W5 1 Drag the animal clip to fly.

W5 1 fly with your partner.

W5 1 On Anxintang Shoal.

Tianjin, a group of oriental storks.

Seabirds are hung in the office.

65438+On February 27th, W5 1 was released in Tianjin.

Just call it W5 1. If you are lucky, you may see it again next year.

W5 1 is an injured oriental stork. When volunteers first saw it, the big white bird was trying to follow the sheep. In the evening, the sea is shining red, and it tries to fly. Its wings with a wingspan of nearly two meters are completely open, but the flapping frequency is obviously higher than that of its companions and it flies lower. Its long neck is straight, and its legs are put away like the landing gear of an airplane, and they are parallel to its body. This is the perfect balance that even better pilots and engineers envy-the rising hot airflow and body gravity cancel each other out, and the air resistance is minimized as much as possible, which is just one of its many innate abilities.

The drooping leg is out of balance. The naked eye can clearly see that there is a foreign body falling on its left leg. Take out the telescope and follow it, make sure it's a trap, and the chain swings in the air.

Eight days later, on February 6, 2022, at 65438+, he and his teammates finally saved W5 1 in a fish pond on the outskirts of Tianjin. At that time, the trap had been dragged on for at least 15 days. He wants to give it a nice name, but what's the point? It belongs to no one. After a period of time together, it will return to the sky. After nearly 20 years of bird watching, it is clear that reuniting with a bird that flies thousands of kilometers every year is a very low probability and "sounds wonderful".

Oriental stork is an endangered species in the red list of nature protection in the world and a first-class protected wild animal. According to the survey up to the beginning of 2022, there are only over 9,000 species of birds in the world.

W5 1 is the anklet number worn by this oriental stork. According to the general law of bird ring, this will become its unique symbol. Usually, people deal with this wild species through optical instruments, and there are very few opportunities to contact them. It is a romantic and practical study of ornithology to wear anklets and expect to be seen and recorded again at a certain time and place.

Tianjin is one of the most important nodes on the migratory bird passage in the world, but even such "old Tianjin" has not known about it for a long time. Every spring and autumn, migratory birds from Canada or Australia will stop here to replenish their energy and continue their journey across the ocean.

These migratory birds not only belong to the wild, but also sometimes fly over cities, including endangered birds such as oriental storks, and maybe even fly over people's roofs, but many people don't notice this.

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At that time, the weight of W5 1 was 3.85 kg. From the morphological characteristics, it is a sub-adult bird, smaller than an adult bird, and its mouth has not completely turned black.

According to the previous research on this species, it is likely to be a wetland in Heilongjiang, Wusuli River basin or somewhere in the Far East, and it is the main breeding ground for oriental white storks. It is very likely that it was born in March and April of 2022, and it is growing at an incredible speed. In summer, it has full wings and likes to flap its wings in its nest. According to the probability, it will climb to the edge of the nest on a certain day in August, driven by instinct, jump up and start its first flight in life.

Two months later, it has completely mastered the skills of flying and predation, and accumulated some fat. Before the cold current crosses the border and the river freezes, it starts from the ethnic group, and the destination is usually the wintering place in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, 3000 kilometers away.

On the way, fat is the fuel for flying, and W5 1 and their companions must stop to replenish energy. However, just like refueling along the road, it may not necessarily appear where you expect. You should always plan your trip so as not to break down halfway.

Bohai Bay is the most important stopover for oriental storks. This is the "midpoint" in the geographical sense of the route, and it is also the "throat" zone under the attack of ecological obstacles-from Yanshan Mountain in the west to Bohai Sea in the east. What's even more rare is that for a long time, the food here is rich enough, and in the long process of natural selection, more than one kind of migratory birds settled here.

W5 1 made a patrol before it came of age. It follows birds and learns the way of life of its own kind. Usually, when they arrive in Tianjin, they are almost exhausted. For W5 1, the content of this lesson is: This place is hard to miss. But maybe I haven't learned it. Sometimes foraging in this place is also a very dangerous thing.

