After what we saw earlier that day, still 8 April 2018 in the mountains above Wolong in Sichuan, China. We saw a Tibetan snowcock. First flying, then it landed, as the photo shows.
The snowcock walked towards a snowy patch.
We saw some of many Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags of Balang mountain (Balangla in Tibetan).
Then, a bearded vulture flying with a bone in its bill. It dropped the bone on a slope to crush it and to be able to eat the marrow. Probably it was a young vulture which still had to learn, as the bone fell on a patch where plants grew, not on hard rock which is better at breaking dropped bones.
We arrived at a mountain pass where we could again see many prayer flags and much snow.
There was a beautiful view of mountains and valleys.
Time to say goodbye to the prayer flags and to the snow.
8 April 2018 was our last day of seeing birds in China. In the late afternoon and evening we went back to Chengdu. On 9 April from Chengdu airport our plane took us out of China.
So, no more blog posts on the birds of this April 2018 in China. But there will be many more wildlife blog posts on this blog!
After 7 April 2018 came 8 April 2018. We were in the Wolong Balangshan mountains in China. This is a BBC video about Temminck’s tragopan. A bird species which we might have seen there, but did not see.
This video is about another animal species which we might have seen, but didn’t.
The video says about itself:
6 November 2017
The Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China’s Sichuan Province spotted 26 snow leopards.
We did see these yaks when we came above 3,000 meter.
The higher we went, the more snow we saw.
Not only on the mountain tops further away …
… but also close to us.
Then, on a slope above us, a beautiful male Chinese monal.
And then, above us, this blue sheep. Snow leopards eat blue sheep. So, though we did not see snow leopards, we did see wildlife living in their biotope.
Stay tuned, as there will be more on the birds of the mountains above Wolong!
This 2011 video is called Pandamonium 🙂 at the Bifengxia Panda Reserve in Chengdu, China.
A 2008 video used to say about itself:
Join Animal Planet for Pandamonium, a brand new series that lets us experience the incredible lives of the giant pandas of the Wolong Panda Reserve in China.
The centre is now opening up its remarkable work to the world, giving us the chance to meet the dedicated team that works tirelessly to ensure the survival of this highly endangered species.
Pandas can have a hard time starting a family, so extraordinary efforts are being made to help them breed, using artificial insemination as well as encouraging natural mating.
Watch as tiny panda cubs are born and follow their progress. Each birth is vital to the survival of the species and often hits the headlines around the globe. Thanks to the pioneering research of their scientists, the Wolong Centre has brought 16 cubs into the world over the past year.
But what will the future hold for these unique and lovable black and white bears?
Ibisbill, Bai He River, China. Digiscoping video using a Swarovski ATS65HD, DCA, 20×60 Zoom with a Nikon Coolpix P5100.
Still 6 April 2018 in Shaanxi province in China. After the birds we saw in the morning, in the afternoon we went in search of this rare species, the ibisbill.
We looked at a river bank, where the ibisbill may live. We did not see it, though we did see sixteen black-winged stilts.
At 16:35, we did see two ibisbills at the opposite bank.
On this photo, a grey wagtail to the right of the ibisbill.
A bit further, a little egret and a crested ibis. The ibis had caught a prey. The crested ibis has recovered from only 7 birds left to about 2,000-2,500 individuals.