Sichuan Birding (4 Viewers)

Wawu Shan Resort !

There is also this:
http://www.designboom.com/architect...for-mountain-top-wawu-shan-resort-11-20-2013/

A lot of scrubby vegetation remains in some of these ‘pics’. Will the site end up being more ‘manicured’ than it appears in the CAD generated images ?

A possible plus: if the trees do survive, then eye-level views of e.g.
Sichuan Treecreeper will be on the cards.

Sid: what would you estimate is the percentage loss of habitat on the plateau, from the site plan ?

I can’t find a booking engine, yet; one may, however, be available on Chinese sites (?).

firstreesjohn said:

There is also this:
http://www.designboom.com/architect...for-mountain-top-wawu-shan-resort-11-20-2013/

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Wow,...!**^\\\ That's a decent prospective of what is going to face us at Wawu in the future! Thanks for the internet research!
In terms of Treecreepers or habitat loss, I don't think the hardware impact might be too serious - as they promised to build a 'sustainable' complex, and the architects don't seem to be just local farmers.
The real problem as far as I can say from my experience seems not to be the amount of habitat loss etc, but the steady 7/24 disturbance by even more screaming and littering tourists, and, THIS is the point, this development was build for those, and not for birdwatchers! Just look at the entertainment section on the map (golf car, skiing entertainment, and with Karaoke facilities certainly not missing).
It probably will become like the top area of Emei Shan: you still can find your birds after you managed to sneak off into a small fenced-off path which first leads across the dumped construction waste and then into the tourist-non-go area. Well, we will know better next year then, I'd say....

And, I don't expect any booking options available, before the park has officially opened.

Gretchen said:

Thanks Roland for a clear explanation and a map! Very nice to get a big view. An interesting question might be how similar the flora and fauna of the three ranges are since they aren't contiguous or linked.

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Sorry, I forgot to reply on that:

Over such a huge area with different climates, and topographical and geological features there certainly is a huge variation in flora and fauna. Some, often migratory, birds might be able to cover the entire area, other birds with less mobility might be found throughout as well but already tend to produce subspecies (e.g. Blood Pheasant) or even have passed the 'examination' for an own species (White-cheeked Nuthatch, Przewalski Nuthatch). Others stick to 'their' mountains. Typical example would be the triple set of Monal Pheasants.
For example Rhododendron in Western Sichuan differ from those in Yunnan and Gaoligong and even more from those in the Himalayas. Mammals with strong mobility (bears, goat-antelopes, snow leopard etc.) are able to cover huge parts of the Tibetan plateau, while others such as e.g. Pikas prefer their particular environment.

This could fill an entire book, but must be stunningly interesting, if one wants to find out why certain species are found throughout, while similar species maybe just found only in one single mountain range.

Cheers
R

sichuan jiujiu said:

The real problem as far as I can say from my experience seems not to be the amount of habitat loss etc, but the steady 7/24 disturbance by even more screaming and littering tourists, and, THIS is the point, this development was build for those, and not for birdwatchers! Just look at the entertainment section on the map (golf car, skiing entertainment, and with Karaoke facilities certainly not missing).
It probably will become like the top area of Emei Shan

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Thanks, Roland.

Yes, this is what I fear, too: noisy and unaware ‘sightseers’, in the worst sense.

I can also foresee a resident ‘nature expert’, guiding guests to gawp at the Red Pandas- and at a cost, both financial and environmental.

At Emei Shan, as you say, it was ‘emeinently’ possible to find a ‘quiet corner’ and we did. But we also had a lot of inadvertent flushing, by people just passing along the paths.

Finally, do you suppose the other facility (restaurant and accommodation) will survive ?

Sid, John - thanks, all very useful.

Your web site is great too, Sid.

Might have a question or two more in due course...
Andy.

firstreesjohn said:

There is also this:
http://www.designboom.com/architect...for-mountain-top-wawu-shan-resort-11-20-2013/

A lot of scrubby vegetation remains in some of these ‘pics’. Will the site end up being more ‘manicured’ than it appears in the CAD generated images ?

A possible plus: if the trees do survive, then eye-level views of e.g.
Sichuan Treecreeper will be on the cards.

Sid: what would you estimate is the percentage loss of habitat on the plateau, from the site plan ?

I can’t find a booking engine, yet; one may, however, be available on Chinese sites (?).

Click to expand...

You have done some serious digging John, which certainly says how much you loved this place.

Some "Baidu" search n weibo diggin said, tentative re-opening in October and accomodation starts 158 RMB/Person/nite for a room with delicious morning breakfast included, dorms @ 88RMB/Person/nite and all those "all- nite Karaoke", skiing , golf cart makeups and still no bookings as rightly pointed out by Roland.

I hope there is something left out.

I also noticed the site boasts of reducing carbon footprint n saving the pristine nature of the old trees - "fingers crossed"

thirudevaram said:

tentative re-opening in October and accomodation starts 158 RMB/Person/nite for a room with delicious morning breakfast included, dorms @ 88RMB/Person/nite

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That MUST be the 'old' place: those prices are way, way too low. I predict rates of more than 500 RMB for a standard room.