It is impossible to know when and where W5 1 stepped into the trap, but what is certain is that at the moment of triggering the mechanism, the sawtooth trap instantly pierced its flesh and broke its bones. Before the chain falls off the stake that holds the animal clip, it needs to struggle constantly.

After the injury, W5 1 was first discovered on165438+1October 23rd, and a birdwatcher photographed it in Tianjin Beidagang Wetland. The next week, it seemed to disappear. Until the 29th, volunteers and I visited Anxintang, 50 kilometers northeast of Beidagang. Before the car stopped, the alert big bird flew in groups. This time, no one ignored it. A bird dragging a trap in the air is too conspicuous.

For the next few days, volunteers waited by the pond before dawn every day. At most, more than 5,000 oriental storks were found in a pond of about 370 mu, accounting for more than half of the total species. They found that W5 1 and dozens of companions formed a small group and have been active near the fish pond.

Tell volunteers not to let W5 1 out of sight. But it is a test of energy and endurance to lock one of the densely moving white spots with the naked eye.

"Staring at the eyes hurts and tears." A volunteer recalled.

This is a fierce relay race. A dozen teammates took turns guarding them, but they dared not approach or make any noise-Oriental storks are famous for their alertness. Everyone was there, even the handover was silent. There is no shelter in the open field, the sea breeze from the north blows, and the reeds sway freely.

On the shoal, when W5 1 set, the injured left leg could not be straightened. Obviously, it has not adapted to the weight of animal traps. It walks more slowly than other similar animals, and often "trips" suddenly like tripping, and then flaps its wings to keep its balance.

When resting, the oriental stork will put one leg away, but W5 1 has been unable to complete this simple action. Look, when foraging, other oriental storks will stand on one leg and rest with their heads buried in the feathers on their chests. W5 1 can only stay where you are and look around from time to time.

Volunteers will leave at night. That's when the oriental stork needs to rest. No one knows how W5 1 spent those nights.

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The earliest memory of birds is the unknown waterfowl around them when they were catching fish in a puddle near the field when they were young. They will always wait quietly, ready to pick up the spoils that fishermen have missed or thrown away.

Fifty meters away from his home is the thistle canal. In the 1960s, the river was crystal clear. When he was young, he liked to swim in the river secretly. A diver jumps into the water, opens his eyes in the water and can see fish swimming around him. He likes to catch a kind of fish that smells like cucumber. When he came home, his mother smelled his palm, and his son's lie about not going to the river was easy to see through. In spring and autumn, there are patches of waterfowl on the beach, "white, gray, or brown, large and small …" Now, the fish with the smell of cucumber has disappeared.

After work, he became a professional landscape photographer. He wants people to know that this city, which is famous for its industry and port, has not only factories and freighters. All kinds of birds have become an ornament in the photo. He constantly seeks, observes and captures moments, and strives to create perfect works-sometimes it needs the elegance of a swan, and sometimes it needs the magnificence of tens of thousands of seagulls taking off at the same time.

Slowly, he was attracted by these "ornaments", and the bird became the protagonist under his lens step by step. Now, he tries to distinguish the birds on the wetland in his childhood memory: the gray ones may be herons, and the yellow ones may be snipes. The whitest ones are silver gulls, red-billed gulls, swans and white cranes ... of course, he now believes that oriental storks will be there. It's just that he didn't know each other then.

At present, W5 1 is farther and farther away from birds, and often forages alone on the other side of the pond. In the month of 65438+February, the water began to freeze, and most oriental storks have replenished their strength. It's time to leave.

The sheep where W5 1 is located are the first to leave. Volunteers noticed that dozens of oriental storks grouped with it never returned to Anxintang after 12 months. By February 2, 65438+, thousands of oriental storks disappeared overnight, leaving only one bird in the pond, W5 1. Around it, the bottom of the pond has cracked and covered with a layer of white, which was left by waterfowl foraging here, proving the grand occasion at that time.

The next day, several herons flew by, stayed in the pond for a minute, and then left immediately. The food here is not as rich as it was a few days ago. After the injury, the predation ability of W5 1 has been declining, and it can only be satisfied by some dead fish and dried fish on the shore.

There is no doubt that W5 1 is completely out of date.

