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Sichuan Birding (4 Viewers)

Thought you might like to know that I've seen Lord Derby's Parakeet actually in Lhasa. I found a flock of 15 in the gardens of the Norbulingka, on January 4th 2008. Whether this is a one off, or they regularly winter there, I have no idea.
 
I hope those parakeets are a bit safer from cage bird collecters in Lahsa.
I also wonder if tree planting in the city parks could ever attract an urban population? Parakeets are feral birds in other city locations - the famous example being those troublesome Parakeets of London - but Derbyan Parakeets inside urban Lhasa would be a species that was certainly within its range.
Both Meggie and I were surprised by the Derby connection - me because I never realized that someone from that dour, industrial black-country city was labeled a Derbyan - and Meggie because she was sure the name had some mispronounced/misspelled reference to Danba - an important Kham Tibetan town - within an area where I'm sure the Parakeet was quite common in the recent past. Danbian Parakeet would be a far more fitting name.
But Derbyshire in the N Midlands of the UK also has its own exotics - in the Peak District there used to be a colony of wild Red Necked Wallabies whose ancestors hopped out of their Zoo incarceration during the 30's. Unfortunately it seems that road-kills in combination with the other dangers and changes of modern 'civilization' has very recently snuffed-out to extinction their brave freedom - lets hope Derbyshire's Tibetan Parakeets don't go the same way.
Last year we only saw the Parakeet once - a high flying bird passing over Tagong Monastery (I felt quite sorry for our guests - all they got to see of this attractive bird was a dark shape streaking away in the blue yonder). Today's pics show that bird, we had to have a picture to convince our guests that actually did see this species - but we made it up to them with two of the gamebird that can be found in the area - Tibetan Partridge and Szechenyi's Monal-Partridge - these are the exact birds that they also saw.
 

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I've heard about those Derbyshire wallabies. Thought it was a wind-up at first.

No idea if Lord Derby (Edward Smith-Stanley, 1775-1851, 13th Earl of Derby) had anything to do with their introduction, but it does appear he had his finger in more pies than you can shake a stick at.

He was even MP for Preston for a time, but after his father died (and the title was passed to him) he decided to give up politics and concentrate on amassing a collection of over a thousand birds (and hundreds of mammals). Sadly appropriate that one of today's most collected parakeets carries the name of one of the nineteenth century's most avid collectors - but in those days it was done in the name of science of course.

Talking of collectors, the Hungarian Doctor Bela Szechenyi (gripping photo of his Monal-Partridge btw ;-) led one of the great collecting expeditions (to China and beyond) from 1877 to 1880.

As far as doing one's bit to stop modern day collectors is concerned: Destroy nets; take photos of the bird-catchers (and sellers); demand that the local police take action; "invite" the media to the key areas - and point out the problem. But you have to get the local police and media on your side first, or the above tactics could go horribly wrong.

The best way, of course, is to educate the young (and inspire them to become the "defenders").
 
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I also got some news on that Parakeet:

Just came back from Tagong and Danba and asked a local guy from Danba about that bird. he was quite excited and told me that this Parakeet is one of their "special products" what lead me into a fierce discussion with him about bird catching. He thinks it helps local people to increase their income and develops their village.

Well, the discussion was postponed in the end as I was a bit in a hurry to get the last bus back to Danba, but hopefully it was not fruitless.
He also claimed that there are hundreds of Tibetan eared Pheasants out there. What lead to another discussion because I tried to argue that it must have been White Eared Pheasant. But he pointed to the pic in the book and stayed obstinate. Well, he invited me to go to that certain site next winter...

In Tagong/BAmei I run into two flocks of Szechenyii's. Hell, they were excited by my sudden approach; and their screaming attracted a black woodpecker to fly by and sit on the top of a pine tree to be the audience.

below is a pic of the Tibetan Lark which was one of the (only) 5 species of birds that I found high up on the grassland (above 4200masl). The others were Horned Lark, red billed Chough, Raven, large billed Crow and black billed Magpie. Probably a bit too early in the year for a better yield.
Another pic is from a weasel or so. Maybe someone is able to give a better ID of this little mammal?

