0:07

Hello and welcome. This

0:10

is The Science of

0:12

Birds podcast is a

0:15

light-hearted I

0:17

am your host, Ivan Phillipson. The

0:19

for is a light -hearted

0:21

exploration of bird biology

0:23

for lifelong learners. 108, is

0:25

episode, which is number 108,

0:28

is all about my

0:30

recent experience and and traveling

0:32

through China. If If

0:34

you listened to the last

0:36

couple couple you know that I'm

0:38

on this know that I'm on this

0:41

through five countries in Asia. Asia.

0:43

Starting with Vietnam, then Cambodia, then

0:45

China, then then Nepal, which is

0:48

where I'm recording this episode

0:50

right now. And then I'm on

0:52

my way to Bhutan shortly. And

0:55

And if you're new to the podcast,

0:57

if you're just starting to listen to this

0:59

is one of your first episodes, then

1:01

I should tell you that this is

1:03

not my normal format. normal I have

1:05

no script that I'm working off

1:07

of today. I'm just kind of talking

1:09

at you based on an outline,

1:12

recalling my experiences. But But

1:14

normally with the podcast, I have

1:16

a script and it's a little

1:18

more organized and information rich. rich.

1:20

But it's been really fun to do

1:22

these from -the -field episodes and I've actually

1:24

gotten some really nice feedback from my

1:26

listeners, people saying my they actually enjoy this.

1:28

So that they great. enjoy this. is

1:31

my third So this is Field

1:33

episode on this episode on this great Asian

1:35

Odyssey. When I was in in and

1:37

Cambodia I was actually leading a birding

1:39

tour. tour. But when I went

1:41

to China, that was actually what we call a

1:43

we call a trip. trip. I I have

1:45

an upcoming tour in China in June

1:47

to I wanted to come over and

1:50

check things out out check out

1:52

the restaurants and restaurants and considered logistics and

1:54

all that kind of stuff of

1:56

course get familiar with the with the birds.

1:58

I was was there for three weeks. And

2:00

let me tell you, it

2:02

was spectacular. And that's what

2:04

I'm going to talk about

2:07

here in this episode. So

2:09

let's go ahead and get

2:11

right into it talking about

2:13

China and its wonderful birds.

2:15

So we'll first start with

2:18

a little background information kind

2:20

of setting the stage. So

2:22

if you listen to the

2:24

last episode about Vietnam and

2:26

Cambodia, you may recall that

2:29

I talked first about biogeographic

2:31

realms. We can think of

2:33

the world as divided into

2:35

these broadly eight categories, these

2:37

eight divisions of realms based

2:39

upon the plants and animals

2:42

that live within those realms.

2:44

Each realm has had a

2:46

long evolutionary history with those

2:48

plants and animals interacting over

2:50

many millions of years. So

2:53

Southeast Asia is in the

2:55

Indo-Malayan Biodeographic Rome. But where

2:57

I was in China, at

2:59

least in the beginning, was

3:01

in the Paleearctic Bigeographic Realm.

3:04

And that realm spans most

3:06

of Northern Asia and Europe.

3:08

And I should say that

3:10

my trip was divided between

3:12

two different provinces in China.

3:15

Provinces are sort of the

3:17

equivalent of states in the

3:19

US. So at first I

3:21

was in Sichuan, S-I-C-H-U-A-N, and

3:23

then I traveled south to

3:26

Yunnan. And both of these

3:28

are in kind of the

3:30

south-western part of China. Sichuan

3:32

is firmly within the paleiactic

3:34

biographic realm. So what that

3:37

means is over the course

3:39

of my journey I traveled

3:41

between two biogeographic realms and

3:43

that means there were some

3:45

major differences in the plants

3:48

and animals. But of course

3:50

lots of overlap because nature

3:52

is kind of fuzzy, kind

3:54

of messy. and there's

3:56

actually a

3:59

fairly smooth gradient

4:01

between those

4:03

two realms. two realms.

4:05

So within Sichuan, I I started

4:07

in the city of

4:09

of Chengdu, -E -N -G -D -U. a

4:12

kind of lies within a kind of

4:14

lower basin, basin a it's a pretty large

4:16

city. and then then from there

4:18

I went up into much

4:20

higher elevations to the to the the

4:22

Tibetan Plateau. which

4:24

is this extremely large altitude

4:27

area that was forced

4:29

up by the collision of

4:31

the Indian subcontinent with

4:33

the Eurasian So this So this

4:35

collision of continents, these

4:37

tectonic plates collided and that's

4:39

what raised up up the

4:42

Himalayan mountain range. range and north

4:44

and and behind the Himalayan

4:46

mountain range, the Tibetan Plateau. Plateau.

4:48

The The ecosystems that I

4:51

traversed in Sichuan included

4:53

temperate broadleaf and mixed

4:55

forest, temperate coniferous forest. and

4:57

at higher higher elevations alpine shrub

5:00

lands and grasslands and some

5:02

of of those you could call you

5:04

could call -E -P -P -E. by the way, I

5:06

am by the way, I am recording

5:08

this in a hotel room in Nepal.

5:10

I'm actually in Catmandu. And And so

5:12

if you hear a little ambient noise,

5:14

a little background noise, cars and maybe

5:16

people talking, that's because I'm in

5:18

a very busy city in a very busy city.

5:21

best efforts, my best efforts, still some

5:23

background noise. some background noise.

5:25

So is famous for its cuisine. You

5:27

may have heard of that. heard of

5:29

that, and yes, the the food is very,

5:31

very good, but it's also famous for

5:33

being the home of the home of the

5:35

giant panda. The giant panda lives in

5:37

several provinces in China, but Sichuan

5:39

is kind of the Sichuan is kind of

5:42

the of the giant

5:44

panda. panda. Now, spoiler alert, did I

5:46

see any giant pandas in the wild?

5:48

the wild? No. That would be would be

5:50

incredibly lucky to see a wild giant panda.

5:52

Now I did see real live

5:54

pandas and I'll get to that

5:56

in a few moments. moments. So in Sichuan, in

5:58

in terms of color, The province

6:00

is dominated by Han Chinese people,

6:02

but once you get up on

6:05

the Tibetan Plateau, there are a

6:07

couple different ethnic minorities. There are

6:09

Tibetan peoples up there. The area

6:11

that I traveled through was the

6:13

home of at least two different

6:15

Tibetan ethnicities. So you had Han

6:18

Chinese and these Tibetan peoples, and

6:20

then you had me. Because for

6:22

almost three weeks, traveling through China,

6:24

amazingly... I saw basically no other

6:26

people of European descent, that are

6:29

obvious European descent like myself. I

6:31

was an outlier. I was an

6:33

oddball. And I did not expect

6:35

that. I've traveled a lot around

6:37

the world and this was really

6:39

the first time I experienced that

6:42

level of standing out as a

6:44

foreigner. And people were polite and

6:46

nobody, you know, treated me strangely,

6:48

but I got a lot of

6:50

strange looks, a lot of stairs,

6:52

a lot of, you know, people

6:55

kind of looking over their shoulder

6:57

at me, and I had to

6:59

just kind of get used to

7:01

that. In one instance, I was

7:03

birding and this family, this woman,

7:05

you know, I couldn't understand what

7:08

she was saying, she was speaking

7:10

in Chinese, but she grabbed my

7:12

arm and pulled me over and...