The rescue plan was put on the agenda a few days ago. Volunteers wanted to use "fatigue tactics" and sent people to chase W5 1 on both sides of the pond until it was exhausted. This is the simplest scheme, but it may also aggravate his injury and was eventually rejected.

The second scheme is entrapment, which requires patience and skill. Now, the time has come.

The pony took out his tools and walked into the pond. No one among the volunteers is better at catching birds than him-he used to be a professional bird catcher and even went to prison for it. There is a colorful story about his bird-catching skills among the volunteers:

A few years ago, a doctoral student in ornithology came to Tianjin to catch a clever sparrow and put it on it for doctoral research. First, he found a famous bird catcher in Shanghai. As a result, the other party was in Tianjin for a week and didn't catch any. Later, the doctor hired a bird catcher with a lot of money, and after a few days, he found nothing.

Finally I recommended the pony to him. This seemingly featureless and taciturn bird catcher dropped a dozen targets in just one day, even exceeding his expected sample size.

"The doctor cried on the spot, a little rude. He thought that if he couldn't finish his thesis, he couldn't graduate. " Pony said airily, "To catch birds, you must know birds first."

For years, he has been wandering in and out of the bird trap. After experiencing all kinds of tragedies that ordinary people can't see, he found and became a volunteer to protect birds.

On February 3, 65438, the volunteer team obtained the arrest permit from the local forestry department. Before dawn, the pony put the bird woven the night before on the pond. Install the mechanism, sprinkle bait, then dig a shallow pit not far away, and then build a straw shed with reeds and branches for concealment. When the sun rose, he got into this crude bunker.

For the next three days, the only thing he did was wait.

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"Anxin Pool" is a place where volunteers feed the crossing oriental storks, which is located outside the Qilihai Wetland Reserve in Tianjin. 165438+1October 13, they bought this "pond foundation" from the owner of the fish pond-every year from June 65438+1October, the owner of the fish pond will gradually pull out the fish, and after the big fish are caught, the bottom of the pond is often left.

Most migratory birds arrived in Tianjin during this period, among which wading birds, including oriental storks, were used to foraging in shallows, so "Tang Diji" became an excellent place for them.

"Anxin Pond" is just one of dozens of ponds and the only "Pond Foundation" sold by the owners this year.

"In previous years, some waterfowl will come to feed, but this year there are so many that people are overwhelmed." The owner of the pond complained that after raising fish for more than 20 years, it will still be noticed by this year's scene. "A pond foundation will be bare and clean in 40 minutes at the earliest."

Some owners of the pond hired guards to drive away the waterfowl that came to grab food. The pond watcher sat by the pond with a gong in his hand and stared at the pond. "I dare not eat rice, and the kung fu fish pond for taking rice is gone."

The most practical thing is to set off firecrackers. From June 5438+00, every time I patrol the fish pond, I will hear the crackling firecrackers, "more lively than the New Year".

This made him laugh and cry. "Sometimes you think this scene is funny, but where is the dignity of a flagship bird species in Tianjin?"

With the support of non-profit organizations, they bought fry and made a daily feeding plan of "Anxintang" to ensure the food intake of 5,000 oriental storks a day. Here, they don't have to worry about starvation, being caught or stepping into a trap.

If the "Anxin Pool" had been discovered earlier, W5 1 might not have been injured or stayed. Volunteers know that if it doesn't, it won't survive this winter. The food was reduced-in order not to delay the southern migration of oriental storks, the feeding only lasted for a while.

After being caught by wild animals, W5 1 seems to become more alert. At this time, most shallow water areas suitable for wading birds are frozen, and it is already a problem to fill their stomachs. After the trap was laid, other waterfowl, including several oriental storks, were attracted by the bait. But W5 1 stayed on the other side of the pond and moved slowly.

Pony guessed that maybe the footprints in the trap made him suspicious. Who cares? He was lying in the sandpit with an old mattress under him. Nothing is worth doing except staring at opportunities such as W5 1. On that day, the lower temperature has dropped below zero degrees Celsius, and the cold wind swept from the bottom of the pond. Throughout the day, people and birds are still like a long confrontation to a greater extent.

