South-east to North-west China - 4th May (Day 14)

We were up at 04:30 and after breakfast of egg sandwich we were onto the same trail at Dongzhai Nature Reserve as yesterday for the Fairy Pitta but with no luck. We saw relatively little recording a Reeve's Pheasant drop from high up its tree roost, Grey-capped Woodpecker and heard a Chinese Song Thrush. We then headed onto the track to the Reeve's Pheasant hide where a territory of Fairy Pitta was present last year but we had no luck. A Chinese Sparrowhawk soared overhead but we saw little else. At 08:00 we headed back to the bus, on the way to the hotel a female Reeve's Pheasant appeared on the road and stood motionless in the forest not far from the side of the road for a while. We headed back to our rooms, finished packing had a quick check of the rice paddies for Chinese Crested Ibis and then head back to Wuyuan at 08:30 for our 13:30 flight to Urumuqi in the far northwest of China in Xingjiang province.

Chinese Sparrowhawk - Dongzhai Nature Reserve

Female Reeve's Pheasant - Dongzhai Nature Reserve

View of mountains in central China from our flight from Wuyuan to Urumuqi 

The Wuyuan to Urumuqi flight was around 4.5 hours and we then had a 20:40 flight from Urumuqi to Korlor arriving at around 21:30. We met our new driver for this section, the very amiable Mr. Lee and transferred to our hotel in Korlor, a 40 minute drive only to discover on arrival at the hotel that Tang-Jun had left his bag with around £10,000 worth of uninsured camera kit and binoculars in the car park of the airport. Fortunately, security at the airport was high and as our arrival was late in the evening and there were few people around a Police officer had spotted the bag and Tang-Jun recovered his equipment. There was no time for dinner but none of us felt like eating, mainly because it appeared that an upset stomach was taking hold of the group. I spent much of the night back and forth to the toilet!

Links to Other Days of the Trip (Click to View)
Day 1 and 2 – International flight and Dongtai.
Day 3 - Dongtai.
Day 4 – Dongtai and Magic Wood.
Day 5 - Nanhui then fly to Fuzhou.
Day 6 - Shanutan Island and Fuzhou Forest Park.
Day 7 - Fuzhou Forest Park then Emeifeng Mountain.
Day 8 - Emeifeng Mountain.
Day 9 - Emeifeng Mountain.
Day 10 - Emeifeng Mountain then Wuyuan.
Day 11 - Wuyuan.
Day 12 – Drive Wuyuan to Dongzhai.
Day 13 - Dongzhai.
Day 15 – Taklamakan Desert.
Day 16 – Taklamakan Desert then Urumqi.
Day 17 and 18 – Nanshan in the Tien Shan Mountains then fly Beijing. International flight.