already long walked past!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lady Amherst's Pheasant was the only tragedy: On the west side of the old Erlang Mountain road we witnessed a gruel kill: Two grim looking guys in a Toyota Landcruiser V8 without number plate (so certainly no poor poachers) first passed us while we were looking at Chinese Babax. Behind the next bend they became visible for us again. They suddenly stopped and we heard a gun shot. One of the guys got off the car, picked up a freshly killed female Lady Amherst's Pheasant and threw it into the trunk. Looked like routine work! They used a pistol to shoot at the bird. So, doubtlessly they must have been high ranked government or military officials.
Don't know how many pheasants they already have killed that early morning!
Sadly, we were too late - just half an hour - to disturb their vicious behavior.
Although these poachers are quite mean people towards animals, they never would attack people; politeness and fear in front of the law are the reasons. These are no Desperadoes from South America or Mexico|=@|. Even during hunting season in parts of Europe there's a higher risk to accidentally get between the line of an amateur gunner's riffle and his prey than anywhere in Sichuan.
Firearms here usually are self-made and thus don't have a long range.
Furthermore, Sichuan poachers are rather using snares and traps than firearms. So really, nothing to worry about except for the animals.
. . . [T]hings are much more dangerous in Europe where during the hunting season lead and shot are flying around like mad. . . . Pingwu is a convenient stop off on the route back to Chengdu.