TsaoLing
bird whisperer revisited
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlung/sets/690107/
Writing
finally completed – 17 June 04
Ever since I been
to TsaoLing over the weekend of 15-16 Nov last year and got to know that bird whisperer Mr Lin there
as well as finding out how rugged and beautiful that place and its surroundings
were, I wanted to get back. I also wanted to bring him a present of a clicker
and to explain to him the principles in clicker training.
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When
my wife returned from UK after a long sojourn with the excuse of seeing her
little brother’s newborn kid, I thought I will take her to TsaoLing. Then we saw flyers and posters that told of
this yearly ritual at the Alishan mountain where a symphony orchestra play
their notes and refrains to the first light of dawn together with the
aboriginal tribe drumming and chanting during that time, my plans for the
Christmas weekend of 25-28 Dec 2004 fell into place. Alishan was reachable from Tsaoling and in my last time there, I saw road signs pointing
to places reached from Alishan as well.
Needing
only a vestige of an excuse to go, I got so many full blown excuses this time
to enjoy a wonderful long weekend.
The
last time I went to Tsaoling, only Tinkerbell was with me riding shotgun on the
perch I made on my little motor scooter.
“Fill her up” will get as much as 70NT worth of gas or about 2 dollars
worth. After going up a high pass and
down to Tsaoling, the needle would be at halfway mark without petrol station to
fill up again. Exploring the roads and
places there became very dicey not knowing if I can get back to a petrol pump
to refill.
It
was colder too in late December. I
agreed readily with Joy that hiring a car will be more comfortable and much
better for my ease of mind and much warmer for us and Tinkerbell.
Joy
asked me what maps did we need. I told
her not to worry as I knew the place there like the back of my hand. I made several trips to that area, got
seriously lost there the last time on the return trip finding out even more
windy roads thus giving myself reasonable confidence that I did know that area
pretty well.
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If
the map was of small enough scale to show the entire mountain range there, it would be too small to show the road
systems. Mountain roads in Taiwan also
had this knack of not appearing as
shown on maps and to compensate, roads can appear on mountains even when not shown on maps.
I
told her offhand to take our Chiayi county map book.
So
on the morning of 25 December, I filled up the car with gas quite pleased that
I got 1000+ NT worth of petrol. I
expected to be at Tsaoling by early afternoon allowing much more time to enjoy
that place.
It
was a good start as we headed out of Chiayi city. We brought a stack of favourite CDs we seldom got the chance to
listen to. Tink was happily standing on
her traveling basket on Joy’s lap looking out at the passing scenery and
experimented more with the words and sounds she knew.. We drove past the towns and started to wind
our way up the mountain roads. I came
to a point where the road forked with one heading upwards and the other heading
down. I normally took the other road
for another 2 km before it dipped and wound down eventually reaching a bigger road
towards Tsaoling. I reckoned we were at
most 45 minutes away and I mentally saw the other road must the the one it
joined with later on and taking it should shave much more time allowing us to
reach Tsaoling earlier.
That
road headed down and down. After 30
minutes, I was feeling uneasy but proceeded on hoping to reach a junction I
recognized. Joy’s innocent comments
that the outside appeared rather flat for a mountainous area did not seat
well. I tried to check the maps and can
confirm fairly inaccurate maps would be much better than no maps at all. While Tsaoling and Alishan were in the
Chiayi county, that area was also the junction of two other counties, YunLin
and Nantou. All so fiercely proud of
their county that only roads in their respective counties were shown in their
county map books, which of course, I did not have.
Looking
at the brighter side of life, we did have a lot of nice CDs to listen to and a
tank full of gas.
We
reached Tsaoling late that afternoon and I discovered even more systems of
roads than I could imagine. That is why
the shot of TsaoLing you see has the sun so low and almost on the
horizon. But if you attribute that shot
and its timing to my artistic talent, by all means do so :-)
TsaoLing
bird whisperer revisited
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlung/sets/690107/
We
then checked into the hotel.
We made our way to Mr Lin’s house to renew our
acquaintance and to introduce Joy to them.
Mr Lin was a tea oil grower and who drove mini bus to ferry sight seeing
tourists in that area. Not many
tourists go to Tsaoling after that huge earthquake a few years ago. I thought of inviting him and his wife for a
nice dinner as well later on.
He
and his wife were at home and as delighted to see me as I was to see him
again. His birds were not around which
saddened my wife. He smiled, walked to
his open door and called out. They then
posed for a shot at their entrance beside a hand drawn poster in Chinese that
roughly translate that it is a halfway house for injured birds and creatures. A
minute or so later, the Chinese bamboo partridge, Bambusicola thoracica
(thought to be wild grouse before)
came bouncing and flapping in from outside followed very closely by the streak breasted
scimitar babbler, Pomatorhinus ruficollis (that I called thrush before) flying in.
Though
I have seen them before, it was enchanting to see those wild birds being called
into the living room and fussing about him.
Joy was absolutely captivated by that sight.
