Tasty Tragopans...CHINA (28 May)

This was to be the first landmark, red-letter day of the tour. We arrived at the Tiger Forest Resort in Loncanggou the evening before, where I swapped notes with another tour leader on site-Nick Bray-he was interested in our Barred Laughingthrush and Lady A news from Erlangshan, his next destination and I was, of course, interested in his tragopan news in particular from Longcanggou. Nick described an area where we had seen some females recently, and although not enthused about females, we had little choice but to try this spot on this morning. On arriving at the area, I soon realised this was almost the same spot where I had seen a spanking male on my scouting trip with Frank here last year. As we climbed out of the van, I glanced downslope, only to lock eyes with a male Temminck's Tragopan! It was looking alert, and by the time the rest of the group had got off the bus it had managed to slink back into the obscurity of the bamboo, where just a few hints of its red plumage could be made out. 

With most of the group having missed it, I tried the recording, at which point this splendid male came marching out of the bamboo onto the open slope, where it remained, looking immaculate and alert for 5 minutes, allowing scope views, and being completely tolerant of our loud exclamations at its extraordinary appearance. Another male, and a couple of females were noted closeby too, and by the end of the morning with some parties of chicks seen, we had amassed up to 10 individual tragopans, my personal best day count! The photos alongside may be poor, although hopefully even these show that the bird was NOT.

The remainder of the morning was spent working our way up to a marsh higher up, which offered, we hoped more special birds, notably parrotbills...

Erlangshan...CHINA (25-26 May)

For the second consecutive year the Chinese government, and its never ending plans for tourist development in the country threw the proverbial spanner in the works for this year's Sichuan/Qinghai tour. Last year with the closure of the key birding site of Wawu Shan for tourist development for a number of years, we successfully checked out two new other sites: Loncanggou and Labahe. We had intended to visit both of these on the custom tour which I just led, but the government then closed Labahe also for further tourist development, leaving a gaping hole (especially where pheasants are concerned) in the itinerary. And so we tried Erlangshan, in the hope this would yield "Lady A", and some other goodies. Thankfully, while not a direct replacement for Labahe (where were easy the Temminck's Tragopans for example!?) , it worked well. In two morning "pheasant runs" we bumped into two different male Lady Amherst's Pheasants, the first one being a real thriller, in full breeding dress which casually sauntered across the road, while the second one was a dowdy immature male, with only glimmers of the beautiful plumage to come here and there. 

Also found at the site were a pair of glowing Golden Bush-Robins within the alpine scrub, and a superb pair of Barred Laughingthrush, which can often be a difficult endemic to see well, though clearly not this year. We also enjoyed two species of dipper sharing the same river: White-throated and Brown Dippers, and got spectacular looks at a buff-breasted morph of the Scaly-breasted Cupwing (formerly known as Scaly-breasted Wren-Babbler). On top of that before we had even got to the site we racked up Chinese Hwamei (which was recently split from the Taiwanese form), which was found singing behind a random roadside restroom stop, the bird being attracted by the racquet coming from a caged one hung up by a local passing truck driver; unexpected!

Next up was high pressure stakes to find the tragopan at Loncanggou...

Into the Far East...CHINA (24 May)

OK, I have been "marooned" within the social media "blackhole" that is China. Yes, no Facebook, no Twitter, and of course, no blogging. It was hard to cope, but now I can get on with updating as I would have liked...

This was a custom tour of two provinces in China, Sichuan, the so-called Heavenly "Kingdom", and Qinghai to the north. After a marathon 36-hour journey I arrived in the Sichuan capital, Chengdu. This is quite possibly the biggest city that you've never heard of; some 14 million people! After a day recovering from rigours of international travel all of us spent a day touring the birding sites within the city. The city is spotlessly clean, unlike much of rural China, and the parks hold some great birds. We started out at the former home of a famous Tang Dynasty Poet, Du Fu, where we soon found some of the birds we were seeking: a dainty Rufous-faced Warbler led us to him by its soft tinkling calls, a butch Collared Finchbill posed for photos, while Chinese Grosbeak took a little more effort to find, but was eventually seen at all the three sited we visited in the city that day. Other common birds included Chinese Bulbul, Mandarin Blackbird, and Vinous-throated Parrotbill. With news that there had recently been a migrant Firethroat at the migrant hotspot of Chengdu University we took a stroll a round their well-manicured grounds, but only found a good resident in the form of White-cheeked Starling with no migrants in evidence.

 Lastly, we visited the extremely popular Giant Panda Breeding Centre, where the starts of the centre were out of their ai-conditioned rooms (I kid you not), and feeding outside on their prized bamboo shoots. The birds were good there too with Red-billed Leiothrix (formerly known as "Peking Robin"), Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler and Oriental Greenfinch, along with a confiding young White-browed Laughingthrush (unlike many other shy Chinese laughingthrushes in this respect).

At the end of the day our man-in-Sichuan, the legendary "Frank" took us for our first Sichuan meal of the tour, which was superb bar the dish of Yak cartilage which was not popular among anyone apart from maybe Frank! The Kung Pao Chicken was a better choice!

More from my adventures in the Far East to come soon...

BEST of SPRING 2013: WARBLERS! Ohio (May)

So, each and every spring it is this celebrity group that draws the crowds and various noises of admiration (many of them not repeatable here!). So here for one final time, is a recap of some of the best and brightest from the season just gone at Magee Marsh, (for me now anyway, continuing for some out there now though). Now, I'm off to China, and Facebook/Blog/Twitter Black Hole that exists there. Will post when I get out!

