The weather on Wawu Mountain today could not have been better: no rain, no blazing sun, the perfect overcast, the sort of day when the birds are bound to be active. We took the cable car up early, stopping first at mid-mountain, where we lingered a few minutes at the entrance of the abandoned road, listening from a distance to Red-winged Laughingthrushes and Emei Shan Liocichlas singing, before riding on to the summit.
Walking toward Yuanyang Pond, Lesser Cuckoos called from the treetops while Himalayan Shortwings and Yellow-bellied Bush Warblers sang from the shrubbery. The first mixed flock held plenty of Greenish Warblers and a few Aberrant Bush Warblers, and in the distance a row of Brown Parrotbills was preening each other.
Bianchi's Warblers called now and then from both sides of the trail, and it took real effort to finally see one. Golden Bush Robins, by contrast, stood on branches below our feet, tails shivering, threading back and forth beneath the boardwalk.
Three Great Parrotbills, like the Brown Parrotbills, huddled together preening one another. A Three-toed Woodpecker clung to a trunk in the distance, and a Lesser Yellownape was working the trees overhead.
At last we reached Yuanyang Pond. The spot where I had seen Przevalski's Parrotbills on earlier visits was occupied by a big crowd of Elliot's Laughingthrushes and White-collared Yuhinas, though an Emei Shan Liocichla did pop out for a moment.
Warblers were numerous around the pond: several Buff-throated Warblers stood on branch tips, and a Sichuan Bush Warbler walked silently over the ground. A fallen log nearby belonged to a Baikal Bush Warbler, which walked along it and even caught an insect.
We stopped to admire the perfectly clear Yuanyang Pond, which no longer had that end-of-the-world feel of my May Day visit. A few White-throated Needletails still flew overhead, though their nests were apparently not near the pond; they kept very high and soon drifted away into the distance.
We made a loop around the pond to its far side. Several treecreepers were working a few tall trees, and after a long look they all turned out to be Hodgson's Treecreepers; not a single Sichuan Treecreeper among them, sadly. Below the boardwalk, Grey-headed Bullfinches, Grey-winged Blackbirds, and several Dark-breasted Rosefinch juveniles drank at the lakeside.
Heading into the forest, we met another small group of Great Parrotbills working both sides of the trail. Before long came an army of Three-toed Parrotbills, thirty or forty of them. They seemed to be just passing through; without lingering they crossed to the bamboo on the other side of the slope.
The summit targets were just about wrapped up by then. Lunch had long been settled, in fact: two grilled sausages eaten while watching the bush warblers had filled me up. Next, a wander down the abandoned road at mid-mountain.
Right at the road's entrance, a Temminck's Tragopan came out to forage through the litter.
Walking in a little way, we tried for Spotted and Red-winged Laughingthrushes, but only heard the Spotted calling twice, far off. An Emei Leaf Warbler sang overhead the whole time without ever showing itself.
We walked back and forth for who knows how long, and the birds grew fewer, the surroundings ever quieter, until only Red-billed Leiothrix hopped about in the shrubs. And then, at that quietest of moments, a dark shape slid down from somewhere high behind us, flew across the valley at our feet, and landed on the opposite slope, the whole passage swift and utterly silent. My shutter speed was still at 1/200 from photographing the leaf warbler, but there was no time to adjust; I just grabbed focus. Before checking the photos I thought it was some dark grey thrush, yet it looked far lighter and smaller than a Blue Whistling Thrush, and I couldn't quite place it. A Japanese Grey Thrush, maybe? Then we looked at the photos: it had been a male Purple Cochoa! Looking closely you could even see its crop bulging, packed full of food. That's how cochoas carry food, Green Cochoas included; they stash what they forage in the crop and carry it back to feed the chicks. That male must have been busy feeding his young. Good luck to them with the brood.
After the cochoa we hurried to the cable car station, only to find the doors locked when we arrived, breathless. Were we really going to have to walk down?? We reached the station at 6:04, and the cars were in fact still running; luckily a member of staff opened the door for us and we boarded the second-to-last cable car of the day on Wawu Mountain. A minute or two later and we would truly have been walking down.
Twenty-one thousand steps on Wawu Mountain today, and my legs had turned to jelly by the walk out of the park. But seeing the Purple Cochoa that breeds here was tremendous luck; probably the best bird of the whole trip.
That evening we drove on to Yibin, to look for the Sichuan Partridge first thing the next morning.
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