Birding with Arjan Dwarshuis

Mystic mountain

Arjan Dwarshuis 06.12.2014 Bird Travel, Birding

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28/11/2014 – Emeifan Reserve

After a two hour ride by bullet-train we arrived in the city of Taining. From there it was another half hour by car to the small village of Xinqiao, which is situated a 10 minutes drive from Emeifang Reserve; home to 4 beautiful Pheasants: Koklass Pheasant, Silver Pheasant, Cabott’s Tragopan and Elliot’s Pheasant. The latter two are both rare and highly sought after Chinese endemics, but also notoriously difficult to see….

Koklass pheasant by Bas van de Meulengraaf

Koklass pheasant by Bas van de Meulengraaf

Right after lunch we stepped into two taxi’s that took us uphill, through the entrance gate and into the park. We all experienced that – now familiar – feeling of tension in our kidney’s (at least I did – taking Imodium when the need is not at the highest causes some troubles I guess… ). We estimated that our chances of finding even one of the targeted pheasant right at mid day were small, especially given the fact that the sun was burning amidst a clear blue sky and Pheasants normally prefer damp foggy conditions. So it was a big surprise to all of us that during our first short stop – to checkout some calling passerines along the roadside – Reinoud suddenly called out: ‘Pheasant!’ We raced to where he was standing and could all just see a male Koklass Pheasant darting down the hillside!

Barely half a second later our drivers started yelling and pointing at the hillside above them. We all ran to where they were standing as fast as we could. I arrived first and aimed my binoculars at the given direction and to my astonishment saw a male Cabott’s Tragopan! What the fuck!? I went bananas and screamed ‘Tragopan!!!’ Moments later we witnessed something that we never held possible in our wildest dreams. No fewer than 7 (!) male Tragopans were foraging on the hillside 20 meters above us; at one point 5 of them even climbed up a tree to feed on some small berries. Ridiculous!

Cabots tragopan by Bas van de Meulengraaf

Cabots tragopan by Bas van de Meulengraaf

After this show – that lasted for more than 15 minutes – we drove up to the summit and slowly started walking down again. Suddenly we heard a movement in the leaf litter and crazily enough there was another much wanted species feeding right in the open: Chinese Bamboo Partridge, a smaller nephew of the Pheasants. Two birds allowed for excellent photographing opportunities which left Bas and Garry with big smiles on their faces.

The rest of the day was spend roadside birding. We came across several large mixed feeding flocks that contained a fine selection of forest species. Best were a male Sultan Tit and two Lesser Yellownapes; two species that have become increasingly rare over the past decades in eastern China due to habitat fragmentation and trapping for the illegal feather and pet trade.

Lesser yellownape by Garry Bakker

Lesser yellownape by Garry Bakker

Sultan tit by Garry Bakker

Sultan tit by Garry Bakker

It was almost dark when we drove down when suddenly we spotted our 3th Pheasant of the day: Silver Pheasant! Two males crossed the road right in front of the car Reinoud and I were sitting in, the snowy white tail and back contrasting with the red face and black underpants are truly breath taking. A fantastic end to an awesome days birding!

Silver pheasant by Garry Bakker

Silver pheasant by Garry Bakker

Species list day 8 (underlined are LIFERS)

Chinese Bamboo Partridge 1 pair + 2 heard
Cabot’s Tragopan 7 males + 1 group heard
Koklass Pheasant 1 male
Silver Pheasant 2 males
Bay Woodpecker 3
Lesser Yellownape (Chlorolophoides) 2
Great Barbet Common
White-throated Kingfisher
Oriental Turtle Dove
Eastern Buzzard 1
Crested Goshawk 1
Black Eagle 1
Long-tailed Shrike
Eurasian Jay
Red-billed Blue Magpie
Grey Treepie
Grey-chinned Minivet 1 flock
Chestnut-bellied Rock thrush 1
White’s Thrush 1 brief + 1 Garry
Spotted Forktail
Crested Myna
Japanese Tit
Yellow-cheeked Tit
Sultan Tit 1 male
Black-throated Tit
Mountain Bulbul
Chestnut Bulbul
Brownish-flanked Bush Warbler
Yellow-browed Warbler
Pallas’s Warbler
Rufous-faced Warbler
Chestnut-crowned Warbler 2
Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush 1
Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler
Grey-sided Scimitar Babbler
Huet’s Fulvetta
White-bellied Erpornis
Grey Wagtail
Olive-backed Pipit
Tristram’s Bunting 4

29/11/2014 – Emeifang National Reserve

Three Pheasants were in the bag, but we still needed one to complete our list of 6 possible pheasants on this Epic China trip: Elliot’s Pheasant. This notoriously difficult to find species is most regularly found early morning in open bamboo plantations along the forest edge.

So we slowly drove up through the bamboo plantations – our car just meters behind the first one – while constantly scanning the hills above and below us. Suddenly the first car stopped and we could just see a white tail with brown bars on it disappear over the side of the road; a male Elliot’s Pheasant! We all jumped out of the car and ran to where the Pheasant had disappeared and luckily we all obtained good views. Bas even managed to take a couple of record shots of this mega before it vanished forever in a thick gully. Yes! My main objective for this trip was completed; seeing all the possible Pheasants!

Elliots pheasant by Bas van de Meulengraaf

Elliots pheasant by Bas van de Meulengraaf

We spend the rest of the day birding at various altitudes in the park but no more sightings of the Elliot’s, however we obtained 7 more sightings of Silver Pheasant and a stunning male Koklass Pheasant. We also heard Tragopans calling again uphill, but this time they remained well hidden. Other good sightings were 4 White’s Thrushes, Mandarin Duck, Orange-bellied leafbird and Black Eagle.

Tomorrow afternoon we will have a go for the flagship species of the ‘Champions of the flyway’ campaign, but not before we go up that mountain one more time….

Happy Birding!

Grey treepie by Garry Bakker