Daxueshan National Nature Reserve, Yongde County, Yunnan

Bar-throated (formerly "Chestnut-tailed") Minla Minla strigula

Yongde county, Yunnan - 10th January 2013

Enquiries at Womulong weren't getting us anywhere so our next overnight stop was the hamlet of Mahuangqing, 26 km closer to Lincang city. 

A new record cheap room for us (RMB 20) ! A view of the slopes of Daxueshan across the valley compensated for lack of more conventional facilities.  The following day, Crested Finchbills seemed to be everywhere.....

Crested Finchbill Spizixos canifrons

In a local minivan we went back up to the high point of Route S 313  around km62 and turned up a track westwards. A short walk up through a graveyard led us to the edge of the big trees, with the elevation about 2,500m. According to "A Biodiversity Review of China" (WWF HK - 1996) Daxueshan NNR has the most southerly stand of Himalayan Hemlock (Tsuga dumosa) trees in China.  These may be higher up on the mountain, we didn't see them.

the path to Daxueshan

White-tailed Nuthatch  Sitta himalayensis

In the time we were there we found three species of "Minla" and four species of "Yuhina" and other  birds typical of moss-covered big trees, here are some examples.

Black-headed Shrike Babbler Pteruthius rufiventer

Streaked Barwing Actinodura souliei

Rufous-vented Yuhina Yuhina occipitalis

Yellow-cheeked Tit Parus spilonotus

"Himalayan" Bluetail  Tarsiger rufilatus

Back to the main road, and we birded a track to a fire lookout opposite the Nature Reserve.  Grey-headed Bullfinch and Maroon-backed Accentor were seen but these often-confiding species were very shy.

View east from the fire lookout

Yellow-browed Tit Sylviparus modestus

Gould's Sunbird Aethopyga gouldiae

Rufous-bellied Squirrel

Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush Monticola rufiventris (female)

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Not wanting to outstay our welcome in Mahuangqing, we hurried on to Lincang city.  To the east of the city lies Wulaoshan National Forest Park.  The going rate for a taxi up there is RMB 150. After 18km there is an entrance gate and a cobbled road runs along a dry ridge for 8km.

where we stayed - the 3 story building

The area we stayed had experienced various attempts to make a commercial success of the place with a derelict fountain and ornamental garden, some landscaping around a small reservoir, various pagodas and a sorry excuse for a zoo. 

Nearly all the original trees were long ago felled. There are pockets of native broadleaf and a few aged pines, but much of the area is covered by a blanket of planted pine trees, in many places in straight rows. It is similar habitat to places like Jixi Shan (Chuxiong) or Shibao Shan (near Lijiang). We thought we heard Yunnan Nuthatches on our first afternoon, but we didn't actually see any in two days of birding there.

Here are a few of the birds on the mountain top and the access road.

Streak-breasted Scimitar-babbler Pomatorhinus ruficollis

Common Buzzard Buteo (b) vulpinus

Streak-throated Fulvetta  Fulvetta manipurensis

White-collared Yuhina Yuhina diademata

Black-headed Sibia Heterophasia melanoleuca

Grey-cheeked Fulvetta  Alcippe fratercula

Black-throated Tit Aegithalos concinnus

Gould's Sunbird Aethopyga gouldiae

Blue-fronted Redstart Phoenicurus frontalis

Buff-throated Warbler Phylloscopus subaffinis

Red-tailed Minla Minla ignotincta

Wulaoshan must be a summer retreat for people in Lincang city, so it was understandably quiet up there in January.  The birds were mostly uncooperative, and even the buntings didn't allow close approach.

"What, US worry ?" 

Lincang city is undergoing a huge building boom.  Banners in town celebrated the recent appointment of a local representative to China's NPCCC for the first time.

It was refreshing to see a few egrets in agricultural fields and ponds near Lincang. Our final surprise was an  Asian Openbill.  They seen to be spreading north into Yunnan Province, after a first record as recently as October 2006 (China Bird Report 2006). They now seem to be quite common in Xishangbanna, for example.

Asian Openbill Anastomus oscitans

Openbills are spreading south to Malaysia and Singapore, too..- see here:

http://confoley.com/batang-tiga

and here:

http://penangbirder.blogspot.hk/2013/02/a-tufted-twitch-02022013.html

No more bus journeys for us; we flew back to Kunming a couple of hours after seeing the Lincang Openbill.

(The bird names used in the captions are in accordance - I trust - with my 2011 edition of Craig Robson's "Birds of SE Asia". )

Something in the air…

A patch of winter sunshine and the welcome sight of a few birds over the fishponds of the New Territories.

Eastern Imperial Eagle  Aquila heliaca

Common Kestrel  Falco tinnunculus

House Swift  Apus nipalensis

And, if the day is overcast, any background except the sky will do, even if it IS the skyscrapers of Tin Shui Wai.

Western Osprey  Pandion haliaetus

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In other news, plenty of Dunlin around on the tideline at Mai Po this afternoon (Feb. 3rd), including this one with leg flags from Bohai Bay.  Found by John Allcock, not yours truly.

Dunlin  Calidris alpina

Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris

One of over twenty Great Knot present

Nordmann's Greenshank Tringa guttifer

And a lone Nordmann's Greenshank.

And the Baer's Pochard, last seen in mid-January, has done a bunk !

