Scaly-sided Merganser is a marvelous-looking Chinese endemic. Photo: Paul Holt
Outstanding among China’s myriad variety of birds are its fabulously evocative cranes, and we expect to see five species, including mythical Siberian, White-naped and Hooded Cranes at Poyang Hu National Nature Reserve, and majestic Red-crowned Cranes on the edge of the Yellow Sea.
The supporting cast includes a world-class list of waterbirds. We should see thousands of Swan Geese, hundreds of Falcated Ducks and Baikal Teal, and huge parties of Oriental Storks, and we stand a good chance of encountering reasonable numbers of Scaly-sided Mergansers at their most reliable wintering site anywhere in the world. Other specialties should include spectacular Mandarin Ducks and diminutive Pied Falconets, and we have a chance of seeing the rare Baer’s Pochard, demure Saunders’s Gulls, and perhaps even a Swinhoe’s Crake. Songbirds, too, will impress; among the expected endemics and near endemics are Reed Parrotbill, Chinese Gray Shrike, Red-billed Starling, and Chinese Penduline Tit.
China has come a long way in the last decade or so. Besides hosting an increasing number of comfortable hotels, it now boasts an impressive transport infrastructure, and we’ll make good use of it on this unusual tour.
Day 1: The tour begins this evening in Shanghai. Night in Shanghai.
Day 2: We’ll drive west to Hangzhou, one of China’s most attractive cities. We should arrive in time for some birding around the city, including a visit to the Botanical Gardens, where we hope to see Dusky, Naumann’s, Gray-backed, and Pale Thrushes, and with luck, perhaps Yellow-browed and Tristram’s Buntings. Night in Hangzhou.
Day 3: Leaving Hangzhou after breakfast, we’ll continue our journey west, heading to Wuyuan, a picturesque small town in the northeastern corner of neighboring Jiangxi Province. Time permitting, we’ll stop off at “Mandarin Duck Lake,” a reservoir famed for its congregations of these charming Asian waterfowl. Night in Wuyuan.
Another great trip with Paul Holt! And Qingyu was very nimble in dealing with the Chinese service providers, sometimes under challenging conditions. She is a very versatile lady: a woman who knows how to get things done! She was also terrific in ordering our food, especially the food for my birthday celebration.
Joanne McIntyre
Day 4: We’ll spend the entire day around Wuyuan searching for the area’s specialties. Our primary target, the rare Scaly-sided Merganser, will be our first quarry. Up to sixty birds have been counted wintering here in recent years, and we’re likely to find a few parties of this attractive sawbill. Other species along this stretch of river could include Long-billed Plover and Black-collared Starling, while elsewhere around Wuyuan we’ll look for Mandarin Duck, Pied Falconet, and that magnificent songster the Hwamei. Night in Wuyuan.
Day 5: We’ll spend most of the day around Wuyuan searching for species we might have missed yesterday or other species such as Chinese Bamboo Partridge, Spot-breasted and Streak-breasted Scimitar Babblers, Gray-chinned Minivet, or, with luck, Spotted Wren Babbler. In the late afternoon we’ll start our journey towards Poyang Hu. Night in Yongxiu, a small town just outside the Poyang Hu Nature Reserve.
Days 6-8: It shouldn’t take us long to reach world-renowned Poyang Hu. We’ll spend three full days exploring this fabulous reserve. Poyang Hu is subject to huge annual fluctuations in its water level. During the summer rainy season, the lake covers up to 2,100 square miles, making it the largest in China; but water levels fall by as much as 50 feet by the end of the winter dry season, reducing the lake’s area by as much as 90%. This massive seasonal fluctuation creates a mosaic of shallow residual lakes, and it’s the combination of these and the region’s fairly mild winters that creates ideal conditions for tens, even hundreds of thousands of waterbirds. Poyang Hu is widely regarded as one of the most important wetlands in the world and holds the planet’s largest concentrations of a number of severely endangered species. Siberian Crane is undoubtedly the reserve’s star attraction; over 95% of the world population (4,000 birds) of these magnificent creatures winter here, as do even larger numbers of the equally majestic White-naped Crane. Hooded Crane is decidedly scarcer, but we expect to encounter a number of them among the huge flocks of bugling cranes that we’re sure to encounter.
One of the best ways to explore this huge wetland reserve is by boat, and we’ll make extensive use of this mode of transport during our stay. The ancient Chinese tradition of cormorant-fishing is still practiced at Poyang Hu, and we might be lucky enough to see several groups of these busy tethered birds.
Thousands of Tundra Swans, Tundra Bean-Geese, Greater White-fronted and Swan Geese, hundreds of Oriental Storks, and huge swirling flocks of Spotted Redshank and Pied Avocet also spend the winter at Poyang Hu, while other, less conspicuous target species include Japanese Swamp Warbler and, with a great deal of luck, Swinhoe’s Crake. Nights at Yongxiu.
Day 9: Leaving Yongxiu early, we’ll drive south through Nanchang and spend the morning exploring Nanjishan Reserve to the south of the city. Japanese Swamp Warbler and even Swinhoe’s Crake are more regular here than at Poyang Hu, and we’ll concentrate our attentions on these two species in particular. In the afternoon we’ll return to Nanchang airport and fly back to Shanghai. We’ll then start our journey north towards Yancheng Nature Reserve, stopping for the night at Jiangyin on the southern bank of the Yangtze, China’s largest river. Night in Jiangyin.
Day 10: Continuing north over the mighty Yangtze, we’ll drive to Yancheng Nature Reserve, where we expect to arrive mid-morning with plenty of time for exploring the reserve’s better areas. Night in the reserve’s modern guest house.
Days 11-12: Yancheng, China’s second largest Nature Reserve, will be our focus. A vast complex of coastal grassland, shrimp ponds, saltpans, and commercially harvested reed beds on the edge of the Yellow Sea, Yancheng harbors an impressive array of species. Nearly half of the world’s 2,000 or so Red-crowned Cranes winter here, and we are sure to have good views of a number of these magnificent, strikingly plumaged birds. The reserve also supports a resident population of the exquisite Saunders’s Gull, and we hope to be able to study a few of them at close quarters as they patrol the mud-fringed fish ponds hunting for crabs. Other targets here include Falcated and Baikal Teal, the near-endemic Chinese Gray Shrike, Chinese Penduline Tit, the gorgeous endemic Reed Parrotbill, and the ubiquitous Vinous-throated Parrotbill, plus Rustic, Black-faced, Pallas’s and (with luck) Ochre-rumped Buntings. On our second full day, we’ll probably head south to another reserve near the coast, a sanctuary for the endangered Milu (Père David’s Deer). We expect to make numerous stops between the two reserves, and have been fortunate in the past to find Saunders’s Gull here as well. Night in Jiangyin.
Day 13: We’ll return to Shanghai, arriving in time to visit a forest park on the edge of the city and to take a sightseeing excursion into the heart of this bustling, ambitious metropolis with its intoxicatingly eclectic mix of old European-style buildings and awe-inspiring modern structures. Night near the international airport.
Day 14: The trip concludes this morning in Shanghai.
Updated: 26 March 2008
Prices
- 2008 price about $5,940
- Single Occupancy Supplement $620
- 2009 price not yet available
Notes
This tour is limited to 10 participants with one leader plus local guides.
This tour is organized by our British company, Sunbird.