Whenever, there is boredom catches upon in Shanghai due to the lack of variety in wildlife, a 90 minute train ride to Nanjing could be refreshing in so many ways. The mature forest in and around the city hosts a variety of birds and butterflies. To top that, the local food in Nanjing boasts of some unique cuisine. The blog post covers two trips over two seasons (summer of July 2018 and the recent one was during Spring of March 2019).
The Summer 2018 trip to Nanjing was on the back of the Xinjiang trip. The freedom to roam around anywhere without looking over the shoulder, no security checks, no visit to the police station made the birding so enjoyable despite the 40C scorching heat. This trip was with Jason Anderson, a visiting from UK. We went to the Botanical Gardens on Day 1 and were treated by several nesting birds. Ashy Drongo’s were plenty and many nesting pairs were seen right from the gate. Although, the highlight was a pair of nesting Black Baza’s.
Surprisingly, the Masked Laughinghthrushes have grown very well and were pretty common more than the sparrows, bulbuls & magpies. The other species which has expanded very well is the Red-whiskered Bulbul. Despite being the plum rain season, we were lucky enough to have a rainless weekend and also a handful of new butterflies.
Timelaea maculata – ventral view
The next day we made it all the way to Laoshan Forest farm at the edge of the city. Despite the growing heat, we saw some good birds in the woods but failed to see any Fairy Pitta which makes we wonder whether the Fairy Pitta really breeds there? Anyhow, we saw good no of Tiger Shrikes in nest, feeding the young, Swinhoe’s Minivet, Black-naped Oriole, Chinese Sparrowhawk etc.
The recent trip in March 2019 was genuinely for two reason. While wading through my year old “Handbook for the butterflies of China”, i stumbled on the Chinese Luehdorfia (Luehdorfia chinensis) specimen collected in Nanjing and it’s right month to see them. Without much info, i decided to hit my usual jaunts in Nanjing to see if i can run into this endemic species. Prior to that, it’s time to hit the famous restaurant of Nanjing “Nanjing Impressions” to try some local cuisine.
As usual, hit the botanical gardens first for my Leuhdrofia adventure. With Spring, comes a modern chinese tradition of Blossom festival and thereby the “Herd” congregates even a tiniest park. The Botanical Garden was hosting “Plum Blossom Festival” and to my luck, that festival was held in the south Park, leaving the most mature wooded north park free of landscaping and ofcourse the crowd. Despite, spending the whole day in the Botanical Garden, there was no sign of Leuhdorfia but treated with couple of other goodies.
The Yellow tip (Anthocharis scolymus) – Finally a decent shot of the male
Anthocharis bambusarum – ventral view
Now to Laoshan Forest farm, there were increased presence of forest department personnel’s and volunteers. They were scouting the area to prevent forest fire. It had been a dry winter and the arrival of Tomb Sweeping festival had increased the chances of forest fire. I did my usual walk from the entrance of the forest park to the temple at the end and treated with the nesting of “Yellow-bellied Tit”. I always thought it would be nesting on a tree but to my surprise, it was nesting on the ground.
On the way to the temple, Lily found a dead specimen of the Chinese Luehdorfia. While we were inspecting it, a forest department personnel stopped by to inquire us and told that the Laoshan forest farm holds a decent population of this butterfly and they usually found in large no’s during first couple of weeks of March. I was happy that my intuition worked very well and also bit let down that i came by the last week of March. The specimen we found looked fresh, so i was optimistic that i could see a few if i stick around for sometime. The forest department personnel reminded me that Chinese Leuhdorfia is a Class II protected species and it’s not allowed to capture/collect.
At the temple, i finally nailed over a dozen Leuhdorfia’s in an Apricot tree. One of the monks in the temple, remembered me from the July trip, told me that the Apricot tree is few hundred years old and invited me to the lunch post the afternoon ceremony at the temple. Well, my first ever vegetarian lunch in China came in an unexpected way. Coming back to the Leuhdorfia, the handbook doesn’t mention the subspecies but there are two subspecies. The one i have encountered in Nanjing is L.c.chinensis is distributed across Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei and Shanxi. The other subspecies L.c.leei is found in Henan and Shaanxi provinces.
The broad spark (Sinthusa chandrana) – Dorsal view
The checklist for the trip is linked to ebird now rather than a list here as i’m uploading all my sightings to ebird and it has become the primary repository now.
July 7, 2018 – Nanjing Botanical Garden
July 8, 2018 – Laoshan Forest Farm
March 23, 2019 – Nanjing Botanical Garden
March 24, 2019 – Laoshan Forest Farm
Lastly, the directions to the Laoshan forest farm. A taxi ride is a convenient one although getting a taxi at the Forest farm would be really difficult especially if you have to catch a train. The taxi ride from downtown will cost about 120RMB. For the adventurous ones and have plenty of time to kill, transit by the Nanjing Subway and a bus transfer is much more economic and don’t have to worry about the return trip. Take the Line 10 subway all the way to the Terminal station Yushan Road (雨山路). Take Exit 5, cross the road and the bus stop is at the left. Take Line 400, the terminal station is the Shizi Ling temple arch. Same for the return trip as well but note the last bus at Shizi Ling is at 5.30. The bus service is limited though as there is only 5 services a day.
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