And the mention of the 'dorm' ! That sounds like the previous accommodation, near the cable-car station.

3 days mammaling at Ruoergai - we've had plenty of Tibetan Fox, a nice view of Wolf, a roadside male Tibetan Gazelle but, until tonight, a lot of cold scanning and lamping had brought zero Pallas's Cat. Our luck changed at around 7pm with around 20 minutes of lamp viewing, in a quarry area around 7km before Flower Lake. Like our Oct/Nov sightings in 2012 - at Ruoergai the cat seems to prefer areas of undulating cover rather than flat grassland where the Foxes and Wolves are most often viewed.
During the day we got around to the back side of Flower Lake (opposite side to the road and all the tourist access) - here there are immense areas Pika - overhead and perched on the ground at least 50 Steppe Eagle and 2 young and 1 fully adult White-tailed Sea Eagle.
We've also seen 4 Common Starling - a single in the Mengbi area and 3 in a flock of White-cheeked at Hongyuan - the last of the Black-necked Cranes are also here - around 10 birds.

Reading with interest the speculation on Wawu - my experience of computer generated pictures of architectural projects and the finished product are that, here in China, they very often differ.
My biggest worry is what has happened to the bamboo, Parrotbill, area around Mandarin Duck Ponds - when I was up there just before the park was closed, areas of bamboo had already been cut and there were marker pegs in others. Remember the developers are restricted in cutting down trees - but the bamboo probably has little protection.

Dear all!
Just made a few phone calls to find out about the Labahe situation next year. Nevertheless I got a straight answer: They are still building and if everything goes smoothly the park will re-open next year in OCTOBER at the earliest. Kind of depressing...
roland

Less depressing was a (non-rainy) day on the foothills just behind Dujiangyan, 20minutes by bicycle. Scaly-breasted and Pygmy Wren-babbler were in such a high density as I have never seen before. Literally behind each bend you could hear a Scaly-breasted's song. Even a few days ago I found one in the backyard of my daughters' school. Interestingly that they are singing so much in their wintering quarters.

I have recorded a call which seems to be a special alarm call of the Scaly-breasted Wren-babbler, never heard it before. Couldn't see the bird calling, but every time I played it back that Wren-babbler was just sitting close by and answered with either its song or its typical call.
Does anybody have another idea??? I've attached the recording.

Apart from the Wren-babblers there were quite lots of Scimitar-babblers (both streak-throated and black-streaked) as well as big flocks of Chestnut-faced Warblers, Sand Martins and to my surprise a single female Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush.

Yer, unfortunately that's news I got - Labahe is scheduled for October 2015, and now, after a lot of enquiries, Wawu will definitely not be open next year and when it does, in 2016, it's unlikely that incredible hotel will be also - problems with a missing person and missing money - I'll leave it at that! I have the full story, but I'm not putting it in the public domain!

Pallas's Cat is quickly proving to be my Chinese bogey mammal - well done Sid!

James

Roland,

I recall you mentioning Bar-winged wb at Tangjiahe... If I am not mistaken, that ought to be taxon halsueti, which I believe there are no or extremely few records of in recent times. Rumours also indicate it may be a separate good species... Does anyone else have any info on this...?

A curious
Jocko

[ QUOTE=sichuan jiujiu;3113808]Less depressing was a (non-rainy) day on the foothills just behind Dujiangyan, 20minutes by bicycle. Scaly-breasted and Pygmy Wren-babbler were in such a high density as I have never seen before. Literally behind each bend you could hear a Scaly-breasted's song. Even a few days ago I found one in the backyard of my daughters' school. Interestingly that they are singing so much in their wintering quarters.

I have recorded a call which seems to be a special alarm call of the Scaly-breasted Wren-babbler, never heard it before. Couldn't see the bird calling, but every time I played it back that Wren-babbler was just sitting close by and answered with either its song or its typical call.
Does anybody have another idea??? I've attached the recording.

Apart from the Wren-babblers there were quite lots of Scimitar-babblers (both streak-throated and black-streaked) as well as big flocks of Chestnut-faced Warblers, Sand Martins and to my surprise a single female Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush.[/QUOTE]

jlhammar said:

I recall you mentioning Bar-winged wb at Tangjiahe... If I am not mistaken, that ought to be taxon halsueti, ......

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Hi Jocko,
Yeah, presumably it's ss halsueti.
I can't say anything about the bird's voice as it didn't call at all.
It also did not react in any responsive way to the calls of the sherriffi taxon (unfortunately the only one I have).
But it certainly is there, I saw it two times at different locations and seasons.
Obviously it's time to get a proper recording...

Cheers
roland

Pallas's Cat is quickly proving to be my Chinese bogey mammal - well done Sid!