7:14

and included me in her family

7:16

photo. They were taking pictures by

7:19

a lake and I was in

7:21

the picture apparently. So yeah, they

7:23

were excited to have me in

7:25

the picture. So along those same

7:27

lines, very few people I interacted

7:29

with spoke English or maybe they

7:32

were just shy and didn't really

7:34

feel comfortable using English. So that

7:36

was a challenge and English is

7:38

not on the vast majority of

7:40

the signage. So if you're in

7:42

a town and you're looking at

7:45

the names of... of businesses along

7:47

the street. They're all in Chinese,

7:49

which totally makes sense. I'm in

7:51

China, that's fine. But again, traveling

7:53

through many other countries, often there's

7:56

at least a small edition of

7:58

English below the native language. But

8:00

not so much in China. A A little bit here

8:02

and there, but not so much. so much. And And

8:04

from what I experienced, there wasn't really

8:06

much Western food available. know, and I'm

8:08

in these, and I was these, I was in

8:10

of smaller towns and villages, and kind of

8:13

at the, the the edge of China.

8:15

So I'm speaking from that experience. I'm

8:17

sure that if you go to Beijing that

8:19

Hong Kong or Hong Kong or Shanghai, that

8:21

plenty of. of people speaking

8:23

English on the signs and English

8:25

and Western food, whatever. or Western food,

8:27

whatever. was just really interesting

8:29

because it really because it really like

8:32

I was. was traveling. You know know

8:34

what I mean? It's a a strange thing

8:36

to say, but I really felt like

8:38

I was in a place that that not

8:40

that many tourists went to, at least

8:42

not many foreign tourists. Plenty

8:44

of Chinese tourists visit places that I

8:46

went, but that I it was just really

8:48

interesting. was just really interesting.

8:51

So anyway, I... In Sichuan I I

8:53

experienced a broad range of elevations,

8:55

and therefore a broad range of

8:57

climates, because because in Chengdu, you

8:59

know, it was relatively low elevation,

9:01

maybe low don't know, 2 ,000 feet

9:03

or something. don't know, 2,000 feet or

9:05

700 maybe like 600, 700 meters. as

9:07

I got up onto the Tibetan I

9:10

got up at one point we got

9:12

well over 13 ,000 feet, and

9:14

we're feet around out walking around it was

9:16

really cold, and of course the

9:18

oxygen is relatively thin, so hiking

9:20

uphill or walking uphill was a

9:22

bit of a challenge at times. bit

9:24

of a And when I say we,

9:26

And I was say through this part

9:28

of China with my friends with my

9:31

friends Wen Yi and Bella So there was

9:33

me and three young Chinese people. Chinese

9:36

And we had a grand old time. a grand is

9:38

a professional is guide and she's

9:40

working with me on the upcoming

9:42

tour in June. upcoming tour

9:44

in June. Anyway, this broad range of

9:46

elevations of elevations and I... it was so cold

9:48

at times, times. It it was like

9:50

I just wore every layer I

9:53

possibly had, I wore it all

9:55

day, day for day for what felt

9:57

like a couple and over the and over

9:59

the course of this interview. higher trip through China it

10:01

felt like well actually starting in Cambodia

10:03

it was incredibly hot and I was

10:05

hot and sweaty you know the t-shirt

10:07

and shorts and flip-flops so that felt

10:10

like summer and then I go up

10:12

to Chengdu and now it's kind of

10:14

feels like fall and then I go

10:16

up on the Tibetan Plateau now it's

10:18

a winter then I come back down

10:20

it's fall again and I go to

10:22

Yunnan and it's like spring it was

10:24

all over the place kind of my

10:27

body didn't know what to make of

10:29

it to make of it. So besides

10:31

all of the cultural interest, China of

10:33

course has all the fascinating history, about

10:35

5,000 years of culture, it has amazing

10:37

food, lots of things to do from

10:39

a sort of general travel perspective. But

10:41

why would you go there to see

10:44

the birds? What's special about the birds

10:46

of China? Well, first of all, it's

10:48

a massive country, right? If you're looking

10:50

for birds that are unique to a

10:52

country, well, China has a lot of

10:54

endemic species because it's so big. After

10:56

Russia and Canada, China is basically the

10:58

third largest country by land area. Being

11:01

so big, both in terms of latitude

11:03

and longitude, you get an interesting mix

11:05

of birds. Now where I was, because

11:07

you have these two biogeographic realms, you

11:09

get a mixture of birds that have

11:11

a more northern affinity, so some sort

11:13

of more paleearctic birds, as well as

11:16

those from more tropical climates like those

11:18

from the Indo-Malayan bigeographic realm. With lots

11:20

of overlap, of course. So I just

11:22

want to highlight a few of the

11:24

groups of birds that are really kind

11:26

of interesting and special about this part

11:28

of the world. First off we have

11:30

pheasants, the species in the family fazionity.

11:33

Perhaps the most famous pheasant in the

11:35

world is the red jungle fowl which

11:37

has been domesticated as the domesticated chicken.

11:39

But some other species that I saw

11:41

on my journey in that family were

11:43

the Chinese grouse, the chestnut-throated monal partridge.

