We awoke to a thick fog and so had breakfast at 06:30 and decided to head off from the Poyang Hu Reserve at Wu Cheng a day early to bird the mountain of Emei Feng. After breakfast in a small local restaurant we drove back across the causeway and stopped to scan the marshes of Poyang Lake as the fog lifted slightly, still in the hope that a Lesser White-fronted Goose maybe feeding with the
Greater White-fronted Goose flock but it was not to be. A family party of three
Hooded Crane gave us our best views yet - albeit in the fog. We headed off on our drive, but a short diversion to a small village to the south-west of Wu Cheng produced a flock of around 1,500
Rook of the eastern race
pastinator and 15
Daurian Jackdaw.
Two adult and a juvenile Hooded Crane - Poyang Hu Reserve, Wu Cheng
Wu Cheng Town
Rook of race pastinator which has a more feathered face than the nominate race in Europe - Near to Wu Cheng
Service station selling live crabs from Poyang Lake. Soft shelled turtles were also commonly seen for sale for eating at these service stations.
Well stocked service station
A short stop in Taining for lunch supplies and we were off climbing the winding mountain road of Emei Feng Mountain which we birded from around 16:00-18:15. Much of our birding was from the vehicle on a so called ‘Gamebird Drive’. This involved us slowly driving up the road to the summit, down the road and back again. As we drove we scanned the road and adjacent forested slopes for our key target species Koklas Pheasant, Elliot’s Pheasant and Cabot’s Tragopan. The very first pheasant that we saw was a fine male
Elliot’s Pheasant in the grass on the roadside no more than five metres from the car, unfortunately, by the time we had stopped the bird had fled down a bank, across a river and into the forest. This stopped also produced
White-crowned Forktail and
Slaty-backed Forktail as well as
Plumbeous Water-redstart. The next pheasant was a fleeting view of a female
Silver Pheasant but we need not worry as we saw several more family parties including several fine males several of which showed well. Finally, higher up a male
Koklass Pheasant flew from the roadside and gave brief but good flight views – this it seemed was to be typical of most of our sightings of this species over the coming day and a half.
Taining Town Market
Taining Town Market produce
Taining Town Market
Taining Town Market produce
Taining Town Market produce
Limestone karst between Taining Town and Emei Feng
Limestone karst between Taining Town and Emei Feng
Landscape between Taining Town and Emei Feng, the most scenic area we visited on the tour
Landscape between Taining Town and Emei Feng, the most scenic area we visited on the tour
Plumbeous Water-redstart - Emei Feng, Taining
White-crowned Forktail - Emei Feng, Taining
Slat-backed Forktail - Emei Feng, Taining
Silver Pheasant (female) - Emei Feng, Taining
Silver Pheasant (male) of race fokiensis - Emei Feng, Taining
Super Moon - Emei Feng, Taining
After dinner in the small village at the bottom of the mountain road we returned to our Hotel, the rather grotty and run-down Garden Lodge at the top of the Emeifeng Mountain road. We spent a while before bed enjoying the superb 'Super Moon' that was visible in the unusually clear skies . A super Moon occurs when a full Moon coincides with the Moon's closest approach to Earth. The super Moon this evening was the closest since 26th January 1948 and the next time a full Moon is even closer to Earth will be on 25th November 2034.
Life Birds;
- Elliot’s Pheasant
- Chestnut-collared Yuhina
Links to Other Days of the Trip (Click to View)