Click to expand...

have to revise the ID of our cat - although our animal appeared to have a squashed in 'bagpuss' type of face, which convinced me we were watching Pallas's - it also had larger sticking up ears, that are not characteristic of Pallas's Cat. Although night-time, and close to extreme of the lamp's illumination, Joanna Dale managed to get a very grainy video - it mainly illustrated the animal's eye-shine, but the shape of the cat was also evident. The pictures bellow are grabs from the video - in the second pic I've made a crop and above the original image of the cat, I've inserted a copy where the shape, with the ears are outlined in red. Ear shape is certainly very different from the small rounded ears expected in Pallas's - see my August Qinghai picture here - http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=3059808&postcount=942
This Cat is undoubtedly Chinese Desert Cat (Felis bieti) - Roland had a brief view of one in very similar habitat, just a few km down the road, this spring. Although the photographic evidence is hardly optimum - around 20 minutes of observation, that included scoped views, was of higher optical quality.
I believe, due to greater numbers of livestock on the grassland, which brings about habitat change and more human and dog disturbance, that Pallas's Cat must be getting more difficult to find in the Ruoergai area - but like most other cats, even when numerous, they can be darn difficult to find. The Desert Cat being nocturnal (Pallas's more diurnal) and seemingly favouring locations that are less prone to disturbance - may be better suited to surviving modern changes on the grassland
Thanks Jo for the video (where a nameless idiot bird guide is recorded saying that's 1000% Pallas's Cat - blush) - and for querying my original ID.

One bird species that may benefit from a bit of human habitat disturbance is Ibisbill - this species is now a regular find on the river between Hongyuan and Maerkang. This stretch of water has been well dug for stone, gravel and sand - the stony aftermath of this work appearing to suite Ibisbill quite well. The picture is of the habitat where we got our Ibisbill during the November trip.

Final pic is of our Loncanggou Red Panda - horrible conditions, grey and wet with mist constantly blowing in and out. A very soggy Panda!!!

Hey Jocko - on this last trip heard Bar-winged WB at Tangjiahe - just 200m past the hotel in the direction of the entrance gate - but only once and didn't get it out. Sounded just like the call I downloaded from Xeno Canto - but no idea of ssp and the Xeno Canto recording certainly wasn't of a Sichuan bird.
At Tangjiahe, each night, before and after our mammal drives, we had to run the gauntlet of Takin feeding on the flower-bed at the entrance to the hotel. They even came up the luggage unloading ramp just outside the main doors - one day I expect to see one at reception.

Tomorrow off to Wolong/Balang for 3 days - this will be a cold.

Wondered when you would get around to posting about our cat Sid. I have been busily writing up my full trip report which will be posted in the vacation section in due course once video and images have been collated. hope you and family are well and that you've had time for a bit of r&r before your next trip begins!

All the best,

Jo.

Hi Jo,
in our hotel at Wolong at the moment - just learned that the Woman who runs this place had her father killed by a Takin two years ago!!!! Although those Tangjiahe Hotel Takin seemed pretty docile, I'm glad we kept a decent distance.

This time the night drives have given Sambar after Sambar - with just a few Goral and a single Tufted Deer. Also got another Glover's Pika, in the same dry wall, on the Rilong side of the pass.
We have Saker on this trip - with regard to mammal Id he's following well in the footsteps of his dad. Each deer and Goral he's looked at - and we've had a telescope set up at 3yo height for him - he's excitedly exclaimed - 'rabbit.' No amount of augmentation will persuade him otherwise.

The Monal site was clear of cloud around 10.00 and we got a flyover pair and another calling bird on the upper slope. A juv. Steppe Eagle was also in the vicinity.

all the best
Sid

Hmm, Takin for hire eh? Wasn't aware they were into that line of work. Regardind Saker, Lol! Guess you will have to work on his ID skills (or get Maggie to!). It's a pity about the mist scuppering our chance of monal, but the mammals made up for that.

Today, from early morning, it was 100% clear at the Monal site - but not a sniff of Monal, White-eared Pheasant or any other Chicken!!!!!
However, one bird that we've not seem on any this year's autumn/early winter trips, did show up. Late this evening we had a flock of around 30 Grandala - sitting on the high electricity cables that go down the Rilong side of Balang Pass - they were flying into Buckthorn bushes to feed on the berries.
As for Saker - he's on a learning curve. Today he got very excited when he ID'ed two camels. They turned out to be Yak - but this time, after listening to Meggie (and not me) he quickly accepted his mistake.

china guy said:

Today, from early morning, it was 100% clear at the Monal site - but not a sniff of Monal, White-eared Pheasant or any other Chicken!!!!!
However, one bird that we've not seem on any this year's autumn/early winter trips, did show up. Late this evening we had a flock of around 30 Grandala - sitting on the high electricity cables that go down the Rilong side of Balang Pass - they were flying into Buckthorn bushes to feed on the berries.
As for Saker - he's on a learning curve. Today he got very excited when he ID'ed two camels. They turned out to be Yak - but this time, after listening to Meggie (and not me) he quickly accepted his mistake.

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Mother knows best. o

Totally gripped about the Monals.

Hi Jeff - here's a bit more to grip you, recording, from a couple of days back, of a calling Chinese Monal. The Monal is the fluty whistle - while the other call is Giant Laugher

And yes Mum does know best - the pic is of the two of them up Balang Shan - looks like he's pointing out a camel or a rabbit.

All the best
Sid