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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Sichuan Birding (3 Viewers)

Hi James - thanks for the Pika ID info - we'd love it if you sent us the PM. Our last guests were talking about trapping - so we were thinking of looking into the question of traps when we head back to the UK this winter. However in respect to winter trapping - although that Pika could probably survive, if some bedding was provided, a few hours in the sub-zero temps within a trap - I'm afraid smaller mammals that need to be in constant movement to maintain survivable body-temps would likely be recovered as rather stiff and icy specimens - especially if the traps were set-up on an overnight basis. Any of our trapping and measuring activity will wait until warmer periods of the year.

And yes that Gansu Pika of course should be labeled as a possible rather than a positive - and with more research I'm sure that list of probables could be growing.

My bird list is very doable for folk who live in Sichuan - if there was the network of birders giving bird alerts as there are in other parts of the world - them I'm sure 500 would be a real tickers target.

Looking through that list we just added two more forgotten species - Northern Lapwing and real juicer of a tick - our Solitary Snipe from this spring.

There are quite a few birds missing - another Snipe - nobody got up early enough for Wood Snipe this year. In the Leaf Warbler division we don't have a truly positive ID of Kloss's or Gansu Leaf and should have made a more definite ID on at least one more of Seicerus warbler species - and lets not mention the likes of Chestnut-crowned and Grey-sided Bush Warbler. We blanked out on Shortwings (that is if you don't take White-bellied Redstart/Chinese Shortwing into account) - even though we visited one location this year after Gould's. Then there are the enigmatic ticks - no Sichuan Hill Partridge trip this year (also with the lure of Silver Oriole in that area) - but, when we get the time, we've got ideas about sites that are outside the main Loajunshan area - Rusty-throated Parrotbill at Tangjiahe (we were told that Park staff staked out, for 5 days, the area where this bird was first photographed after if disappeared from JZ, without getting anything) and the elusive Chalice for China birders - Blackthroat (I see Jesper H got one on the last trip to Yunnan). Down South, especially the more tropical SW - holds some good stuff we haven't got on our list - some of it in the form of easily found like - White-throated kingfisher, Sooty-headed and Red-whiskered Bulbul, Yellow-bellied Fantail and far easier to find Chesnut-tailed Minla (we got all of these birds, and far more, on the wrong side of the border - Yunnan - this year) - but down there also lies some real goodies like Brown-winged Parrotbill and Biet's Laugher. And Ducks - well we still need that Scaly-sided Merganser (they should sometimes show up here) and of course one rare but annual definite - Baer's Pochard.
Lot of birds there, and of course plenty of other possibilities - which of course makes Sichuan birding such a great sport!!!!!!

Here are some more pics -
pic 1 - Collared Crow - a pretty local species in Sichuan, you can find it in the Tangjiahe area.

pic 2 - a horrible pic of a bird that gave us a horrible time this summer. For all my calls, Przewalski's Nuthatch just wouldn't do the decent things and show this spring/summer (we were starting to imagine their extermination) - and this last week - flocks of them were violating poor conifer cones as if they were taking part in a scene from The Birds!!!!!

Pic 3 - we're getting more mammal interested guests - so we're starting to put more effort in finding the furries. This is a Masked Palm Civet - if you stake out a rubbish dump at night, about the easiest large furry you can find. At Wangland we fed these for a couple of days on dried fish - which allowed us to get close enough for a pic. The cook at the reserve told us that these and Leopard Cat are sometimes inside kitchen when he opens up for breakfasts.
Another good story we heard was from Baxi - on the road (this is the small mountain pass - not the new main road), that eventually leads to JZ - School children in 97 reported seeing a Giant Panda - and then in Nov this year one was reported again about 20 minutes down from the village (JZ direction) - this time several drivers getting pics on their cell-phones. Any Chinese readers of these posts know anything about this - and have maybe seen a pic or two??????

Pic 3 - another Bamboo lover - Takin. This guy -from Tangjiahe, being part of a research project, is wearing a radio sender. Getting Takin at this place is too easy - and some park staff are actually worried that so many Takin are destroying Giant panda habitat!!!!!!
 

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Hi Sid,

Will PM you, but yes, only do trapping in the spring and summer!

Solitary Snipe is good - I still need that one for my Sichuan list, and Northern Lapwing for that matter! Perhaps I should tally mine up at some point...

