Just completed an enjoyable and successful giant panda tour at Foping (China). China was amazing and I cannot wait to return. We saw two giant pandas, so stay-tuned for a panda video in a later post.
One of the mammal highlights of the start of the tour was a close encounter with a group of golden snub-nosed monkeys at a feeding station near the access gate to the panda reserve.
Despite the late date, a few butterflies were still flying in the Qinling Mountains, including this common beak (Libythea lepita).
The area around our chilly accommodation block at Sanguanmiao research station was great birding in the mornings before we headed out and on rainy days when panda tracking was not possible. We definitely developed a patch mentality about these orchards and clearings and enjoyed finding birds like this Asian barred owlet and a handful of late migrants like olive-backed pipit, Pallas' warbler and little bunting.
The Foping forest is in great shape and white-backed woodpeckers occurred at a density I have never experienced before. We got used to daily sightings of this special woodpecker.
Another mammal highlight was a morning devoted to climbing up a valley to see the enormous red-and-white flying squirrel. Our trackers 'encouraged' them to fly down the valley for us. Awesome.
Rufous-breasted accentor was a common inhabitant of the abandoned and overgrown fields on the edges of the nearby village.
An eagerly awaited tick for me was grey-headed bullfinch, we saw small flocks daily in open areas.
Chinese babax was also a bird I was looking forward to and they proved to be common around the research station.
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