Wuyuan to Emei Feng

Drove to a different valley at 5am this morning and walked along the edge of the forest, bordered by tea plantations where we pulled out a confiding Dusky Fulvetta that sang back at us for quite some time. 

Dusky Fulvetta showed well today.

Unbelievably, there was also another Short-tailed Parrotbill and this one showed even better that yesterdays bird, plus we also found a few Chinese Hwamei’s, more Huet’s Fulvettas, Black-throated Bushtit, Collared Finchbills, Brown-breasted Bulbul, and had a Black Bittern flying overhead and down through the valley. 

Short-tailed Parrotbill again...

Black Bittern flying overhead - a bit odd really...

We then set out on the long and tedious drive of some 7 hours to Emei Feng, stopping along the way at an empty motorway service station for a rubbish lunch and a showy Brown-flanked Bush-Warbler. Some great views of White-throated Needletails flying parallel to the bus enlivened the final stage of the journey before we headed up the mountain. By now it was 4.30pm and a great time to search for pheasants, but we had to content ourselves with three different sightings of Chinese Bamboo-Partridge, and some crippling views on the road right in front of the bus. 

Chinese Bamboo-Partridge was seen several times...

We also saw many Mandarin Ducks in the fields, Grey-chinned Minivet, Brown Shrike and Chestnut Bulbul before driving to the only available restaurant in these parts, right at the base of the mountain. Dinner turned out to be much better than first impressions suggested and then we drove 15kms up the mountain to our base for the next 3 nights, situated at 1500m. Driving up we had an owl species fly across the road in front of us, so we jumped out and heard a Mountain Scops-Owl calling. Good luck with that then!