Lian Hua Shan National Nature Reserve, Gansu Province, China 中國 甘肅 蓮花山國家自然保護區 27th May to 7th June 2009 by John Holmes
 
 
Daily Log 27th May Crossed from Hong Kong to Shenzhen at Lok Ma Chau as soon as it opened at 06:30 and arrived at Shenzhen Airport in good time to get Shenzhen Airlines flight ZH 9977 at 08:50. After a touchdown in wet Changsha, arrived at a cool Lanzhou Airport at 13:10, ten minutes before the arrival of Zhong Jia and the others on the flight from Beijing. Ten of us got away in a minibus at 13:35, arriving at Lianlu reserve entrance at 17:10hrs. At the reserve HQs hotel people were arriving from all over China. There was time for some birding in the fields and river edge near HQs in the evening, with Greenfinches chattering and Masked Buntings singing from high perches. At 23:00hrs I went with a few others 20km to Tang Fang Tan, where we woke the slumbering staff. En route we saw a strange masked mammal twice (possibly Steppe Polecat) trotting along the road edge in the rain. 28th May Out at 05:30hrs, we found it had been snowing. Heading along the path towards Sha He Tan research station we soon had views of what were to become familiar species such as Chestnut Thrush, White-browed Rosefinch and Grey-headed Bullfinch. Beyond the station, some birded on and up to the ridgeline at the south boundary of the reserve, to successfully scan for rather distant Blue Eared Pheasants. I turned back early and met a trickle of birders and photographers coming uphill who had driven up from HQs in the early morning. In the drizzle I put the camera way, thus missing a brief photo opportunity of a Blue Eared Pheasant on the core area track. After a siesta in the mid-afternoon sun when I tried to dry my rucksack we returned to Reserve HQs for the official Race Opening Ceremony at 19:00hrs 29th May At 05:30hrs at HQs minibuses were ready to take keen bird racers uphill to the core area. I covered the same area as the previous day, and saw more birds near the guesthouse at Tang Fang Tan than along the trail. After dinner we had some slideshows at the reserve HQs conference room. There was also a fine display of wild bird photographs. 30th May birded around HQs – closing ceremony and prize giving were11:00 to 12:00hrs. After lunch I was driven back to Tang Fang Tan where my room was RMB 50 per night, BUT we only had 3 hours electricity per evening (when the generator was on), and ablutions were in one communal room per floor. Birding in the afternoon I saw Slaty-backed Flycatchers and a distant, soaring Himalayan Griffon Vulture over the peak of Lian Hua Shan. The waitress who served my evening noodles, seeing the bird book, was keen to tell me she had seen birds with a red breast behind the kitchen, but we couldn’t be sure which bird looking at the book. 31st May I decided to try behind the guesthouse kitchen - where the food scraps go - and soon had a big flock of Grey-headed Bullfinches almost at my feet, feeding on dandelions. THIS was what the waitress meant about birds with a red breast. White-browed Rosefinches came close and I had a brief glimpse of Snowy-cheeked Laughingthrush, as well as White-browed Tit Warbler. A White-cheeked Nuthatch atop a pine showed briefly. I got a couple of shots of Siberian Weasel coming to the rubbish tip. Ah, the glamour of “Nature Photography” ! Along the path through the core area I met a few other people who had also stayed on for a day or two, including a Sichuan photographer heading the other way on the track. That evening, he showed me stunning shots of Chinese Grouse taken ten minutes after seeing me. A couple of solitary and rather shy Maroon-backed Accentors, and my third pair of Snowy-cheeked Laughingthrushes of the day were nice, but it was a group of four Blood Pheasants crossing the core area track at 17:40hrs that really rounded off a great day. 1st June I headed along the core area track again towards Sha He Tan and saw some of the usual avian suspects. Near the SHT research station I got a good view of a Three-banded Rosefinch low down in the woods, but just couldn’t line up a decent shot as it moved low through the forest undergrowth. I had been shown close photos of a pair of White-cheeked Nuthatches on a fallen-down basketball board, but despite waiting nearby for a couple of hours they didn’t show. A Eurasian Siskin came to some pine resin at the base of a close tree, but saw me and disappeared in an instant. In the afternoon a Siberian Rubythroat provided my first clear view of this species at LHS. I saw Chinese Grouse at the track edge, but it didn’t want to be photographed, scurrying back downhill into the dense undergrowth. Later I said goodbye to some of the Beijing birders, who were heading back to HQs in the evening and getting the early bus to Lanzhou the following day. Last birds at dusk were what used to be called Songar Tits, Parus montanus songarus, or is it Parus songara affinis ? At dinner another waitress (with a headscarf, there are lots of Moslems in Gansu) suggested that noodles for a third evening would be bad for me, so I got TWO meat and vegetable dishes –on small plates- and flat bread for a princely 8RMB. China being China, a Snowflake beer to wash them down with was not a problem. 