Day 277: Dawn on the Mountain
A profusion of birds greets the sun on Mount Victoria.
October 4, 2015:ÌýMount Victoria, MyanmarÌý—ÌýAtÌý10,000 feet in western Myanmar, the forest feels cozily like home.ÌýPines, oaks, and rhododendrons are surrounded by patches ofÌýwildflowers and laced with cool, enveloping fog. Green-carpeted ridgesÌýstack out to the horizon whenever the mist lifts for a moment. MightÌýas well be back in Oregon, I was thinking this morning, when aÌýChestnut-headed Tesia suddenly popped into view and the illusionÌývanished. Ah, right, this is Myanmar.
Gideon and I were up at 3:15 a.m. to keep a date with a Hodgson's FrogmouthÌýnear our lodging, halfway up the slope of Mount Victoria. We then satÌýfor a fried-rice breakfast at 4:00 a.m. and were grinding up anÌýunbelievably muddy Jeep track by 4:30. Gideon wanted to be near theÌýmountain's summit before sunrise to take in the dawn chorus, whichÌýturned out to be an excellent idea. As dawn broke this morning, weÌýstood listening to laughingthrushes, warblers, fulvettas, woodpeckers,Ìýminlas, bullfinches, and bulbuls wake up all around us. I've alwaysÌýwondered what it must be like to rise each morning with anÌýoverwhelming urge to belt out songs for half an hour—definitely notÌýmy usual mindset when I roll out of bed! Leave that to the birds.Ìý
This was my first taste of higher east Himalayan habitats and theÌýmajority of birds I saw today were lifers. Adventurous birders spendÌýfour or five days on a visit to Mount Victoria (usually betweenÌýNovember and March) to properly cover the pine, oak, and broadleafÌýsections, but Gideon and I just had today to do the place justice. ToÌýmake the most of it, we stayed out from dawn to dusk, ate lunchÌýstanding up, and took short tea breaks.
Luckily, the marquee birds weren't difficult to find. Mount VictoriaÌýis associated with the White-browed Nuthatch, a little bird which isÌýfound only on this one mountain, and we saw several of them today. WeÌýalso encountered the distinctive subspecies of Black-browed Tit andÌýChinese Babax which may someday be recognized as Burmese endemics.ÌýSome days, it's hard work to add birds one by one, but today it wasÌýmore like dozen by dozen—heck yeah!
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New birds today: 42
Year list: 4645
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