Cheers
Roland
 

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Mountain Weasel

With the aid of the excellent 'new' A Guide to the Mammals of China (Smith & Yan Xie, 2008), I can almost conclusively give this ID, sj.

Scientific name: Mustela altaica.

However, I am in no way a mammal expert- so I could be wrong !

Images at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mountain_Weasel_(Mustela_altaica).jpg

and: http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.e...hl=en&lr=&sa=N&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUK368&tbs=isch:1

The above link might not work. Go the home page, then and do a search.

As for ID of the dung: is it from a Yak ?
 
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China Guy and Jiujiu, nice to see the high altitude birds and creatures! Not easy places for birds, animals or humans to flourish....

The mountain weasel pic is extremely cute! My less excellent than John's source here shows this drawing which looks pretty good for that id.
 
Hi Sid and Meggie,
We've been away, so I've really missed this thread over the past few weeks.
Great to read these accounts of your adventures, and the pics bring back lots of memories.
Looking forward to the next installment..
J&J
 
Hi John and Jemi - your name came up this morning, Meggie was looking at some of your latest OBC pics from Hainan. We're very motivated at the moment in wanting to look at pics from tropical holiday islands - a new chilly spell has just hit us.

Gretchen - I also use that picture source - it can be quite a guessing game with those illustrations.

As for pictures that bring back memories - that brilliant Jiujiu picture of the Mountain Weasel takes me back to about 4 years ago when we were first starting with bird photography (this was when we first started using a DSLR) - and a trip up Zhedou Mountain which is the gateway from Kangding up onto the Kham Tibetan Plateau. Near the top we got 3 of those Weasels - they looked like they were on a bit of rampage - and around them, on the fence posts, were about 6 Himalayan Rubythroat going mega-ape with warning calls. I reckon a stuffed Weasel on a string - maybe cast it out with a fishing rod so you could reel it back in - would be the perfect way to lure in a Rubythroat or two?????
Another weasily creature that's found in the forest close to this area is Yellow-throated Marten. I'm afraid we only have the gory picture of a dead example - found in forest on the Moxi to Kangding road (not quite certain how it died - no signs of trapping). Once again me and Gretchen will have difficulties in making an ID from the Mammalls of Sichuan website picture :(
To balance that gore with a bit of beauty - I'll put up a couple of pics of typical grassland birds. Two old pictures - Kessler's thrush, this year we want to get better pics of this bird, and Robin Accentor.
 

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Well we're just making the last arrangements before we start a long run of trips that begin tomorrow - but before we go here's a huge resource to share -
http://www.wwfchina.org/birdgallery/prlist.shtm?province=%CB%C4%B4%A8
This is the work of Chinese birders - a gallery of bird photos - this list being Sichuan birds. For other provinces you navigate backwards towards the main-page - the Chinese can be a bit tricky, but if you click on the list (the word list is on one of the links) - you'll get a list of photos ordered in English common and scientific names.
Some of the those English common names differ from the ones normally in use - and a few photos may have been wrongly ID'ed - but this resource is pretty massive and makes a great ID tool.
There are also some pics that make very interesting records in their own right - for example a pic of Reeve's Pheasant taken in the the Pingwu area of North Sichuan (this is the area close to Wanglang and Tangjiahe).

As for our pics - well we've just used our time to buy a new camera body - a Canon 7D - which makes me happy because I get to use the 50D!!!!!
Here are some of the old 50D pics from our most recent trips - Little Owl and Rock Sparrow from the Ruo Er Gai area and Vinous-throated Parrotbill from just outside Moxi.
 

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Yesterday, I have had the luck to almost step on a flock of tib. partridges on the Pass between Xinduqiao and Yajiang. They weren't shy at all...
 

