A Day on the Plateau

It was rather chilly as we stood in the cold early morning air waiting for Blue Eared-Pheasant to appear at Baxi Forest. I think we got there a little bit too early but as it got lighter birds started to appear, with Kessler’s and Chestnut Thrushes, Godlewski’s Bunting, Black-eared Kites, Daurian Jackdaw, Eurasian Cuckoo and others to keep us occupied during the stake-out. The sound of birds singing from the valley below us was phenomenal and it is wonderful to listen to the forest waking up, even if you can’t feel your fingers! 

Blue Eared-Pheasant

Anyway, scopes were trained on the opposite hillside for the big blue one to appear when all of a sudden there’s a flurry of wings and the pheasant flies in and lands on the slope below us. It’s the closest and far and away the best view I’ve ever had of this stunning bird. It remains for a good twenty minutes, feeding quietly on the slope below us before walking sedately away into the forest. Wow! 

Chinese Nuthatch

Przewalski's Nuthatch

We leave here and drive to a favourite part of this lovely forest and within just a few minutes a Chinese Nuthatch flies in and lands right above us and we get excellent views. Then I’m sure I’ve got a response from Przewalski’s Nuthatch and sure enough just a few conifers away there it is! A huge double-whammy and smiles all around – the only shame is I’ve got the settings on my camera wrong and these pics are taken on 1000 iso! Just then some movement in a near bush leads us to a pair of Siskins which I assumed were Eurasians, but then two adult Tibetan Siskins materialise in the same bush! So not sure about these dark, streaky siskins now…? 

Tibetan Siskin

So we are on a roll and walk into the forest where a high pitched noise has us freezing. Surely it can't be Chinese Grouse? I leg it around in a large loop to try and flush it towards my group, but as I hit a trail going in the right direction something scuttles off up ahead and there’s the grouse (in fact 3 of them). So here’s the dilemma – do I take the photo before getting the group? Well I didn’t and backed off slowly before running down to the group, passing a Sichuan Jay on the way (what?!) and we go on a grouse hunt, but to no avail, although a Black Woodpecker is some compensation. So I’m thinking we should return early doors tomorrow.

Well, we are positively buoyed by our success and head off to a nice little valley where I want to get Gansu Leaf-warbler but the weather is having other ideas. We are now experiencing cold weather and drizzle. This isn’t good for singing warblers but within 100m of our walk along the track there’s one calling, but it doesn’t play ball at all. Further along another sings but unlike last year when they went mad at my ipod this time they don’t respond. But after a while one comes in and calls a little and we get decent looks at it. Further along the track we get a surprise in a Pallas’s Leaf-warbler, plus a few other things like Godlewski’s Bunting, Common Rosefinch etc. But there’s not a lot else and as we walk back the heavens open and it pours down, getting us soaking wet.

So after lunch at a local restaurant, a quick few minutes back at the hotel to change into drier clothes and we’re off to Flower Lake with blue skies all of a sudden. I’m feeling the pressure to find snowfinches along the road and wondering just how this will pan out. Lucky for me then that something flies up from the roadside and we screech to a halt and reverse and wow, there’s a Rufous-necked Snowfinch! 

Rufous-necked Snowfinch

A mad minute of giving directions to a bird 30 yards away ensues before calm returns and then I spot a White-rumped Snowfinch further away. Amazingly both species prove to be common along the road this year, with the latter species especially so. 

White-rumped Snowfinch

We watch our first ones for a while and really enjoy watching the snowfinches chasing the Pikas from their burrows.

Pika

Marmot - "Eric, Eric Eric..."

 Up at the lake we take the parks bus 3kms down to the boardwalk and spend an enjoyable time scanning the water and marshes, surrounded by fantastic wide open grasslands complimented by huge snow-capped mountains on the horizon. 

Out on the lake we get Red-crested Pochard, Ferruginous Duck, Greylag Goose and other common things. A Great Bittern flying over the marsh is a bit bizarre, and another heard booming surely means they breed here. A Purple Heron and a few White-winged Terns are new for the tour, whilst lots of egrets, Black-necked Cranes, Lesser Sandplovers, Tibetan Wagtails, Tibetan Larks, Common Terns and others make for a rewarding time here. A late migrant Arctic Warbler sheltering under the boardwalk was truly bizarre and just goes to show you never know what to expect here. As we drive back to the hotel a few Upland Buzzards are noted and we arrive back tired but very happy with the day.

