Chengdu Bird guiding – [email protected] - Chengdu, Sichuan, the gateway to Tibet - to see more travel pics of Sichuan go to my travel blog at - http://chengdutravel.blogspot.com/
To see more of our birding pics go to - http://sichuanbirds.blogspot.com/
Zitting Cisticola - now that spring is near, we'll be seeing a lot more of this small warbler flitting away in the long grasses and rice paddies.
As my family back home, in the UK, freezes to death in those blizzards - out here, a week or so after the Chinese new year's spring festival - spring is on the march. Our temperatures are slowly rising, the frogs have started to sing, I saw toad spawn last week, the bats are out again and today we got migrating Barn Swallows taking a rest on our roof. Now is that time when we have a good mix of species heading 3 ways - north, south and upwards towards the higher elevations.
A female Daurian Redstart - during the winter this is one of the birds found in our garden
It won't be long before breeding starts - already today I noticed a White Wagtail with nest material in its beak and the White-vented Bulbuls, that are so common around here, have started to get awful noisy.
Spotted Laughingthrush - this bird will be starting to head upwards when things get a little warmer. We got this bird, a couple of weeks back, at Laba He.
Going to the mountains, you'll still be able to find those flocks of altitude migrants down in the valleys and lower elevations. But as the growing temps and daylight hours starts to work on them birdy gonads - those flocks start to get more active, audible and visible - this is a good period to catch some excellent ticks!
Red Panda prints in the snow - if you ever get to see these animals in zoo look at the way they walk, with those back paws pointing inwards - doing the typical panda shuffle. these pics are again a couple of weeks old and taken at Laba He.
Up high - we can still get snow right on until May (in fact any time on the very highest passes) - the seasons of course start latter up here. But that can make Sichuan birding such fun - as you travel up from summer to spring and right at the top hit a little taste of winter.
To see more of our birding pics go to - http://sichuanbirds.blogspot.com/
Zitting Cisticola - now that spring is near, we'll be seeing a lot more of this small warbler flitting away in the long grasses and rice paddies.
As my family back home, in the UK, freezes to death in those blizzards - out here, a week or so after the Chinese new year's spring festival - spring is on the march. Our temperatures are slowly rising, the frogs have started to sing, I saw toad spawn last week, the bats are out again and today we got migrating Barn Swallows taking a rest on our roof. Now is that time when we have a good mix of species heading 3 ways - north, south and upwards towards the higher elevations.
A female Daurian Redstart - during the winter this is one of the birds found in our garden
It won't be long before breeding starts - already today I noticed a White Wagtail with nest material in its beak and the White-vented Bulbuls, that are so common around here, have started to get awful noisy.
Spotted Laughingthrush - this bird will be starting to head upwards when things get a little warmer. We got this bird, a couple of weeks back, at Laba He.
Going to the mountains, you'll still be able to find those flocks of altitude migrants down in the valleys and lower elevations. But as the growing temps and daylight hours starts to work on them birdy gonads - those flocks start to get more active, audible and visible - this is a good period to catch some excellent ticks!
Red Panda prints in the snow - if you ever get to see these animals in zoo look at the way they walk, with those back paws pointing inwards - doing the typical panda shuffle. these pics are again a couple of weeks old and taken at Laba He.
Up high - we can still get snow right on until May (in fact any time on the very highest passes) - the seasons of course start latter up here. But that can make Sichuan birding such fun - as you travel up from summer to spring and right at the top hit a little taste of winter.
