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Birding
trip report Sichuan, China 26 May – 9 June 2011 John van der Woude - www.jvanderw.nl |
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report(below) - species list - photos of birding sites - bird photos - other photos (street life, scenery) | |
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This
was a succesful and quite affordable trip. Nollie and I had a great time with our guide
and driver Sid Francis. Sid is from the UK but lives near Chengdu, the
capital of Sichuan. He is
a serious and enthousiastic birder (employed in field research as
well), a good driver, and skilful in
logistics. He speaks enough Chinese to bring you anywhere, and where
his Chinese was not sufficient, he just took his mobile phone to call
his Chinese wife Meggie to have things sorted out. See his
http://sichuanbirding.cloudaccess.net/.
He
used
his own Suzuki van, with untinted windows (a rarity here but much
better for birding of course), good ground clearance and ample space
for our luggage and scope. We had a flexible itinerary, so we could decide where to go depending on the weather (which was rather variable) and the road conditions, and depending on what bird species (lifers) we still needed. The highlights we saw were, among others, Severtzov's (Chinese) Grouse, Chinese Monal, Lady Amherst Pheasant, White and Blue Eared Pheasant, Black-necked Crane, Sichuan Jay, Chinese and Kessler's Thrush, Chinese Blue Flycatcher, Firethroat, White-bellied, Hodgson's and White-throated Redstart, Przewalski's Nuthatch, Sichuan and Hodgson's Treecreeper, White-browed Tit, Russet and Chestnut-crowned Bush Warbler, Crested and White-browed Tit-Warbler, Sichuan, Gansu, Chinese and Emei Leaf Warbler, Plain, Snowy-cheeked, Giant and Red-winged Laughingthrush, Hwamei, Emei Shan Liocichla, Golden-breasted, Chinese and Spectacled Fulvetta, Great, Ashy-throated, Grey-hooded, Fulvous and Golden Parrotbill, Tibetan Lark, Tibetan and Rufous-necked Snowfinch, Maroon-backed Accentor, Tibetan Siskin, Brandt's Mountain Finch, Long-tailed, Vinaceous and Pink-rumped Rosefinch, Slaty Bunting; Tibetan Fox and Pallas's Cat. Hotels and restaurants were easy to find. We opted for hotels close to the birding sites, which means that they were sometimes a bit simpler than better hotels further away, but always with private bathroom with hot shower, for c. 10 euro to sometimes 30 euro per room (mostly around 15 euro). We preferred to eat in simple but busy restaurants, and never had any stomach problems. In the restaurants we often went straight to the kitchen to see what food they had, and we mostly had delicious tofu dishes with vegetables and rice and a beer, in total for 2 to 3 euro p.p. For the early breakfast we brought some bread and jam etc. into our room (nearly all rooms had water cookers to make tea), or had breakfast in the field. For lunch we sometimes had a meal in a restaurant, but often we had a bread lunch in the field.
Birding
and driving went on for most of the daylight hours. We used our
telescope quite a few times (for pheasants, raptors etc.), but we
chose not to bring it on forest trails. Sid had brought all the
essential bird sounds, for reference and for taping out, and he also
used his recording equipment. Of course we used the MacKinnon &
Phillipps field guide, and Sid could tell us which illustrations are
not fully right, at least for Sichuan. Also, he knows the recent
splits. We also used Mark Brazil’s Birds of Eastern Asia, which had
better illustrations for some of the species. Every evening we did a
roll-call for the checklist, together with Sid.
For
our birding localities, see the Sichuan map below and the
birding sites photo section. Our itinerary was:
On
this 15-day well-guided private trip we observed 258 bird species of
which 116 were lifers (seen).
As we mainly went for lifers, we occasionally skipped
possible trip ticks which would take a long time.
See the complete species list. See also comments at the
birding
site photos
and our modest
bird
photos.
Listen to some sound recordings at the bottom of this page. The total cost of this trip was very reasonable, even compared with self-guided trips (but Sid's rate understandably has gone up since).
Apart
from birds we keep many other nice memories of China and the Chinese.
See the section with other
photos.
It was a pleasure to be there. |
![]() Black-necked Crane ![]() Red-fronted Rosefinch ![]() Balang pass ![]() Firethroat ![]() Chinese Serow ![]() Our guide Sid Francis, who lives in Sichuan. ![]() Pingwu market hall |
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Sound recordings
See also species
list - photos
of birding sites - bird
photos - |
![]() Chinese character for 'Sichuan', on car number plate. |
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