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He prepared tea as
was almost obligatory in Taiwan. We chatted and he brought out his bird book
printed in Chinese but with the scientific names in English, or should I say in
Latin, so I can finally know what birds they were.
Below is an URL
for Taiwanese birds for all interested.
http://taiwanbird.fhk.gov.tw/english/org/03dbase/dbfr.htm
I
was sorry not to see the two small Abroscopus Albogularis white throated
flycatcher warbler (referred to as two tiny birds before) and
he told us they did not return a couple of weeks ago. The beautiful Formosan whistling thrush (that I called blue glossy
starling before) , Myiophoneus Insularis , was still around and still very shy.
When
I remarked how good he was with birds, he told me that his charm did not work
all the time. There was once an emerald
dove (chalcophaps
indica ) that he was
rescuing but took to his wife. When he
raised his voice against the wife, that dove would fly to his wife shoulder and
took her side scolding him. That dove
remained very attached to his wife until it flew off to return to the wild. It
was such a nice story that I told him I felt sorry the dove wasn’t still around. He asked me why should I feel sorry as that
dove , while no longer staying at home, was nesting in a tree outside. He
showed me the next morning the nest and said when their breeding season
is on, the dove will be there. (how nice to have a wife with me this time to
take notes even if she does not believe in walking 5 mincing steps behind me
:-) )
I
then remembered the clicker I brought with me.
I took it out and showed it to him.
I explained in detail what that was for, as a bridge to communicate our
intentions to our charges. I told him
of the process of conditioning the clicker with treats, the timing of the
clicker with the bird performing the actions, the breaking of the overall
actions to small steps to guide the bird along. I spoke on the use of clicker and target stick. How to cue for recalls while sipping the
lovely Chinese tea that he brewed. He
was listening to me intently and I being caught in that moment, went on and
on. I then solemnly handed him the
clicker and asked him to please accept that as a small token of my admiration.
He
showed such delight that I was flattered.
He
then went on to click the clicker and handed out treats to that babbler and the
partridge near him. He was musing “ah,
that is how it is done” while clicking and clicking away.
I
was very much taken back. I thought of
making a move to get the clicker back and explaining again just how it was
done.
Then
I remembered a story I came across much earlier and I mentally cringed in shame
and embarrassment as I reviewed quickly the whole situation in relationship to
that story.
There
was this learned scholar who decided one day to row a boat on a lake. He passed by this little island where he
heard a chanting of “aiyinga aiyinga aiyinga”.
He knew the chanter was practicing a certain ritual that will bring
enlightenment and much supranormal power, including ability to walk on
water, if done correctly. Feeling charitable that morning, the scholar
thought he should give proper guidance.
So he rowed to the shore to find this old man chanting. The scholar told that old man he got the
mantra wrong and it should have been
“aiyinlinga aiyinlinga”. The old
man was delighted to have such eminent scholar giving him attention and
immediately corrected his chanting thanking the scholar profusely. The scholar, pleased with himself then left
the island and rowed away hearing the refrain “aiyinlinga aiyinlinga”. After a while, he heard “ayinga ayinga” to his great
disappointment. “oh well:, he thought
to himself, “I tried but obviously that old man just isn’t as clever as I
thought”. He then heard rapid footsteps
behind him and turned his head and saw to his amazement the old man running on
the water towards him and shouting away “Master! Master! Please return and
teach me again the proper mantra”.
I
got to clean Tinkerbell’s shit. I can
only feel safe in taking Tinkerbell out with a leash. Mr Lin’s charges flew about outside and poop outside but came
indoor to play with him. They came when
he called out to them. Tink will come
to me when I call, if and only if she felt like it. There he was, serving tea with his charges fussing around him and
him giving his charges head and body rubs.
I felt like the scholar seeing that old man come running on the water.
Lin’s
skill was so far beyond me in terms of bonding and recall that no comparison
can be made, and yet there I was trying to teach him how to use the clicker to
train for bonding and recall?
I
still firmly believe in clicker training.
But I feel powerful as that system is, we may have been so engrossed in
it that we forgot the other un-definable elements such as love and patience
must be involved . There is this old
Zen saying that perhaps we can bear in mind,
“Do not mistake the finger pointing to the moon as the moon itself”.
That
was not the end of my embarrassment yet.
I had the intention of inviting him and his wife to have dinner with us.
Then I noticed his wife was not around.
She quietly went to the back, slaughtered a chicken from their flock and
prepared a fantastic dinner for us. She
used tea oil which they grew and pressed themselves and meant to be sold to
tourists. When I remarked how tasty
that dinner was cooked with that oil, he immediately forced a bottle of that
expensive tea oil as a gift on us that I cannot say no to without causing deep
offense.
http://natureproducts.net/Wholesale/Camellia.html
We
went back to our hotel after finishing his bottle of a very fragrant Chinese
wine. I have a bottle of Drambuie with
his name on it and which will be given and enjoyed with him the next time I am
there again.
