Zoom members’ evening
The Members’ Evening featured two talks with a quiz inbetween.
Extremadura and the Sierra de Gredos
The first talk by Richard Farr was ‘A Birding trip to Extremadura and the Sierra de Gredos of Spain’. Richard took this trip in May a few years ago. For the first part of the holiday the group stayed at Finca Santa Marta, an estate near Trujillo surrounded by trees and with a pair of white storks nesting on the roof. In the past Extremadura was a very poor area and agriculture was not modernised which is probably why it is now so famous for its wildlife. Richard showed us photos of some of the birds and other wildlife which they saw including corn bunting, great spotted cuckoo, crag martins which were nesting under a concrete bridge, hoopoe and woodchat shrike. Species seen on a visit to the magnificent Monfrague National Park with its spectacular rock faces and old castle included many griffon vultures, booted eagle and rock bunting.
For the second part of the tour the group moved to Hoyos del Espino close to the Sierra de Gredos mountain range. A nightingale sang from bushes under Richard’s window, a black redstart held territory on a neighbouring roof and crag martins could be seen from the window. Serins were in evidence in the vicinity. A visit to the castle provided an opportunity to look down on soaring griffon vultures. Woodlark and ortolan bunting, which has a pleasant little song, were amongst the species seen. Richard also showed us photos of red-rumped swallow, little bustard in flight and a bee-eater eating a bee, taken by other members of the group.
The Edge of the Tibetan Plateau
Following the quiz, Richard Swinbank gave a talk, ‘Birding on the Edge of the Tibetan Plateau’. This was a Limosa holiday in Sichuan, China, led by Brian Small and Tang Jun, a local bird tour guide. The group flew to Chengdu where they visited a local park to see some common species such as Chinese grosbeak, reminiscent of the hawfinch, black-throated bushtit, related to the long-tailed tit and spotted dove.
They then set off in a south westerly direction to the Labahe Nature Reserve. A lunch break on the way produced grey-headed woodpecker, a different sub-species to the one which occurs in Europe. Labahe Nature Reserve comprises deep valleys and high mountains. It is home to both the giant panda and the red panda but the group did not see either. They did see white-collared yuhina and Elliot’s laughing thrush, both members of eastern families, fire-capped tits (true tits but very unlike ours in appearance), yellow-browed tits (which look more like warblers and go around with them), Claudia’s leaf warbler (a phylloscopus warbler), Chinese cup-wing (a wren-babbler), red-billed blue magpie and Temminck’s tragopan (one of the key species they were hoping to see). They also saw the very rare handkerchief tree. A full day on the misty Erlangshan Pass produced a firethroat skulking in the undergrowth and a blood pheasant amongst others.
From here the group went on upwards to Rilong. They encountered numerous road works and this proved to be a very long day as they did not arrive at their hotel till about midnight. Next morning they were up at 5.30 so they could complete the hour’s drive to the Balangshan Pass before dawn. It snowed and they saw snow partridges, red-fronted rosefinch and a brilliant blue male grandala perched on a rock. The top of the pass is 4482 meters above sea level and hot pot noodles for lunch were very welcome. There were lovely flowers and later they saw snow pigeons and yaks.
The following day the group returned to the Balangshan Pass, seeing rufous-vented tit collecting nesting material in the snow. Next they were en route to Ma’erkang where they stayed. In the morning they set off to explore the Forest of Mengbishan but unfortunately it snowed. Birds seen included a beautiful maroon-backed accentor and Chinese white-browed rosefinch.
Finally they travelled north to Ruo’ergai, situated in the vast grassland on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Here there were black-eared kites (the eastern form of the black kite), black-necked cranes, a rather dark form of the common pheasant here in its native land and white-browed tit feeding young. In the semi-forested areas there were snowy-cheeked laughing thrushes. On the drier open plateau they saw distant yak herds, saker falcons and plateau pikas, a small mammal which they eat. There were also Chinese zokors, a creature resembling a mole and ground tits with long beak and quite unlike other tits in appearance. From Rou’ergai the group returned south to the airport at Chengdu for the flight home.
We thank both Richards for very enjoyable talks about two very different regions, one of which few of us are likely to have visited.
Helen Baker