11:45

The blue-eared pheasant. We tried to find

11:47

the golden pheasant. but we we

11:50

this time this time

11:52

hopefully next time when

11:54

I come back

11:56

in June have a

11:58

better chance And

12:00

then there's the Chinese

12:02

the which is this

12:04

just iridescent rainbow

12:07

colored bird. It's ridiculous

12:09

colored bird it's didn't see it this time didn't

12:11

It's way up at either it's way so hopefully

12:13

in the summer that'll be a little easier. that'll

12:15

be a But pheasants, but if

12:17

you've ever seen ever seen you know pictures

12:19

or pheasants in one form

12:22

or another, of many of them

12:24

are just spectacularly colored and

12:26

males especially these outlandish plumages with

12:28

long, beautiful feathers, these these

12:30

ornaments to impress the females. So

12:33

there are there are many different pheasant

12:35

species that you could seek out in

12:37

China. China. And And then another

12:39

group that stands out to me

12:41

out to me the World Flycatchers. These are These

12:43

are species in the family This

12:46

is one of is one of the biggest bird

12:48

families in the world. I'm sure I'll do a

12:50

podcast episode on it at some point. on it at There

12:52

are about 353 species in

12:54

this family. These These are

12:57

mostly small, plucky birds that sort of

12:59

of behave like our World flycatchers,

13:01

the name, although they're not

13:03

closely related. related. And

13:05

many different species to see and to

13:07

learn about in China. There are

13:10

the red starts and there are the fork

13:12

tails and all kinds of cool little

13:14

guys. cool little they have

13:16

some combination of blue, white,

13:19

maybe a little rusty color, color,

13:21

brown. they're all but they're all over the place and

13:23

they're great. great. One One of my

13:25

favorites is is the plumbiest which is a

13:27

little slate slate with a reddish

13:29

tail. tail. And it hangs out

13:31

also exclusively in rocky streams. So So

13:33

it's jumping around on the rocks the

13:35

streams and rivers and that's just really

13:37

cool. It's a neat habitat. cool. It's a neat

13:39

the next group we have is have is

13:41

laughing thrushes. And these are also in

13:44

Southeast Asia. I mentioned them in the

13:46

last episode. the These are the birds

13:48

in the family the birds in the family, Leo I

13:50

absolutely love love laughing They

13:52

are, They yes, roughly

13:54

kind of thrush shaped, but but

13:56

typically with longer bills they they

13:58

have just many the have really

14:00

beautiful plumages. Not always really brightly

14:02

colored so much, but just beautifully

14:05

patterned. So even if the colors

14:07

are more like black, white, brown,

14:09

gray, they often have these scaly

14:11

patterns, spots, barring, just really neat

14:14

patterns. But some do really have

14:16

some lovely patches of color as

14:18

well. And the thing about laughing

14:20

thrushes is they're often skulky. and

14:22

they're also social. So you have

14:25

these groups of laughing thrushes making

14:27

a lot of racket, talking to

14:29

each other chattering, laughing if you

14:31

will, moving through the undergrowth, and

14:34

they're really hard to see despite

14:36

maybe their colors and patterns and

14:38

how loud they are, they can

14:40

be a challenge to actually see.

14:42

So that makes them interesting to

14:45

me. Their behavior and the challenge

14:47

of finding them and then when

14:49

you do find them, bam! You

14:51

get this beautiful bird and it's

14:54

amazing and there's often quite a

14:56

few of them all at once.

14:58

Parrot bills are another group. This

15:00

is a group that's special to

15:03

Asia and they're little guys with

15:05

kind of big heads and long

15:07

tails and many of the species

15:09

in the family have little bills

15:11

that do look vaguely parrot-like. And

15:14

the name of the parrot bill

15:16

family is pretty cool. It's paradoxornithity.

15:18

Paradox ornithity. It's got the word

15:20

paradox in there. And then we

15:23

have the Babblers. Now, Babblers are

15:25

tricky because once upon a time,

15:27

most of them were placed in

15:29

a family called Timaleadi. Timaleadi was

15:31

like a kind of a waste

15:34

bin family, they called it, or

15:36

like, you know, this trash can

15:38

family where you're like, well, let's

15:40

see, we got this bird. It's

15:43

some kind of old world, Asian

15:45

bird. Brown, lives, runs around on

15:47

the ground, what do we do?

15:49

I don't know, who's it related

15:51

to? I don't know, just throw

15:54

it in timoleity. Just like toss

15:56

it in the bin. But eventually,

15:58

eventually ornithologists using genetic data have

16:00

been able to sort out the

16:03

birds that all belonged once upon

16:05

a time to timolee and they've...

16:07

split them into multiple families. So

16:09

timoleity still exists in a kind

16:11

of condensed, stripped down form, but

16:14

there are these other families like

16:16

pelorniety that also include babblers. So

16:18

babblers are just kind of usually

16:20

small to medium-sized birds, kind of

16:23

with a, I don't know, typical

16:25

bird shape. And most of them

16:27

aren't all that colorful. They're kind

16:29

of spotted or streaky or kind

16:31

of brown. There are tree babblers,

16:34

there are ground babblers, scimitar babblers.

16:36

Cimitar babblers actually have some pretty

16:38

beautiful plumage, pretty jazzy looking birds.

16:40

But anyway, this various babblers across

16:43

several different families are found throughout

16:45

China and other parts of Asia.

16:47

And there are other groups that

16:49

I would love to talk about.

16:51

I'm trying to... keep this podcast

16:54

episode from being three hours long

16:56

so let me move along here

16:58

you know briefly I can just

17:00

mention just mention some of these

17:03

um there are some really interesting

17:05

members of the parody family to

17:07

find right remember I did an

17:09

episode on that these are the

17:11

tits and the chickadees and tit

17:14

mice there are some special species

17:16

that you can find in Asia

17:18

there are the rose finches the

17:20

snow finches the accenters there are

17:23

a couple species of dipper that

17:25

we saw all over the place

17:27

the white-throated and that was great

17:29

There are some really great nut

17:31

hatches and then there are the

17:34

leaf warblers. And what I'll say

17:36

about the leaf warblers is there's

17:38

just a small kind of drab,

17:40

little gray yellowish-ish-green guys, and they

17:43

are a major ID challenge, at

17:45

least for me. There are a

17:47

major ID challenge, at least for

17:49

me. There are a bunch of

17:52

them, they look all vaguely similar,

17:54

and they often do make different

17:56

calls and songs, and so if

17:58

you learn those, that's what I

18:00

could say. That's the genus Phylliscopus.

18:03

Let me go ahead and tell

18:05

you about my journey through Sichuan

18:07

province. And yes, now there are

18:09

dogs... marking down on the street

18:12

in the background. So if you

18:14

hear that, don't worry, I'm in

18:16

no danger, the dogs cannot access

18:18

me, I'm safe in my hotel

18:20

room, but yeah, it's a little

18:23

bit annoying. Right, so, so I

18:25

started again in the city of

18:27

Chengdu, right off the bat having

18:29

some really amazing Sishuan cuisine, and

18:32

then we got out of town,

18:34

we had our little four-wheel drive

18:36

vehicle and we headed up to

18:38

higher elevations. The first destination for

18:40

the first couple days was a

18:43

place called Wawoo Mountain. And we

18:45

went way up to the top

18:47

of the mountain for one day,

18:49

and then we spent some time

18:52

on the slopes for the subsequent

18:54

days. And right off the bat

18:56

we started seeing some really great

18:58

laughing thrushes and parrot bills and

19:00

fulvetas and all kinds of cool

19:03

stuff. So one of the first

19:05

laughing thrushes that I got a

19:07

good look at in Sichuan and

19:09

could hear really well was Elliot's

19:12

laughing thrush. Trokalopteran chrysopterum. a little

19:14

bit of a subtle scaling pattern

19:16

on the feathers, but in the

19:18

wing and tail there's this beautiful

19:20

lemon lime green kind of iridescent

19:23

color. It's really nice. Nevertheless, it's

19:25

sort of a subtle beauty. But

19:27

it turned out that Elliot's laughing

19:29

thrush is a very common species.

