Fantastic Fuzhou Forest Park, but frustrations in Nanping

01/12/2014 – Fuzhou forest park

Today a relaxing stroll through Fuzhou Forest Park was on the agenda. A stroll with a tricky target: White-necklaced Partridge, a vulnerable China endemic…

When we arrived at the park – situated on the forested slopes west of Fuzhou city – it was raining, so we decided to have breakfast first. While we enjoyed our now familiar noodle soup we could already hear Partridges calling uphill. Good news! Even better news was that the rain made way for a slight drizzle so we decided it was time to tackle that bird!

Chestnut bulbul by Garry Bakker

Brown fulvetta by Garry Bakker

We walked uphill constantly running the tape for Spotted Wren-babbler, another local specialty. We heard at least 3 birds calling, but none of them could be tempted to come into view; too bad, but we were here for a Partridge, so we decided to continue to the denser forest further along the trail.

Fuzhou forest park by Garry Bakker

Fuzhou forest park by Garry Bakker

We proceeded slowly, checking the trail ahead around every corner, but the Partridge proved far trickier to find than we originally thought. A nice distraction along the way was our second species of Parrotbill for the trip: Grey-headed Parrotbill, a lifer for all of us! Just as we were about to turn around and walk back down again – where frustratingly enough a partridge started calling from an area we passed half an hour earlier – I suddenly saw a small game-bird creeping uphill: White-necklaced Partridge! The first bird was followed by a second one that allowed good views, before it disappeared over a small ridge. Bingo!

After the partridge-cleanup we now had the whole afternoon to look for thrushes and other migratory birds in and around the botanical gardens near the entrance of the park. We were hoping to find at least one new thrush, but what happened next was totally unexpected…

First we saw a couple of Oriental Blackbirds and Pale Thrushes (both seen previously already), but soon after we discovered a large flock of Thrushes feeding on berries above our heads. The flock mainly consisted of Eyebrowed Thrushes, but soon we found a cracking male Grey-backed Thrush quickly followed by a Dusky Thrush and an immature Red-throated Thrush. The best however was yet to come when Bas suddenly said: ‘Japanese Thrush!’. I could just get my bins on it before it vanished in the canopy but most of the group was not that lucky. Japanese Thrush is a rare winter visitor to eastern China and a much wanted bird to all of us; so a very welcome bonus indeed!

Japanese thrush by Garry Bakker

Grey-backed thrush by Garry Bakker

Japanese thrush by Garry Bakker

Luckily half an hour later I found a second bird that allowed prolonged views and excellent photo-opportunities and while looking at this stunning bird we also found two unexpected Flycatchers: a nice blue male Verditer- and a female Blue-and-white Flycatcher; both species should have already been in southeast Asia by now.

Fuzhou Forest Park was unexpectedly good to us and a place I would recommend to every birder visiting Fuzhou!

Good Birding!

Greater necklaced laughingthrush by Garry Bakker

Species list day 11 (underlined are LIFERS)

1. White-necklaced Partridge pair
2. Chinese Bamboo Partridge 3
3. Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker
4. Common Kingfisher
5. Pied Kingfisher
6. Greater Coucal
7. Spotted Dove
8. Oriental Turtle Dove
9. White-breasted Waterhen
10. Little Ringed Plover 2
11. Black Eagle 1
12. Eastern Buzzard
13. Little Grebe
14. Little Egret
15. Chinese Pond Heron
16. Grey Heron
17. Orange-bellied Leafbird
18. Long-tailed Shrike 1 melanistic color morph
19. Red-billed Blue Magpie
20. Grey Treepie
21. Scarlet Minivet
22. Grey-chinned Minivet
23. Blue Whistling Thrush
24. Grey-backed Thrush 3 males
25. Japanese Thrush 2 1^st winter males
26. Oriental Blackbird
27. Eyebrowed Thrush 30
28. Pale Thrush 15
29. Red-throated Thrush 1 1^st winter
30. Dusky Thrush 2
31. Red-flanked Bluetail
32. Daurian Redstart
33. Verditer Flycatcher male
34. Blue-and-white Flycatcher female
35. Slaty-backed Forktail 2
36. Crested Myna
37. Cinereous Tit
38. Black-throated Tit
39. Red-rumped Swallow (Japonica)
40. Red-whiskered Bulbul (escape)
41. Chinese Bulbul
42. Mountain Bulbul
43. Chestnut Bulbul
44. Black Bulbul
45. Collared Finchbill
46. Manchurian Bush Warbler (Borealis) 1
47. Yellow-browed Warbler
48. Pallas’s Warbler
49. Common Tailorbird
50. Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush
51. Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush
52. Hwamei
53. Grey-sided Scimitar Babbler heard
54. Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler
55. Spotted Wren Babbler 3 heard only
56. Rufous-crowned Babbler
57. Dusky Fulvetta 2
58. Huet’s Fulvetta
59. Grey-headed Parrotbill 1 flock
60. Fork-tailed Sunbird
61. Fire-breasted Flowerpecker
62. Japanese White-eye
63. White-rumped Munia
64. Tree Sparrow
65. Grey Wagtail
66. White Wagtail (Ocularis, Leucopsis)
67. Olive-backed Pipit
68. Buff-bellied Pipit
69. Tristram’s Bunting 5
70. Black-faced Bunting

