We were up early to get to the top of Hehuanshan Mountain before the crowds of selfie-takers and hopefully before the fog arrived at the summit to, hopefully, find the endemic subspecies of Alpine Accentor. We left at just gone 06:00 and wound our way up the mountain. First we stopped in a car park just below the summit, here we recorded
White-whiskered Laughingthush,
Daurian Redstart and
Taiwan Rosefinch but no Accentor. The pass was again fog bound and thronging with selfie takers even at this early hour and so we desended to the Song Shue Lodge area on the the east side of the pass. The sun was shining and we had high hopes for finding the accentor but despite spending at least an hour here there was no sign and all we saw were 25
Asian House Martin as well as the usual species. We then made a brief stop at a small car park at the foot of the climb to the peak of the mountain and immediately located a fine
Alpine Accentor of the endemic subspecies
fennelli foraging in the car park. The bird gave great views down to a few metres in the sunshine. My eBird checklists for the area can be viewed
here and
here.
Alpine Accentor - Song Shue Lodge, Hehuan Shan Mountain, Wuling, Taiwan
Alpine Accentor - Song Shue Lodge, Hehuan Shan Mountain, Wuling, Taiwan
Alpine Accentor - Song Shue Lodge, Hehuan Shan Mountain, Wuling, Taiwan
Alpine Accentor - Song Shue Lodge, Hehuan Shan Mountain, Wuling, Taiwan
With our target species secured we began the descent of the mountain winding around hairpin bends and dodging Taiwanese drivers cornering on the wrong side of the road. A stop at the Blue Gates trail for one last try for Taiwan Shortwing produced relatively little but for
Taiwan Cupwing,
Eurasian Jay,
Yellow Tit and three adult
Taiwan Partridge with a very small downy chick. We returned to our hotel, packed our bags and set off on the 3.5 hour drive to Firefly Lodge. My eBird checklist for the Blue Gates Trail can be viewed
here.
Taiwan Barbet - Bluegates Trail, Wushe, Taiwan
Black-throated Tit - Bluegates Trail, Wushe, Taiwan
Black-throated Tit - Bluegates Trail, Wushe, Taiwan
On arrival at Firefly Lodge we were whisked at high speed through the forest up a steep track to the bird hide where over the next couple of hours we enjoyed good views of up to six
Taiwan Partridge and five
Swinhoe’s Pheasant. At 17:30 we were taken back to the lodge where we settled into our Pink Panther themed room, showered and ate and did the log in the garden getting views of
Collared Scop's Owl and hearing
Mountain Scop's Owl and
Collared Owlet. My eBird checklists for the area can be viewed
here and
here.
Taiwan Partridge - Firefly Lodge, Dingben, Taiwan
Swinhoe's Pheasant - Firefly Lodge, Dingben, Taiwan
Links to Other Days of the Trip (Click to View)
South Korea
Taiwan
