Moving on, Rarities and Rice

A long drive today, but the scenery was outstanding as we passed through huge steep-sided river valleys and up to Jiajin Shan at 4155m at the pass. We saw a few birds such as Brown Dipper, Crested Myna and a migrating Arctic Warbler that shouldn’t have been here, before reaching the mountain. Once the road began to rise and lunch beckoned we hit paydirt with a small group of totally unexpected Spectacled Parrotbills – try saying that really quickly! I was amazed that they were here but there was a reasonable stand of bamboo and the birds responded quickly to the ipod and came to check us out. An Alpine Leaf-warbler showed here as well before we drove on up into the pine forest.

We had several Himalayan Griffons, as well as more migrating Oriental Honey-buzzards, Eurasian Kestrel, Himalayan Buzzard and a Lammergeier as well to boost our raptor list. A huge flock of White-collared Yuhinas and Buff-barred Warblers came down to check out the owlet tape and a Rufous-vented Tit was also with them. But then Peter C spotted a pair of Przewalski’s Nuthatch on the other side of the road and we could watch these delightful birds for several minutes below us.

Pallas's Reed Bunting - an extremely rare bird in Sichuan

Further up above the tree line a couple odd-looking birds crossed the road in front of the coach and we pulled over to check them out. Unbelievably they were Pallas’s Reed Buntings, on their way north to Siberia or further east no doubt, and I was blown away as we were at around 3400m….!!!! There was also a few Rosy Pipits and our first Blue-fronted Redstarts. Frustratingly the pass at 4155m was shrouded in low cloud and when a Tibetan Snowcock began calling things got even more frustrating as we just could not see it in the poor visibility. Oh well, will have to leave that one for tomorrow…. Continuing on we had a few Eurasian Crag-martins as well.

We eventually arrived at our comfortable hotel in Rilong at 6.45pm and that left just enough daylight for a few of the group to see Hill Pigeon and White-throated Redstart behind the hotel.

Oh the rice in the post title.... Just sick of it really!

Erlang Shan

A 5.30am departure saw us arriving at Erlang Shan shortly after sunrise and we began driving up in search of Lady Amherst’s Pheasant. Well we found two females and a couple of immature males, plus Peter B saw a male briefly as well. Success! Then we drove back down and spent some time in the dry scrubby slopes which were home to Brown-breasted Bulbuls and Collared Finchbills. A singing male Indian Blue Robin here was something of a surprise, as was a couple of Grey-crowned Warblers on territory here and a Grey Bushchat was another surprise. Even more surprising was a Chinese Song Thrush singing right out in the open from the top of a bush near the road. A few Chestnut Thrushes, Daurian Redstarts and Yellow-streaked Warblers were more expected but still very nice, whilst our main targets of Chinese Babax and Black-streaked Scimitar-babbler took more work to find. A flock of Tibetan Siskin flew by as well and turned out to be the only sighting of the tour!

Firethroat - one of the best birds of the tour.

Firethroat - wow..!!

Highlight of the morning was undoubtedly this cracking Firethroat that showed superbly well in some low bushes beside the road and we spent a memorable quarter of an hour watching it. A drive further up resulted in a pair of Grey-headed Bullfinches and a couple of Spotted Nutcrackers before we decided to drive back down and around to the other side of the mountain.

Drove up the other side of the mountain and it certainly lived up to its reputation as the wet side as we had low cloud and miserable drizzle for the first hour or so. Had lunch way up the mountain and our first White-capped river-chat before driving on a little further but the road was deteriorating quickly and all we saw was a Rosy Pipit so turned around and headed down. I didn’t really know if we would see anything at all in these conditions but as luck would have it the rain stopped and so we began walking and saw a number of new trip birds. A male Slaty-blue Flycatcher was a good find, but when a burst of owlet call resulted in a Sooty Tit joining a mega-number of warblers, well it certainly got our pulses racing. In fact there was an incredible number of warblers all around us: Sichuan Leaf, Buff-barred, Claudia’s and Ashy-throated. 

Scaly-breasted Wren-babbler now split as Chinese Wren-babbler.....

Then a Scaly-breasted Wren-babbler sang and we walked back up the hill and had mind-blowing views of a pair just a few metres away. Seems this is actually now split by IOC as Chinese Wren-babbler.........  Another couple of owlet sessions resulted in many previously seen species, including this fine male Gould’s Sunbird. A male Slaty Bunting also put in a very welcome and unexpected appearance as well to continue our excellent run of great sightings today.

Gould's Sunbird

Collared Owlet

Ended the day with a perched Collared Owlet and a Little Forktail posing nicely beside a waterfall. We even reached the hotel at a reasonable time, just a shame there wasn’t any electricity for a few hours..!

Parrotbill Mania..!!

Had to leave at 5am in order to reach the top of the mountain and another crack at Parrotbills, which had so far proved relatively elusive. We made good time up the bumpy forest road and after a quick picnic breakfast started walking towards the pass. We hadn’t gone far when a Great Parrotbill started calling but didn’t respond to the tape, but then another one started calling behind us and this time we had views, albeit rather poor, as it scaled a tall tree. 