Tibetan Plateau

My favourite day of the tour so far, as we drive from Maerkang up onto the Tibetan Plateau and eventually reach our excellent hotel at Rouergai in the early evening – and I think this is one the most impressive birding journeys as you cram a lot into 12 hours or so. 

Scenery on the Tibetan Plateau

The scenery is very impressive as we leave the pine-clad valleys and reach the wide-open vista of rolling grasslands and soft, rounded hills in the distance. After breakfast in a roadside restaurant we stopped just on the edge of the forest alongside a mountain river where Pere David’s Laughingthrushes were seen feeding on the opposite bank and our first Common Pheasant was found. No Ibisbills were present along the river so we continued upwards until at the edge of the plateau, amidst scrub-choked narrow valleys we found White-browed (Severtzov’s) Tit-warblers to be rather common and spent some time watching these delightful little sprites, with the males being a resplendent concoction of lilac, purple and pink.

White-browed Tit-warblers

At the same valley we also had nice views of this Golden Eagle, loads of Himalayan Griffons and a singing Kessler's Thrush.

Golden Eagle

Himalayan Griffon

Kessler's Thrush

Well we did very well with all the target species encountered and I was especially pleased to get good views of a White-browed Tit after a few unsuccessful attempts at various places. 

White-browed Tit

There was also a nice Dusky Warbler, Olive-backed and Richard’s Pipit and our first of many Rock Sparrows at the same place. We also had Yellow-streaked Warbler, plenty of Chestnut and Kessler’s Thrushes, Tibetan (Citrine)Wagtails, Little Owl, Ruddy Shelducks, Common Merganser, Eurasian Hoopoe, Hodgson’s Redstart, Siberian Stonechat, Azure-winged Magpie, Twite and at least 15 Black-necked Cranes. 

Azure-winged Magpie

Twite

At one area we had Oriental, Horned and at least 6 immense Tibetan Larks in a meadow next to the road, and this is the first time I’ve seen the big beastie away from Flower Lake. A real surprise find was a pair of Tibetan (Chinese) Grey Shrikes along the road and although the birds weren’t that close it was a nice view in the scopes. Plenty of Marmots and Pika were also noted, and a Tibetan Fox looked a little out of place during the midday heat.

Upland Buzzard

Saker

Saker about to dive bomb the buzzard

I think he got the buzzard...!

 Raptors were well represented with numerous Black-eared Kites, and Upland Buzzards became increasingly common, and throw in our fantastic earlier views of Himalayan Griffons and a cracking Golden Eagle as well. But the views of a Saker nest with five (yes 5) almost fledged young, and both adults bringing in small rodents for them to feed on. It really was like the things you see on t.v and when an Upland Buzzard, which must have had a nest out of sight in the same quarry, flew in a few times only for the adult Sakers to dive-bomb it repeatedly. What a show and an immense privilege to witness such nature in the raw.

Hume's Ground-tit

 Getting closer to Rouergai we got very close views of the endemic Hume’s Ground-tit, which became majorly abundant during the course of the afternoon. 

Tibetan Snowfinch

But a surprise find came in the shape of a family of Tibetan Snowfinches right beside the road to end a particularly fun and enjoyable day.

Mengbi Shan

Well we drove up onto the mountain and as it slowly began to get light the clouds seemed to be lifting and the day actually dawned fine. I tried my favourite spot for Koklass Pheasant and immediately got a response from way up on the hill above us, but I persisted for quite some time without the bird moving at all and in fact it seemed to go further away. Another was calling from down the road so we walked downhill but had a negative response so didn’t loiter and walked back up towards the bus. A few bursts from the ipod resulted in silence, but then a Blood Pheasant began calling nearby, with some further calling birds also not too far away. As we settled down to try and get close views of them a flurry of wings right next to us turned out to be a male Koklass Pheasant flying right over us and landing next to us on the slope above the road. I must admit I was stunned and had silently resigned us to dipping this bird...... So yes I was stunned by this miracle and everyone had superb looks at this obviously confused male strutting across the mossy forest floor above us. I wanted to clench my fist and pump the air but remained outwardly calm, with the thought that my camera was still on the bus dampening my ardour a little!

Blood Pheasant

Then we had somewhere in the region of 9 or 10 Blood Pheasants rushing around the forest above us, and crossing the road, standing in the middle of the road looking dumb and we even watched one bird rushing back across the road, up the slope and calling back to me from a tree stump right above us. Wow! There was literally a ‘transfusion of Blood Pheasants’ – a collective noun we made up for the show we had just witnessed. I can’t tell you how relieved I felt in that moment, but there’s always another pressure bird to find on a Sichuan tour. So up we drove to my nuthatch spot and had the best picnic breakfast so far, with everyone more than satisfied with the near-gourmet offerings. Afterwards we hung around waiting to see if any nuthatches would have the good grace to give themselves up easily – well no is the answer. 

