At the last minute I was able to join the Lianhuashan Birdwatching Festival held from 28th to 30th May. It was organised by Ms. ZHONG Jia, Senior Editor of the "Peoples Daily" newspaper in Beijing and partially sponsored by Swarovski.
Teams arrived from all over China. About 50 birders were there from the 28th to 30th but some had already come and gone, taking advantage of a flexible 40-hours birding time period, teams being allowed to start from 00:01 on May 1st and finish before May 30th at 10:00. There was also a competition for photographers.
Established as a provincial reserve in 1982, Lianhuashan has been a National Nature Reserve since 2003. A lot of active research is going on, with recording, ringing and monitoring of many of the breeding phylloscopus warblers.
The reserve headquarters is 3 1/2 hours drive south of Lanzhou Airport. Buses from Lanzhou's southern bus station run past the reserve entrance at Lian Lu.
After most birders had left I stayed on to birdwatch and take photographs in the area. There is comfortable accommodation at reserve HQs (elev.2,200m) and at Tong Fang Tan (elev.2,800m) at the edge of the "Core Area".
Lianhuashan is an interesting site from a birding point-of-view, with Blue Eared Pheasant, Chinese Grouse, Blood Pheasant, Snowy-cheeked Laughingthrush, Crested and White-browed Tit Warblers among the resident birds.
Slaty-backed Flycatchers were breeding in the woods, Grey-headed Bullfinch and White-browed Rosefinch were common. Lianhuashan holds (thanks in large part to a nestbox programme) Sichuan Wood Owl and significant part of the isolated Chinese population of Boreal Owl, - race "beikianus".
The HQs contact phone number is 0930-4501199. There is a website:
www.gslhs.com.cn
For readers of chinese, there is more site information at these links
莲花山拍摄鸟种总汇
莲花山继续——7月的计划建议
Here are a few photos.. I shall write up access and other details soon.
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Last edited by John Holmes at 24/06/2009 10:28 ]
