Sichuan Birding (8 Viewers)

Excellent report! I'm headed there this weekend with some students for 4 days.
Tom

Dahe said:

Golden snub-nosed monkeys are up there as one of the species I'd most like to see. If that's the kind of location they are typically found then they really will be difficult to spot, especially if they are usually under cover.

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Actually, winter is the season when they come even lower and show along the road or close to villages. In some places local people feed them in winter (e.g. BaiHe NR). Chances are quite high then.

Ok, so winter's the best time to see them close up then, as I guess it must be for many of the mammals. Still it must be thrilling to see snub-nosed going about their business in some wild spot high up in the mountains!

Just back from latest mammal 9 day trip - in the terrific company of well known Brit mammalers, Phil Telfer and Steve Morgan.
Tangjiahe, Ruoergai and Baihe - 28 species in the bag - also included Golden Snub-nosed Monkey, 5 scoped at distance, for over 30 mins, at Baihe (reserve between Jiuzhaigou Park and Jiuzhaigou County Town) - and our main target animal Chinese Mountain Cat - one animal seen and photographed very well on two separate nights. Forest Musk Deer and Chinese Ferret Badger were two notable sightings at Tangjiahe

here's the list

Tangjiahe - T
Ruoergai – R
Baxi – BX
Baihe - BA

1. Plateau Pika – R
2. Confucian Niviventer – T - white bellied rodents, that matched very nicely to alternative (but far less charming) name of this species, White-bellied Rat, commonly seen during night runs
3. Woolly Hare – R
4. Chinese Ferret Badger - T - one animal, one night
5. Hog Badger – T
6. Siberian Weasel – one dead animal, road kill - pass between Jiuzhaigou and Pingwu
7. Malayan Porcupine – T - 3 animals, two nights
8. Tibetan Fox - R
9. Red Fox – R
10. Tibetan Wolf - R
11. Himalayan Palm Civet - T
12. Leopard Cat – T
13. Chinese Mountain Cat – R – one animal found on two nights
14. Wild Boar
15. Tibetan Gazelle - R
16. Reeve's Muntjac - T
17. Tufted Deer – T, BX
18. Forest Musk Deer – T – two animals one night
19. Siberian Roe - BX
20. Sika Deer - BX
21. Chinese Goral – T
22. Chinese Serow – T, BX
23. Takin - T
24. Per David's Rock Squirrel - T
25. Swinhoe,s Striped Squirrel - pass between Jiuzhaigou and Pingwu
26. Perny's Long-nosed Squirrel – road between Tangjiahe and Pingwu Town
27. Tibetan Macaque - T
28. Golden Snub-nosed Monkey – BA – 5 animals scoped at distance, watched feeding for 30 mins

We were very fortunate to get the GSN Monkey at Baihe - they were feeding on bare willow trees, and appeared to be stripping branches for buds. After the animals moved into areas of foliage they were impossible to see.
Our Mountain Cat was very obliging - sat nicely and, after getting used to our presence, allowed some pretty close inspection - this 'guy' had some nice ear-tufts. I hope that this confident behaviour means that they don't suffer too much human persecution. We found it sitting just meters away from where I've twice had Pallas's Cat (last sighting beginning of October) - but this cat was not to be on this trip.
Perhaps my animal of the trip was the Chinese Ferret Badger - at first it looked more like a kitten as it bounded down the road - luckily it stopped and turned around, a real stunner.

Lots of good laughs - James; Phil and Steve told me the story of sitting up each night, for a week or so, on bamboo platforms in their unlucky attempt after Javan Rhino - they still bear the psychological scars!!!!!!

Not too many birds - Black-necked Cranes still present on Ruoergai and the Steppe Eagles have moved in. Outside Tangjiahe - in our hunt for Perny's LN Squirrel - we bumped into both Barred and White-throated Laughingthrush and heard Golden Pheasant. Crested Kingfisher still present in the park and saw Collared Crow on the road that links Pingwu with Haunglong (X120). Phil got Golden Parrotbill in Tangjiahe

Pictures - there will soon be more pictures from the trip - but at the moment all I've got to offer is the Siberian Weasel roadkill - not for sensitive souls, but this animal isn't commonly recorded in Sichuan

Great trip! I really enjoyed the report as birding is an outgrowth of a general love of nature. More wild mammals than I've seen in all my time in China"s northeast. Spent a summer in eastern Helongjiang where there were tigers, bears and wolves, but never actually saw any myself.

Hi Owen - agree with you, and in fact would go even further in saying that our love of fellow man should also be considered as an outgrowth of a general love of nature - after all were all part of a ecological system that present technology has no chance in taming. Short-sighted environmental destruction is pretty much akin to crapping on everyone's head - hardly the acts of a loving, caring society.
however what I can't agree with is the way you've gone and stolen 'old fat man.' See Dev had a few words with you on this in your thread - but I'm the original old fat guy here - hands off!!!!