On the fourth day, 65438+February 6th, perhaps I was so hungry that W5 1 finally made a noise. The pony saw that it was about to fly, but it pedaled a few times more than the ordinary oriental stork. Finally, it flew into the air wearing a trap, and then quickly slid to the trap position. Instead of landing, it used a rare predation action, just like a bird of prey-only it didn't use its claws, but it swooped with its mouth to hunt.

The pony in the hut did not hesitate, started the mechanism, the birds merged, and W5 1 fell. The pony rushed out of the hut in an instant, his clothes and hair were covered with reeds, and the volunteers waiting on the shore rushed over. He opened the bird carefully and held W5 1 in his arms. Cover it with an eye patch to calm it down.

The trap was finally taken down, and later it was determined to be 1.5 kg by weighing, which was almost one fifth of the weight of W5 1. One of its toes is only flesh and blood, and the broken part has been obviously necrotic. After being rushed to the animal hospital, the doctor cut off and bandaged the broken toe, but fortunately there was no infection.

W5 1 suffered obvious misfortune, but judging from the result, it was lucky. Just over a month ago, in Harbin, an oriental stork was also caught by wild animals. When it was found, it was already hanging upside down on the high-voltage line, sometimes flapping its wings, and soon died.

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W5 1 is just one of more than 50 million waterfowl on the migration route from East Asia to Australasia. There are nine main bird paths on the earth. Compared with some birds that almost span the two poles of the earth, oriental storks can only be regarded as short-distance travelers.

Although the figure of birds was one of the most common signs in the early days of mankind, human cognition of this creature is always refreshing. At some point, birds lead mankind. 1492 10 month, sailing at sea with his fleet for nearly two months, and haven't seen land yet. On October 7th, 65438/kloc-0, sailors found a large group of migratory birds flying southwest. Decided to change course and follow migratory birds. Five days later, mankind ushered in an important moment: discovery.

At present, the longest known distance of migratory birds is created by Arctic terns, reaching1.8000 km; Swift flies to South Africa for the winter every year, and when she comes back in spring, she will find the nest of the Summer Palace accurately. But before 1822, no one knew that birds could travel long distances. Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, even explained that birds in spring disappeared in winter because they became other species. 1882, a German hunter caught a European stork and found an arrow obviously belonging to Africa stuck in its neck, which is obvious evidence of birds' long journey in history.

Birds are a challenge to human imagination. Red-bellied shorebirds travel between the Arctic Circle and Oceania every year. This traveler, who is only two-thirds the size of a pigeon, will be fully prepared before leaving, and half of his body is fat. They have to fly continuously for eight days and eight nights before they can reach the only stopovers on the way-the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea coast in China.

They are also common waterbirds in Tianjin coastal wetlands. Twenty years ago, I didn't know them, and I didn't know what Tianjin meant to migratory birds. Later, he met birdwatchers of all colors and ornithologists with recording equipment. In his eyes, these people are "eager and sincere", as if to pay tribute. Guide them until they become close friends, and he becomes a "bird man".

In 2007, I rented a helicopter in advance to photograph the coastline of Tianjin. During the flight, the familiar scenery at the foot suddenly gave birth to the impact force under the open field of vision-the color of the sea water showed a clear layering from shallow to deep, birds flew, and countless moving white spots were embedded between the sea and the sky. Not far away is the wetland, and the water system winds through the reeds that can't see the edge. "There is a barren and vicissitudes of beauty."

On the helicopter, I was so excited that I burst into tears and once forgot to press the shutter. Born and raised in Sri Lanka, he never really knew his hometown.

Sometimes he will regret that he "woke up" too late, and many places have been devastated before he could appreciate them and really understand them.

There are two huge photos hanging on the wall of his office. One is the sea in the morning. Seabirds all over the sky cover almost the whole picture. The sea is dark blue and the sky is light blue. A fishing boat is heading for the sea-sky junction.

The other is a satellite map of Tianjin coast. It can be seen that some coastlines are drawn in straight lines, forming regular shapes, which are traces of reconstruction or reclamation. In the data, only 18km natural coastline is left in Tianjin 153km coastline. In 2022, in a plan to strengthen the protection of coastal wetlands, Tianjin said that except for major strategic projects, the approval of new reclamation projects should be completely stopped, "to ensure that the natural coastline is not less than18km".

