Yunnan is on my list for a very long time but never had a chance for a long trip due to my hectic new job. Tomb Sweeping festival(清明节) was approaching and I saw it as my big break. So planned my trip to cover the best known birding location in Yunnan, Dali and Tengchong. Spent 9 days in Yunnan. All the destinations were covered by public transport.

30 March, flew from Shanghai Hongqiao International airport to Kunming’s new Changshui International airport. The airport is massive, lot of digital banners were boasting how Yunnan is the best tourist destination in China(My heart was little racing as I started to guess that I’m gonna burn some additional money on top of my budget). My train to Dali was @ 11.30 PM, I had another 8 hours of birding. In South China, you will have the light till 7 PM. Decided to hit the Dianchi lake, the renowned place for the thousands of wintering gulls. Dianchi is the largest lake in Yunnan province and also the largest polluted water body, thanks to “Great leap forward”. There are lot of parks around the shores. I went to Heigeng Park. It was May and I didn’t had the sight of thousands of gulls but there were few. Mostly, Black-headed gulls. Few Brown-headed Gulls gave some short flights to the shore. The adults in breeding plumage were resting on the poles which was far away from the shore. White Wagtail ssp personata is the most common wagtail around. Black-headed Greenfinches and White-eyes were always on the canopy. After spending brief time with the Black-throated Tits and some Black-headed gulls, I moved to the east side of the park which gave me the first lifers for the day Brown-breasted and Sooty-headed Bulbul. Red-whiskered Bulbuls and Red-vented Bulbuls, Oriental Magpie Robin, Olive-backed Pipit were spotted inside the Golf course which is adjacent to the park.

Black-throated Tit Black-throated Tit Black-throated Tit

 Black-headed Gull

Black-headed Gull

While i was bored….

Fishermen

Photoshoot

Puppy

End of day. Off to the most famous train of Kunming-Dali. Before that a very remarkable dinner @ a Xishuangbanna Daizu restaurant, close to the railway station.  Sadly that was the only delicious food of the whole trip.

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Bird list :

  • Red-vented Bulbul
  • Red-whiskered Bulbul
  • Sooty-headed Bulbul
  • Brown-breasted Bulbul
  • Barn Swallow
  • Black-throated Tit
  • Brown-headed Gull
  • Black-headed Gull
  • White Wagtail (ssp personata)
  • Olive-backed Pipit
  • Oriental Magpie Robin
  • Black-headed Greenfinch
  • White-eye ssp