When I was posting on another thread "Birds I've Seen 2" it made me think of our scary moments when birding and if the birds were worth it, after a quick discussion we came up with these as our top three. I’m sure other birders have had even more hair-raising adventures
1) Drive from Negele to Yabello near the Somali border in South Ethiopia - where after a few days in Negele area with armed guys on the streets at night making some areas completely no go, being chased by locals when we went for the Ruspoli's Turaco and hearing another birding group had taken the 5 hour detour to avoid the area.
We were stopped in small town near the Dawa River, our driver put some black material on his rear window (some signal / symbol we thought) and we could tell the guide and driver were tense as we approached the town. In this one-street little town we were stopped at a checkpoint manned by armed locals – our guide wished them well asked how they were and if there was anything they needed, they said they were fine but could use some help for the children, some money changed hands and we were given a receipt and allowed to pass. We then stopped 100m further on at the edge of the village to buy some water – a ruse I think, as we were able to see and photograph the very range restricted White-winged Collared Dove while he did so, just before the drive across the bridge to the army checkpoint. When we crossed the bridge it was clear the soldiers were relaxed and chatty and said we picked a good day to cross as there had some trouble a few days before with people killed on a bus but thing were now peaceful.
2) Mountain near Mount Hagen in Papua New Guinea
It was an election period and things were really tense in the area; we were coming down a trail after an early start to see Blue Bird of Paradise and King of Saxony Bird of Paradise we saw one side of the road with all the houses burnt down and smoldering, Max our guide said those two brother over there are at war and given the chance would probably kill or badly injure me do you mind if we go straight back to the vehicle and miss the Less Bird of Paradise lek. We did miss the Lesser BoP never did see it at our site but we considered it sensible even though we were later assured by the lodge manager at Kumul that they probably would not have attacked westerners. That said when we bumped into the camera man who shot the Superb and Blue Birds of paradise for David Attenborough some time later he said he had all his camera gear taken and held ransom for a few weeks.
3) Keoladeo National Park (Bharatpur), Rajasthan, India.
This was quite a few years ago when the Siberian Crane was in the park. We were told where to find the bird but also given sheet of paper telling us there was a tiger in the park. We could see the Crane quite distantly but wanted a closer look so we decided to work our way around behind some scrub to get much closer. Sods law the normally elusive Tiger walks out of the long grass and crosses right in front off us, fortunately she wasn't hungry and just walked on by but it was squeaky bum time for us.
1) Drive from Negele to Yabello near the Somali border in South Ethiopia - where after a few days in Negele area with armed guys on the streets at night making some areas completely no go, being chased by locals when we went for the Ruspoli's Turaco and hearing another birding group had taken the 5 hour detour to avoid the area.
We were stopped in small town near the Dawa River, our driver put some black material on his rear window (some signal / symbol we thought) and we could tell the guide and driver were tense as we approached the town. In this one-street little town we were stopped at a checkpoint manned by armed locals – our guide wished them well asked how they were and if there was anything they needed, they said they were fine but could use some help for the children, some money changed hands and we were given a receipt and allowed to pass. We then stopped 100m further on at the edge of the village to buy some water – a ruse I think, as we were able to see and photograph the very range restricted White-winged Collared Dove while he did so, just before the drive across the bridge to the army checkpoint. When we crossed the bridge it was clear the soldiers were relaxed and chatty and said we picked a good day to cross as there had some trouble a few days before with people killed on a bus but thing were now peaceful.
2) Mountain near Mount Hagen in Papua New Guinea
It was an election period and things were really tense in the area; we were coming down a trail after an early start to see Blue Bird of Paradise and King of Saxony Bird of Paradise we saw one side of the road with all the houses burnt down and smoldering, Max our guide said those two brother over there are at war and given the chance would probably kill or badly injure me do you mind if we go straight back to the vehicle and miss the Less Bird of Paradise lek. We did miss the Lesser BoP never did see it at our site but we considered it sensible even though we were later assured by the lodge manager at Kumul that they probably would not have attacked westerners. That said when we bumped into the camera man who shot the Superb and Blue Birds of paradise for David Attenborough some time later he said he had all his camera gear taken and held ransom for a few weeks.
3) Keoladeo National Park (Bharatpur), Rajasthan, India.
This was quite a few years ago when the Siberian Crane was in the park. We were told where to find the bird but also given sheet of paper telling us there was a tiger in the park. We could see the Crane quite distantly but wanted a closer look so we decided to work our way around behind some scrub to get much closer. Sods law the normally elusive Tiger walks out of the long grass and crosses right in front off us, fortunately she wasn't hungry and just walked on by but it was squeaky bum time for us.