19:32

We saw it almost all the

19:34

way through China, not quite in

19:36

southernmost, westernmost Yunnan, but everywhere else

19:38

almost. These birds do fairly well

19:40

in disturbed habitats around the margins

19:43

of human communities. So one of

19:45

my traveling companions was Wansa. Wantsa

19:47

is from Sichuan and he was

19:49

trying to teach Bella and Wen

19:52

Yi how to say the name

19:54

of the helli it's a laughing

19:56

thrush in Chinese in the local

19:58

sort of dialect and they were

20:00

just speaking in Chinese in the

20:03

car and he kept saying it

20:05

and I was like listening and

20:07

I eventually kind of understood what

20:09

he was saying and so I

20:12

started saying it which it kind

20:14

of became funny to them so

20:16

it's something like tzzao me and

20:18

That's Ellie, it's a laughing thrush.

20:20

Anyway, so it became kind of

20:23

this running joke for the rest

20:25

of the time that every time

20:27

we'd see the bird, we'd say

20:29

the name in Chinese, or we

20:32

would just replace the bird's name

20:34

for anything exciting. We'd say, oh,

20:36

what did you see over there?

20:38

Oh, so it's Aoumé, and you

20:41

know, something like that. But here's

20:43

Wansa saying it properly, because he's

20:45

the real deal. So anyway, we're

20:47

up on Wawu Mountain and we're

20:49

birding and we're seeing other cool

20:52

species like the Great Parrot Bill,

20:54

which is the largest member of

20:56

the Parrot Bill family and there's,

20:58

we're walking around, there's this big

21:01

boardwalk on the top of Wawu

21:03

Mountain and there's snow and it's

21:05

pine trees, a very kind of

21:07

chilly day in this boreal type

21:09

environment and there's lots of bamboo.

21:12

Different species of bamboo all over

21:14

the place all across this journey.

21:16

And I gotta tell you, every

21:18

time I see bamboo, I just

21:21

get so excited because as someone

21:23

from North America, to me, seeing

21:25

bamboo just signifies Asia. It reminds

21:27

me that I'm not at home.

21:29

Whereas pine trees, you know, I

21:32

got pine trees. I mean, even

21:34

though these are of course different

21:36

pine tree species, there's nothing that

21:38

says Asia to me more than

21:41

bamboo in terms of wild plants.

21:43

So on Wawoo Mountain, one of

21:45

the things that happened was... We

21:47

saw wild red pandas. I tried

21:49

not to get my hopes up,

21:52

but sure enough, there they were,

21:54

and they were amazing, they were

21:56

adorable. I got a got

21:58

a couple decent

22:01

photos photos. It was It

22:03

was totally amazing. know, an

22:05

animal like that. seen in seen in

22:07

the seen I've seen in movies, documentaries. You

22:09

never really think you're gonna see one in

22:11

the wild see one it is. wild, and then there

22:13

I didn't see a giant didn't

22:16

but I did see red pandas,

22:18

and that was deeply satisfying and

22:20

really, really cool. and really, really,

22:22

really cool. So, of Wahoo Mountain.

22:24

of Wawu When we were burning down

22:26

there, down there, was kind of foggy and misty

22:28

and we're in this. in this mixed

22:30

evergreen deciduous deciduous are some trees are

22:32

some trees that yellow turned yellow

22:34

and orange and red. So there's

22:36

some nice fall color. lots

22:39

still lots of broadleaf trees in with

22:41

in with a few conifers,

22:43

of lots of moss, lichen. I'm

22:45

just looking we're out birding and I'm

22:47

just looking at this landscape and these steep

22:49

slopes covered with this kind of forest and

22:51

there's a river and it was was just one of

22:54

the most beautiful places I'd ever seen. ever seen.

22:56

It It was ethereal and beautiful

22:58

and beautiful and kind of of evocative of

23:00

this idea of Asia you know

23:02

with the bamboo the bamboo the foreground and

23:05

these and these trees, these sculpted

23:07

trees in the background. in the I

23:09

can't do it justice with words, but

23:11

man, it was just, it was just

23:13

really really moving. It It was beautiful. So

23:16

eventually we got up into

23:18

the much higher elevations rather than

23:20

than there being all these

23:22

steep slopes and peaks around,

23:24

we got we this relatively

23:26

flat flat plane, the Tibetan Plateau.

23:28

And at And at that point, we're

23:30

driving around on these fairly straight

23:32

roads across this flat landscape, but we're

23:35

at like but we're at 11 ,000 feet

23:37

at this point, way, way up there.

23:39

there. The The highest peak in the state

23:41

of Oregon where I live in the

23:43

U .S. is only a little over 11 ,000

23:45

feet. feet. But for like a week, we

23:47

were over that over that elevation in China,

23:49

just walking around all of our of our business.

23:51

I kept having So I kept having to

23:53

remind myself that how high we were. It

23:55

was amazing. And yes, it

23:57

was really cold. know, this is December.

24:00

and were at 10, 11,000 feet in

24:02

the northern latitudes, and it was really

24:04

cold. There were some mornings where we

24:06

were outburding at minus 15 degrees Celsius,

24:08

which is, I think, about 9 degrees

24:10

or 10 degrees Fahrenheit. And yeah, I

24:12

did surprisingly well for those low temperatures,

24:14

but I was always thankful to get

24:17

back in the car and crank the

24:19

heater. So on the plateau, the birding

24:21

was different. You had a lot of

24:23

kind of open country birds, a lot

24:25

of grassland birds, raptors soaring overhead. We

24:27

had some great vultures. I finally got

24:29

to see bearded vulture, or the Lamergire.

24:31

I've been wanting to see that species

24:34

for a long time. It's an amazing

24:36

bird. I'll probably do an entire podcast

24:38

episode on it at some point. I

24:40

didn't get to see them very close,

24:42

but definitely saw them flying overhead and

24:44

on some rocky outcrops. We saw large

24:46

flocks of rose finches and other songbirds.

24:48

In this part of China in winter,

24:51

you get these big flocks of grandala.

24:53

That's the name of a species, grandala

24:55

cila color. This is a relatively small

24:57

member of the thrush family, and the

24:59

males are this just rich, beautiful cobalt

25:01

blue color with black wings. So they're

25:03

kind of like... the old world answer

25:05

to the bluebirds of North America. So

25:08

there was this day where we saw

25:10

big flocks of grandola and their blue

25:12

was catching the light and yet it

25:14

was snowing, the snowflakes were coming down

25:16

so you had snow with these blue

25:18

birds and then they actually had little

25:20

tiny crystals of ice on their face

25:22

and at first we thought they had

25:25

like spots or they were molting or

25:27

something but we realized no that's snow,

25:29

those are little ice crystals on the

25:31

birds. So that was very special because

25:33

in the summer you would typically expect

25:35

to see just a male and female,

25:37

maybe just a pair of grunt doll,

25:40

but instead we saw hundreds of them

25:42

all at once. So that was a

25:44

special thing to experience only in winter.