2nd June I set out along the core Area track to Sha He Tan in the mountain shadow, later in clear sunshine. A Chinese Grouse hung around on the path long enough to get it’s picture taken. Hurray! I pushed on past the research station to the ridgeline that marks the southern boundary of the reserve. A distant chough passed overhead. The map says the area to the south is the “Yang Sha Forest Farm”. All the forest there has been “farmed”. The forest inside Lian Hua Shan NNR has been damaged by logging in the past, but there are still plenty of decent-sized trees. A pair of Giant Laughingthrushes and a relatively confiding White-throated Redstart were the highlights of a long stroll back. I tried to ambush the Blood Pheasants, but they were too clever for me. A disdainful whistling in the bushes was a sign they had spotted me lurking in the trackside undergrowth. Curses, foiled again !!! 3rd June I climbed the boardwalk between the guesthouse and the temple towards the summit of Lian Hua Shan. After a few hundred metres the boards ran out, with the path running instead inside a concrete frame. A couple of good views of White-bellied Redstart were the highlights here and this was the only place I saw Siberian Chipmunk. In the afternoon I had a long, sunny but rather dull afternoon until I ran into a couple of members of the reserve staff. Taking pity on me, they were kind enough to lead me to a nestbox with a Boreal Owl nearby. I’d seen this species before in Finland, but getting a view of the isolated Chinese race “beickianus” was really special. (My campaign to get this “split” starts here.) Returning triumphantly to the guesthouse, I discovered that some lunchtime visitors had finished off all the beer ! 4th June Birded the track in the core area yet again and eventually got a lift back down to Lianlu HQs in the early afternoon. Laundry was a priority. My room at HQs was RMB 120 per night, and I had a western-style toilet and ensuite shower. However, by dint of having fitted poor-quality shower units five years earlier, none of the HQs hotel showers I tried seemed to actually work. The hot water spattered out through various leaks. I ate at the restaurant on the ground floor, watching passers-by on the dusty road in the evening shadows. Again, my Putonghua was woefully lacking. I saw that the menu included a vegetable dish with the character for “snow” in it – an easy one to spot – it’s on the “Snowflake” beer bottles, for example. I pointed to this and waited confidently for my snow peas to arrive. The fields nearby were full of them, after all. What I got was a cold dish of finely sliced tomato with a heavy dusting of sugar on the top ! It was entirely my fault, of course. 5th June Birded around HQs, beside the river and around the cultivated fields. A small party of Long-tailed Tits were my first in China. Near the river I got decent views of Plain Laughingthrush. Both Hodgson’s and Daurian Redstarts were within sight of the HQs compound. Although I had been given directions, I couldn’t find the nesting Spectacled Parrotbills other people had photographed a couple of days earlier. 6th June Having some peanuts and some flatbreads from the night before at the restaurant, I set out to march about 7km up a rather bare valley to the north of HQs called Mo Gou, one of the recommended birding routes from the birding event. Not sure of the state of the path I left the big lens behind, which I came to regret. There were many Plumbeous Water Redstarts and White-capped Redstarts along the stream. Reaching the first nature reserve checkpoint I sat down beside the track to eat my flatbreads. The Common Pheasants I had been hearing came into the open and I had two in view at once, about forty yards away on the opposite hillside. Slightly further uphill a rosefinch popped up onto the top of a hedge and started singing – Long-tailed – a hard species to find in China. Further up there were two pairs of Oriental Turtle Doves in the streamside meadows. Retracing my steps I paid more attention to the rocky cliffs above the gorge. Crag Martin, Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush and Wallcreeper were added to the day list. 7th June Early 06:00 bus to Lanzhou from outside Lianlu HQs.