On the subject of environmental destruction, here's a nasty photograph - a bear snare found by Roland, during October, at Longcanggou. Looks like a lot of shenanigans are going on at this place at the moment - and with no affective nature protection a free for all for poachers!!!!!
The snare has been reported.

That's shocking! You hear that poaching is a problem but actually seeing photographic evidence really hammers it home. Hope the authorities take this seriously and have the power to do something about it.

Hi Dahe - I think the most shocking are the users of the bear parts. The most valuable items being paws, bile, and bones that command large enough prices to tempt many poor locals into trying their hand at a bit of poaching, while its only the wealthier who are able to buy the products. Luckily there seems an ongoing generation change in China - public attitudes are changing towards the way the environment and wildlife is being treated.
Here's an English version of an advert screened in China - NBA basketball star Yao Ming, a big hero for many Chinese kids, making a plea for Sharks -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJG7RaLX-DM
Eventually this kind of attitude will be the norm.

Some good local birding, just around where I'm living in Dujianyang.
Highlights -
a nice flock of Buffy Laughingthrush, around 50, on the lower slopes of the Qingcheng Mountains that border the town
At same place lots of Grey-winged Blackbirds feeding on persimmon fruit - also included a male Chestnut-bellied Rockthrush and Black-headed Sibia.
In neighboring farmland got a single male Tistram's Bunting. Lots of calling Chinese Wren Babbler.
Yesterday birding at a dammed part of the Minjiang River that runs through the town - a lot of ducks, Mallard, Spotbill, Gadwall, Common Teal, Pintail and 3 drake Mandarin - while a Wallcreeper was flitting along a stony shoreline. Farmland scrub held a flock of around 30 Golden-breasted Fulvetta - way bellow the normal mountainside bamboo where we usually see this species.

Here's a combined list from the two outings -
1. Chinese Bamboo-Partridge
2. Common Pheasant
3. Mallard
4. Spot-billed Duck
5. Pintail
6. Gadwall
7. Common Teal
8. Mandarin Duck
9. Grey-headed Woodpecker
10. Crested Goshawk
11. Eastern Buzzard
12. Eurasian Kestrel
13. Little Grebe
14. Great Crested Grebe
15. Great Cormorant
16. Little Egret
17. Eurasian Jay
18. Red-billed Blue Magpie
19. Blue Whistling Thrush
20. Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush
21. Grey-winged Blackbird
22. Blue-fronted Redstart
23. White-crowned Forktail
24. Wallcreeper
25. Japanese Tit
26. Green-backed Tit
27. Yellow-browed Tit
28. Collared Finchbill
29. Light-vented Bulbul
30. Brownish-flanked Bush-Warbler
31. Pallas’s Leaf Warbler
32. Rufous-faced Warbler
33. White-browed Laughingthrush
34. Buffy Laughingthrush
35. Black-streaked Scimitar Babbler
36. Chinese Wren-Babbler
37. Red-billed Leiothrix
38. Rufous-capped Babbler
39. Black-headed Sibia
40. David's Fulvetta
41. Golden-breasted Fulvetta
42. Vinous-throated Parrotbill
43. Flame-breasted Flowerpecker
44. Common Rosefinch
45. Vinaceous Rosefinch
46. Tristram’s Bunting

And last but not least - one of Phil Telfer's brilliant Chinese Mountain Cat pictures from the last mammal trip

Speak of the devil, i was just discussing with Jonathan about his sighting of the Black bear in Yunnan and my first question was how are they still doing good while every village is equipped with Crossbows.
Like Sid said, many acclaimed celebrities along with Yao Ming are raising the awareness against all these ridiculous wild cuisines n traditional medicines.
Being in Shanghai for four years, i have hardly come across restaurants selling Shark fin soup. While, the China town restaurants in Bangkok is altogether a different story with each and every one of them is boasting of delicious shark fin soup and swallow nest jelly.

Seven years back as a student I attended a meal provided by some Chinese environmental scientists for a delegation of British environmental scientists and you can imagine how surprised and awkward the Brits felt when shark fin soup was served! Fortunately the hosts weren’t offended when the soup was politely declined or discretely discarded. In the last couple of years I don’t think I’ve been to a meal where shark fin soup was served so attitudes do seem to be changing.

Great Chinese Mountain Cat photo. That thick fur makes its head look almost foxlike.

Interesting to read what birds can be seen at low elevations this time of year, a fair number of which I’m still to see. Here’s a lowland bird I saw June at about 800masl which I wasn’t able to identify. I’m guessing that a juvenile Japanese White-eye might look like this, but to my non-expert eye the bill looks too delicate. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Ed

Looks to me like a Rufous-faced Warbler. In winter the stripes on the throat are not very distinctive, and so are the crown-stripes. Especially on juveniles.

Thanks Roland. Here's another photo, blurred again, but offers a different angle.