25:46

Now the bird that I was probably...

25:48

Probably, maybe most excited to see on

25:50

the Tibetan Plateau, and this is funny,

25:52

was the ground-tit, pseudopodices, humulus. Just this

25:54

little brown, gray, scrappy bird, not colorful

25:57

at all, not all that jazzy-looking, but

25:59

this thing, you may recall when I

26:01

did the episode on the family parody

26:03

parody on the family of the tits,

26:05

tit mice, and chickades. that I talked

26:07

about this bird, and I'm pretty sure

26:09

that it was the weirdo, that it

26:11

got a weirdo alert. Because this species

26:14

is so unlike the other members of

26:16

the family parody, it was for a

26:18

long time it was considered a member

26:20

of the corvity of the family of

26:22

Jays and crows, ornithologists used to think

26:24

it was a small ground J. But

26:26

once again, genetics comes in and we

26:28

use that data to reclassify the bird

26:31

and the scientists realize that it is

26:33

in fact a parid. So I got

26:35

to see these things for the first

26:37

time in the flesh, these little ground

26:39

tits are bouncing around like ping pong

26:41

balls on the open country. They're running

26:43

around right next to pikea. There are

26:45

these cute little mammals pikea that are

26:48

just hanging out when they're burrows and

26:50

the ground tits are right next to

26:52

them. and I was just so happy

26:54

to see them. Another really satisfying experience

26:56

was finding the blue-eared pheasant. So we

26:58

went out specifically looking for that species

27:00

one day in the boreal forest or

27:02

the sub-alpine forest with lots of furs,

27:05

pines, pines, hemlocks. And we're looking and

27:07

we're looking and we're in the right

27:09

habitat and it's the right time of

27:11

day and all this stuff. And we

27:13

actually heard some at one point, and

27:15

so we're like clamoring up this hill

27:17

and it's like, you know, we're at

27:20

10, huffin' huffin' huffin' huffin' huffin' huffin'

27:22

huffin' huffin' huffin' huffin' huffin' huffin' huffin'

27:24

huffin' huffin' huffin' huffin' huffin' and then

27:26

nothing. And it's very cold. The sun

27:28

is setting, so we have to head

27:30

out, we got to get going, we're

27:32

on this kind of rough road with

27:34

lots of ice, and there was a

27:37

lot of ice on the road on

27:39

this journey. And so we give up,

27:41

we just say, ah, we give up.

27:43

No blue-eared pheasant today, not in this

27:45

trip, oh well, Boo. So we're driving

27:47

away driving away going to

27:49

happen. We come gonna happen.

27:51

We come around

27:54

a corner enough, enough,

27:56

there they are. out. We

27:58

We all freak

28:00

out. We get out

28:02

of the car,

28:04

we start snapping photos

28:06

and we got a a

28:08

recording. So here's

28:11

a recording of the

28:13

the pheasant. pheasant. The

28:34

The -eared pheasant is an

28:36

overall gray bird, and the male

28:38

the male has some

28:40

really beautiful tail feathers. got

28:42

got some upper tail

28:44

covers that are kind

28:46

of long and of long

28:48

almost like peacock feathers

28:50

like then his tail

28:52

feathers are white with

28:54

black tips are white his

28:56

face he has And of

28:58

bare has skin around

29:00

his face and these

29:02

cool little white cool little white

29:04

I have to remind

29:06

myself that this is

29:08

not the blue -eared

29:10

pheasant, it's the the -eared

29:12

pheasant Because it it doesn't

29:14

have blue ears, but

29:16

it is an eared pheasant,

29:18

but it is is a

29:20

blue -eared pheasant. get what what

29:22

I'm saying. It all It

29:24

all depends on where

29:26

you put that little

29:28

hyphen. hyphen. Anyway, great bird.

29:30

I mean, any pheasant

29:32

is exciting to see,

29:34

but man, it was

29:36

to it was a

29:38

great way to finish

29:40

a day of birding

29:42

on the Tibetan a day of

29:44

birding on Our last major

29:46

birding area in in Sichuan

29:48

a really wonderful national

29:50

park called Tanjiyahu. Tangeahoe, something

29:52

like that. that. I want

29:54

to say say it, but

29:56

I think it's Tanjiahe.

29:58

This was a a place

30:00

that was back down

30:02

at slightly lower elevations,

30:04

maybe more like, like, know,

30:06

between six and nine thousand

30:08

feet, and some really beautiful

30:10

lush forest again. And And because

30:12

this place is protected,

30:14

there are lots of,

30:16

not just birds, but

30:18

also interesting mammals to

30:20

see. to see. It too is

30:22

a a stronghold of

30:24

the giant, And of course, which we

30:27

did not see, but it's there, nice to

30:29

know, but we saw some really great birds

30:31

in there, some new birds for me, were

30:33

things like gray-headed woodpecker, crested kingfisher, slady-bunting, tawny

30:35

fish owl, bar-tailed tree-creeper, and sichuan tree-creeper. The

30:37

river in this park was really beautiful, and

30:39

it had just these massive boulders, just fantastically

30:41

enormous, and beautiful emerald green water. And one

30:43

of the things that was exciting to me

30:45

as someone who's interested in herpetology was that

30:47

those waters are home to the Chinese giant

30:49

salamander, which is the largest amphibian species in

30:51

the world alongside the Japanese giant salamander. Now

30:53

of course we didn't see any, but it

30:55

was really nice to imagine them being down

30:57

in the river that we were so close

30:59

to. These amphibians get to, I think, you

31:01

know, at their biggest, something like five feet

31:03

long, which is pretty crazy. So not only

31:05

did we see many great bird species in

31:07

Tanjiyaha National Park, we also saw some really

31:09

cool mammals, and I will probably talk about

31:11

the mammals towards the end of the episode.

31:13

So I was in Sichuan province for probably,

31:15

I think it was about 12 or 13

31:17

days. And it was really a spectacular journey.

31:19

It was cold most of the time, and

31:21

honestly that made it kind of feel more

31:23

adventurous and more... Just really interesting, it felt

31:25

like we were pretty, you know, pretty cool,

31:27

intrepid explorers out there in this frigid wonderland.

31:29

But then it was time to get on

31:31

a plane and take a short flight to

31:33

Yunnan, to the south. We had about 10

31:35

days in Yunnan, and we were joined by

31:37

a couple more people, and unfortunately we had

31:39

to say goodbye to Wansa, so our group

31:41

was now five people, a little bit different

31:43

mix. All really great people with good attitudes.

