In late December, the weather was clear, and the reporting group visited the Yancheng Wetland Rare Bird National Nature Reserve in Jiangsu Province for a few days, which was what the staff of the reserve called "the coldest time of the year".
Jiangsu Yancheng Wetland Rare Bird National Nature Reserve, located on the coast of the Yellow Sea, has the world's unique radiation sand ridge group and intertidal wetland, and is an important habitat on the East Asian-Australasian bird migration route, one of the world's nine major bird migration routes.
It is worth mentioning that it is also the southernmost wintering habitat for red-crowned cranes in the world. The sun shines on the minus 10 degrees Celsius, and flocks of egrets and red-crowned cranes sing on the frozen lake, and sometimes bow their heads and feed underwater with their sharp beaks.
Initiated by Xiaoxiang Morning News and supported by the China Internet Development Association China Positive Energy Network Communication Special Fund, the project "A River with Clear Water, Pianpian with You - Ecological Civilization Fusion Record Project" was set up to form a reporting team composed of reporters and experts to follow the southward migration route of migratory birds and record the stories of migratory birds crossing half the world, flying thousands of miles, returning from extremely cold areas and returning to the warm south in winter.
The cold wind makes it difficult for people to stand, but the cranes and birds still sing
When you enter the reserve, the first thing that catches your eye is one of the landmark buildings of the reserve, the museum in the shape of a thousand paper cranes.
Yancheng is famous for its red-crowned cranes, and Li Honglei, a member of the bird research center of the reserve, greeted the reporting group, and he led the convoy through the seawall road, and flocks of birds flew over from time to time on both sides, forming a "human" shape for a while, and a "one" shape for a while.
He told reporters that in 1986, Xu Xiujuan carried three crane eggs from Heilongjiang to Yancheng, officially starting the process of artificial incubation of red-crowned cranes in Yancheng. Over the past 37 years, generations of crane tamers have been accompanied by cranes in wetlands and tidal flats, and the breeding success rate of red-crowned cranes has increased year by year. At the same time, the continuously improving wetland environment has also attracted more and more red-crowned cranes to come to Yancheng to inhabit.
According to statistics, more than 600 red-crowned cranes now spend their winters here every year, and 1,128 cranes were recorded at the peak. Li Honglei continued to introduce, "The cranes we see now are basically migrating from the north in winter, and usually a team of them will have a leading crane to lead the flight." ”
When I came to the red-crowned crane taming site, the temperature was below zero, the water surface was frozen, and it was difficult for people to stand in the cold wind outside for five minutes. In such cold weather, two adult red-crowned cranes forage in a puddle, and strangely, they are not afraid of people at all, and they only react when people get close to a distance of only about 3 meters.
These two are just red-crowned cranes artificially bred in our reserve, and they are more relatives. "When the red-crowned cranes reach adulthood, we will train them to be released into the wild, so that they no longer rely on human feeding, and at the same time establish some sufficient vigilance capabilities for them." ”
At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the staff used whistles, foley and other signals to command about 20 red-crowned cranes next to the taming field to take off, this group of elves took off one by one, dancing in the blue silk satin-like sky, the sound of cranes is endless, lingering over the field, and a few red-crowned cranes are circling several times before reluctantly landing.
It is of great ecological significance for the conservation of red-crowned cranes to increase the number and genetic diversity of captive-bred individuals into the wild through wild release, and also provides an important demonstration effect for the conservation of endangered species red-crowned cranes. It is understood that the taming of the red-crowned crane is 10:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m., the staff of the reserve introduced, hoping that through the rewilding of the red-crowned crane, the important concept of caring for rare birds and protecting the ecological environment will be conveyed to the public.
In recent years, red-crowned cranes have been rewilded and reintroduced into the reserve. The release of wild red-crowned cranes will further increase the wild population of red-crowned cranes, in order to gradually restore and expand the wild red-crowned crane population. These red-crowned cranes are installed, and the follow-up reserve will carry out long-term tracking and monitoring work to increase protection.
In the Suaeda field, there are elk probing their brains
The key protection objects of our reserve are the rare wild animals in the wetland represented by the red-crowned crane and the coastal wetland ecosystem on which it depends. After leaving the taming site, Li Honglei led the reporting group to a bird-watching highland in the reserve, "Ecological Eye".
On this bird-watching platform called "Eco Eye", you can see red-crowned cranes, gray cranes and other birds foraging in the distance. The reporter took the telescope and looked into the distance, and in the distance in the Suaeda field, he vaguely saw three elk sitting on the ground resting.
It's too cold today, but if it's a little warmer and you're lucky, you'll be able to see a large number of elk frolicking and running in herds. Li Honglei explained, "If we come to Yancheng in summer, in the yellow tidal flats in front of us, Suaeda is fiery red and reddish-pink, which is particularly beautiful." ”
It is understood that the biodiversity in the area is very rich, there are 2,567 species of animals and plants, including 421 species of birds, and there are 38 species of national first-class key protected animals (28 species of birds) in the reserve, including red-crowned cranes, white-headed cranes, white cranes, oriental white storks, black storks, Chinese mergansers, elk, etc., 91 species of national second-class key protected animals (80 species of birds), supporting the survival of 17 species on the IUCN Red List. More than 20 million migratory birds have flown through, and nearly one million waterfowl have wintered in the reserve, which has always been known as the "National Important Wetland Gene Bank" on the eastern coast.
Therefore, wetland restoration and bird conservation have always been the top priorities of the reserve. The relevant person in charge of the reserve said that after the removal of Spartina alterniflora in a certain area of the reserve, the diversity and number of insect communities have increased to a certain extent, which will help protect and restore the coastal wetlands and provide suitable places for rare and endangered birds to forage and breed.
Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter Zhang Yang Zixin photojournalist Kong Dongliang.
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