2011 Tour Narrative
We’d not been on site for long and were only just beginning to get into habitat when suddenly there it was, perched less than ten metres away. It flew almost as soon as it had been spotted – and it didn’t stop flying! This was our first encounter with Pink-tailed Bunting, a taxonomic enigma that was once a rosefinch but is now a bunting with its own family, and it had been far from satisfactory! It’d take us a full day before we’d rectify the situation and would ALL have views of this gorgeous Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau sprite and even then the bunting, easily the most sought after species on the entire trip, didn’t win the end of tour ‘Bird of the Trip’ poll. Honours went instead to one of the last species we added to our trip list – the largest Tibetan endemic Tibetan Eared Pheasant. The pheasant was one of the first species we encountered on our final day’s birding and several of us had been dreading the strenuous hike up to the Nunnery and were secretly hoping that we wouldn’t have to do it! We were lucky and, after hearing several birds from the car park, we eventually succeeded in seeing them. They were distant but remained out in the open in a high altitude meadow for long enough to allow us all to have repeated ‘scope views. Nevertheless they were distant and we were left wanting more. Sure enough they came closer, and close, and closer and then stayed close until we were satiated. That stunning encounter, of a close-range covey of 12 birds that we eventually walked away from, easily romped away with the end of tour poll…
The tour started well with two full days at Huzhu Bei Shan – a fabulous forested reserve to the north of Xining. On many of our previous visits we’ve camped here, but the road’s been improved to such an extent that we are now able to do day visits from Qinghai’s historic provincial capital. As always we have a number of targets here - Gansu Leaf Warbler fell easily but Przewalsky’s Nuthatch demanded much more effort before it was satisfactorily bagged. Other goodies included an obliging party of four Tibetan Snowcocks, umpteen gorgeous redstarts, Chinese Nuthatch, White-browed Tit, the confusingly similarly named White-browed Tit-warbler, two Black Woodpeckers and an incredibly cooperative Spotted Bush Warbler to mention but a few.
We ventured up on to the Plateau proper the next day. The habitat and avifauna changed as we ascended and rolling grasslands thronged with larks soon became the main scenic feature. Our breakfast stop produced our first Brown Accentors and Pine Bunting, our next stop Mongolian Lark and Woolly Hare and not much later a field full of yaks, goats and majestic Tibetan Larks! Nor did we neglect Qinghai Lake, Koko Nur to some, with its waterfowl, gulls and modest numbers of migrant shorebirds. Here a family part of majestic Black-necked Cranes graced a small marsh while huge numbers of Red-crested Pochard and Great Crested Grebes vied for our attention out on the water. It was also on one of the area’s scrub covered hillsides that overlook the lake where we saw the Pink-tailed Buntings noted earlier as well as our first Lammergeiers, Robin Accentors and our only Ala Shan Redstarts or the tour.
Moving on we paused on the Rubber Mountain Pass to enjoy breakfast before descending in to the deserts to the west. We were unable to find the White-winged Redstarts that have enthralled us here in the past – that species would have to wait a couple more days. We’d no sooner crossed the pass than a superbly cooperative Rusty-necklaced Partridge lured us off the road and back towards a small farming croft. Mongolian Finch, Plain-backed Snowfinch and several Rufous-tailed Shrikes were all added to our list during the blisteringly hot afternoon but it took us until the following morning before we found another primary target in the form of a pair of Mongolian Ground-jays. The very next day we switched to two smaller vehicles as we scurried up to 4500 metres in a successful search for some higher altitude species such as Plain and Brandt’s Mountain Finches, Tibetan Rosefinch and White-winged Redstart. It was here too that we saw our only Cinereous Vulture and no less than 80 White-winged (or Henri’s) Snowfinches.
We all spent a portion of the following morning watching Plain, our sixth and final species of snowfinch, back at Koko Nur before we had to scoot back to Xining. We had a train to catch.
For many the 24 hour train journey from Xining to Lhasa was a highlight of the trip – the beds were comfortable (if a little short for some), the company outstanding and the scenery on this, the planet’s highest rail road, often stunning. Scaling the Tangula Shan Pass, that peaks at a mighty 5072 metres, the rail trip also produced an impressive number of interesting birds including no-less-than 44 Upland Buzzards, 22 Saker Falcons, 52 Ravens and 88 Hoopoes! But it was the seven species of mammal that included 19 Tibetan Antelope, 230 Tibetan Gazelle and 161 Kiang (or Tibetan Wild Ass) that were the real highlights of the journey.
Lhasa lived up to our expectations and we spent much of our first full day in Tibet watching several more highly sought after species – with Pink-rumped Rosefinch, Tibetan Eared Pheasant, Brown-cheeked Laughingthrush, Giant Babax Tibetan Partridge not only falling in rapid succession but all providing superb views!
And then, after a final day of sightseeing in and around the Potala and the Jokhang Temple and all too soon, it was all over and time to head back to Beijing. We’d seen so much in the two weeks we’d been in China and, while this hadn’t been the first trip to China for most of us the country’s changing so rapidly that even the seasoned travellers among us had been surprised at the revelation it had been. We’d marvelled at Beijing and the massive construction projects that were underway there and elsewhere; we’d gawped at the contrast between the cities and rural China where fields were still being ploughed by bullocks and grain dried on the roads. We’d been treated to some outstanding food, met some delightful people and basically had a thoroughly good time. Right now is clearly the time to be visiting China.
Once again however we experienced much more than just a tally of birds and mammals. We experienced the real China - the warm hospitality, the friendliness of our guides and drivers and of course the food. The varied and plentiful food is, for many, a particularly appealing feature of Sunbird’s China tours and the culinary curiosities and delights never ceased…I can still hear Qingyu asking if anyone would like another apple, a banana, a Snicker, a chicken foot!
The views we had up on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau were often truly spectacular. Distant, and sometimes not so distant, snow-capped peaks, glaciers, the seemingly endless rolling Tibetan steppe grassland dotted with domesticated yaks, goats and sheep and with the turquoise waters of Qinghai Hu as a back-drop. Who wouldn’t have been impressed! Paul Holt
Updated: September 2011