31:45

We had such a wonderful time. And yeah,

31:47

we explored Yunnan. We went to a variety

31:49

of different ecosystems. we we started

31:51

at relatively high elevations,

31:53

nothing like the Tibetan

31:55

the Tibetan but still the

31:57

mornings were cold and

31:59

chilly and a little

32:01

frost frost but the sun

32:03

was shining was shining by

32:05

the afternoons we could

32:07

shed a layer or

32:09

two. we could shed a then

32:11

or we headed then and

32:13

west we got to

32:15

lower elevations and lower

32:17

latitudes so things warmed

32:19

up. so things So right

32:21

out the gate gate

32:23

got to see one

32:25

of the coolest birds

32:27

of my trip, which was

32:29

the giant nut hatch, Sita Magna. This

32:50

is an endangered species that

32:52

you'll find only in southwestern China,

32:54

basically just in Yunnan province and in in

32:57

eastern of of part of Myanmar a

32:59

maybe a little bit in

33:01

Thailand. yeah, we saw several we saw several

33:03

individuals of this species in

33:05

a pine forest. like It looks

33:07

like your typical in in terms

33:09

of its shape and behavior. It's

33:12

kind of a kind of on

33:14

the back with a darker kind

33:16

of kind of eye stripe. a little

33:18

bit of chestnut on the belly

33:20

and vent with some some white

33:22

spotting. And it's about twice the

33:25

size of your typical nut

33:27

hatch. So it really is a

33:29

giant nuthatch. So we we continued on

33:31

through Yunnan through these different

33:33

areas and I should point out

33:35

that Yunnan has a great

33:38

number of ethnic minorities. So

33:40

again Han Han Chinese being the

33:42

dominant ethnicity in China, but

33:44

there were people like the the De

33:46

Lisu, the Bai, the Bai, the the Bai, in

33:48

Yunnan. Which means we got to

33:50

see some different architecture and

33:53

experience different foods, foods, different types

33:55

of people. It was very interesting. So

33:58

in the the mountains of

34:00

Yunnan... We did typical birding, we were walking

34:02

around the field, looking, listening, just like one

34:04

does, but eventually we transitioned to doing at

34:06

least some birding from hides, right, or blinds.

34:08

This is where a person or a family

34:11

has set up. a sort of feeding station

34:13

for birds where the observers are hidden behind

34:15

a screen and the birds have been habituated

34:17

to some extent. They know that food is

34:19

available at this spot so they come in

34:21

whenever the hide owner whistles or calls them

34:23

in. And so this is an interesting way

34:25

to quote unquote go birding because you are

34:28

sitting there and the birds are coming to

34:30

you. So it's easier than some might say

34:32

it's cheating. but you do get amazing views

34:34

of birds that you might not ever get

34:36

otherwise. So we got to see lots of

34:38

cool birds this way. Some of these really

34:40

skulky birds like laughing thrushes that normally would

34:42

just be hiding in the bushes. These kind

34:45

of come hopping out, grab a few mealworms,

34:47

then they go back into the bushes, but

34:49

you get a good look. So we continued

34:51

to do more traditional birding as well, and

34:53

I kind of pushed for that, but we

34:55

also did a fair amount of hide birding.

34:57

And we were often shoulder to shoulder with

34:59

lots of Chinese photographers, bird photographers that were

35:02

in these hides. So it's an interesting phenomenon.

35:04

I think that it might be worth making

35:06

an entire podcast episode talking about bird hides

35:08

and blinds and photography. Because you may remember

35:10

in the last episode I talked about the

35:12

issue in Vietnam and in parts of Southeast

35:14

Asia where hides are places that poachers target

35:16

to capture wild birds and sell them. Now,

35:19

as far as I know, that's not as

35:21

much of a problem in China, so it

35:23

felt a little better to do that. But

35:25

anyway, I have mixed feelings about the whole

35:27

thing. So, again, I think a podcast episode

35:29

might be in order. But anyway, in the

35:31

end, we got to see lots of great

35:33

birds that way, and both in the field

35:36

and the hides, I saw... over 13

35:38

species of which was which

35:40

was really cool because

35:42

again is that this

35:44

is one of my

35:46

favorite groups Some standout species

35:48

were the spotted laughing which

35:50

again is not overly

35:53

colorful, but just has

35:55

beautiful patterns And then

35:57

the red And the thrush,

35:59

which does have some

36:01

really nice color have some

36:03

red tailed laughing thrush

36:05

is kind of gray

36:07

overall, but it has

36:10

overall, but has a orangeish crown, white cheeks.

36:12

really red and tail tail black

36:14

some black mixed in

36:16

there And it's just

36:18

a really nice bird

36:20

and there were lots

36:22

of them at the

36:24

the hides. They're very active,

36:27

very cheeky birds, but I

36:29

I really like them A

36:31

moment moment ago I

36:33

mentioned that we saw

36:35

the giant hatch Well, we

36:37

also saw a couple

36:39

of the representatives of of

36:41

some other bird families

36:44

got got to see

36:46

the Slady woodpecker that was That

36:48

was really cool. This

36:50

is the largest woodpecker species

36:52

And we saw it saw it right at the

36:54

end of the day as we were

36:56

almost to our and this this was right

36:58

on the border between China and Myanmar

37:00

So I could I could look across this

37:02

fence and see the hills of Myanmar,

37:04

which is really cool I I actually got

37:06

a recording of the great Slady as it

37:08

came in and in on a tree on a

37:10

here we go we go. So

37:25

that was the great woodpecker that was

37:27

really cool was largest woodpecker in the

37:29

world in the world. And little later in

37:31

the trip in got to see

37:33

another species that I've really wanted

37:35

to see and that is the to

37:37

see, and that is the Sultan is the largest

37:39

member of the family member of the

37:41

it's maybe maybe not quite twice

37:43

the size of your typical of your

37:45

but it is a lot bigger

37:47

It's mostly black with a beautiful

37:49

crown with know with a kind of

37:51

crown, with a kind cool bird cool bird. So yeah,

37:53

yeah, those are just some cool

37:55

cool species being the biggest members

37:57

of their family of their family. Another standout

37:59

moment was when we found a

38:01

bird that is almost exclusively found

38:03

in China, also a little bit

38:05

in Myanmar. little bit And that was

38:08

the and that was the I-ringed parrot cute

38:10

cute bird. bird, if If you're

38:12

familiar with with in North America,

38:14

they're similar to that. This

38:16

little stubby bill, round bill,

38:19

body head and body, long Cute little

38:21

face. face, they hang out in groups. in groups.

