The Mystery of the Feather

As we walked along the Indus, I happened to spy a large floating object bobbing in the water by the bank. I approached it. It appeared to be a feather of some sort. It was large. Oh, so large. It was golden brown with dark spotted freckles on its edges. The bank was squishy with the dark grey silt. My boots sank right into them. None the less, the bobbing feather hypnotised my every sense. It had to be retrieved! It had to be! How, oh how could I let it lay there? “Come get me, you clumsy footed child, come get me.”, it seemed to whisper to me. Short of luring me with psychedelic eyes, it did all it could. So down I went on my hands and knees and boots. No, literally, down I went, slowly sinking into that thick silt. I reached out, the feather was moving away. It was hanging onto the bank-moss by merely a tether. No, really, a tether. But KARPOW! I grabbed the blasted, blooming fellow and rose to my feet holding it up victoriously. 

This feather was carefully weaved into the holey side pocket of my bag by the skilful Tamsinle. There it stayed, fluttering in the breeze and getting extremely worn out as we continued our trek. It looked so much like a kestrel’s feather- but it was far too big. A golden eagle? But it wasn’t dark enough. We put that down as a maybe. The question puzzled me. The book of birds was back at the office and I wouldn’t see it for another two days.  Ho Hum was what I felt.

The next day, while I sat on the ridgeline watching Tamsinle set up the camera, a shepherd came by. He asked me where I found that feather. I said I found it floating in the Indus. He then told me that it’s an extremely rare feather to have and that it belonged to the Uk-pa. He said it’s a lucky omen and that this bird is like a giant crow that you see only at night. Not knowing which bird the Uk-pa is, this extra bit of information perplexed me even more. 

On meeting Jigmetle, the only Ladakhi of the three of us, I asked him which bird the Uk-pa is. He said it is an owl. AN OWL! Of course! Which other bird would be nocturnal? I felt silly for not having thought of that. But an owl of such proportions? I was supremely curious by now.

When we got back to the office, I compared the description of the owls listed in the book to the feather’s size and colour and finally hit upon which bird it was from. *PUM PUM PUM* (dramatic pause).... THE EAGLE OWL!

Here’s the description from the book:

Eurasian Eagle Owl (bubo bubo)

Local name: Ugpa, Uk-pa (all owls)

Alternate names: Nothern-, Indian-, Eagle Owl

Size: L 56-66cm, WS 180cm

Description: A large stocky solitary owl with pale, brownish-grey upperparts heavily streaked with dark-brown black and whitish mottled, perfectly matching with the rocky surroundings. The underparts are whitish, heavily barred rufous from breast to under tail coverts and greyish-white from chin to upper breast, boldly streaked with black. The prominent plain facial disc is pale grey, encompassed by darker grey and topped with conspicuous blackish ear tufts (horns). Underwings are plain buff white, strongly barred with brown, ending in dark brown wing tips (hands), upperwings (in flight) show characteristic buff-brown primaries, heavily banded dark brown. The strong bill is greenish black to black, the eyes orange red and the legs feathered to the base of powerful claws. The species feeds on marmots, lamb-sized mammals, wild fowl and fish. Indigestible kill, including bones, hair, feathers, fish scales and teet, is regurgitated in form of a pellet (a pellet was found containing a full leg of a buzzard.) the sexes are alike though the female appears a little larger; they weigh 2-3kg. Juveniles are darker, more rufous brown buff, with tightly barred underparts, an inconspicuous facial disk and without the horns.

Now the book also speaks of its call, breeding, habitat and behaviour, status and distribution, typical areas of encounter and subspecies. But keying all that in is going to take quite a while. If any of you are very keen to know, leave me a note on this post and I’ll put it up.

Here’s a picture off google of the bird:

And here is the mighty feather.

(It hunts lamb-sized mammals! Holy shit!)

Trekking along the Indus

Getting to the camera site along the Indus in the valley opposite Ikpadoc involved a 4 kilometer trek (one way) by straight road dimensions. This was due to the fact that the only available bridge to cross over to the other side was strategically built that far away from a potential camera site. Well, 4km doesn't sound all that bad if you're at the gym on a treadmill or jogging in a park. 4km over a gazillion rocks, sand, silt, undulations and grass is a lot more tiring. However, the tiresome trail was compensated by the constantly changing scenery. It started off with lush green, grass banks with clear, cool water flowing slowly in the river. The shallow streams from the Indus were full of little schools of fish and grass and moss that shimmered green in the sunlight. The rocky trail began soon after. Walking or jumping from rock to rock was the only way forward with no sign of flat ground in some places. Narrow ledges with just enough room for a foot followed and so did ups and downs in the valley. We took a small break to eat some (wonderfully sweet) oranges and I took off my stinky boots and dipped my feet in the icy water. It was more refreshing than words can describe on that sunny day. There was warm breeze blowing all day and it felt so good to walk around in just a t-shirt. The sky was a constant, gorgeous deep blue and remained cloudless for most of the time. The mountains and plains around us and the valley before us were just lovely. There were patches of ground dotted with dried up tufts of grass and some with the ground cracking from extreme thirst. In those 4km I saw extreme lushness and extreme dryness. It was surprising to see green in this barren land and was soothing to the eyes. Walking along the Indus river with its water flowing slowly or gushing in rapids and hearing it bubble over the rocks was just tantalizing on that warm day. Had the water been any less icy, it would have been hard to resist jumping in. I did dip my hair and head into the water on our journey back, though- which was heavenly with the breeze. It took us two and a half hours each way.

