The Deskbound Birder: China (SE and Xianjiang)

Sunday, 22 April 2018

China (SE and Xianjiang) - Background and Day 1 and 2

Background
Having visited south-east China in November 2016 and having dipped Cabot’s Tragopan I had, since then, had plans to go back and try again for this species plus Blue-capped Laughingthrush and Chinese Crested Tern so when Ian Merrill contacted me about a trip to south-east China for these species I leapt at it – even before I had told Sarah. In addition, the plan was to go for Reeve’s Pheasant and then to Xianjiang in the north-west of China for Xianjiang Ground-jay, Blue-capped Redstart, Eversmann’s Redstart and Red-mantled Rosefinch. There were a potential 25 or so ticks for me but I thought that if I got 30 ticks that would be good going.

Logistics
The entire trip was booked by Ian through Tang-Jun of China Bird Tour (tangjun@chinabirdtour.com) and I had little involvement in the itinerary. Tang-Jun was very responsive to email and the trip was generally very well planned with just the right amount of time to see all the birds at each of the sites. While Tang-Jun is clearly good at the organisation of a trip and was invaluable for sorting day to day logistics we didn’t consider him a great bird guide. He knew the locations of the birds and new of specific territories and approximate areas of where to find the key species but his knowledge of bird calls and general field identification skills fell short of what one would expect of a good bird guide. It was largely left to us to find and identify the birds and as a result we certainly missed a fair few ‘padders’. He was also often to be found on the phone while on trails or loitering around the vehicle smoking while we were birding rather than out with us finding the birds – this was largely left to us. Personally, I felt that for the money we had paid (around £4,000 each all inclusive) we should have had an excellent birder and logistical manager which Tan-Jun was not. That said I would have little hesitation in recommending Tan-Jun but I would definitely not take it for granted that he will show you all the Phylloscopus warblers (for example) and I would definitely try and negotiate on the price for this very reason. Throughout the trip, Tang-Jun had organised transportation (generally a bus and driver) and booked all of the accommodation. All food and water was provided within the cost and we had to pay for personal items, mainly beer, ourselves.

My travel companions for the trip were Ian Merrill, Andy Deighton, Barry Wright, Volkert van der Willigen, Martin Kennewll and Andy Bunting. I had travelled extensively with all previously and it was great to spend time with a group that gets on so well for an extended period of time.

Weather
The weather during the trip was very variable. At Dongtai on the first couple of days it was cool and overcast with a strong wind and showers. The middle section of the trip was generally variable with a few showers, sunny periods and temperatures of around 15-24c. At Emeifeng we experienced a fair amount of fog and rain, typical of this site which is located at around 1,500m. In the Taklamakan Desert in Xianjiang in the north-west of China it was dry and warm with temperatures around 27c. In contrast, in the Tian Shan Mountains in Xianjiang, we had a day of heavy snow settling to around 15cm and temperatures of around 0c. We were under-prepared for the snow and it was a cold days birding!

Annoyances
Generally this was a very comfortable journey with few health issues encountered and hygiene standards and accommodation were largely good. There were many mosquitos at in Xianjiang and as a result the site was quite an unpleasant place to bird. We also contracted a bout of food poisoning from the aeroplane food when we flew from Wuhan to Urumqi with Urumqi Air. The day after the flight, and with a five hour drive to complete, most of us were feeling decidedly dodgy and multiple toilet stops were made. The accommodation at the top of Emeifeng is of a poor standard being damp and dirty with mouldy beds. I understand that others stay in the village at the bottom of the mountain and this may well be a better option, although where we stayed the birding was on our doorstep.

Photography
Photographic opportunities on the trip were generally good although at Emeifeng weather conditions were far from suitable with fog and rain. I took with me my Canon 1DX Mark II, Canon 400mm DO Mark II and a Canon 1.4 Mark III Extender. Largely this combination was suitable for the conditions.

