Sichuan Province, Western China 23rd October to 20th November 2006 John & Jemi Holmes
 
 
 
Dangling
near Danba
 
 
Danba Town and Jiaju Village are the usual bases for trips up a valley to the northwest to an area called Dangling.  This is another place remnants of the Long March are said to have passed through.  There is a very picturesque lake a few kilometres uphill from the houses at the end of the road.  We didn’t actually get to the lake – a good reason to go back!  Chinese tourists take pony rides or hike to get up there.  Due to difficulty of access the whole area is still relatively unspoiled.
 
Getting there
 
The usual procedure is to hire a minivan from Danba to go the 80km on a rough road (takes 5 – 6 hours) and return the following day.  On the Nelles map this is the road that goes through “Geshizha” and “Dandong”.  The standard charge for a minivan is RMB 500.  We decided to stay two nights at Dangling, and paid Mr ZHENG another RMB100 to wait for us the extra day.
 
 
between Danba and Dangling
 
Birding
 
The sides of the valley between Danba and Dangling are well-wooded most of the way, gradient allowing. The colours of autumn were very pretty in the middle part of the valley. We added Giant Laughingthrushes, Maroon-backed Accentors and a Bar-tailed Treecreeper to the trip list in the last few km of the journey.  There were flurries of snow as the houses of Dangling came into view, elevation 3,000m.   A spanking male Three-barred Rosefinch sat up in a hedgerow.  We had close views of Chinese Fulvettas and Eurasian Treecreeper as a mixed bird flock crossed the road.  We eventually decided in which of the two guesthouses we would stay.  I rejected the dusty one for the newer one with the unfinished upper floor.  Cost worked out at RMB 40 per person per day, RMB20 for the bed and RMB20 for the food.  After dumping bags we wandered up a path towards some hot springs behind the guesthouse.
 
Dangling – view down valley towards the guesthouse-turrets visible centre left
 
 
There was not much around on a dull evening, but I focussed on a pine with some trilling coming from it – and Dangling will forever be the place I first saw Crested Tit Warbler.  The Yak stew for dinner tasted all the better.   We were offered it for breakfast, too.
 
Crested Tit Warbler Leptopoecile elegans
 
 
The unfinished guesthouse we stayed in at Dangling
 
 
We saw a few more Crested Tit Warblers the following day.  It had snowed overnight and the pines on the hillsides were covered in frost. It seemed as though all the fulvettas in the leafless streamside scrub were Chinese.  We saw Lammergeyer and Griffon Vultures above the distant ridgelines.  White-browed Rosefinches were numerous and we added a flock of Snow Pigeons to the trip list.  The Common Magpies had a variety of fluty treepie-like calls, indicating the Tibetan race - bottanensis.  
 
After a second night we prepared to leave.   We had some fun push-starting the van.  Mr ZHENG loaded a large slab of yak butter (suitably packaged) in the back of the vehicle.   A few kilometres down the road we stopped at an area where two valleys met – “Dabagou”.  Under a grove of planted pines the ground was not frozen and it was covered with Beautiful Rosefinches, Grey-crested Tits, Black-browed Tits and Rufous-fronted Accentors, all foraging in the moss.  We saw a small party of Red Crossbills, and Jemi got some pictures of White-cheeked Nuthatch.  One was noted making short forays, but always returning to the same area of the same tree, apparently hoarding food for the winter.  This was the only place on the trip we saw Sichuan Treecreeper.
 
White-cheeked Nuthatch Sitta leucopsis (przewalskii)
 
There seems to be a lot of potential for good birds at Dangling, but the area is still a bit rough and time-consuming to get to.  Apart from the Crossbills and White-cheeked Nuthatch we saw many of the same species at Mengbishan.