38:23

And we were trying and trying

38:25

in these kind of agricultural fields

38:27

and scrubby areas. areas. with no

38:29

luck. And once And once again, right when we

38:31

gave up, we're about to get back in the car. in

38:33

I'm like, hey, what's that? There's a flock of little birds

38:35

over there. a flock of like, oh my

38:38

god, that's them. That's the birds. like, oh

38:40

my God, that's now we're running the birds. I ring

38:42

we get to watch these little birds,

38:44

they were actually quite confiding. They were feeding

38:46

in this tall grass They they really didn't

38:48

care about us standing pretty close to

38:50

them. were feeding I don't know, I think we

38:52

counted. and they or we estimated something like

38:54

80 of them in this flock. pretty, And

38:56

here's the sound of these little guys as

38:58

they're feeding in the grass. little guys

39:00

as they're feeding in

39:03

the grass. So that

39:05

was the eye-ringed parrot

39:07

bill. And forgive me,

39:09

I feel like I'm

39:11

kind of So that

39:13

was the all -ringed place with forgive me. I

39:15

feel like I'm kind of jumping

39:18

all over the place with the

39:20

telling you about this with

39:22

working This is the problem with working just

39:24

from a rough outline, but hey. it's what

39:26

we got. we got. So just want to

39:28

tell you about one last bird in bird then

39:30

I want to share some general thoughts. I

39:32

want that bird is general

39:34

thoughts. And that bird is the But

39:36

I think that's how you pronounce it.

39:38

I wanna say I think it's how -A -C

39:41

-H -U -R -A, but I think it's It's

39:43

The scientific name is it's elatura.

39:46

The This is a small, name

39:48

is bird. It's very spotted is

39:50

a small kind of brown bird. It's

39:52

spots. bird. The The wings and tail

39:54

are kind of a chestnut color with

39:56

some nice with some nice black If

39:58

you know you know what a... or a winter

40:01

ran or a Pacific ran looks like,

40:03

it looks a lot like that. But

40:05

it's not a run at all. In

40:07

fact, this bird has been difficult to

40:10

classify, but relatively recently, ornithologists placed it

40:12

in its own family, eliturity. So the

40:14

family eliturity is monotypic, it has one

40:17

species, and that is this spotted elitura.

40:19

And boy, we saw that little bugger.

40:21

We saw it in kind of a

40:24

slightly lower elevation. almost tropical rainforest environment

40:26

in Yunnan. It was one of the

40:28

last exciting birds that we got to

40:31

see on the trip in China. It's

40:33

a very skulky bird. It was just

40:35

calling and just hopping around on the

40:38

undergrowth in this very kind of mossy

40:40

damp area by a stream. But eventually

40:42

patients paid off and we got to

40:45

see it and we actually got to

40:47

see multiple individuals throughout the day. And

40:57

any time I see a bird that

40:59

is the only representative species of a

41:02

family, that to me is very exciting.

41:04

It means I got to see a

41:06

new bird family. There are only about

41:08

250 bird families in the world, so

41:11

if you get to see a new

41:13

family, that's pretty exciting, at least I

41:15

think. in China, I ended up seeing

41:17

361 species. And of those, 248 were

41:20

lifers, meaning species that I had never

41:22

seen anywhere before. So that's pretty remarkable.

41:24

I mean, we were basically birding all

41:26

day, every day, unless we were traveling

41:29

between locations. And even then, we're still

41:31

keeping an eye out for birds, of

41:33

course. So that was really successful on

41:36

the birding front. It was also successful

41:38

on the scouting front I feel really

41:40

good about leading the tour coming up

41:42

in June I'm excited to return to

41:45

Sichuan China. The tour is just going

41:47

to be in Sichuan, but also with

41:49

an extension that actually goes up north

41:51

to see the Tarakata Warriors of Shian,

41:54

which is a spectacular world-famous archaeological site.

41:56

And then the extension continues on to

41:58

Beijing to see the forbidden city and

42:01

the Great Wall of China. So I

42:03

can't wait for all of that. That's

42:05

in June. So just some general thoughts

42:07

about the journey through China. I had

42:10

a spectacular time. It was... the trip

42:12

of a lifetime in terms of you

42:14

know that on top of these other

42:16

Asian countries I'm visiting I just felt

42:19

like wow this is really this is

42:21

really epic it kind of really sunk

42:23

in once I was in China as

42:26

I said I felt it was very

42:28

you know obvious that I was a

42:30

foreigner so I felt kind of out

42:32

of place at times but I never

42:35

felt unsafe or really unwelcome I felt

42:37

very at peace and at ease Of

42:39

course I was very thankful to have

42:41

my friends there that you know were

42:44

Chinese that could help me navigate various

42:46

situations. But yeah it was it was

42:48

just spectacular and I had amazing food

42:50

along the way. Every meal was delicious

42:53

and it was very just kind of

42:55

traditional Chinese communal. I never knew what

42:57

was coming to the table just a

43:00

bunch of plates of shared food would

43:02

come and we would just you know

43:04

shovel it onto our bowls or our

43:06

plates. And the flavors were amazing. One

43:09

of my favorites was Mopu Tofu, M-O-P-U.

43:11

I'm probably not pronouncing that right, Mopu

43:13

Mopu. And I had that right in

43:15

the beginning in Chengdu and Sichuan. And

43:18

this thing has lots of Sichuan peppers.

43:20

And if you've never had Sichuan pepper,

43:22

which I guess I had never had,

43:25

this was my first experience. It not

43:27

only has great flavor, but it also

43:29

has this kind of numbing, ting, tingling,

43:31

ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, and

43:34

I always enjoyed having mopu tofu or

43:36

any dish with sishuan peppers. And you

43:38

may recall that I'm vegetarian, so everything

43:40

I was eating was vegetarian, but it

43:43

was all so good and it tasted

43:45

so fresh. and just really good. And

43:47

especially in the cold environments, all that

43:50

hot food was really welcomed and I

43:52

had hot tea and coffee, but you

43:54

know, interestingly, coffee is not so much

43:56

part of the culture there. So it

43:59

was mostly me and my friends kind

44:01

of having to provide coffee on our

44:03

own. We would just find some hot

44:05

water and add some instant coffee and

44:08

there you go. Another general observation, this

44:10

one about birds, is that it really

44:12

is a lot. Or at least when

44:14

it comes to forest birding, a lot

44:17

of it has to do with mixed

44:19

species flocks. That is where the action

44:21

is. Yeah, of course you're gonna get,

44:24

you know, a bird here and there,

44:26

and that's all fine, but it can

44:28

be quite quiet for a long period

44:30

of time until a mixed species flock

44:33

comes through. And then it's just like

44:35

pandemonium, and there's just now, suddenly there's

44:37

too many birds. You don't know which

44:39

way to look, and you're just like,

44:42

ah! But for example, in Tanjiyaha National

44:44

Park, here's an example of a mixed

44:46

flock that we saw. Here are some

44:49

species that were in that flock. Rufus-faced

44:51

warbler, black-throated tit, yellow-browed tit, green-backed tit,

44:53

some tree-creeper species, maybe one or two

44:55

different species, gray-capped pygmy woodpecker, Eurasian nuthatch,

44:58

and streak-breaked cematar babbler. And dozens of

45:00

those guys were all hopping around in

45:02

the same trees and bushes. It was

45:04

really exciting. So with this kind of

45:07

phenomenon, it's kind of boom and bust,

45:09

right? And I mentioned that I think

45:11

for Vietnam and Cambodia, we also experienced

45:14

that there. So you have to be

45:16

patient, but then the patience pays off

45:18

when a big flock comes through. And

45:20

I said I would mention the mammals,

45:23

so this trip turned out to be

45:25

pretty spectacular for mammal observations as well.

