Tragopanlets...CHINA (29-30 May)

Two further, full, days were spent birding the slopes of Longcanggou, south of Chengdu, in Sichuan province. This site has risen to more prominence in recent years as a stand-in site for the now closed Wawu Shan. So, where birders would search for bush-warblers, parrotbills, and a host of regional specialities (e.g. Emei Leaf-Warbler, Emei Liocichla etc.) on neighbouring Wawu Mountain, now Longcanggou has adopted the mantle.

The first of these days dawned wet, and surprisingly chilly for the southern shans, with the best activity coming from late in the morning onwards into the afternoon. A migrant male Tiger Shrike was found lurking in the forest, and we caught up with the odd Great Parrotbill, in exactly the place it wasn't the day before, but was the year before! In the afternoon, after a male Chinese Blue Flycatcher required some "going in" to extract views of it from within the thick bamboo; I noted a new road that had built through a mix of broadleaf and coniferous trees, ironically, as part of a re-forestation programme. 

This looked promising and so we walked down, flanked by conifer plantations on the one side and the rich and varied greens of a broadleaf woodland in springtime, on the other. The conifers produced the first blood though, with the high-pitched song of a male Slaty Bunting giving its position away to us. Further down the road, we adopted the well-worn tactic of playing the recording of a Collared Owlet to try and stir up the various passerines (songbirds) calling in the area. This worked best on this occasion than at any other time on the trip, (which never yielded the owl though). Long-tailed Minivets and Yellow-browed Tits were typically quick to react, rising to the tops of the trees and calling angrily. However, then the same canopy area was quickly alive with other, less predictable, visitors:  a lone Green Shrike-Babbler appeared just before a pair of Red-tailed Minla (a shock lifer for me) popped up too, closely followed by a Blue-winged Minla too, and then, the biggest surprise of all, an ivory-and-cerulean blue male Ultramarine Flycatcher! Late in the day we did a bit of crosscountry to access a narrow, in-forest river, where we finally all got cracking looks at a Pygmy Cupwing (formerly Pygmy Wren-Babbler), a species which had been toying with us all day long.

For our final, full, day we again decided to hike up to the upper slopes. A short stop lower down though quickly produced a hoped-for, though never guaranteed, pair of Golden Parrotbill, the bird that the term cute was created for. Driving on up the road further, we again came across some Temminck's Tragopan chicks crossing the road, one of which lingered for just enough time to hear the sound of my camera shutter working overtime. Reaching the marsh at nearly 2450m, we quickly realised that the cloud had not yet descended and visibility was atypically good for the place, and therefore quickly pushed on further in the hope of finding a pair of Sichuan Treecreepers which I had found on my scouting trip to the site a year earlier. The treecreeper remained un-found; even after a treecreeper was found in the same area, it turned out to be the more widespread Hodgson's Treecreeper, though still a new trip bird for us. We lunched in the area, in the hope the rarer treecreeper might appear, taking in instant rice, a singing, and scoped, Large Hawk-Cuckoo, and a Black-faced Laughingthrush as we did so. Then we turned about face and began to head down, when the unmistakable trill of a Sichuan Treecreeper reached our ears. A little duel ensued before the bird teed itself on a near dead fir tree. It was a great achievement  as I had missed it on my actual tour there last year, at this very same spot, and made the five-mile round hike worthwhile. We descended, picking up a pair of Brown Parrotbills around the marsh as we did so...

We just had one, final, morning left at Longcanggou, before we would have to head back to Sichuan's capital, and move deep in Tibetan country...

Birding the Sichuan Shans...CHINA (28 May)

Our day on Loncanggou (our first of three), continued, post-Tragopan, and post-post-Tragopan celebrations, with a try for a more local species, and one which could proveas tricky as a tragopan to see: Emei (Grey-faced ) Liocichla, a rare and local species of laughingthrush that occurs on only a few mountains (shans) in SW China. Last year, in spite of hearing many, many of their loud calls at this "new" site it took us until the eleventh hour to get any kind of view of one. I seriously did not want to go through that again. So in the afterglow of the tragopan, and with one calling closeby, I initiated a tense and intense duel with the bird. It swiftly moved closer, evidenced by the jerky movement of the nearest fronds of bamboo, but no sign of the bird itself. Then suddenly its inhibitions were lost and pair pounced onto an open branch in a large broadleaf tree overhead. No repeat of last year, and so we could quickly move on!

Moving uphill, by vehicle, then by foot we checked out a spot where Nick Bray (again) had informed us that an earlier group had found a nesting pair of the rare Grey-hooded Parrotbill, another rare and local Chinese endemic, which we had missed altogether last year. Not so, again, this year, with a pair of these diminutive creatures popping up into the bamboo, barely 50 metres into our walk. If only all rare and local species would behave like this it was set to be one hell of a tour!

We pushed on upslope with the lure of further parrrotbills and key species, making it to a highland, bamboo-fringed marsh, the home of parrotbills and bush-warblers we hoped; and so it proved. Spotted Bush-Warbler (the most attractive of a rather attractive bunch), came in spectacularly well, doing everything but crawling across my shoe, and a fortuitous meeting with another bird guide on site (Loncanggou was crowded this year compared to last when we were the only group to visit during our time there), Sid Francis, who sent a messenger over (mid-Bush-warbler) to let us know our other main target bird there, Brown Parrotbill, was showing. I was getting to like all these other bird guides around, they were doing all the work for me (I assure you though I passed on info to them too, which I sincerely hope was also helpful!) We soon got mist-drenched views of the parrotbill, the descending mist scuppering our plans to head a little higher to the site of Sichuan Treecreeper. On the way back down the mountain in the afternoon we also added the endemic Pere David's Tit (another looker), and Golden-breasted Fulvetta (a serious looker), a Russet Bush-Warbler (NOT a looker), and the local, though unimpressive ( to my group anyway), Emei Leaf-Warbler too.

More from Loncanggou in Sichuan's southern Shans to come...

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....