02/11/2014 – Nanping Reserve

We made an enormous detour from Fuzhou to Shanghai via Nanping. This mend first 6 hours by night-train from Fuzhou to Nanping; all for a bird barely 10 cm in size: the Short-tailed Parrotbill.

So after a short night we woke in a watery-cold Nanping; it turned out that the temperature had dropped more than 10 degrees overnight in the whole of eastern China; what a contrast to birding in our shorts and T-shirts on the mudflats!

We drove up to the scenically very pretty Nanping reserve, but despite the stunning scenery and mature forest all around us, there were very few birds around. This was probably due to the temperature drop; we could feel the cold in our bones and the birds could probably too!

Hill forest at Nanping by Garry Bakker

Lunch spot at Nanping by Garry Bakker

The whole day we grinded through bamboo forest in search for the Parrotbill, but to no avail; our first true dip – the rail at Poyang was already thought to be nearly impossible – was a fact…

We did see a beautiful Slaty-backed Forktail foraging on the road and on our way back to the railway station – to catch the night-train to Shanghai – we stumbled across a family group of no less than 4 females and a male Elliot’s Pheasant; a nice compensation to an otherwise fairly bridles day…

Species list day 12 (underlined are LIFERS)

1. Chinese Bamboo Partridge heard
2. Silver Pheasant 4 males 4 felmales
3. Elliot’s Pheasant 4 females 1 male
4. Grey-headed Woodpecker
5. Asian House Swift
6. Spotted Dove
7. White-breasted Waterhen
8. Common Moorhen
9. Crested Goshawk
10. Little Egret
11. Great Egret
12. Intermediate Egret
13. Chinese Pond Heron
14. Black-backed Night Heron
15. Orange-bellied Leafbird
16. Long-tailed Shrike
17. Red-billed Blue Magpie
18. Grey Treepie
19. Grey-chinned minivet
20. Oriental Blackbird
21. Red-flanked Bluetail
22. Daurian Redstart
23. Slaty-backed Forktail 1
24. Oriental Magpie Robin
25. Stejneger’s Stonechat
26. Collared Starling
27. Crested Myna
28. Japanese Tit
29. Yellow-cheeked Tit
30. Red-rumped Swallow (Japonicus)
31. Mountain Bulbul
32. Chestnut Bulbul
33. Chinese Bulbul
34. Yellow-bellied Prinia
35. Brownish-flanked Bush Warbler
36. Yellow-bellied Bush Warbler
37. Yellow-browed Warbler
38. Pallas’s Warbler
39. Rufous-faced Warbler
40. Grey-sided Scimitar Babbler
41. Dusky Fulvetta
42. White-bellied Epornis
43. Fire-breasted Flowerpecker
44. Fork-tailed Sunbird
45. Scaly-breasted Munia
46. White-rumped Munia
47. Tree Sparrow
48. Elegant Bunting
49. Black-faced Bunting
50. Tristram’s Bunting male

Tristrams bunting by Garry Bakker

Slaty-backed forktail by Garry Bakker

Lunch break at Nanping by Garry Bakker

Happy birding!