The
next morning, we had our breakfast in the village and was making our way to
him. We kept being greeted by the locals who seem to know we had dinner with Mr
Lin and going yet again to see him. I
wanted to take photos of him and his bamboo partridge and babbler in the open
and in the light. They showed their
wild origins and were extremely shy about being in the open preferring to
remain in the shade and under cover. It
took him some time, but eventually they were coaxed out for me to take some
photos.
With
that, we continued on our way down to the valley floor. We stopped at the little enchanting Zen
temple. Joy wanted to go there ever since she saw the earlier photos. We shot some sequential flight photos again.
We
then went to that area where I had my disastrous encounter with that little
toddler girl I wrote about in “Continuation of Tsaoling Bird Whisperer”.
That
toddler was not there this time to my relief.
I dared not try that flyabout this time and stuck to simple recalls with
some sequential shots of Tinkerbell in flight.
The
last time I was here, I had to turn back as I was worried the little bike was on
half tank without any petrol station around.
With the car, we continued on into the awesomely beautiful gorge and up
again towards Alishan mountain where we planned to stay for the night to greet
the dawn the next day.
After
checking in a hotel there, we took Tinkerbell with us for a walk into the
forest. You may like the photos of Tinkerbell on her Tink carrier. This Tink carrier can also keep the sun from
my eyes. From the crowd of people, it seems we were not the only one interested
in watching the sunrise to strains of music.
Our
little quiet spot by the side of the Sisters’ Pond have to be shared with knots
of people as they walked through the park stopping to watch Tink go through her
recalls. I do like some of the
sequential photos taken here even if they are not as clear as I would like.
Then
I noticed big dark shapes above in the trees.
The jungle crows were huge, closer to the size of a BG than a grey. When I was in NZ and reading through “Mind
of a raven” by Bernd Heinrich, perhaps what I seen in the Alishan mountains may
have been ravens and not crows. I did
not like at all the way they waited and followed us when we left. Tink was placed on my arm so my body
shielded her as we made our way back to the hotel.
The
next morning, we got up at 430 am.
Tinkerbell in her harness and on my shoulder as we made our way to the
railway station to take the train to the sunrise pavilion. The hoarfrost was
thick and white, crackling underfoot as we walked the 500 meters to that
station. That morning promised to be
perfect for sunrise as the air was so clear and the stars thick above us. Only a sprinkling of people was around also
making their way to the station.
As
we neared the station, it was with a
sinking heart that I realized I should have taken the carrier as well. There may not be many people 500 meters away
from the station. But as we all
converged, the crowd was a lot more immense .
Even though the station was a good 100 meters away, it was getting
crowded. I looked back to see even more
people making their way to the station. Even though they added more carriages,
Tink on my shoulder in a very packed carriage would not be a good idea. We could not drive there as cars are not
allowed in that part of the park.
I thought even if
we walked that 4 km to that place, there will be so many people there that we
spend more time tripping over feet and looking at sunrise over heads of people
did not appeal to me. And Tinkerbell on
my shoulder in a crowd of people did not appeal to me at all.
Regretfully,
we had to give up the viewing of sunrise to the strains of native chantings and
music.
Waking
up at 430am was a very rare occasion as we tend to sleep late and get up late.
I would not know when we would ever get up at such a time to watch any other
sunrise.
We hurried back and checked out of the hotel and decided to drive to Tatajia 15 km away and find our own spot to enjoy that sunrise over the mountain tops. Though it was still dark, the embankments of the road were white with hoarfrost as we slowly drove on.
It
was a nice surprise when I came to the spot I earlier thought of. We then waited outside the car with the
distant mountain range in sight. I left
the car CD player on to give us some music as we did not have a symphony orchestra
and chanters to accompany our sunrise. It seemed that we would have that
sunrise all to ourselves as no other people were around.
The
deep dark purplish sky slowly lightened as pink and red slowly diffused
in. The black and white scenery took on
more color as the sky brightened.
Just
as I was thinking the sky seemed rather bright and the sun had not pop out, I
was surprised when the tops of the distant mountains were bathed with sunlight.
I
thought that to be strange and then I realized why it was so strange. The only way those mountain tops were
covered with sunlight was that the sun was shining on them instead of over
them.
Folks,
looking to the west is not the best way to watch a sunrise. The mountain roads twist and turn over
here. If you recalled much of my
riding/driving here have been either in heavy fog or in the rain. The times when we were here when the sun was
shining had been during noon when it was high overhead, making it very
difficult to use the sun to tell where East was.
That
we were alone facing the West and watching the “sunrise” there became a lot more understandable.
We
got back into the car and drove on further on that twisty road. We came to a big crowd of people
looking expectantly upwards and I figured that they must be waiting to
catch that elusive sunrise. We got out
of our car to see all eyes on us. I guess they had not seen parrot on shoulder
that often and sunrises can be seen anytime if you wake up early enough and
choose the correct direction to keep your eyes on.
That
was how that weekend was spent, and thank you for reading all the way to here.
TsaoLing
bird whisperer revisited
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlung/sets/690107/
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With
warmest regards
Shanlung
Joy
- wife, Tinkerbell - CAG & surrogate ddaughter
earlier
emails and photo links on Tink -
http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9