Tien Shan Mountains

What a day this turned out to be, as we drove up into the Tien Shan Mountains. 

The meadows at the base of the Tien Shan Mountains were full of wildflowers

Although after a little later start than normal we then hit bad traffic and it took well over two hours to get out of the city and into the arable land at the base of the mountains. 

Red-headed Bunting - the first of many surprises today

Rosy Starlings were common

Tawny Pipit

But some fruitful roadside stops amidst the meadows at the base of the mountains produced a number of goodies and we soon forgot about the journey here, as we quickly found several Tawny Pipits, lots of Red-headed Buntings, flocks of Rosy Starlings, Linnet, Common Whitethroat, Pied and Northern Wheatears, whilst the fields were alive with Eurasian Skylark song-flighting, plus many Turkestan Shrikes were seen as well.

Tien Shan Mountains

Driving higher we checked out some valleys without any joy, apart from finding our first of many Fire-fronted Serins and Eurasian Jackdaws, before heading off to another good area where Pine Buntings were common and we also had Spotted Nutcracker as well. 

Fire-fronted Serin

Pine Bunting

We had a lunch of lamb pasties before walking up a side valley and after a bit of a search came up with 3 of our main targets: Black-throated Accentor, Blue-capped Redstart and a fine Three-toed Woodpecker. Other species seen included Coal Tit, Eurasian Nuthatch, Eurasian Treecreeper, Goldcrest and others. 

Three-toed Woodpecker

In fact our search had taken longer than we realised as walking back to the road we noticed it was already 6.30pm so left on the drive for the hotel. However, Neil spotted a redstart beside the road and we reversed the coach only to find our main target of a fine male Eversmann’s Redstart. 

Eversmann's Redstart

Out we jumped and enjoyed fine scope views of it perched on some bushes before flying closer to check us out. 

Back to Xining

Breakfast at a local restaurant was enlivened by a pair of Desert Finches coming down to a puddle beside the main road! Couldn’t quite believe it as we were in a built up area  and I assumed they were escaped cage birds but there was a male and female and their plumage was in pristine condition with no frayed edges indicating captivity…. A singing Eurasian Blackbird was also watched as well and interesting to note the subtly different song as well. We did indeed visit a different lake area this morning and our efforts were rewarded with quite a few Caspian Gulls being seen, plus there were also Black-headed Gulls, Little, Common, White-winged and Whiskered Terns, Paddyfield, Eurasian and Great Reed Warblers, Citrine Wagtail, many Masked Wagtails, Isabelline Shrike and a Chinese Pond-heron.

Yep it's a Desert Finch...

Then we set out on the long drive back to Urumqi, arriving 9.30pm. But along the way our driver decided to try a shortcut which led us into an arable area of lush, green fields and hedgerows where several pairs of Barred Warblers, Richard’s Pipits and Bluethroats were a nice surprise.

Barred Warbler

The Day of the Jay

Headed to the Tarim River this morning which actually took longer than expected but the overcast and cool weather really helped us. As we pulled in to a certain location it took a little over 20 minutes to nail Chinese Bush-Dweller, White-winged Woodpecker, Saxaul Sparrow, Small Whitethroat and Azure Tit. Not bad going huh? And then we could enjoy our breakfast! Afterwards we spent some time improving on our views and really appreciating these great birds.

Saxaul Sparrow

Then we drove out further into the Taklamakan Desert where we began our vigil for Biddulph’s Ground Jay, a bird endemic to this desert. The strange landscape of dead trees and tamarisk bushes could only really be viewed from on top of the sand dunes and we spent ages scanning the surrounding area for any signs of life. Apart from more Saxaul Sparrows, Desert Wheatear, Black Stork, Long-legged Buzzard and Black-eared Kite it was rather quiet. We worked both sides of the road and eventually it was Frank who became our hero and found the bird. A quick (sort of) sprint across the sand and everyone locked binoculars on one of the birds of the trip. In fact it was a family group of two adults and two almost fully grown juveniles and we watched them for a while as they moved across a small wadi in front of us. They certainly could shift and ran at an incredible speed, pausing now and again to fly up into one of the dead trees to survey the area. It was such a privilege to become one of the few westerners to see this bird.