Looking through your list you have marked down White-tailed Leaf Warbler - Kloss's is the only White-tailed-type in central China and as they sound near-identical to the others you are more-or-less ticking on range unfortunately.
I noticed your lack of Seicerus species - you haven't marked down any of the 'trillers'. Marten's Warbler is the commonest Seicerus along the road at Wawu Shan (c1400-1900m), also at Emei Shan. White-spectacled is common at Emei Shan below Xianfeng for c3km (1200-1500m), but I struggle with it at Wawu Shan, only heard it once this year. However, it is common at Laojunshan also.
The hardest in Sichuan is Grey-crowned - it probably only breed in the very north and north-east. Lower sections of Jiuzhaigou, ie Reed Lake is where I saw them this year and in previous years. Again, it is a 'triller', basically sounds the same as Bianchi's but has a long trill at the end of the phrase.

Hodgson's Treecreeper replaces Eurasian in Sichuan - song is distinct. Though vaguely similar to Eurasian it is noticeably different, most European birders with me do not recognise the song when I point it out to them before we see the bird!

I struggled with those two bush-warblers this year, strange that Wawu does not seem optimal for them, I only occasionally record them here - the walk along the top of Emei Shan, along the monorail track, has both species quite commonly I seem to recall.
Blackthroat - Get yourself to Baihe in mid-June and camp up there! Something I might do next year after my tour if I have the time as it is a very good spot for Golden snub-nosed also.

There are a few additional forest covered hills to try around Laojunshan, obviously try the site for the Silver Oriole, orioles are easy there. Worth getting in touch with Simon and Alan W, and also Di Bao as they have surveyed that entire area extensively in search of Sichuan Partridge. Laojunshan is one of my favourite birding spots in Sichuan, nice trail, no tourists and fantastic habitat with stacks of birds. It also has Silver Pheasant (if you haven't seen that in Sichuan yet?). Golden Parrotbill is incredibly common there, as are a number of laughers and liocichla. And of course the partridge, which is straight-forward.
That area also has YB Fantail, CT Minla, both bulbuls etc too...

Looking forward to returning next year already!

James



My bird list is very doable for folk who live in Sichuan - if there was the network of birders giving bird alerts as there are in other parts of the world - them I'm sure 500 would be a real tickers target.

Looking through that list we just added two more forgotten species - Northern Lapwing and real juicer of a tick - our Solitary Snipe from this spring.

There are quite a few birds missing - another Snipe - nobody got up early enough for Wood Snipe this year. In the Leaf Warbler division we don't have a truly positive ID of Kloss's or Gansu Leaf and should have made a more definite ID on at least one more of Seicerus warbler species - and lets not mention the likes of Chestnut-crowned and Grey-sided Bush Warbler. We blanked out on Shortwings (that is if you don't take White-bellied Redstart/Chinese Shortwing into account) - even though we visited one location this year after Gould's. Then there are the enigmatic ticks - no Sichuan Hill Partridge trip this year (also with the lure of Silver Oriole in that area) - but, when we get the time, we've got ideas about sites that are outside the main Loajunshan area - Rusty-throated Parrotbill at Tangjiahe (we were told that Park staff staked out, for 5 days, the area where this bird was first photographed after if disappeared from JZ, without getting anything) and the elusive Chalice for China birders - Blackthroat (I see Jesper H got one on the last trip to Yunnan). Down South, especially the more tropical SW - holds some good stuff we haven't got on our list - some of it in the form of easily found like - White-throated kingfisher, Sooty-headed and Red-whiskered Bulbul, Yellow-bellied Fantail and far easier to find Chesnut-tailed Minla (we got all of these birds, and far more, on the wrong side of the border - Yunnan - this year) - but down there also lies some real goodies like Brown-winged Parrotbill and Biet's Laugher. And Ducks - well we still need that Scaly-sided Merganser (they should sometimes show up here) and of course one rare but annual definite - Baer's Pochard.
Lot of birds there, and of course plenty of other possibilities - which of course makes Sichuan birding such a great sport!!!!!!

Here are some more pics -
pic 1 - Collared Crow - a pretty local species in Sichuan, you can find it in the Tangjiahe area.

pic 2 - a horrible pic of a bird that gave us a horrible time this summer. For all my calls, Przewalski's Nuthatch just wouldn't do the decent things and show this spring/summer (we were starting to imagine their extermination) - and this last week - flocks of them were violating poor conifer cones as if they were taking part in a scene from The Birds!!!!!