Spotted Bush-warbler

Moving on we managed to reach the pass just after 9am and then staked out the marshy area where the Spotted Bush-warbler again showed very well and the Scaly-breasted Wren-babbler still refused to show. We heard the Plain-backed Thrush singing in the distance but it was too far away to see – this bird may be split in the future.

Brown Parrotbill

Eventually after all our hard work we got our just rewards when a Brown Parrotbill came in for close views, followed amazingly by a pair of Great Parrotbills. However Grey-hooded Parrotbill remained elusive and we had to give up and walk back to the coach. On the way down we had our first Chestnut Thrush, another Chestnut-headed Tesia and Alan saw a White-bellied Redstart.

Great Parrotbill

Other birds seen this morning included Stripe-throated Yuhina & Red-winged Laughingthrush…

But now it was time to head to pastures new and our journey to the next hotel was punctuated by….. a puncture! During this frustrating period we occupied our time with some birding and had Ashy-throated Parrotbill, White-browed Laughingthrush, Brown-breasted Flycatcher, Russet Sparrow & Blue Whistling-thrush.

Once the tyre had been changed we drove to the nearby town and saw Asian House Martin and a pair of close Plumbeous Water-redstarts.

Longcanggou - still.....

Must admit I woke up this morning feeling despondent at our lack of success with Parrotbills and Tragopan and wondered what the hell we could see today. Funny how things turn out as this was a cracking day with a steady stream of new birds - but the day didn’t get off to a great start as our coach was blocked from driving up the mountain by a stupidly parked car. This delayed us by half an hour and didn’t help improve my feeling of gloom! But as we drove up I heard an Emei Leaf-warbler singing and we hopped out for a look, and followed this with a flyover Speckled Woodpigeon, a distant perched Oriental Cuckoo, Long-tailed Minivet, the often tricky Emei Shan Liocichla, Ferruginous Flycatcher and a superbly confiding White-tailed Robin, plus Blue-winged Minla. Not a bad pre-breakfast haul at all….

Continuing up the mountain we had breakfast seeing Verditer Flycatcher and another better view of the Liocichla.

Pere David's or Rusty-breasted Tit - a surprise find...

We had breakfast at the usual place before walking up the track for a few hours and I remember this walk for some really unexpected sightings. I mean we had a Pere David’s Tit coming in quite close and a Sichuan Treecreeper creeping up a pine tree above the track – amazing! There was also a pair of Red-winged Laughingthrushes feeding in a Rhododendron tree with some Elliot’s Laughingthrushes, several Rufous-gorgetted Flycatchers, more Red-tailed Minlas, closer Grey-hooded Fulvettas, and male Vinaceous Rosefinch.

Crimson-breasted Woodpecker

Walking back down we had a mega close up view of a Crimson-breasted Woodpecker.

Driving lower we took a side track and I was thinking we were done for the day but was proved wrong again and you just can’t second guess things in Sichuan. We had two amazingly busy episodes with the owlet tape. First up though a Pygmy Wren-babbler posed nicely below us beside a small stream. Then we hit the jackpot with a mass of birds coming in to the tape with Black-chinned Yuhina and Chestnut-flanked White-eye being new.

The next blizzard of birds held Chestnut-crowned Warbler, Marten’s Warbler, Emei Leaf-warbler, and lots of Yellow-bellied Warblers.

The Long Walk....

We drove up to the highest point possible on the mountain (in our coach anyway), seeing a female Lady Amherst’s Pheasant along the way. We had breakfast ‘al fresco’ during which we saw Ashy-throated Warbler, Aberrant Bush-warbler, Buff-barred, Ashy-throated and Sichuan Leaf-warblers, another Golden Parrotbill, and Golden-breasted Fulvetta amongst others.

Spotted Laughingthrush

Then we walked up to the marsh at the top, seeing this cracking Spotted Laughingthrush, numerous Sichuan Leaf-warblers, Grey-hooded Fulvetta, Chestnut-headed Tesia, Elliot’s Laughingthrush, 20+ migrating Oriental Honey Buzzards, Crested Goshawk, a Black Baza was new for this tour, White-throated Needletail, Darjeeling Woodpecker, Olive-backed Pipits, Short-billed Minivet, Brown Bush-warbler, Russet Bush-warbler, several Bianchi’s Warblers, and many Large-billed Leaf-warblers.

Claudia's Leaf-warbler is a very common bird on this tour

Darjeeling Woodpecker

At the marsh there was a Spotted Bush-warbler, White-bellied Redstart, and Yellowish-bellied Bush-warbler – but no Parrotbills..!

White-collared Yuhina is another common bird.

Got back to the coach for a late lunch and then drove a little lower. The owlet tape did its magic once again with Eurasian Nuthatch, a pair of Red-tailed Minlas, and both Fire-capped and Yellow-browed Tits coming in for a look. We ended the day with yet more Golden Parrotbills and a much closer Golden-breasted Fulvetta.

Ended the day with a flyby Asian Koel in the hotel garden.