Biddulph's Ground-Jay - mega..!!!

Driving further into the dune landscape we found another ground-jay before walking out in to the sea of sand to admire the view. Then it was lunch at a local restaurant before we headed to a town closer to Bosten Nur Lake for the night and a slight change of plan as this would give us an opportunity to visit the wetlands a lot earlier in the morning than would have otherwise been possible had we stayed in Luntai.

Urumqi to the desert.....

Yet another early start as we left Urumqi on the 650+ kms drive south to Luntai in the Tarim Basin, passing through stark grey and arid mountains where a male Rufous-tailed Rock-thrush posed nicely - and was the first of several surprises today. As the road dropped down into the desert-like plains, Long-legged Buzzards and Pied Wheatears became more prominent. 

Rufous-tailed Rock-thrush

After lunch we reached some marshes at the edge of the huge Bosten Nur Lake and followed a path through lush reedbeds teeming with Great Reed Warblers. It was fantastic habitat, with numerous Bearded Reedlings all around, at least 10 Little Bitterns flying across the area (an Asian mega-tick!), Western Great Egret, Citrine Wagtails, Common Reed Buntings of the Pyrrhuloides race, a couple of Paddyfield Warblers, and both Black and Whiskered Terns hunting the channels. 

Bearded Reedling was very common at Bosten Nur

Little Bittern - an Asian mega tick..!

However, best of all were at least 7 singing Savi’s Warblers, and we took some time to get crippling views of this rare China bird. We also had several Isabelline Shrikes, that along with most of the other birds seen here was extraordinarily pale – possibly as a result of the extremely high temperatures and reset habitat nearby? Leaving here we stopped the coach to look at our first Turkestan Shrike and noted plenty of Eurasian Starlings.

Savi's Warbler - wasn't expecting this open at all....

As we approached Luntai a Black Stork circled over the road before dropping down into a surprisingly green area and it was with some relief that we arrived at our hotel just before 9pm and a late dinner.

Xining to Urumqi

Another early morning departure saw up on the dry hillsides above Xining in search of Pale Rosefinch. It took a while but eventually everybody managed to get on one of two males seen. A Pied Wheatear was also a nice find, and other commoner birds included Red-billed Chough, Godlewski’s Bunting, Brown Accentor and Oriental Greenfinch….

Brown Accentor

We then drove some three hours to Lanzhou and flew to the north-west province of Xinjiang and the modern city of Urumqi for the final and ,for me, the most exciting leg of the tour. Bearing in mind the recent terrorist activities I was a little concerned as to what we would face here, but this turned out to be by far the friendliest place I have visited in China.

Returning to Xining

Checked out a couple of sites near Gonghe where a pair of Oriental Greenfinches were new for the trip, and we also saw Godlewski’s Bunting and Przevalski’s Partridge before returning to the hotel for our first ‘sit-down’ breakfast of the tour. Shouldn’t have bothered really as it was rubbish and craving pizza right now! Afterwards we checked out some other areas but all we found new was a pair of Asian Azure-winged Magpies - but a pair of Daurian Partridge were much appreciated by Frank before heading north after a lunch stop back in town.

This is the little fellow that has caused us so many problems....

Later in the day, on a grassy hillside we found Pere David’s Snowfinch to be common, along with White-rumped Snowfinch and Ground-tit as well. Another 100km drive back to Xining followed and some time to rest before our busy day tomorrow.

Pere David's At Last

Left Maduo after a rather interesting breakfast of some black rice porridge – yes it was as disgusting as it sounds and I didn’t partake! We then drove north basically and went in search of the two remaining snowfinches that had so far eluded us. I found this particularly frustrating as I wasn’t totally sure where to find them having been in the alleged best sites for them already. Well we made a few stops to look at Black-necked Crane, Upland Buzzard, Lesser Sandplover, Tibetan Gazelle, Tibetan Fox etc. At one particularly interesting spot we walked across a Pika-laden field and into some scrub and found a Pink-tailed Bunting – totally unexpected actually. But we were escorted ‘off the premises’ by the alleged landowner who wanted a large sum of money from us. So we left! The rest of the day was spent stopping, scanning and walking a little bit, especially at Er la Pass where we saw White-winged Redstart, Tibetan Lark and all the usual suspects.