Three-banded Rosefinch

Possibly even better was a bird perched right at the top of a conifer giving a call I didn’t recognise, and having worked hard on learning the calls I was most excited! Well, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I raised my bins and it turned out to be a male Three-banded Rosefinch – HOLY COW!!  I usually get a bit animated when its something good and probably made some incoherent and inherently unprofessional shout involving a blasphemous statement but who cares? Then a female appeared and an immature male as well, and they kept flying over the road and then returned moments later to land in the trees right above us. Oh yes baby!! 

Mengbishan Pass - in the rain!

From here we drove up higher and it was at this point that the weather deteriorated a little and we had some light drizzle which didn’t really hamper our birding as we had a covey of 5 Verreaux’s Monal-partridges (isn’t Chestnut-throated partridge a better name?) running along the side of the road, some Pink-rumped and White-browed Rosefinches, Himalayan Bluetail and others. But the weather got worse and we decided to drive up to the summit and wait it out, but all I can say is the coffee was the highlight. So we drove down several kilometres and huddled around a fire and ate noodles in a room that is used by the roadworkers. A very surreal hour was spent, listening to Monty Python and 80’s music (oh yes it was Ernie – the Fastest Milkman in the West) and having the tastiest noodles in the world – whilst the heavens opened outside. 

White-browed Fulvetta

Grey-headed Bullfinch

But the weather abated and we were able to walk a lovely little trail that often turns up some odd birds. At the start we had a male Daurian Redstart and male Slaty-backed Flycatcher around the Tibetan prayer flags, and then found our one and only Slaty-blue Flycatcher. A White-browed Fulvetta came into the owlet-call and was a nice surprise amongst the numerous phylloscs and Rufous-vented and Sichuan Tits – it looks nothing like the usual races I’m more familiar with and its got a dark eye…?!. In fact it was quite productive along here and it would have been nice to get a view on one of the several Chinese Song Thrushes singing away, but it was not to be. 

Tiger Shrike

As we returned to the coach, John spotted a shrike in the meadow which turned out to be a cracking Tiger Shrike in full breeding plumage. A real scorcher of a bird and something to definitely get excited about. Our last session along a quiet valley gave us great looks at White-throated Dipper, lots of Elliotts Laughingthrushes, but not much else so we headed to the hotel in good time for our evening meal.

Prayer Flags at Mengbi Shan

Tibetan Prayer Wheels at Mengbi Shan

Rilong to Mengbi Shan

We had the luxury of a 6am breakfast in the restaurant before checking out a few sites close to Rilong, and which turned out to be an extremely pleasant few hours. Around some conifers we saw Goldcrest, Bar-tailed Treecreeper, plenty of warblers, and best of all a pair of superb Crested Tit-warblers that gave very nice views. 

Streaked Rosefinch (female)

Along the road we saw several Common Rosefinches, as well as a single Streaked Rosefinch that literally dwarfed its commoner cousins and was clearly a third bigger again. With the sun shining and wonderful scenery as always in Sichuan we set off on our Black-browed Tit hunt which was only successful for Trevor and I, and I have no idea why the pair we saw shot off down the slope never to be seen again. 

Rufous-bellied Woodpeckers

So we left on the 5 hour drive to Mengbi Shan, passing through quaint Tibetan-style villages along the way and at one of which we enjoyed a delicious lunch. 

Mengbi Shan

It was mid afternoon by the time we made it to the mountain and in bright sunshine there wasn’t much singing at all, so we made the best of it with nice views of White-browed and Pink-rumped Rosefinches, Rufous-vented Tits, White-bellied Redstart and our first Collared Grosbeaks. 

Collared Grosbeak

As we watched a pair of these huge birds at least 3 Sichuan Jays emerged from the slope below us and clambered around the conifers, at one stage being chased off by the grosbeaks. 

Sichuan Jays

Unbelievable! I spent two whole days last year searching this site for these very special endemics, and we had nailed them within the first half an hour of arriving here. In fact we enjoyed repeated views of them for a long time before they flew up the hill and out of sight. 

So a great start to our time on Mengbi Shan and with a whole day tomorrow I’m hoping we can do quite well….Weather permitting…