Sichuan Birding (3 Viewers)

15 years back I heard a different story about Black Death - that it came from and remains endemic in marmots. Apparently when they are shot in Qinghai the hunter leaves the odd for 30-40 minutes so that the fleas which are the true vectors for the disease will leave in search of a new host. An early edition of the Lonely Planet guide talked of a tour group from Hong Kong becoming infected and all dying, and then being incinerated in situ to prevent any further spread.

At some stage the fleas must have transferred to rats - otherwise we'd have had swarms of giant gerbils galloping through the streets of Europe a few hundred years ago!

The Silver Oriole discovery is very exciting - a very thinly spread species - and the tragopan shots are superb!


Cheers
Mike

MKinHK said:

swarms of giant gerbils galloping through the streets of Europe

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That is a surreal and powerful image !

I just wish the authors of "1066 and all that" had known of this possibility, in the process creating one of their iconic cartoons.

Or Shakespeare: "A plague on all your gerbils". (Apologies to Master Will.)

Giant gerbil

A well cropped pic of the giant gerbil in the Badian Jaran desert.

MKinHK said:

we'd have had swarms of giant gerbils galloping through the streets of Europe

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Reminds me of:

..they breed in the sewers and eventually you get huge, evil-smelling flocks of soiled budgies flying out of peoples lavatories infringing their personal freedom. :-O

If the Giant Gerbil is the original instigator of the plague its also a key player in the development of medieval biological warfare!!!!!!
Biological Warfare at the 1346 Siege of Caffa
'This narrative contains some startling assertions: that the Mongol army hurled plague-infected cadavers into the besieged Crimean city of Caffa, thereby transmitting the disease to the inhabitants; and that fleeing survivors of the siege spread plague from Caffa to the Mediterranean Basin'

This really would be a great subject for a '1066 and all that' cartoon!!!!!

And plague from Himalayan Marmot has struck as recently as 2014
Town in Northwest China Sealed After Man Dies of Plague
'Provincial health officials said a man died in Yumen on July 16 from a confirmed case of pneumonic plague after having come in contact with a Himalayan marmot'

A discussion over a distribution spread of Silver Oriole is far gentler subject - but I wouldn't mind one or two of them flying out my toilet :-O

Having lived for a short time in a very rural part of the American Great Plains, where everything stings, bites, has poison or all three, and having done ranch work to make ends meet, I became aware that the plague is not just a thing of the past.

" Bubonic plague is transmitted by fleas. The bacteria — Yersinia pestis — thrives in prairie dog fleas. Once infected, prairie dogs contract a form of plague and die within days, usually deep within their burrows.

Other animals known to carry the disease are deer mice, rats, badgers, coyotes, bobcats and antelope.

Health officials say plague outbreaks among prairie dogs in northcentral Montana is nothing new,....." http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95887&page=1

Here are two bits of news -

Firstly an armchair tick for Sichuan birders -
Our Himalayan Rubythroat has been split to Chinese Rubythroat C. tschebaiewi
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jav.01015/abstract
'we propose that the white-tailed rubythroat Calliope pectoralis should be treated as two species, the Himalayan rubythroat C. pectoralis sensu stricto in the Tian Shan and Himalayan mountains, and the Chinese rubythroat C. tschebaiewi in the mountains of southwestern and north-central China'

The picture is of a bird Nigel Goodgame photographed, this June, on our Sichuan and Qinghai trip
http://mammalwatching.com/Palearctic/Otherreports/NG%20Qinghai%202016.pdf

The other bit of news comes from a phone call I had last night with Roland. At the moment he's guiding a pair of French photographers on a month long Qinghai trip. A few days ago they found Snow Leopard - 2 very brief sightings,unfortunately no photos,over a 4 day period.
What's particularly exciting is that these sightings mirror those of Terry Townshend - https://birdingbeijing.com/2016/08/20/snow-leopards/ - in that they were found in same area. Before the trip's end, Roland and co will be going back and trying for photos.
I've got trips all the way to Christmas, but hopefully I'll be able to get out there sometimes during the early months of 2017.

Way cool on the leopard sighting, Sid (and Roland)!

And I'll take an armchair tick, especially for such a gorgeous bird.

Chinese rubythroat

Just looked back at my pics of this fabulous bird - couldn't resist a post!

Beautiful photos!

Last weekend I decided to escape the cold, damp and smoggy air around Chengdu and spent three days in Liang Shan Prefecture. I birded one morning at the northern tip of Qiong Hai Lake in Xichang and 1.5 days in some good forests ca. 70km south of Xichang. It was quite a birdy area, and I was hopeful to find a trace of Biet's Laughingthrush. Unfortunately this didn't happen. Instead, the highlight was a White-bellied Woodpecker roaming through some old Yunnan Pine stands and which was closely followed by a bunch of Yunnan Nuthatches.