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A quicky post with some nice pics from our last trip around Moxi and Erlang Mountain -
A solitary Snipe - that was nice and solitary up at its 4000m wetland. As with all Snipe - pretty hard to see - we would have all walked passed it without Meggie's Eagle-eye!!!!
An interesting Thrush - Long-tailed - as always it's useful with a pic of these birds - and from it you can see its build and bars instead of spots separates it from Chinese.
White-browed Fulvetta - these cracking little birds showed up a few times.
And finally a slightly bedraggled Lady A, about to cross the Chengdu to Lhasa highway - that day we saw about 20 of these Pheasants including some stunning males. Even during a toilet break I had a Cheeky female come out of the scrub and give me a quick eyeballing before skedaddling back into cover.
All these birds were lifers for our guests - but this trip included a special category of lifer - the traffic-jam lifer. We got stuck in a couple of unfortunate jams - but from within the car still were able to pick up Chinese Blackbird and a Grey-faced Buzzard.
 

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Terrific pix - especially of the Solitary Snipe.

How often do you see this? Solitary and Wood Snipe are big target birds for me. I've dipped on Wood Snipe in the Dwarf Juniper in Wolong and had either Solitary or Wood Snipe in the Gaoligong Shan in Yunnan a few years ago.

Cheers
Mike

Cheers
Mike
 
Xiaoming, great news! I hope you have a great trip. Will you have two days or more on the mountain? (Hope more !!!)

Jiujiu and China guy, keep forgetting to say how much I am enjoying the pictures. The quails were great, and easy to see too!! My my. All the latest pics are great too - I love the fulvetta, am semi-enlightened by the thrush, and delighted with the cautious looking pheasant (so glad she watches before crossing the road!). Snipe looks easy to see with snow in the background - haha!

cheers!
 
Mike - the Solitary Snipe is a solitary sighting - previous trips we have flushed 'altitude' snipe on a couple of occasions, but have never been able to get in contact with them. This year Wood Snipe are a target - the Balang area is now easily accessible again and is quieter after the last round of road building has finished!!!!!
There's now a new project for that @#%%!! road to 4 sisters - they intend to drive a tunnel through Balang Shan (which makes you wonder why they improved the road in the first place - it was never that bad) - I just hope they've worked out where they're going to dump the all that rock they're going to dig!!!!!

Here are a couple more pics of the Solitary Snipe - it's pretty big for Snipe and the way it flies makes it look a little Woodcock.

And yes Gretchen those pheasant seem to be more traffic smart than a lot of the pedestrians - as kids back in the UK we had Tufty the Squirrel to teach us how to cross the road - the kids here could do with a Lady A equivalent.
The Lady A pics show a male in the mist - and a 'let's get out of here quickly' female shot.

Xiaoming - the Lady A at Wawu are on the road about 5 km from the main gate up to the the lower hotel area - its best to drive this road early - like from first light -and watch from a car - you can see them almost all the way to the car-park area. You can also get them late evening.
At Wawu they've just made a new walking path at the lowest elevation - when going into the park through the main gate you have to make left in the direction of the temple and follow that track for around 5km until you come to the new path that leads into some nice looking forest. Good luck on the Parrotbills - try and get yourself Grey-hooded!!!!!
 

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Here are a few more pics from our short trip to Erlang/Moxi -

Our local version of Spot-winged Rosefinch - verreauxii which has been argued up as a split known as Sharpe's. These birds show white on the wings when they fly - the pictured bird is male.
We got the bird on the Kangding side of The old Erlang Road - where there were also both White-winged and Collared Grosbeak (although we only found female of the latter species).

A female Temminck's Tragopan - we still patiently wait for a good photo opportunity for the male!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Plain Mountain Finch - lots of these around the top of the Old Erlang Road - we usually see this bird on the high grassland, but this trip we even saw them perching in trees, which is a first for us!!!!

And now for something completely different - at the moment we're out in rural N Sichuan - a pic from today - a nice male Russet Sparrow set off well by its background.
 

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As usual, very nice pics - the tragopan showing lovely camouflage and the russet sparrow very sharp with his contrasting background. As usual your descriptions cause me to pull out the books - didn't know (recall?) you had so many kinds of grosbeaks there. Have you seen the spot-winged as well?
 
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