The picture of seabirds flying all over the sky has become an eternal memory. The sea area in the photo has now become a land without any buildings and overgrown with weeds.

This story happened more than once. Dutch ornithologist Thomas Piersma discovered a new species near Tianjin, a subspecies of red-bellied sandpiper. This newly recorded bird is named after the discoverer. Later, Piersma came to Tianjin and asked him to be a guide and driver. On the way to bird watching, they passed a semi-wetland and several unfinished buildings stood on the wasteland full of reeds. Piersma suddenly stopped the car and asked him to take a picture of himself.

I don't understand. What is so special about this place?

Piersma told him that the new bird species were found in the place where they passed just now, when it was still a complete wetland.

"The most regrettable thing is that this bird I found and named after myself may witness its demise again in my lifetime." Think back to Piersma's words.

A few years ago, I was invited to join a bird. At the meeting, a scientist went to the podium and told his colleagues that the red-bellied sandpiper was well protected in Australia and Oceania, but the total number was declining. Then, he bowed deeply to the audience, asking for a pause and being kind to this great creature.

"Migratory birds don't belong to one person. They cross the ocean and belong to all mankind." I was deeply impressed by his speech.

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Indeed, migratory birds are not unique to one person, and bird research is a sex work. It is not difficult to see these two points from the desk of the National Bird Environment Center. Here, there is a globe or a map of the world on the wall of almost every desk.

Dr. Chen Lixia from the Environmental Records Center posted a chart in the most convenient place, which is a comparison table of environmental records in important regions of the world. Different birds have different codes and different birds correspond to different colors and sizes. Swans wear blue plastic collars, storks wear red anklets, and storks use colorful flags that look like labels on their feet. The most difficult to identify is finches, which use metal anklets, and the smallest inner diameter is only 2 mm.

Each has its own set of logo standards. The logo center once "recycled" a sparrow, and the anklet was a code they had never seen before. They sent an email to the Global Environment Center and finally received a reply from Finland.

Later, on a famous bird map of the world in Nature magazine, this route from Finland to China was regarded as a new discovery and included with other important bird paths.

In addition to scientific value, bird rings often record a bird's contact, interaction or a story with humans.

The environmental record center often receives reports from the public that they have seen or saved a bird wearing an environmental record. The Environmental Records Center will give feedback to reporters about the bird, where it has been, how far it has flown and what it has experienced. ...

"You will feel that you are connected with the world." Chen Lixia said with a smile.

Many times, the recycling of bird rings can only rely on luck. For example, the recycling rate of some bird rings is only one in ten thousand. If you have a chance to meet a bird yourself, you'd better thank fate.

There are always some birds, and they never have a chance to meet humans again. Chen Lixia heard that even if the recovery rate of annual rings is extremely low, some bird catchers can still string the collected annual rings together and use them as decorations.

Even if we meet again, it may be a sad story. In 20 12, there were more than 30 oriental storks in Tianjin. At that time, we rescued 13 of them together with other volunteers. Before flying, these oriental storks were put on anklets.

Five years later, I received a phone call from Heilongjiang. The other party told him that an oriental stork, Huanzhi No.969, was caught locally and recovered after being rescued.

Remember 969, one of the oriental storks in Tianjin on 20 12? He recalled carefully and even "saw the appearance of this white stork again." Several volunteers involved in the rescue operation immediately got together to discuss. This time, the location is at the border, which has already been frozen, and the population of oriental white stork moving south just stops in Tianjin at this moment.

"It is better to take it back to Tianjin and let it fly." The volunteers reached a consensus.

Close to 2000 kilometers, everyone takes turns driving, and no one wants to delay even a minute. After a day and a night, they finally reached their destination. Several people took turns holding it in their arms, and some even made it into clothes.

"That kind of mood is like seeing a child I haven't seen for years." Describe it.

969 was taken back to Tianjin and released. A month later, I saw it for the third time. This time, it scribbled on the ground, its white feathers lost their luster and were covered with mud.

