Dancing With Cranes (Day 2)

I always wondered where do these birdnet photographers get those drooling, jaw-dropping pictures. Time to solve the mystery. 5AM, I met Roger infront of my hotel and we went north of  Xinyang village with a local businessman. This is the same guy who owns a souvenir shop (Which also boasts of selling Wild Duck, Goose, Chicken eggs in front of the reserve entrance) has setup several hides in a paddy field and feeds corn cobs to lure the cranes. The Red-crowned Cranes arrive in good no’s (about 65-80 birds). They come as close as 30m to the hide, feeding, fighting, calling, short flights.

Arrival of the “red-crowns”

 

 

 

Feeding Time

 

 

 

Flight Time

Dancing Time

 

 

 

Time for some action

 

 

 

 

Adios

After a few hours of photoshoot we decided to leave the models to rest of the photo togs and explore the places further on our own. Quite good no of Common Cranes and Red-crowned Cranes were found outside the feeding area. We explored further north of the feeding station. There were about 25+ gulls in a frozen fish pond other than that north of Xinyang was a watery desert. Roger was feeling bit down under the weather,So I dropped him @ his hotel and went to the south of Xinyang. The habitat is intact in the south with very few fishponds and lot of fresh water pools and reeds. Even lot of fish ponds had the perfect water level for dabbling ducks as so the every fish pond has its own variety. Plenty of waterfowls in south Xinyang, some key birds are Smew, Black-necked Grebe, Goosander, Bean Goose, Northern Shoveler, Common Pochard, Common Shelduck. Light was dropping quickly and I decided to explore few more ponds before heading back to the village. The adjacent fish ponds were frozen and mostly gulls were dominating. There is nothing more to write on day 2 as there are several thousand frames only on the most fascinating Crane of East Asia.