Pic 3 - we're getting more mammal interested guests - so we're starting to put more effort in finding the furries. This is a Masked Palm Civet - if you stake out a rubbish dump at night, about the easiest large furry you can find. At Wangland we fed these for a couple of days on dried fish - which allowed us to get close enough for a pic. The cook at the reserve told us that these and Leopard Cat are sometimes inside kitchen when he opens up for breakfasts.
Another good story we heard was from Baxi - on the road (this is the small mountain pass - not the new main road), that eventually leads to JZ - School children in 97 reported seeing a Giant Panda - and then in Nov this year one was reported again about 20 minutes down from the village (JZ direction) - this time several drivers getting pics on their cell-phones. Any Chinese readers of these posts know anything about this - and have maybe seen a pic or two??????

Pic 3 - another Bamboo lover - Takin. This guy -from Tangjiahe, being part of a research project, is wearing a radio sender. Getting Takin at this place is too easy - and some park staff are actually worried that so many Takin are destroying Giant panda habitat!!!!!!
 
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Thanks James for all that useful info.
Birding this summer with Uthai Treesucon was a great lesson in Seicerus calls (he was really into listing to all the songs that he never hears at the wintering grounds) - he got Grey-crowned several times on the west side of the Old Erlang Road. This is dry scrubby habitat on the fringe of alpine plantation - where Buff-throated is a common phylo warbler. I want a better look at this bird before I put it down on my list - and is a particular target for next year.
It's close to here where Meggie has twice seen Silver Pheasant - they're present at Laba He. Our Sichuan ssp is called omeiensis - I wonder how often Silver Pheasant are still recorded at Emei??????
We've been toying with the idea of Baihe and the Blackthroat for the last couple of years - we've taken guests up to the park entrance - but have never had time to make a serious attempt for the bird. They were improving the road into the park this summer - so maybe that indicates some kind of development - there are certainly lots of big signs on the road that advertise the site and its monkeys.

Here are more pics from that last trip -
pic 1 - Pere David's Laughingthrush from Baxi - a nice portrait of a bird in bush.

pic 2 - At last a decent pic of Green Shrike Babbler - from Tangjiahe

Pic 3 - Grandala - a winter flock from Wanglang
 

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Pic 3 - we're getting more mammal interested guests - so we're starting to put more effort in finding the furries. This is a Masked Palm Civet - if you stake out a rubbish dump at night, about the easiest large furry you can find. At Wangland we fed these for a couple of days on dried fish - which allowed us to get close enough for a pic. The cook at the reserve told us that these and Leopard Cat are sometimes inside kitchen when he opens up for breakfasts.
Another good story we heard was from Baxi - on the road (this is the small mountain pass - not the new main road), that eventually leads to JZ - School children in 97 reported seeing a Giant Panda - and then in Nov this year one was reported again about 20 minutes down from the village (JZ direction) - this time several drivers getting pics on their cell-phones. Any Chinese readers of these posts know anything about this - and have maybe seen a pic or two??????

Pic 3 - another Bamboo lover - Takin. This guy -from Tangjiahe, being part of a research project, is wearing a radio sender. Getting Takin at this place is too easy - and some park staff are actually worried that so many Takin are destroying Giant panda habitat!!!!!!

I'd be interested in hearing what you come up with Sid, I have been looking quite seriously at the mammals of the region and am keen to hear what you see, regularly or otherwise.
Have you seen Pallas's Cat on your travels?
 
Hi Mark - not the first time that Pallas's Cat has been mentioned to us - so far we've not heard about it in Sichuan. Qinghai is the place for that - but will keep ears and eyes open.
Getting into mammals leads us onto a whole new learning curve - for example prints like these, which we followed for over a km in Wanglang. They're at the base of a mountain - forest edge and scree slopes habitat - maybe a cat??? But at the moment we're pretty green on prints.
At this site - apart from from Leopard Cat - we have possibilities of stuff like Golden and Chinese Mountain Cat - up on the mountain we saw Goral and Blue Sheep - although our tracks are far too small, there must be Snow Leopard around here.
 

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There was a Giant Panda seen from the roadside at Wolong this year - early May I think it was, feeding in the bamboo above the road between the entrance and Sawan, it was seen by the villagers and a couple of the park staff.

That's a small cat pugmark, something smaller than Golden Cat, which I know fairly well, so a Pallas's, Mountain or Leopard Cat. It is a lot of fun learning prints - an easy way to id initially a cat from a civet is the retractable claws - a civet will always show faint claw marks.

Lynx may still persist in Sichuan, I do know of a couple of sightings of Pallas's Cat in Sichuan, would have to check on location but Baxi rings a bell...

James
 
That's a small cat pugmark, something smaller than Golden Cat, which I know fairly well, so a Pallas's, Mountain or Leopard Cat. It is a lot of fun learning prints - an easy way to id initially a cat from a civet is the retractable claws - a civet will always show faint claw marks.

