Yangtze River Headwaters Volunteering Day 17 长江源志愿工作第17天

This is a series of journals recording my days in the Yangtze River Headwaters volunteering project. I will try to update every day but there might be delays in the days I work in the wild without the internet. I’m also trying to write bilingual if time allows. Like it? Follow my Instagram (@anar.chica.yichenguo) for updates!
这是我参与长江源志愿工作的一系列记录。我争取每日更新，但在野外工作没有网络的那些日子会有延迟。在时间允许的情况下，也会尽量使用中英双语。喜欢的话，关注我的Ins账号(@anar.chica.yichenguo)获取更新吧！

The tragic grebe couples cannot get over their old home after all. Although they never seriously renovate it again, they still laid an egg at the same old place. According to the staff, if birds have fully developed eggs inside them while they don’t have a nest ready, they may lay anywhere and give up on them. The location of the ‘old spot’ is as if waiting for the black-necked crane to eat. As expected, after keeping an eye there, the cranes came. After they finished their meal, a bunch of brown-headed gull fellas rush forward to finish the leftovers.

After dinner in the evening, I was called to rescue a left alone baby bar-headed goose. It seems only around ten days old. It’s so little and fluffy, yet so clever. It seemed terrified but also knew that it has advantages over us in the water. Therefore it hid in a pond and kept diving. Every time its head merged out of the water and saw one of us, it immediately dives down back again. According to the person who found it, half an hour ago it even hesitated to get into the water. Potential explodes in desperation. It’s a pity that it cannot see ahead while diving in the water, it was swimming without direction, and finally came directly into my hands. And suddenly it became so quiet. It didn’t struggle at all, except for shivering. We immediately took it to the tent and tried to burn some cow shit to warm it up but didn’t succeed. So then we put two heating pads in an old abandoned cotton shoe, put it in there to keep it warm. It seemed like a different bird with such low energy comparing to the diving master just now. We were concerned it might die because of depression over the night. At this moment, Tudan saw it and educated us, ‘it’s a wild bird living in this area. Even if it’s missing from the parents it gives you no reason to rescue it because it knows the environment. It won’t die. Maybe after a few days, its parents will find it again. But now if you rescue it….’ 

So we set it free to the grassland. In no time it ran wildly to the lakeside. Ay, seems really healthy! We might be over-concerned that it might be frozen to death at night. Sometimes good intention leads to bad results. We shouldn’t rescue wild animals as we thought appropriate. Our arrogant good heart might actually harm them. 

之前悲剧了的凤头鸊鷉夫妇到底是放不下“老房子”，虽然不再认真修缮，但还是在那里下了一枚蛋。据工作人员说，鸟类在没筑巢可是蛋已经在体内成熟了的情况下，是会提前生下弃蛋的。“老房子”那个位置几乎就是等着被黑颈鹤吃。果然不出所料，盯住那里不一会儿，黑颈鹤就来了。吃完后一群棕头鸥小弟蜂拥而上，解决最后的一点残羹剩饭。

下午晚饭后，被喊到附近的水塘救助一只落单的小斑头雁。看样子破壳只有十天左右。小小的、毛茸茸的，却聪明得很。它似乎很害怕，又似乎知道自己在水里有优势，便躲在一个池子里不停地潜游，每次抬头露出水面看到人便又立刻一个猛子扎下去。据发现它的人说，半小时前他还不太敢下水。这真是绝境中的潜能爆发。可惜它潜游的时候无法看方向，到处闷着头乱窜，最终直直地游到我的手心里。突然它就安静了，完全没有挣扎，只是浑身瑟瑟发抖。我们立刻抱它去帐篷里，试图点牛粪为它取暖，可是怎么也点不着。后来便在一个破棉鞋里贴了两个暖宝宝，把它放在棉鞋里。它完全没有精神头的样子与方才敏捷高超的潜水大师判若两雁，我们有点担心它夜里抑郁而终。这时藏族的旦哥看到了它，教育我们说，这是从小生活在这里的野生斑头雁，即使与大鸟走散了也没必要救助它，它自己熟悉环境，在这里死不了，说不定过几天就跟大鸟汇合了。你们这一救助。。。

于是我们便放它回了草地，一瞬间它就狂奔到了湖边。嘿，看来身体真不错。我们担心它熬不过寒冷的夜，或许是多虑了。有时候好心真的会办坏事。野生动物不要随意救助，我们自以为是的善心，或许实际上会害了它们。