Black-and-white Warbler...

Black-throated Blue Warbler...

Bay-breasted Warbler...

Black-throated Green Warbler...

Blackpoll Warbler...

Blackburnian Warbler...

Cape May Warbler...

Chestnut-sided Warbler...

Hooded Warbler...

Kentucky Warbler...

Kirtland's Warbler...

Louisiana Waterthrush...

Magnolia Warbler...

Nashville Warbler...

Prothonotary Warbler...

Pine Warbler...

Homage to Woodcocks...OHIO (May)

Although I have enjoyed American Woodcocks  at Magee Marsh each and every one of the five springs now I have partaken in the spring season there, it was not until this year that I nailed a truly good shot of one. It was only this year when I saw them virtually beak-to-nose patrolling around with newly-hatched fluff ball chicks that I finally got the shot (s) I had craved for five years. But it was well worth the wait. The views of the odd "shorebird" were outrageously good, and I appreciated its oddity all over again: the eyes sat so far up on the head, its ability to disappear at a moments notice, even though it is stood right out in the open, and, of course, that strange, bobbing gait. For a long period before the "hen" woodcock had sat on a nest completely in the open with the sun on her back (this is not where woodcocks are mean to nest-they should be under the shade of the woods!), patiently tolerant of a regular stream of birding admirers who would pop in to check on her progress. Then finally, one day there she was parading around (or should that be bobbing around), with four furry things in tow. It was a great observation, tempered slightly when I returned several hours later to see one of the chicks looking lost, with no sign of the other three or its mother. However, a happy ending was ensured when the next day tje brazen mother walked all four chicks across the Magee Marsh parking lot, at the height of the birding season (i.e. it was jam-packed with hundreds of cars and people), and safely guided them back into the woods, where woodcocks should really be! Along with the Long-eared Owl and Ruff in NW Ohio this spring my personal spring highlights.

More to come from spring 2013....

BEST of Spring 2013: SHOREBIRDS/WADERS (April-May)

Here is a gallery of the best photos I managed this spring of shorebirds/waders, taken in a short stint on the Upper Texas Coast around High Island, and a longer period in NW Ohio around Magee Marsh/Ottawa NWR. I had very little shorebirding time on the Upper Texas Coast, as I arrived, post-Vietnam, in late April, by which time great numbers of the birds have already moved north. However, I did pick up a superb female Wilson's Phalarope on my first morning there, picking insects off the glassy surface of a pool with its elegant and delicate bill. 

The same pool also held a number of Stilt Sandpipers ranging in plumage from dull and grey to some chestnut-cheeked breeding adults, making for quite a supporting cast to the phalarope which stole most of my attention that day.

A few forays down the Bolivar Peninsula as part of our volunteer walks with Houston Audubon Society, saw us find some "bricked-up" Red Knots, as well as some super confiding Semi-palmated Sandpipers, among many other interesting shorebirds. 

In Ohio, although I had much longer to explore, the shorebirding, of course, cannot compete with the huge diversity of the Upper Texas Coast, but still provided some thrills and spills, not least a breeding plumage male Ruff at Ottawa NWR (no photos for me though!), with its splendid ruff daubed in black and chestnut; and the splendid, bright shiny new, Boss Unit of Ottawa NWR provided up close and personal Solitary Sandpipers to cause my camera to work overtime.

And, I have not even mentioned another shorebird, which was one of my BIRDS OF SPRING 2013...American Woodcock. A BEST OF WOODCOCK gallery to come next, before I post a huge gallery of the very best songbirds of spring 2013...keep checking here!

Canadian Send-off...OHIO (15 May)

After yesterday's "Kirtland's madness" it was hard to see that I could get a better send off. Today, I flew out of Ohio, for a bizarre and long journey back home, (Cleveland-Las Vegas-Los Angeles-Miami-Quito!) However, with winds shaping the migration scene at Magee, and with very favourable conditions overnight, rather than sleep in before my marathon journey home, I was up and out early. I just had to have one more session in the field. After all, this was to be my final fling of the spring, until next year. I always leave with sadness at this, I simply love the ebb and flow of migration, and today was all about a significant flow. 

We (Scott Watson and I), arrived to see hordes of Blue Jays migrating overhead, (an under-appreciated migration phenomenon), and regular flocks of Cedar Waxwings (which had been near non-existent this spring at Magee until today) passing over too, with the odd party of Pine Siskins dropping in too. We had not left the parking lot and it was looking good. On top of that there were significant bursts of warbler song creating quite the dawn chorus, indicating that a new batch were in. After all, the singing Blackpolls were not around the day before. I had precious little time, and made precious little progress along the boardwalk but managed to find Chestnut-sided Warbler, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Prothonotary Warbler, Veery and absolutely loads of male American Redstarts which seemed to decorate every nook and cranny along the Magee boardwalk. I even managed to luck in on a male Mourning Warbler, if only briefly. My final bird of the spring was to be a classic one: Canada Warbler, of which I had seen very few this year, let alone photographed. 

This supremely tame male singing Canada provided the ultimate send-off, and I headed for the airport with a spring in my step, with my mind even now already turning towards the (very different) warblers of China, which I will be headed for next week!