Another Tibetan Fox - but he's got his lunch....!

Towards the end of the day a big storm was brewing....

By early evening we were driving across the sandy plateau approaching Gonghe when I decided to stop and have one final scan. Fortunately, and boy we earned it, there was a Pere David’s (Small) Snowfinch in the distance feeding alongside some sheep. Wow! Can’t explain the elation I felt at this point as I’d really given up finding anything new today. So we walked closer and managed really nice scope views, but a strong fence lay between us and it so couldn’t get closer for decent photos. Anyway, everyone was really happy and we also had a few Mongolian Larks – in fact our best views to-date to really add a little icing on the cake. Plus several Isabelline Wheatears as well.   And that was our day…!

Moving on.....

We decided to change our itinerary as our previous day in the forest was pretty successful and we still had a couple of snowfinches still missing from our lists, so basically this was a travelling day as we drove 560kms from Nangqian to Maduo with just a few stops made. We did see a few birds along the way such as White-winged Redstart, Robin Accentor, White-rumped, Rufous-necked and Henri’s Snowfinches, plus the by now standard ‘amazing scenery’. And any day when you see an Ibisbill can’t be bad right?

Culture - whatever next..?

Was really looking forward to visiting Beizha Forest the next day and it did not disappoint as we saw a number of great birds. We started in a side valley where a Blood Pheasant responded to the ipod but remained at the top of a ridge above us and not everybody managed to see it well enough.  We needn’t have worried as after breakfast we drove down into the valley and a group of 7 were feeding beside the rushing stream and we were able to watch them for a long time. 

This Buddhist monastery overlooks the forest we were birding

We then continued driving, eventually stopping beside a nice looking piece of forest, which we walked up into and then spent the rest of the morning birding in one small area. We began with a close Chinese Fulvetta, and then found Sichuan Leaf-warblers to be reasonably numerous, but a Buff-barred Warbler was somewhat of a surprise here. A pair of Himalayan Bluetails put in an appearance, whilst a high pitched call led us to a pair of Maroon-backed Accentors – another surprising find. Then a Grey-crested Tit flew in and as we watched this, a male Crested Tit-warbler appeared right next to us. In fact there were at least two males and a female in the trees around us and we were fortunate to be able to watch them for a good half an hour, with one male in particular giving absolutely stunning views. 

Crested Tit-warbler

Crested Tit-warbler

There was also Greenish and Hume’s Warblers here, as well as Rufous-breasted Accentor, Rufous-vented Tit, Slaty-backed Flycatcher, and numerous Daurian Jackdaws. It was a pity that a pair of Three-banded Rosefinches didn’t hang around long enough for everyone to see them.

The scenery was once again stunning, with a Buddhist monastery perched high up on some rocky crags and the setting was made even better with a family of Lammergeiers 
constantly on view.

Lammergeiers

From our picnic spot we could scope numerous Blue Sheep on the slopes above as well as more Lammergeier views, with one immature perched on a ledge on the cliffs above.  

Watching Blue Sheep......

So with lunch over we began walking down the road through nice forest but it was so hot there was absolutely zero bird activity. A good decision then was made to drive up to the monastery where we were fortunate to be there when one of the ‘living Buddhas' had just returned from exile a few days before our visit. So the place was buzzing with excitement and we were allowed entry and given an audience with the monks who invited us into their communal area for food and drink. A tour then followed into their main prayer and chanting room which was fascinating and decorated in typical Tibetan Buddhist architecture and design. It was a truly memorable experience and one which will live long in the memory.

Tearing ourselves from here we drove down into the forest but it was still hot and not much bird activity, although we saw a few bits and pieces but nothing new. So we left and returned to the hotel for a delicious hotpot dinner.