It's All About The Tern.......

Due to a ridiculously early high tide we left in three separate taxis at stupid o’clock, well that is 4am and drove for 15 minutes to the coast. Here we boarded 2 small boats and got ‘punted’ along a muddy creek for around 25 minutes until we reached Shanyutan Island and already it was light and we could see birds out on the mudflats. So we walked along the sand until we could find a place to cross the sticky mud quite easily and then walked towards the water’s edge to begin scanning for the Holy Grail – Chinese Crested Tern, one of the rarest birds on the planet. According to BirdLife International this bird is listed as Critically Endangered with less than 50 mature individuals left. At first just a few Greater Crested Terns flew by out to sea, but then a couple of large, paler terns were picked far out to sea and as they came closer it was apparent that we were looking at a pair of Chinese Crested Terns. They flew by quite a way out and headed off to the bay to our left where they disappeared. Wow! To say everyone was elated to see them so easily is an understatement. So we watched several White-faced Plovers feeding nearby for a little while and then noticed a group of Greater Crested Terns loafing off to our right on a small sandbar and sure enough, there was another Chinese Crested Tern in amongst them. 

A few iffy photos of Chinese Crested Terns with Greater Crested Terns...

Watching the terns....

So we walked closer, until about 150m away and scoped the flock, getting great looks at ‘the biggie’ and eventually we found 4 Chinese Crested Terns. We watched them for an hour, and occasionally the whole flock would fly around and then settle in the same place again. This could not have gone any better.

There were plenty of shorebirds around including Red-necked and Long-toed Stints, Sharp-tailed and Terek Sandpipers, a lone Great Knot, a flock of breeding-plumaged Sanderling, Dunlin and Red Knot and also a flock of 10+ Black-faced Spoonbills were some distance away. There was also Caspian, White-winged, Black, Little & Common Terns, as well as 3 immature Black-tailed Gulls, Sooty-headed Bulbul and Grey-capped Greenfinch. So we left and returned to the hotel for breakfast, loaded the luggage up and checked out. Then we searched for migrants along the coastal fields and came up trumps with a female Yellow-breasted Bunting feeding along a drainage ditch. There was also Yellow Bittern, Oriental Skylark, 2 Pacific Golden Plovers, Oriental Pratincole, 2 fine Little Curlews, Black-collared and White-cheeked Starlings, Masked and White-browed Laughingthrushes, and both Oriental and Black-browed Reed Warblers.

Little Curlew in the heat haze...

Yellow Bittern

After lunch we drove to our new hotel close to the entrance of Fuzhou Forest Park and following a short break we drove into the park. It was rather hot but there were quite a few birds around and a pair of the distinctive local race of Orange-bellied Leafbirds were seen in a bare tree on the slope above us (a potential future split). Several Great Barbets were around, and Chestnut Bulbuls were also prominent. 

Chestnut Bulbul

Yet another Collared Owlet was seen in a tree beside the path and was attracting numerous birds, with some splendid male Fork-tailed Sunbirds, Common Tailorbird, and both Grey-chinned and Scarlet Minivets mobbing it. The trail went up onto the side of the hill and was quite steep in places but the effort was worth it as we saw Blue Whistling Thrush, a mixed flock of Lesser and Greater Necklaced Laughingthrushes, a fine Grey-headed Parrotbill, brief Grey-sided Scimitar-Babbler, and best of all a few White-necklaced Partridges were feeding in the leaf litter below the trail. And that was our day. 

Leaving Emei Feng...

Our final morning on Emei Feng was spent with clear blue skies and sunshine, which was something of a surprise after a stormy night. 

Emei Feng in the sunshine for a change....

We followed the Tragopan Trail again and had a brief sighting of a male Cabot’s Tragopan flying out of a tree, as well as a female with 4 chicks walking up a wooded slope. After breakfast we birded our way down the mountain and I was particularly pleased to finally get Kloss’s Leaf-Warbler performing extremely well and singing from several exposed perches right next to us. 

Kloss's Leaf Warbler

In fact the song was incredibly varied and it seemed to mimic some random 'phllosc' songs that i tried playing... Mmmm   

Mountain Bulbul was quite common here.....

There was also two Collared Owlets at separate locations that pulled in Blyth’s Shrike-Babblers, Indochinese and Black-chinned Yuhinas, Yellow-cheeked Tits and Mountain Bulbuls amongst other species. 

Collared Owlets - spot the difference....

In glorious weather we enjoyed views of many previously seen species, with Crested Serpent-Eagle, Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush and Sulphur-breasted Warbler being new for the tour.

Lunch was taken in Taining before we set off on the 5 hour drive towards the next birding hotspot of the Minjiang Estuary.

Emei Feng

Set off down the mountain in search of galliformes at 5am but only managed in seeing a few Silver Pheasants feeding on a slope above the road. So we turned around and drove back up as I was very keen to find Spotted Elachura (formerly Spotted Wren-babbler), a monotypic family following a recent taxonomic change. 

Emei Feng

The weather was much better today, definitely clearer and there was plenty of birdsong in the valley below, but a strong wind wasn’t helpful. Anyway, after playing the call at a few promising gulleys we had decided to walk back to the bus as a heavy shower hit us, but just then the Elachura began calling and eventually everyone had what can only be described as mind-blowing views as it sang below us. 

Spotted Elachura

We then spent the next couple of hours along one particular semi-sheltered stretch of road as birds kept appearing and we scored with Bay Woodpecker, Lesser Cuckoo, Great Barbet and White-crowned Forktail, as well as getting fine views of Chestnut-crowned and Rufous-faced Warblers again. We walked further up the road after breakfast and came across another flock of Black-chinned Yuhinas, along with Yellow-cheeked Tit and our first Mountain Bulbul.

Black-chinned Yuhina

Then we drove right up as far as we could and walked up to the top of the mountain some 3 kilometres away seeing a female Chestnut-bellied Rock-Thrush along the way. Despite the mist we enjoyed fine views of Buff-throated Warbler and a few close Brown Bush-Warblers, as well as great looks and our best views ever of White-spectacled Warbler again. 

Brown Bush-Warbler was confiding today...

White-spectacled Warbler..... With yellow spectacles....

At a small wood at the summit we found a flock of Indochinese Yuhinas, Rufous-capped Babblers and a pair of Chestnut Bulbuls. So we walked back down to the bus and after lunch wandered down the road, finding a pair of lovely Blyth’s Shrike-Babblers that gave repeated close views. With the mist descending we decided to walk the next stretch of road that is particularly favoured by tragopans but only found another Silver Pheasant, but this one was up a tree!

Blyth's Shrike-Babbler (male)

It was about now that heavy rain set in and curtailed our birding for an hour, so we sat on the bus to wait it out. At 3.30pm we decided to drive lower in search of Elliot’s Pheasant once more. A good move as the weather was better down here and after some searching and staking out known feeding sites we stumbled across a female Elliot’s Pheasant that almost eluded us had it not been for some clever work by Mike. We also saw 20+ Mandarin Ducks, a flock of Black-throated Bushtits, Slaty-backed Forktail, Brown Dipper and Striated Heron before reaching our usual restaurant for dinner. The journey up the mountain in the dark resulted in two owls flying across the road. The first was large and could well have been Brown Wood Owl and the second smaller bird was a scops-owl species, but neither could be relocated or were calling and in the strong winds what would you expect right?