I remember the bird was in a small multispecies flock (or at least feeding in close proximity) with Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher. One of those nice moments when you find yourself in the middle of a hotspot of small bird activity, when they don't seem to mind your presence.

So with it being June when I saw it perhaps it was a freshly fledged Rufous-faced Warbler. I hope I can see an adult next summer as they look very showy and easy to ID for a warbler!

Tangjiahe, Sichuan Trip Report from late November 2015

Hi all, attached is a trip report from Tangjiahe last week. I'm posting it here with Sid's permission. Thanks to Sid for his help and this great thread on Sichuan. Tangjiahe is a stunning place!

Tom

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas - here's a yuletide picture of Saker trampling through Tangjiahe snow.
We were up there 10 days ago, and like Tom and his class got to visit Bai Xiong Ping Research Station. Here the researchers gave us a look at the latest harvest of camera trap pics - and what did we see among the first photos, none other than Tom walking up the track!!!!

Lots of nice Bamboo in this area - but our snowy visit only gave Black-faced and Barred Laughingthrush. Second picture is birding in the snow - our guests Prof. Wendy Wright and Dr. Steb Fisher together with the heard of research station, Diao Kunpeng.
The day before we saw a couple of Tawny Fish Owl flying down the river - where there was only a pair of White-tailed Eagle

all the best
Sid

Merry Christmas to everybody from me as well!

Just started a new thread in birdforum on Yunnan birds. During many years traveling through the adjacent Province Yunnan I have had fabulous chances to learn about Yunnan's local as well as migratory birds, to watch and to enjoy them, to understand their environment and habitat, and to put them into a connection with Sichuan - habitat change, migration etc.
In order to share sightings as well as information about Yunnan, I have thought it's worth having this in a separate thread.

All the best!
Roland

Sid, I hope it was my good side on camera (I only have one side that's half good...). Very cool to see Tangjiahe in snow. Diao Kunpeng is always keen and must have the best camera trap picture show in the country!

Heading out today for some late afternoon mountain birding. High of -9 tonight.

Tom

Eventually sun's coming out and these days we got full moon nights with temperatures dropping to around zero.
Dujiangyan is so cloudy and rainy throughout the entire year that it really is some mind freeing experience to have three sunny days in a sequence!
Furthermore it encourages me to do an hour birding or two every morning.
A pair or Great Barbets have been calling daily since a week or so. Today I finally could shoot a picture, although light's not brilliant.
And the other picture is a Eurasian Jay, ssp. sinensis - note the almost round black cheek spot and the missing white on the wing and throat.

Bar-tailed Godwit in Sichuan

On September 11, 2015 my wife and I were birding with Sid Francis and found a Bar-tailed Godwit on the Jinjiang River at Century City. I can find no mention of this species occurring in Sichuan Province. Are there any previous records?

Hi Dan, happy new year, and sorry for the delay in replying to your query - I just returned home this evening from a bird survey of farmland birds in the Sichuan Basin. That trip also included two top Sichuan birders - Wu Jiawei and Xiao-nong Yang, who have both had single Sichuan sightings of Bar-tailed Godwit - one from Ruoergai (Flower Lake) the other Duck River at Guanghan. The sparsity of recordings indicate that it's an uncommon passage migrant.

On our survey we didn't have any luck in finding another Godwit - most exciting were some largish flocks of House Sparrow, which seems to be an increasing winter visitor into Sichuan and a few Common Starlings

Happy Chinese New Year!!!!

Firstly; great to report the publishing (first edition already sold out) of a new form of bird field-guide - by Sichuan bird guide Xiao-nong Yang in collaboration with the Sichuan Wildlife Research and Protection Station.
This book has illustrated the birds of Sichuan in an ingenious and amusing cartoon form that attracts the attention of children and others who would never look at a bird book. A brilliant idea in a country that needs to find every way of promoting it's wildlife resources and the need to protect them.
I've attached three plates from the edition I have at home - wetland birds - some really great art work!!!!

Secondly; a back-track to a post from April 2014 by Dahe - http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=2969522&postcount=846
Hi Ed - If that Luoji Shan is the one at Xichang, that Fire-tailed Sunbird is the first free-flying record - previously, one caged caught in Sichuan record for the Duijiangyan area - if possible send me more date details, through my email, we can publish the record in your name.

Just had a busy period of travel - a trip around the Dongzhai, Poyang, Emei Feng, Wuyuan areas. Despite the snow, got all our major birds - but most interesting, on a Sichuan perspective, was the blossoming of new business initiatives with regard to birding - hides in the Dongzhai area for viewing and photographing Reeve's Pheasant and during the summer, Fairy Pitta. We used the hide during a Saturday afternoon, with 14 local photographers. 200RMB/head - 9 male Reeve's. Not my 'cup of tea' as far as birding goes, but seemingly a lucrative and sustainable rural industry that encourages the protection of birds and eco-resources - something that could be well copied in Sichuan