Summary Itinerary

21st April (Day 1) – International flight from London Heathrow at 13:40.
22nd April (Day 2) – Landed Shaghai Airport at 08:00. Drive to Jianggang. Birding Dongtai PM. Night Green Tree Hotel, Jianggang.
23rd April (Day 3) – Birding Dongtai all day. Night Green Tree Hotel, Jianggang.
24th April (Day 4) – Birding Dongtai AM. Then drive to Yangkou to bird Magic Wood. Drive to Mingjiang to south-east of Shanghai. Night Holiday Inn, Mingjiang.
25th April (Day 5) – Birding Nanhui in the Mingjiang area then fly Shanghai to Fuzhou at 16:30.
26th April (Day 6) - Birding on Shanutan Island AM and then to Fuzhou Forest Park PM. Night in Fuzhou close to Forest Park.
27th April (Day 7) - Birding Fuzhou Forest Park AM then drive (7 hours) to Emeifeng. Birding Emeifeng PM. Night in the accommodation at the top of Emeifeng.
28th April (Day 8) - Birding Emeifeng all day. Night in the accommodation at the top of Emeifeng.
29th April (Day 9) - Birding Emeifeng all day. Night in the accommodation at the top of Emeifeng.
30th April (Day 10) - Birding Emeifeng AM and then 8-hour drive to Wuyuan. Birding Wuyuan PM. Night at Wuyuan.
1st May (Day 11) – Birding Wuyuan area all day. Night at Wuyuan.
2nd May (Day 12) - Drive of around 10-hours from Wuyuan to Dongzhai. Birding Dongzhai PM. Night Dongzhai.
3rd May (Day 13) - Dongzhai birding all day. Night at Dongzhai.
4th May (Day 14) - Birding Dongzhai AM then drive to Wuhan. Flight from Wuhan to Urumqi (13:30) then to Korlor landing at 20:40. Night in Korlor.
5th May (Day 15) - Drive 6-hours from Korlor to Luntain. Then birding in the Taklamakan Desert south of Xiaotang PM. Night in Luntain.
6th May (Day 16) - Birding in the Taklamakan Desert south of Xiaotang PM. Then drive 5 hours to Korlor and fly to Urumqi at 18:45. Night Urumqi.
7th May (Day 17) - Birding at Nanshan in the Tien Shan Mountains until 17:00 then drive to Urumqi (1 hour) and fly to Beijing at 18:15 landing at 22:45. Hotel in Beijing.
8th May (Day 18) - International flight departing Beijing at 11:15 and landing at London Heathrow at 15:30 (duration 10 hours 30 minutes).

Map showing the key sites and species recorded during our trip. Zoom into map and click on pins for more details.

21st and 22nd April - International Flight and Dongtai Sandflats, Rudong, Jiangsu
Heading to Heathrow Airport at 09:00 on 21st April, I made good time and was through check-in and security by 11:00 giving me a couple of hours to relax in the British Airways lounge before my 13:40 flight to Shanghai. Boarding the bus to the aeroplane, I met with Barry, Ian, Andy D and Andy B before we were transported, seemingly halfway across the airport to our awaiting plane. I spent the 10.5-hour flight reading up on the birds we would be looking for, having a few glasses of wine and catching up on some much needed sleep – the previous week had been hectic at work and I had been suffering from a definite case of sleep deprivation. Our flight made good progress and while we arrived around 15 minutes early the long taxi across Shanghai Airport meant that we were on stand at around 08:00, our scheduled arrival time. Passing through the formalities of the airport we emerged at around 09:15 where Volkert and Tan-Jun (our guide) were waiting for us and we were soon on the bus heading out of city north bound to Jianggang. We drove through the rather featureless Chinese landscape of arable fields, wind turbines, new towns and seemingly empty tower blocks before eventually turning off the main road to the coast and past a vast solar farm through coastal reclamation to the seawall that borders the Dongtai sandflats. I was last here on 10th November 2016 and there seemed to have been a great deal of change with new car parking areas and a large expansion in the area of lagoons and excavations occurring behind the seawall.

We first headed north along the seawall and scanned the mudflats. There were vast numbers of wader with many thousands of birds present seemingly carpeting the mudflats. We recorded Red-necked Stint (probably the most abundant species), Dunlin, Curlew Sandpiper, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Terek Sandpiper, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Far-eastern Curlew, Eurasian Curlew, Whimbrel, Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit, Asiatic Dowitcher, Lesser Sandplover, Greater Sandplover, Kentish Plover, Grey Plover, Pacific Golden Plover, Ruddy Turnstone, Great Knot, Red Knot, Redshank and Greenshank. Overhead were the constant ‘kek’ calls of beautiful summer plumaged Saunder’s Gull – small dainty gulls somewhat like a mix of Franklin’s Gull and Little Gull – real stunning little birds. These calls were mixed with the display calls of Common Tern of the subspecies longipennis and those of Little Tern. Driving further south along the coast we wandered across the now sand-based substrate and the prime feeding area of our main target here, Spoon-billed Sandpiper. As we walked we scanned the large flocks of waders which were dominated by Red-necked Stint, Barry eventually picked up a Spoon-billed Sandpiper but the rest of us failed to get onto it as it wandered into the main flock part of which then took flight. We wandered further to the waters edge and I located a further Spoon-billed Sandpiper but amongst the large number of Red-necked Stint the others failed to get a good view and I eventually lost the bird amongst the throngs. We also added Gull-billed Tern and Caspian Tern to the list but failed to get everyone onto the main target. Still, we had all day tomorrow at the site to try and we headed to the hotel for much needed dinner, beer and bed.

Saunder's Gull - Dongtai Sandflats. Rudong

The constant calls of Saunder's Gull created the soundscape as they flew overhead at Dongtai

We initially identified this gull as Vega Gull but now consider it to be a Mongolian Gull, any comments would be gratefully received. HBW makes life easy, they lump Mongolian and Vega with American Herring Gull and call the three aggregated subspecies Arctic Herring Gull - Dongtai Sandflats. Rudong