Also, we crossed the bridge back with dzos and dzomos (really large and hairy cows) leading and following us. Quite an experience packed into a day. Loved it.

Pretty darn good signs

 

Some other good ones along the road that I couldn't stop to photograph were:

DARLING I LIKE YOU 

BUT NOT SO FAST

IF MARRIED 

DIVORCE SPEED

FEEL THE CURVES

DON'T TEST THEN

(yes, then)

I'M CURVACEOUS

GO SLOW

BETTER BE MR LATE

THAN LATE MR

Much more effective than 'GO SLOW' no?

Birds and animals we saw

I maintained this list while riding along the curvaceous roads in the old Gypsy. The encircled numbers are day numbers. We saw a whole lot of blue sheep. One group was nonchalantly grazing within 10 meters of us. The birds were numerous and pretty. They were little exciting gems that popped up every now and again. The cutest animal we encountered would have to be the pika. Like a rather large hamster, it just sat there doing nothing. The partridges are odd birds. Shaped like a bowling pin, they waddle around the place looking silly. Well here they all bees.

 

Brown-hooded gulf

Blue sheep bums

 

Lammergeier (what is spelled as lamagair in my list.)

 

The royal pika

The royal pika still sitting.

 

Blue sheep- male and female.

 

Wagtail and white-tailed redstart. 

Wagtail

 

Female redstart

Many blue sheep. (The way they glide up steep mountain sides is astounding.)

 

Dzomo- a very large cow (female).

Shaggy and umm, cheeky cow.

Lizard (can you spot it?)

Clambering up ridgelines and wondering why on the way up.

After the bumpy ride to the Gayk valley in Rong and after setting up the tent and supplies on the flat patch of land just below the mountain we were about to scale, we started the scaling. It was my first experience out on the rocky terrain of Ladakh and I wasn't sure how nice it was going to be to me. The huge rocks that had shuffled down the mountain side some days, years or eons ago were our only support system. Finding a foothold and trying to figure which rock to trust with your entire body weight was only part of the challenge going up. It was the sudden and jarring drop in oxygen levels on the way up that was really difficult to cope with. My legs, body and stamina were fine- but it was a lung struggle on that first day. But every now and again when we had a flat-ish piece of rock to stand on and look around- the most ridiculously breathtaking landscape met our eyes. Many people have told me that they're unimpressed by barren landscapes. After setting eyes on these beauties, I beg to differ.

On the way up, I experienced all kinds of conditions. I was already in a thermal and a t-shirt. Each step made me feel hot and sweaty and as a result- sticky and icky. But half way up, the breeze began to build up. It would whoosh by unexpectedly at times and hang around at others. This made the sweaty thermal cool and strangely- warmer. So I had to put on the wind jacket. This made me warm and relieved me of the biting wind, but it made me sweat even more. I thought of unzipping the jacket but that just lead to more hot-and-cold-ness. Going up up upper, we finally reached the top of the ridgeline where even the wind-cutting jacket was defenceless against the sharp, whizzing air. An extra layer was added and so was a cap with ear flaps. Using the experienced and wise words of Tamsin (a supremely fit, agile and fun woman)- we must have looked like pregnant cows and it was worth it. 

Atop the ridgeline (that was beginning to seem ever far away) the view was, again, gorgeous. It felt go-od to know I just climbed up that baby. We had reached the camera site. 

Now a brief description of what we were doing with ourselves. From Snow Leopard Conservancy, we were conducting a remote camera trapping analysis in order to get an estimate of the number of snow leopards out there in the mountains and valleys of Ladakh. This year, the survey is being conducted in the Rong region of Ladakh. The sites we visited already had a cameras installed there. Our trip was to visit them and check on how they were doing (battery and power wise). 

So, up at the site, I watched Tamsin and Jigmetle (the snow leopard expert here) do the checking and re-installation. It was very interesting to observe. 

The descent was a whole lot easier on the lungs and breathing wasn’t an issue at all. What was an issue was the scree. So much scree and so many loose rocks. It was much quicker getting down, but it wasn’t as easy as climbing up. 

I took this picture as the light was starting to fail. 

 

Also, we saw a golden eagle fly by and go perch itself on the mountain opposite us. It’s the little brown fellow in the photo.

By the end of the day, I was quite tired. But I had climbed a testing mountain and reached nearly 4500meters above the ground that I’m used to being on. It was wonderful.