On the third day, we visited the First Bend of the Yellow River in Jiuzhaigou and had a night observation at the Baseline Forest Farm.
To be honest, I didn't have high expectations for the day's itinerary. The First Bend of the Yellow River is a famous tourist attraction, always crowded with people, so it's unlikely to see any rare birds there. As for the night observation, it would be completely dark, and my camera wouldn't perform well.
However, my prediction was only partially correct, fortunately. Although the night observation didn't yield much, I made a decent discovery: two male musk deer. It made up for the regret of only seeing female musk deer and young male musk deer yesterday.
When the first deer appeared, the sun hadn't completely set yet. From a distant mountain, I managed to capture its silhouette in a photo, vaguely showing the spots on its body and the antlers on its head. It was a photograph worth keeping. As the night fell completely, the second deer appeared at a far distance. We could only see a rough image through binoculars. It had huge antlers with obvious branches. Standing tall on the mountain, overlooking us in the darkness, it was clearly the king of the deer. I tried to capture its figure with my camera, but I couldn't focus properly, and it slowly disappeared into the night.
(Although unclear, but still distinguishable, having clear specialties of being a male dear)
The highlight of the day was in the morning, a time I didn't expect much from. After arriving at the First Bend of the Yellow River, we found the mountain filled with tourists, and it was noisy, which was not conducive to wildlife observation. However, the outcome turned out to be unexpected. Not only did we see Sichuan Partridges on the mountain, but we also encountered Black-necked Cranes on our way back.
In the field of ecological observation,there is a saying that one pheasant is worth ten birds. Although it's a joke, it shows the rarity and scarcity of chickens. The Blue Eared Pheasant we saw the day before was an exception and didn't reflect its rarity. But the Blood
Pheasant we pursued on the first day left me empty-handed. However, at the viewing escalator of the First Bend of the Yellow River, I saw a kind of pheasant - Sichuan Partridge. As the name suggests, it inhabits high-altitude areas, and the word "partridge" implies that it is smaller than a regular pheasant, like the Blue Eared Pheasant. When we looked into the grass, we could only see a dark shadow with the naked eye. When I tried to take photos with my camera, it was initially just a clump of grass, with only slightly brighter colors. It was only when I focused my gaze that I could distinguish this group of partridges from the grass. Their camouflage was impressive!
At first, I only saw the largest male Sichuan Partridge, while the female bird was hidden in the grass. However, my dull attention was still attracted by something. It seemed that the color of the "grass" next to it was too flashy. After careful observation of this pair of Sichuan Partridge, I couldn't help but wonder if they had any offspring. Searching around with my camera, the young partridges didn't disappoint me. Six little ones huddled together in a clump of grass not far from their parents. Perhaps because of the cold weather that day, they curled up tightly, trying to keep warm. They were also somewhat afraid of the
continuous flow of tourists, with their heads stretching out and retracting alternately, looking very lovely.
On the way back, I unexpectedly encountered another pleasant surprise, the Black-necked Crane. Although I saw them on the first day, they were far away. However, this time, while sitting on the bus, two Black-necked Cranes were standing quietly in the grass beside the road, about 20 meters away from me. This discovery pleasantly surprised me, and the bus also stopped, giving me a great opportunity to take photos.
Later, I learned that the group of Sichuan Partridges had been observed by birdwatchers during the summer vacation. However, for me, it was still a complete surprise. The intrusion of the other two species into my lens was purely a matter of luck. Perhaps, this is the charm of ecological observation. Due to its unpredictability, the harvest is
always full of pleasant surprises.
