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!

More Rarities at Wuyuan....

Left the hotel at 5.30am in a light drizzle and drove through the rural Jiangxi countryside for ten minutes before pulling up at the rustic Shimen Village. Walking down to the river, an inquisitive pair of Rufous-faced Warblers came out of a stand of bamboo to call back at us before we found a small feeding party of Courtois’s Laughingthrushes high in the canopy of some riverside trees. It was such a relief to get the main target bird so easily as the dark skies seemed to indicate that the threated weather forecast of heavy rain all day was going to come true. Fortunately this was not the case and after a few light showers the gods were kind to us and we enjoyed a rain-free morning’s birding. Once the laughingthrushes had moved out of sight we drove around to the other side of the river, stopping for a White-browed Laughingthrush that was singing from a telegraph wire. We parked the bus beside the start of the path to the island where the laughingthrushes breed  and enjoyed a nice field breakfast. A few birds were seen here including our first Chinese Hwamei, a pair of Dollarbirds, Chinese Pond-heron in fine breeding plumage, several Collared Finchbills, Chinese Blackbird and a pair of White-rumped Munias.

Courtois's Laughingthrush habitat

A short walk down to the island led us to the breeding site of Courtois’s Laughingthrushes and we spent a pleasant couple of hours observing the antics of many individuals, getting close views in the process and watched them feeding on the floor, scavenging in the canopy above and even watched a pair building a nest overhead. A real privilege indeed when you consider they were only refound in the year 2000 and that the world population is only around 250 individuals, and they are all in one small area near Wuyuan town. 

We spent quite a long time admiring Courtois's Laughingthrush

We also found a few other good birds here with pride of place going to a pair of Japanese Waxwings scoped at the top of a tall tree and a very exciting sighting indeed. There was also Grey-capped Pygmy, Great Spotted and Grey-headed Woodpeckers, Swinhoe’s Minivet, Eurasian Jay, and Grey Treepie.

Leaving here we drove for half an hour to a secluded river, seeing Black Eagle along the way, followed a narrow trail and this turned out to be very productive as one of the first birds we had here was a fabulous little Short-tailed Parrotbill that showed very well at the edge of a stand of bamboo. Wow! Unfortunately no photos of this cracker, but it was a lifer for yours truly and a bird i've waited years to see...... Would have loved a photo though......

Continuing along the trail we had Rufous-capped Babbler, Yellow-bellied Prinia,  several Huet’s Fulvettas (a recent split from Grey-cheeked Fulvetta), some pretty decent views of Grey-sided Scimitar-babbler, Chestnut Bulbul, and a flyover Bay Woodpecker. So by now it was early afternoon and the showers were becoming more frequent and we decided to return to the bus for lunch – a good move as it turned out as just after we had arrived the heavens opened and it rained constantly for the rest of the day. We returned to the hotel in Wuyuan around 4pm and enjoyed some time off to rest and relax. 

  

Leaving Paradise..!

My spider senses were telling me that with only two hours to bird the Temple Wood that something would happen to delay our departure to the airport for our flight to Wuyuan. So it was no surprise that 5 minutes before we were about to leave, the ‘biggie’ that we had been waiting for appeared. News filtered through of a Japanese Paradise-Flycatcher on the other side of the Temple resulted in mass panic and a sweaty run around to the far set of trees, but fortunately the bird remained obliging and everyone saw it. 

Record shot of Japanese Paradise-Flycatcher

We had been enjoying a reasonably calm, quiet mornings birding prior to this with flocks of Eye-browed Thrushes flying around, another fine male Siberian Thrush, female Daurian Redstart being new, a couple of Radde’s Warblers, Eastern Crowned Warbler, Chestnut Bunting, Mugimaki Flycatcher etc. It was all rather sedate and there had obviously been no significant fall, so the star bird of our time here just had to turn up at the most awkward time. Well that’s birding!

Mugimaki Flycatcher

Following this excitement we then drove just over 3 hours to the domestic airport in Shanghai, took the short 1 hour flight to Huangshan and then drove for an hour to a picturesque little village surrounded by forested hills and a river. This is the famous site for Pied Falconet and we stood on the roof of a restaurant waiting for one to appear. 

Nice habitat around the falconet's village

Scoping the Pied Falconet

It took around an hour and was just after 6pm when a falconet flew by and landed in a tree maybe 200m away and although not the crippling point-blank views you can get, through the scope it still looked rather sexy. As we were waiting we also saw Plumbeous Water-Redstart, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Collared Finchbill, Red-billed Blue Magpie, Black Bulbul and a perched Chinese Sparrowhawk.

More Magic Migration Mania...!

A quiet morning in Temple Wood and Magic Wood after the excitement of the previous few days and the only new birds noted were Red Collared Dove, Asian Koel, Taiga Flycatcher, Ashy Minivet, Black-naped Oriole, Hair-crested Drongo, Radde’s Warbler, Richard’s Pipit and Chestnut Bunting, but it was a shame that a Thick-billed Warbler was only seen by one person. Other birds seen in and around the woods included Grey-headed Lapwing, another Northern Boobook, a flock of Eye-browed Thrushes, a flyby Siberian, Dusky and Pale Thrushes, Chinese Blackbird, an unidentified cuckoo species, many Chinese Grosbeaks, Japanese White-eyes, flocks of Asian Azure-winged Magpies, and another Asian Stubtail.

Asian Stubtail

Chinese Grosbeak

A distant Dusky Thrush

Heading over to Yangkou mudflats before lunch we decided not to walk out and scan the waders, but instead waited along the seawall where a Japanese Sparrowhawk flew over. There were lots of waders present with the pick of the bunch being a few Far Eastern Curlews being a good addition to our list. We then drove inland a short distance and walked out to some lagoons where many shorebirds were roosting. Amazingly, Steven spotted another Spoon-billed Sandpiper, again in fine breeding dress and roosting with some Red-necked Stints and Terek Sandpipers, but too far for a photo. We spent the next couple of hours checking several pools and scoping big numbers of shorebirds with some Broad-billed Sandpipers, possibly a couple of hundred Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, lots of Long-toed Stints and many others present. 

Lots of shorebirds were present

Kentish Plover

Long-toed Stint

Long-toed Stint

Red-necked Stint

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

It was fun scoping all these shorebirds

Flocks of shorebirds flew around us

There were so many waders in the pools all around us...

Curlew Sandpiper

Terek Sandpiper

The spectacle really was quite something and with no pressure to find a Spoonie we thoroughly enjoyed our time here. Whilst scanning the shorebirds an Oriental Pratincole, Pacific Golden Plover, Eurasian Hobby and an Amur Falcon flew over, whilst 10+ Pechora Pipits were found. Sadly, only a couple of people managed to get on an Asian Buff-bellied Pipit in Steven’s scope. There was also some more nice views of an obliging Reed Parrotbill.

Reed Parrotbill

Returning to Temple Wood in the late afternoon produced much the same as the morning’s session with slow birding. However, a Blue Rock Thrush was new and Hadyn found a fine male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher. 

Common Tern (Tibetana race)

Saunders's Gull

Common Tern and Saunders's Gull

Whiskered Tern

A small congregation of terns at the dam held 2 Whiskered, a cracking White-winged and lots of Common (Tibetana race) Terns along with a Saunders’s Gull, and with the late evening sunshine and the birds flying close below our vantage point, it certainly was a nice sighting.