Finally died in the middle.

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When he was still in the business of "making birds", sparrows were one of the "best sellers" of small animals. They used to be common birds in Tianjin. In winter, thousands of these birds will fly by in groups.

Pony has seen tens of thousands of sparrows locked in cages, waiting to be fattened and sent to the dining table in the south. Later, he found that the bird became more and more difficult to catch until it was almost extinct in Tianjin. On the Red List of World Nature Conservation, the sparrow rose from "near danger" in 2004 to Grade 4, and has become "extremely dangerous" by 2022.

"If this business continues, we must catch birds." Pony said he had a mixed feeling for birds. Many times, migratory birds are trading goods, and at the same time, he also likes birds. Like a mire, catching birds is his business, but it also makes him "feel pain".

I still remember that when he first met Pony, he wanted to "explore the bottom" and pointed to the public welfare brochure around him and asked Pony if he knew the birds on the cover. As a result, the pony quickly gave an accurate answer. This is a rare African bird.

Later, in contact, I became more and more convinced that Pony is a "bird fan". He can always accurately identify the ring information of those birds, whether in Europe or South America. After this W5 1, he can watch it on his mobile phone all day.

After that meeting, Pony released "birds worth hundreds of thousands of yuan", which is almost all his property. He finally joined the volunteer team and is now one of the most active members.

In recent years, there are few incidents of bird poaching in Tianjin, but poaching is not the only threat to birds.

In June165438+1October 18 this year, Qian Fafa, deputy director of the National Bird Environmental Record Center, visited Tianjin to investigate the situation of migratory birds.

"I walked around the Qilihai Lake and only saw an oriental stork." What he saw that day left a deep impression on him. When he arrived at Beidagang with a larger wetland area, he counted them one by one, "a ***78".

The environmental record center once put some oriental storks. On a map that can show the trajectory of 16 stork from1October 2 1 to February 2 1, the points in Qilihai and Beidagang Nature Reserve are sparse, and the fish ponds around the reserve are the densest.

"This shows that the nature reserve can not meet the habitat conditions of oriental storks." According to the analysis of Qian Fa, fish will be produced in fish ponds every year, but this year wading birds including oriental storks suddenly appeared in fish ponds because the environment of the nature reserve has changed.

In recent years, Qilihai Wetland Reserve has demarcated the ecological red line and started to implement "returning farmland to wet", and all the operating fish ponds in the area have been retired. 165438+1October 15, the local area released fry 10000 kilograms for transit migratory birds, and the density was obviously not as good as that of the pond bottom in previous years.

Qian French suggested that the habitat needs of migratory birds should be properly considered while strictly protecting the ecology.

Before the problem is solved, it is good to have a "peace of mind pool" for temporary feeding.

On the morning of February 27th, W5 1 came back here again. Its wound has healed. In contrast, its weight has increased by two Jin and its spirit looks much better.

After saving W5 1, it snowed twice in Tianjin, and I felt uneasy. It's not romantic to watch the oriental stork in snowy days, but dangerous-most of my companions have gone to the south, worrying about whether W5 1 will really be lonely once in my life. It doesn't belong to a closed emergency room. Every time someone approaches, it tries to fly and escape, and then it hits the roof.

Volunteers have been looking for oriental storks, and recently they go to Anxintang every day to observe. 65438+On February 25th, more than 100 oriental storks suddenly appeared near the pond. They speculated that this might be the last group of oriental storks to move south in 2022.

It is time to say goodbye. The bird came closer and hit the flying box. After the toe was amputated, W5 1 ran and jumped, and the black flying feathers spread like fingers. It flew to its companions and joined them in a few seconds. The volunteers didn't want to leave, but looked up until it turned into a white spot and disappeared.

(All the pictures in this edition were taken by)

Zhongqing Daily Zhongqing reporter Yang Hai: China Youth Daily (2022,65438+February 30, 05 edition)

: China Youth

The above is a comparison table about women marrying in Italy, and it is about the sharing of oriental storks. I hope this will help everyone after reading how it is considered a good month, small profits but quick turnover!