Yangtze River Headwaters Volunteering Day 19 长江源志愿工作第19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！

It was a happy surprise to find a new grebe egg was laid this morning, making the number up to 5 in one nest. I hope all can be successfully hatched and well grown before the migration season comes. 

Thick clouds were covering the Bende Lake before noon, and the cold wind had been blowing all the time, which made the birds inactive too. Just when we were sitting in the observation room feeling bored, three bears suddenly showed up on the Bende Mountain – an adult brown bear with two big babies relaxingly eating grass! This is a rare scene, and especially that they were so close to our surveillance camera! One of the naughty babies looked up after eating for a while and saw our infrared camera sticking above the ground. So it curiously craw forward, moved away one of the stones fixing the camera, held the camera, and start licking and chewing it. I’m very curious about the scene that camera has caught. It must be very interesting. We watched closely every move of the family, even how they did breastfeeding. We saw one of the baby bears has white milk around its mouth left when it finished eating. It licked off the milk with great content as if it was very delicious. Two nipples on the left side of the mother’s breast were surrounded with wet milk, but it didn’t mind to clean up before falling back to lay on the ground face-up, crossed its legs and started taking a nap. Great laughters burst out from the observation room. We’ve never seen a bear sleeping in this position, so much like human beings. 

Suddenly Gaoge decided to go field filming with a drone. So we jumped on the SUV after briefly ate our lunch. The Bende Mountain is half an hour away driving through the mountain slope without an existing road. After almost bumping our guts out, we finally stopped at a slope approximately one kilometer from the target area. The sunshine here is very bright, giving us a good view of the mountain. We could already see the bears running with naked eyes as soon as the drone flew there. While being happy about the awesome scene we caught, I also think it would be better if the drone could be quiet (without being too expensive) and decrease the disturbance to the filming targets. The way back was as exciting as when we came. We even nearly drove off two little cliffs. 

In the evening rumors said that there will be a position exchange that I might need to go back to the station in Tanggulashan Town tomorrow. I hope it’s not true. I really don’t feel like leaving this gorgeous lake. 

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一大早惊喜地发现凤头鸊鷉又生了一个蛋，现在一窝有五个蛋了。希望都可以成功孵化并在迁徙前羽翼丰满。

今天上午班德湖上阴云密布，冷风瑟瑟，鸟儿们也都没有什么活动，正当我们干坐在观测室里百无聊赖时，突然班德山上发现了三只熊——一只大棕熊带着两只体型已经很大的幼崽在山上悠哉悠哉地吃草！这可是难得一见的场景，况且他们离我们的监控相机非常近！调皮的小熊吃了会儿草一抬头看到我们立在那里的红外摄像头，便好奇地爬过去，挪开一块用来固定的石头，抱着摄像头啃了起来。我很好奇那个镜头拍到的画面，一定非常有趣。我们饶有兴致地看着棕熊母子们的一举一动，甚至还看到了哺乳。小棕熊吃完后嘴边的毛上还沾了一些白白的乳汁，它舔了一圈，看起来很香的样子。大棕熊左侧的两个乳头周围的毛都沾了湿湿的乳汁，随后便不顾形象地仰面躺倒在地，翘着二郎腿袒胸露乳地睡了。观测室里爆发出一阵大笑，我们从没见过熊的这种睡姿，跟人太像了。

这时高歌决定出动无人机实地拍摄，于是匆匆扒完午饭后，碗筷一扔我们便跳上了越野车，向半小时全越野车程外的班德山出发。一路上颠得七荤八素，最后总算是来到了距离目标位置大约一公里的山坡上停下。这里阳光灿烂，视野极佳，无人机出动后我们用肉眼就很容易地看到了坡顶上三只奔跑的熊。在为拍到惊艳的画面开心之余，我同时也在想，如果高品质的无人机可以完全静音（并且不贵出天际），减少对拍摄对象的干扰就更好了。回程一样的惊心动魄，甚至有两次差点点开下小悬崖。

傍晚听到传言说要轮岗，没准明天就调回保护站。希望这不是真的。大美班德湖，真的不舍离开。