45:27

You know, the red panda, that's probably

45:29

the most exciting thing. But a close

45:32

second to the pandas, the red pandas,

45:34

was seeing wild wolves on the Tibetan

45:36

Plateau. On this really cold day, there

45:38

were these two wolves that were just

45:41

walking across the grassland, and we got

45:43

our scope on them, and they were

45:45

looking. at us and we were looking

45:48

at them and it was really cool.

45:50

There were also lots of Tibetan foxes

45:52

on the plateau and these are very

45:54

kind of strange looking foxes with big

45:57

heads and squint eyes and short legs.

45:59

As I mentioned lots of pike so

46:01

those cute little relatives of rabbits that

46:03

were digging burrows that were just like

46:06

countless pikeas across the plateau. Lots of

46:08

yaks which are of course a domesticated

46:10

animal in the bovidae family. But I

46:13

was really excited to see yaks because

46:15

I've heard about it my whole life

46:17

and never seen any yaks and they

46:19

were everywhere. And another member of the

46:22

family bovidae is the takin, or takin,

46:24

T-A-K-I-N. We saw those in Tangiyaha National

46:26

Park. This is, they're kind of a

46:28

goat-like animal or almost like a muscocks,

46:31

although they're not that closely related to

46:33

musnak, muscocks. Really neat, weird, weird, but

46:35

also kind of beautiful and cute looking

46:38

mammals-looking mammals. We've got some really nice

46:40

looks of them in Tangiyaha National Park.

46:42

And that's one of the famous animals

46:44

there. We also made a special visit

46:47

to see the golden snub-nosed monkeys. These

46:49

are gorgeous monkeys with kind of a

46:51

golden brown fur color. These pale bluish

46:53

white faces with basically no nose, almost

46:56

like a skull-like nose. They're kind of,

46:58

they can almost be creepy looking, but

47:00

they're also really cute and really beautiful.

47:02

And we went to a site where

47:05

there are dozens of them that are

47:07

habituated to people, kind of like the

47:09

hides where they come down to get

47:12

fed. But yeah, I was within almost

47:14

arms reach of some of these gold

47:16

and snub-nosed monkeys at this one site.

47:18

And it was amazing to see them

47:21

so close and they're so beautiful. And

47:23

again, this is another species that I

47:25

was aware of for a long time

47:27

and would really wanted to see in

47:30

the wild. Fun fact about that monkey

47:32

is that... Other than humans, this is

47:34

the primate that can tolerate the lowest

47:37

temperatures in the world. So humans are

47:39

pretty cold tolerant and this is the

47:41

second most cold tolerant primate. And yes,

47:43

we saw lots of squirrels here and

47:46

there. We did eventually see some giant

47:48

squirrels. So, you know, squirrels are cool

47:50

and all, but, you know, it's hard

47:52

to get excited about every squirrel, but

47:55

until we saw giant squirrels. Now we're

47:57

talking. These things, you think you're seeing

47:59

an ape jumping through the trees and

48:02

you realize, no, that's a squirrel. Whoa,

48:04

that thing is enormous. I think it

48:06

could take your face off. But anyway,

48:08

it was cool. We didn't really see

48:11

any reptiles or amphibians. It is winter

48:13

after all in the northern hemisphere, so

48:15

we didn't see so much of that

48:17

kind of life. A few interesting insects,

48:20

lots of great plants, fantastic landscapes, gorgeous

48:22

landscapes. Yeah, it was incredible. My time

48:24

in China was just really memorable and

48:26

wonderful, and I can't wait to go

48:29

back. And speaking of that, as I

48:31

mentioned, I have this tour in June.

48:33

The tour is 15 days starting on

48:36

June 7th and then there's that six-day

48:38

extension going up to see the Tarakata

48:40

Warriors and the Great Wall and all

48:42

that. There are a few spaces left,

48:45

so if you're interested in joining me

48:47

in China next June, then you should

48:49

get in touch with me Ivan at

48:51

Science of Birds.com. There may be three

48:54

or four spaces left, so don't hesitate

48:56

if this all sounds really good to

48:58

you. Now, I should point out that

49:01

the tour only goes to Sichuan province,

49:03

not Yunnan, but it is totally spectacular,

49:05

and again, we've got that extension, which

49:07

everybody right now that's signed up for

49:10

the tour is doing the extension, because,

49:12

you know, if you're going to go

49:14

all the way to China, you might

49:16

as well see the terracotta Warriors and

49:19

the Great Wall and the Forbidden City

49:21

and Beijing and all that stuff too.

49:23

And I can't wait to see those

49:26

areas in June because, you know, And

49:28

so to go back to those parks

49:30

and mountains and the plateau to see

49:32

it green and flowering and the leaves

49:35

opening up, oh, it's gonna be absolutely

49:37

beautiful, I'm sure. So that's

49:39

it for China. I

49:41

am heading off

49:44

to Bhutan, but before

49:46

I go, I

49:48

want to do something

49:50

that I go, I want

49:53

to to catch up

49:55

on. And that

49:57

is thanking my wonderful

50:00

catch up the people

50:02

who have recently signed

50:04

up to become

50:06

supporters of the patrons, the

50:09

people I'm a little

50:11

bit behind, so

50:13

I want to give

50:15

a shout out

50:18

to become supporters of the Dana

50:20

Cox, Maria So

50:22

I'm a little bit behind,

50:24

so I want to give

50:26

a shout Bob Liffsbaum,

50:29

Scott Fife. Derek Jefferson, Riley

50:31

Wolf, William Higgins, Mike

50:33

Mike Pat Pat Wells, Joanne Richard,

50:36

Elizabeth Sullivan Elizabeth Sullivan Jill Fairchild, Heather, Murb

50:38

and Mo, and Heather, All of you signed

50:40

and Bruce Thomas. last All of

50:42

you signed up within the

50:44

last couple months and so

50:46

thank you all so much

50:49

for supporting the podcast. You

50:51

are awesome. awesome. All right guys, I

50:53

I gotta go. I will

50:55

talk to you next time.

50:57

Thank you so much for

50:59

listening. for listening. Cheers