Here's the complete list:
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker
White-bellied Woodpecker
Himalayan Owl
White-throated Kingfisher
Common Kingfisher
Oriental Turtle Dove
White-breasted Waterhen
Common Moorhen
Common Coot
Green Sandpiper
Eastern Buzzard (Japonicus)
Golden Eagle
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Great Cormorant
Little Egret
Chinese Pond Heron
Long-tailed Shrike
Eurasian Jay
Large-billed Crow
Red-billed Blue Magpie
Ashy Drongo
Long-tailed Minivet
White-throated Fantail
Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush
Himalayan Bluetail
Daurian Redstart
Blue-fronted Redstart
White-capped Water Redstart
Plumbeous Water Redstart
Oriental Magpie Robin
Siberian Stone Chat
Red-billed Starling
White-cheeked Starling
Crested Myna
Yunnan Nuthatch
Chestnut-vented Nuthatch
Bar-tailed Treecreeper
Hodgson's Treecreeper
Coal Tit
Japanese Tit
Green-backed Tit
Black-throated Tit
Black-browed Tit
Grey Crested Tit
Barn Swallow
Sooty-headed Bulbul
Chinese Bulbul
Brown-breasted Bulbul
Plain Prinia
Yellow-bellied Bush Warbler
Dusky Warbler
Yellow-streaked Warbler
Pallas' Leaf Warbler
Ashy-throated Warbler
Buff-barred Warbler
Goldcrest
White-browed Laughingthrush
Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler
Black-streaked Scimitar Babbler
Eurasian Wren
Rufous-capped Babbler
Red-billed Leiothrix
Rusty-capped Fulvetta
Yunnan Fulvetta (F. fratercula)
Spectacled Fulvetta
Black-headed Sibia
Ashy-throated Parrotbill
Vineous-throated Parrotbill
Brown-winged Parrotbill
Oriental White-eye
Tree Sparrow
Russet Sparrow
White Wagtail
Olive-backed Pipit
Rufous-breasted Accentor
Black-headed Greenfinch
Little Bunting
Godlewski Bunting
Elegant Bunting

Got a question for botany freaks. On my last trip to Liangshan (see above) I have come across a fruit tree that nobody could identify so far. The fruits are 2-3cm in diameter look and taste like ShanZha / Chinese Hawthorn, but are not! The leaves are different and the pit is a single black stone of maybe 5mm diameter, slightly cone-shaped. (Made three full glasses of marmalade from it!)

Any suggestions would be gratefully welcomed.

thx
Roland

Roland

This shrub must be within the Rosaceae surely: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosaceae

..but it is a huge group and includes all the Apples, Hawthorns and Cotoneasters. I don't recognise it from my European experience (native and introductions)

cheers, alan

Hi Alan!
Thanks for your thoughts! I will continue with my investigations!

Bthw, in terms of Tragopan and Labahe, I've been there last weekend - on pheasant business - and T's Tragopan has been seen there a couple of times, however it wasn't at the previous secure stakeout. This one doesn't seem to exit anymore. Another site where I used to see it frequently has been unaltered. Guessing there's no reason why it shouldn't be there anymore. However, I wasn't lucky with finding one this time. Lady Amherst's instead was common!

The park is supposed to be open from now on, without any surprises hopefully. Roadworks have been finished and most of the buildings etc are completed as well.
The only bigger project that obviously still needs another year or two is the cable car that runs from 2600m up to 3500masl. The Red Panda below is certainly looking forward to its opening...

.....for it can enjoy the view from over the clouds much easier!

Forgot to say that there were big flocks of Parrotbills roaming through the iced bamboo:
Three-toed (1x20)
Brown (3x20)
Fulveous (1x50)
Great (2x5 or 6)
apart from nice birds such as Pere Davids Tit, Black-browed Tit and huge flocks of Black-faced Laughingthrush (up to 50 in each flock)

Always great to see a Red Panda.

It will be nice when and if things settle down at Labahe.

Especially when the cable car is finished. Personally not being a friend of cable cars, but this one makes the previously inaccessible above-2500m-range accessible for birdwatching... and I am expecting quite a few new good discoveries in perfect habitat: brilliant mixed forest with endless and dense bamboo undergrowth.
Also on top of the cable car I got a close-up contact with a dozen of Blue Sheep. Looking forward to the warmer season!

sichuan jiujiu said:

Got a question for botany freaks. On my last trip to Liangshan (see above) I have come across a fruit tree that nobody could identify so far. The fruits are 2-3cm in diameter look and taste like ShanZha / Chinese Hawthorn, but are not! The leaves are different and the pit is a single black stone of maybe 5mm diameter, slightly cone-shaped. (Made three full glasses of marmalade from it!)

Any suggestions would be gratefully welcomed.

thx
Roland

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I mean, I'm only a biologist not a chef but isn't it wisest to identify your jam ingredients before making the edible stuff Roland? #Livin'OnTheEdge...

B

McMadd said:

I mean, I'm only a biologist not a chef but isn't it wisest to identify your jam ingredients before making the edible stuff Roland? #Livin'OnTheEdge...

B

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Neither am I, but it was my immediate thought also. I've spent enough time out in the woods to know that there are things out there that look really good and that wild animals eat but which are poisonous. The Choke Cherry (Prunus virginiana L.) for instance, wild in the eastern US, is much like you described and eaten by deer and bears, but the leaves, stems and the pit of the bright red and tempting fruit are all poisonous. Something like only 100 grams of anything but the fruit pulp can be fatal. Good idea to identify it first. :t: