Crested Ibis at Yangxian

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When I was but a little boy, there was a bird in one of my books called the Japanese crested ibis. This was a beautiful white bird with a shaggy white crest on the back of its head, a bare red face and a long downcurved black and red bill. I had no hope of ever seeing one, and indeed there seemed no hope that the species would even be in existence when I was an adult, because the entire known population consisted of just five birds in Japan. Once the species had ranged across Japan, a wide part of China and the Russian Far East, but the remnant Japanese birds were all that were left. In 1981 these five birds were captured and put in a zoo in an attempt to breed them but they were so old that the species appeared doomed. But that same year, a miraculous reprieve – a colony was found in the middle of China, near a town called Yangxian in Shaanxi province. The colony was only tiny (four adult birds) but with protection it grew until now there are around 500 birds. A few other colonies have also recently been established in surrounding areas, and attempts or intentions are for there to also be wild colonies established in Japan and South Korea again.

Yangxian is only about three hours by bus from Xian, and there was no way I wasn't going to go to try and see a crested ibis!! I had some print-outs of emails from a couple of independant-birder acquaintances who had been there; between those I should meet with success. The girls at the desk at the Warriors Youth Hostel where I was staying had written down in Chinese all the instructions I needed to get to the town. First step was to take a subway three stops to the South Bus Station. After the mistakes with the bus yesterday trying to get to Zhouzhi, I decided to just take a taxi straight to the bus station. I went to the ticket counters and showed them my bit of paper saying “please can I buy a bus ticket to Yangxian”. The lady looked at it and shook her head firmly. No? No! You know what my first thought was? That's right – foreigners aren't allowed to go to Yangxian! It turned out to be a bit less dramatic than that. The girls at Warriors had written down instructions to get to the West Bus Station. I was in the wrong place! So I had to get on a local city bus in order to get to the right bus station. If my life was a movie, there would then be a caption at the bottom of the screen saying “One Hour Later....” (If any movie producers are reading this, can you get someone cool and actiony for the lead role, and not someone like Ryan Reynolds. Thanks). It was almost 8am by the time I got to the South Bus Station, but there was a bus leaving at 8.30 so it worked out all right.

The bus was pretty flash. It even had a hostess giving safety instructions just like on a plane! Then there was a safety video which seemed to go on for half an hour! The movie they played after that was “The Inspector Wears Skirts” which is sort of a Hong Kong version of Police Academy but with all-female recruits and more kickboxing. I think the original Chinese title probably made more sense. What was really weird was that there were commercials during the movie!! Not short ones either, they were like five minute long segments, every twenty minutes or so. And just slotted randomly into the movie, often cutting character's sentences in half.

The bus arrived in Yangxian at 11.50am. The bus station in Yangxian is actually within a few minutes walk of the river so no problems there! I had seen that there was a smaller river right next to the town (on the west side) so rather than head straight to the main river from the station, I walked along the road to the bridge that spanned the small river first, otherwise it would have blocked my track along the main riverbank. Naturally I looked up that small river from the bridge and way up it I saw a white bird standing in the water. That could only be an ibis. Five minutes off the bus and I'd already found my bird! I couldn't really make out much more than that it was white, so I made my way down off the bridge and found a nice dirt track running all the way along the bank. Everything was so simple! When I got close enough I had another look through my binoculars. The bird was a little egret......

A tad disappointed, I headed back towards the main river. An old man intercepted me, having seen me pass by with my binoculars, and (as far as I can tell, because it was all in Chinese) told me that the ibis were to be found if I kept heading up the small river. I surmised he was telling me where the colony was situated (where you have to pay a heavy fee to see them, so I keep hearing), so I stuck with the main river plan. As I came round the bend in the bank where the small river joined the large one, I saw a couple more white birds which were also little egrets, then a grey heron, then another little egret, then – oh, a crested ibis, nice. Directly outside town. If I had gone straight to the main river instead of the small one it literally would have been less than ten minutes between getting off the bus and seeing the ibis. I had been inspecting all the little egrets before just in case, but really there's no confusion because the ibis was a creamy sort of colour whereas the egrets are pure snow-white (it doesn't sound like a big difference written down, but is very obvious in real life). I took a photo from my far viewpoint, and then kept going along the track to try and get closer with a better view. Somehow the ibis disappeared while I was doing so. I don't know how because I never saw it fly but it was gone next time I looked at the bank of stones it had been on in mid-river. If I didn't have the photo I would have thought I imagined it or somehow thought a rock was an ibis. The photo itself is rubbish but it does show an ibis.

There were some other birds on the stones as well. White wagtails and common sandpipers were catching my eye constantly as they abruptly lifted up from the ground, and there were a couple of common kingfishers as well. Then something else small flew up not far away. I got it in the binoculars – a long-billed plover! And two of its mates! To tell the truth I hadn't even been going to look for long-billed plover while here, which might sound silly but I thought I was going to be putting a lot of time into finding an ibis. Having seen how well-camouflaged the plovers are though (they almost literally disappear against the stones the second they stop moving) I doubt I would have found any if I had been actively looking for them. Fortune favours the something something. I can't remember how that saying goes. The trees along the river were full of yellow-bellied tits, which are really nice, while the undergrowth contained vinous-thoated parrotbills. A plumbeous water redstart also paid me visit, and that is an outstanding bird – basically all deep bluish-black apart for the orange tail; really striking.

So I'd seen a crested ibis, but it was hardly a great viewing. I debated between walking the 5km or so west to where one of my birder acquaintances had seen ibis feeding earlier this year, or try the old man's suggestion of going up the small river. Being lazy, I took the small river option which turned out to be a good one. In the trees along the walkway there I saw some Chinese bulbuls, and in the river lots more little egrets as well as a couple of intermediate egrets. Then way up ahead something took to the air, looking surprisingly like a flamingo! I hadn't realised how pink crested ibis are when they fly!! The bird flew straight down the river towards me and landed in the middle not too far ahead. I got some shots of it standing in the water, and then some more as it took off again. They really are surprisingly flighty. I would have thought with the protection they have had here for so many years they would be pretty steady but that seems to not be the case (in my vast experience of having seen two birds). This was a much better sighting for me. I saw the bird really well, both on the ground and in the air, and even got some photos. And it was only two o'clock.

I had been prepared to stay overnight in Yangxian if need be, but I decided to just make it a one-day-twitch after all, so I headed back to the bus station. Along the way I saw a couple of Chinese pond herons. Back nearer town I got a bigger surprise when a smallish brown bird appeared in the branches of a tree and when I got my binoculars on it it turned out to be a wryneck! That was not at all something I expected to see today! The other reason I had for possibly staying in Yangxian is that outside town (about 70km away) is the Hua Yang Tourist Area where there are habituated golden monkeys! I only found out about this last night and thought “yes, definitely going there”. Sun Ge in Beijing had emailed me telling me about it and saying that foreigners can definitely go there. Then half an hour later emailed me again saying sorry foreigners can no longer go there! I was fifty-fifty on whether to try or not – I really thought I knew it would turn out the same as Zhouzhi Golden Monkey Reserve had – and in the end I sort of thought I didn't want to spoil the success of seeing the crested ibis with then failing to get into Hua Yang. So I went back to Xian on a high instead of a low. I shall have more (possible) opportunities in Sichuan for golden monkeys.

The movie on the way back was “Project S” which was another Hong Kong martial arts movie (a good one) but I missed the middle because I fell asleep. It was just before 6pm when the bus got back into Xian. I didn't want to take the local bus for another hour across town so was going to just take a taxi instead. I went to the taxis outside the station....and no-one would let me into their vehicles! I've never come across taxi drivers refusing fares before, especially to foreigners who are easy meat. Except for one, all the drivers sat staring rigidly ahead pretending they didn't see me, and when I knocked on the window would firmly shake their heads. Really weird. The one driver who did respond looked at my map of where I was going and then shook his head. I thought maybe there's some sort of taxi turf war and they aren't allowed to take passengers across town but that doesn't even make sense. So I ended up back on the one hour bus to the West Bus Station because I didn't know how to get anywhere else. And there, same thing, nobody would let me in their taxis. It took another half an hour before I finally found someone who would take me back to the hostel. I was so happy I paid him double what the fare was (which, if you've been paying attention, you'll know is not like me at all!!). At the hostel I asked one of the girls what the heck it was all about. She said that in Xian the taxis don't like to take foreigners because the drivers don't speak English. Sounds like a rubbish excuse to me.

Anyway, crested ibis. Sorted.

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Comments

[Andy]

Well done, I\'m Very jealous!

[Peter Ericsson]

Epic!