After yesterdays mega tick I was quite looking forward to a
relatively calm day but this was not to be the case. We arrived at the far side
of Gongangglin Forest just after sunrise and set about our Chinese Grouse hunt and after waiting at a clearing for a while we
got distracted by a singing Long-tailed
Thrush which didn’t perform as we would have liked. So at that point we
split into smaller ‘teams’ and headed in different directions. A few of us
searched for thrushes but only had Tibetan
Siskin and a few other common species, but as we got back to the coach for
breakfast Keith was waiting and offering me his camcorder to see what he’d just
filmed. Well, after the shock of seeing a Pere David’s Owl staring back at me from his
viewing screen we literally legged it to the last known spot with his wife,
Lynne, leading us to the correct spot. Fortunately a few others were there
already looking for grouse – and then the beast called, a deep double-hoot.
Must admit I had the old shakey-hand syndrome as the bird continued to call for
half an hour and I fired off a few notes from the I-pod but it just called
back. Finally it flew and gave us a glimpse of this mythical forest-ghost.
Well, it gave us the runaround and eventually flew off up the hill and out of
sight, but continued to call. I wasn’t for giving up and after a protracted and
exhausting trek up a steep slope we had it perched next to a tree trunk, but
looking through bushes so no clear shot. What a relief! So we headed back to
the coach for breakfast, but one person had been missing throughout all this.
So I dragged Russell back up the hill and into the forest where the bird was
still calling at 10am (!) and within a matter of seconds we had the beastie
close by on a bare branch right in front of us – time to celebrate this
‘once-in-a-lifetime’ bird with clenched fist and a little dance…! Definitely
bird of the trip for me…!
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| Pere David's Owl |
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