Hi Ron - the pic of the Horned lark is interesting. We found the bird in N Gansu on the southern edge of the Gobi - I reckon the ssp must be brandti
Unfortunately birding was rather sparse in the desert - but we did run into a fascinating, but largely unknown, mammal that has had a major impact on mankind; Great Gerbil. We found a colony - and, as the their name implies, they were a bit of a beast, haring around, digging the dessert for food, sand flying in every direction. However we were lucky in not making closer contact -
Black Death plague now blamed on giant gerbils, not rats
Rats, long believed to be the scourge that brought the Black Death to 14th-century Europe, may not be the disease-bearing scoundrels we thought they were. *
Scientists have shifted blame for the medieval pandemic responsible for millions of deaths to a new furry menace: giant gerbils from Asia.
Apparently Xinjiang is currently suffering a catastrophic infestation of this species.
Those Silver Oriole pictures from Qingcheng Shan are very exciting. I live just at the base of these mountains - I just wish I had more time during the peak seasons of May/June to bird the area. The habitat is a combination of maturing secondary forests and small pockets of primary species interspersed with plantation and orchard. Although the area still suffers from clearance for tourist projects and Kiwi fruit production the good mix of ever maturing native species must make this favorable place to find breeding Silver oriole. At the moment we only make brief stops here for Grey-winged Blackbird, which is an easy tick in the Lingyan area of Dujiangyan.
Only an hour and half from Chengdu airport, with lots more interesting birding, good hotels, clean air, Dujiangyan and Qingcheng, makes for an interesting alternative, to Chengdu, as first or last night destinations.
Luckily many areas of the Qincheng Mountains survived the worst of mainstream Chinese plantation policy which came to the fore in the late 90's.
Just the other day I got a mail from Dr Fangyuan Hua of Princeton Uni who both Roland and I have assisted in her Chinese bird surveys, that her paper on biodiversity in Sichuan plantations has now been published. it gives a lot of food for thought!
The press release can be found here -
http://wws.princeton.edu/faculty-research/research/item/opportunities-biodiversity-gains-under-world%E2%80%99s-largest-reforestation
Seeing the Forest for the Trees: World's Largest Reforestation Program Overlooks Wildlife
After years of environmental destruction, China has spent billions of dollars on the world's largest reforestation program, converting a combined area nearly the size of New York and Pennsylvania back to forest.
The government-backed effort, known as the Grain-for-Green Program, has transformed 28 million hectares (69.2 million acres) of cropland and barren scrubland back to forest in an effort to prevent erosion and alleviate rural poverty. While researchers around the world have studied the program, little attention has been paid to understanding how the program has affected biodiversity until now.
New research led by Princeton University and published in the journal Nature Communications finds that China's Grain-for-Green Program overwhelmingly plants monoculture forests and therefore falls dramatically short of restoring the biodiversity of China's native forests, which contain many tree species. In its current form, the program fails to benefit, protect and promote biodiversity.
The full paper can be download from
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160906/ncomms12717/full/ncomms12717.html
However one good conclusion from the project is that it gives an indication of a new emerging generation of Chinese environmentalists, who could guide the country on better and more effective ways of preserving China's incredible natural wealth.