Agree, though I think Pallas's can be ruled out as it has very broad paws, chunky feet and these prints look rather nimble.

I do know of a couple of sightings of Pallas's Cat in Sichuan, would have to check on location but Baxi rings a bell...

James

That sounds about right..
 
Looks like a Sichuan hunt after Pallas's Cat will be high on my new-years resolution list.

However for the last couple of weeks and right up to the new-year we're again working in NE Sichuan. I'm afraid this area - at least where our work is situated - doesn't offer very good mammal watching opportunities. There are Hog Badgers and mountain tops that have retained forest may house Muntjac - but, on this trip, I'm afraid the best we've encountered is the beast in pic 1 - Perny's Long-nosed Squirrel.

But the birding has been interesting. With all the snow that's been around we've seen a lot of Brambling and ran into a flock of Eurasian Siskin (an addition to my year list). But the hard weather has also brought a few more exotic species - a surprising number of Forktailed Sunbird - Scaly-breasted Wren Babbler - Golden Bush Robin - and Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush

We've also run into another pair of adult Boneli's Eagle (this time not involving the bird that can be ID'ed by its injured leg). We've had so many recordings of this bird over the couple of years within this area - which involve several different birds - that we can start to conclude that this species is not restricted to the East and must range into C China.

Other pics are of a male Golden Bush Robin, a male Forktailed Sunbird in very unsunny weather - Black-chinned Yuhina - and an on top of the Christmas tree pose from a Daurian Redstart.

Merry Christmas to everybody from Sid and Meggie.
 

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A couple days back another bird turned up for this year's Sichuan list - Brown Bullfinch.
We recorded a flock of around 10 in NE Sichuan - during the summer we got them on Zixi Mountain (the Giant Nuthatch site) in Yunnan - but this is our fist Sichuan sighting - and first photo
A bird from yesterday was Scaly Thrush - this is also a photo first for us.
 

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Nice one Sid! I've only encountered the bullfinch once in Sichuan - 3 at Wawu Shan, 2km above the entrance gate, surprisingly scarce considering that they are quite common in Tibet and Yunnan, right at the edge of their range I guess...

James
 
Hi James - that Brown Bullfinch certainly took its time to show up - I've also seen them reported from lower areas of Emei!!!!

Yesterday brought an armchair tick - Japanese Thrush - from all the way back in April.
Meggie got the roadside pics - and in the rush of things, that were happening around that time, were totally forgotten - until those photos of Jap Thrush turned up in the China Observations thread. Yesterday was the first day I had a chance to check it out!!!!!!!
Bird was from our NE Sichuan haunt - can't be a very frequent Sichuan recording!!!!
Looking at that April disk I found a nice pic of a Bee Hawk Moth - roll on Spring - Happy New Year!!!!!!!
 

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Nice one indeed, Sid.

Yes, roll on spring! Hope to be seeing a lot of yours & Meggie's photos next year.

Happy New Year to you & all who watch this thread.

H
 
Yesterday was actually the first day we've birded since the new year - and 2011 got off to a very birdy start!!!!!
We were, together with Roland and his kids, to have a look at ducks in a river that runs through the city of Deyang - about an hour north of Chengdu. But ran into another bird watcher who told us that at nearby Gaunghan there was Sichuan's first Red-breasted Goose. So everybody raced back to the van - our first Sichuan twitch!!!!!
I t didn't take too long to find the goose - we even got pics of it together with a rather lost looking juv. Common Crane.
Other duck of interest included well over 100 Falcated Duck at Deyang - which must be the easiest location for this stunning bird in Sichuan.
Distant pics of the RB Goose together with the Crane - and a shot of a Black-necked Grebe in Deyang.
The Gaunghan river is a location where Scaly-sided Merganser has been ticked - but unfortunately not by us :(
 

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Red-breasted Goose is a stunning record for Sichuan - indeed for anywhere in China!

Congratulations and best wishes for 2011 to carry on as it's started!

Cheers
Mike
 
Red-breasted Goose is a stunning record for Sichuan - indeed for anywhere in China!

Congratulations and best wishes for 2011 to carry on as it's started!

Cheers
Mike

Absolutely, I look forward to this years adventures and discoveries, good luck to you both.
 
Talking about cats, anyone interested in cats of China should get hold of the latest CATnews - Special Issue 5 Autumn 2010 is all about the status of every species of cat in China, latest discussions, photos of wild felids, it really is a wonderful (though sobering) read.

Unfortunately my pdf is over 4mb so I can't attach it. Anyone wishing to have a copy, send me an email (not PM).

James
 
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