We awoke to a thick fog in which we could barely see 50m but as we had breakfast the fog began to clear which gave us a little more hope of a successful day birding on Emei Feng Mountain. After a breakfast of coffee, bread, biscuits and banana’s we boarded the bus and began a slow drive down the mountain road with the primary aim of seeing Cabot’s Tragopan. The conditions we pretty grey and gloomy with, in places, thick fog patches reducing visibility down to around 50m. We recorded somewhere in the region of 30
Silver Pheasant mainly in parties of around five or six birds often with more than one male. We had good views of a pair of
Elliot’s Pheasant as they ran up a track away from the road and we flushed approximately six
Koklas Pheasant from the road with one party of three birds. But there was no sign of any Cabot’s Tragopan. We then birded an area of forest and buildings around the monastery near to the summit of the road. This produced my first
Chinese Bamboo Partridge which showed well as well as
Radde’s Warbler,
Chestnut Bulbul,
Mountain Bulbul,
Black-throated Bushtit and
Chinese Hwamei.
Silver Pheasant - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Silver Pheasant - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Silver Pheasant - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Elliot's Pheasant (male) - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Elliot's Pheasant (female) - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Lower slopes of Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Silver Pheasant - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Mountain Bulbul of subspecies holtii - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Chinese Bamboo Partridge - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Silver Pheasant - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Black-throated Bushtit - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Hoary Bamboo-rat ready for the pot, the Chinese seem to catch and eat anything and everything - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
After lunch we birded an old vehicle track near to the accommodation at the summit of the mountain road but in the fog this was fairly slow going. The highlights were a brief view of a
White’s Thrush feeding on the trail, a
Red-flanked Bluetail and a small flock of
Yellow-browed Bunting. The woodland surrounding the trail was fantastic and I could see the potential of the trail if only it were not foggy. We birding the trail until 15:00 and then birded around a lake just down from the lodge and adjacent to the monastery. The boardwalk around the monastery produced
Red-flanked Bluetail,
Tristram’s Bunting and a
Dusky Thrush.
Daurian Redstart - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Dusky Thrush - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Great Tit of subspecies commixtus - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Tristram's Bunting - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Yellow-browed Warbler - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Temple - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
Statue at Temple - Emei Feng Mountain, Taining
The final couple of hours of daylight were again spent on a gamebird drive up and down the mountain road mainly in the hope if seeing Cabot’s Tragopan but with no luck. The first bird I spotted I called as a female Tragopan and I was convinced of this based on my view, it appeared mottled and short-tailed in the brief view from the bus. But when we stopped two
Elliot’s Pheasant flew from a spot nearby. I put this bird down to a poorly seen Elliot’s Pheasant but there is still a great deal of doubt in my mind and I believe that this bird may have been a Tragopan – one that got away. Up and down the road we went but no Tragopan but more fleeting views of
Koklass Pheasant, good views of
Silver Pheasant plus
Spotted Forktail.
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.
Life Birds;
Links to Other Days of the Trip (Click to View)