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Air Quality is a topic of constant discussion here in Hong Kong, especially when winter winds blow crud - er, sorry, "haze" - down from the north.  But a few particulates can give a certain extra glow to a sunset, and here are three examples from Nam Sang Wai earlier this week.

Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus

You need a particular concentration of pollution to avoid blowing the highlights of a setting sun, but don't ask me how many particulates per million it has to be.  Anyhow, nature and mankind were working in harmony to create this effect last Tuesday ! 

Great Cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo

Lincang birding, and some bits in between

 Common Kestrel Falco tinnunculus

Like the trip itself, this post is mostly "context", with a few birds thrown in.

Our first stop in Lincang was Cangyuan, a border town with a lot of greenfield development going on south of the old settlement.

Home to the Wa ethnic minority, Cangyuan wants to present itself as a tourist destination, although so far the world hasn't paid much attention.  BUT - something I like in a would-be "destination" - they have produced a map of the county, available for 3 RMB in local bookshops with scenic spots and nature reserves highlighted.  Perhaps some of the tourism ambition will be achieved when an airport is built in the area in 2014. 

One of the tourist spots among limestone cliffs coincided with the only one for the area on my Nelles South China map; - "Precipice Paintings".

Off we duly went, and climbed a long flight of stone steps to a platform built under a plain rock face.  

The centuries have not been kind to the original  neolithic depictions of hunting scenes, etc. but some, er, - "touching up" is regularly performed by the descendants of the original artists.

This is true in nearby caves, too.  

The useful Cangyuan tourist map includes how to get to Nangunhe National Nature Reserve nearby, and a stroll along a water catchment at the edge of the reserve turned up a few things.

Black-headed Shrike Babbler Pteruthius rufiventer

Buff-barred Warbler Phylloscopus pulcher

White-browed Shrike Babbler Pteruthius flaviscapis

Yellow-bellied Fantail Rhipidura hypoxantha

Maroon Oriole Oriolus traillii (female)

Later we reached the metropolis of Mangding - another town-fast-becoming-a-city close to the Burmese border. Not quite Las Vegas, but... they've got hustle and palm trees, they're getting there.

Ah, no "Breach of copyright" here, then !

But we wanted to get to "Ta Xue Shan ("Big Snow Mountain") National Nature Reserve" and so headed north east, stopping in Wumulong village.  The Yi ethnic minority are the most influential.  The married women have a rather other-worldly look with their large head dresses and gowns. There was plenty  to see on market day.

Don't worry, here arms were tucked inside her tunic...

I think this is the only place I've actually seen "street dentists" in action:-

BOTH of them are braver than me !

We spent a few hours birding along the road to the west of town. But most of the birds were too far away to get a decent photo, so you'll have to take my word for it. 

Finally, the bus waiting room at Banlao.  

Such places are surely a metaphor for life itself;- Waiting for that long journey, mostly unexciting, but with a few surprises perhaps ?

Whatever.

New Year in Lincang, Yunnan

White-browed Piculet (Sasia ochracea)

We've been "Off Air" for a while, having spent four weeks over the festive season in the wilds of China's Yunnan Province.

Lincang is a Yunnan prefecture with a long border with Burma. It lies between the self-proclaimed tropical paradise of Xishangbanna in Yunnan's south and the well-known birding sites around Ruili, north of the Sweli River.  

Right off the bat, I can tell you that Lincang is not going to become any kind of birding "Mecca". There is a wide variety of birds, but, due to excessive hunting there are very few large birds and those that remain, from bulbuls in size downwards, are very shy of humans.

But the place is still interesting for a variety of reasons, which I will try to show in subsequent posts.

White-browed Piculet (Sasia ochracea)

The two Piculet shots in this post were the best of about fifty Jemi fired off at this understandably shy individual.

On New Years' Eve 2012 we were in the small town of Banlao, close to the National Nature Reserve of the same name.  We had a brief view of a single Asian Pied Hornbill from a catchment road near a dam at the boundary of the Nature Reserve.  Like the ghost of so many large birds which must have fallen to local hunters, it glided silently over a ridge and was never seen again. 

On New Years' Day we decided to check out the view from some stupas on top of a hill overlooking the town. Along the way we could see mist in the valleys to the southeast, lit by the first rays of the sun.  This kind of view is especially welcome when there aren't many birds around.

On New Years' Day 2013 the ethnically-Burmese worshippers on the hilltop responded enthusiastically to a greeting of " Mingalaba ! ". 

Beside the stupas we photographed the misty morning views views to the southwest, into Burma itself. 

Nearby, we had fleeting views - and no photos - of a fast-moving group of a dozen-or-so Longtailed Broadbills.  Also, a number of Swiflets with broad, buff rumps, which I guessed must be Himalayan Swiftlets.

Himalayan Swiftlet (Collocalia brevirostris)

Yellow-cheeked Tit (Parus spilonotus) was also present.

There is a monument in the centre of town which celebrates the 1930s solidarity and bravery of the local population against an incursion from Burma by the dastardly British, but this has all been forgiven, it seems, and I was greeted warmly everywhere. They don't see many foreigners in Banlao these days.

At sunset, we went back to the stupa hilltop and took sunset photos of the same hills we had snapped shortly after sunrise.

And, Yes !  - a confession.....I tweaked the "saturation" bar in photoshop to get these Kodachrome-like effects.  But there was some warmth there already, folks.

Might as well get the years' posts off to a full-and-frank start.