Public Network poster news reporter Du Hongxiao, Zhao Pengcheng, Xin Zhendong, Dongying reported
In late November, the north has entered the Mengdong season, standing on the great plain at the mouth of the Yellow River, overlooking the reeds in the distance like a golden yellow, and the flame-like hot alkali canopy clusters shine. A large area of migratory birds rise and fall among the grass, so that this cold and windy northern winter day, there is even a hint of "flowers blooming mangroves and warblers, grass Changping Lake egret flying" meaning.
Here, more than 6 million birds of 371 species migrate, overwinter and breed every year, and are known as the "international airport" for birds. The Oriental White Stork, which has already inhabited and settled here, is soaring in the vast sky, the Oriental White Stork has wide and long wings, is a national first-class protected animal, and has the title of "bird giant panda", which is extremely picky about the choice of habitat. Today, they have made their home in the Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve in Dongying City, Shandong Province, and have bred about 2,000 chicks. The reserve has also become the world's largest breeding ground for the Eastern White Stork.
From a secondary school student to a senior engineer, the "protected area people" have been fearlessly persevering for 33 years
More than 80 kilometers, an hour's drive, Zhang Xitao, 53 years old, returned from home with a week's change of clothes from home to his most familiar job - the Yellow River Estuary Management Station of the Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve in Shandong.
In the early morning, Zhang Xitao put on his back a faded old cloth bag, carried a telescope, stepped on the camera, and got into the car that went deep into the reserve. The endless wetland seemed to have become a three-dimensional map in Zhang Xitao's eyes, "You see, there are four or five kinds of birds about 100 meters away, and now it is the Oriental White Stork that takes off, the three or five flocks of ordinary seagulls in the distance, as well as the red-billed giant tern, the gull-billed noisy gull, the white-fronted tern, the 13 in the distance are only red-crowned cranes, there were only three in the past few days, and these days it has increased to 13." Without even needing a telescope, Zhang Xitao cherished the species, habits and migration processes of birds 100 meters away.
"This is the Eastern White Stork, which used to be a migratory bird, and now winter is in our New Year." Zhang Xitao excitedly pointed to the birds in the distance, "At the beginning, I would feel bored and bored, but now I really like this job, I have feelings with them, and I think about it tightly after not seeing them for a day." In 1992, when the State Council approved the establishment of the Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve in Shandong, Zhang Xitao began his decades of harmonious coexistence with birds. In 2007, Zhang Xitao had the first camera to assist in observing birds, and decades have passed, the camera has been changed three times, and now this camera has been following him for more than three years, although it is well protected, it still can't hide the traces left by the wind and sand. More than 5,000 days and nights, nearly 100,000 photos, Zhang Xitao with his camera shuttled through this protected area day and night, leaving his footprints in every corner.
Zhang Xitao carried the old cloth bag on his back every patrol, and Zhang Xitao said: "It contains some first-aid medicine, and when you see injured birds on the road, you can first carry out simple treatment." "Poison solutions, veterinary medicines, gauze... Zhang Xitao did not have a single grain of dry food or drops of water in the bag he carried, only emergency supplies for the birds. "As soon as we came out, it was several hours, and there was really no bathroom, so we simply didn't drink or eat, and just insisted on it." Driving along the highway takes an hour and a half, Zhang Xitao and colleagues also have to monitor and record along the way, often a trip to three or four hours, "In fact, work does not feel so long, not to come in twice a day is always uneasy." ”
"You are like this bird called a bustard, in the early eighties, when I had the most in the thousands, in recent years the record is at most 33, 'crossed the level' has become a first-class protected animal." 」 Nearly 30 years of working experience in the reserve, Zhang Xitao, a secondary school graduate, has mastered the knowledge of more than 300 kinds of birds by self-study, and the grass, trees and birds in the reserve have also been deeply engraved in his mind.
"This bird has been a lot for two years, and that shows that's a good thing. But the fact that the number of birds has been few or even not coming in recent years is probably indicating that the population is small, and I will feel worried. Whenever he encounters an injured or sick bird, Zhang Xitao is always very sad, and even blames himself for not finding abnormalities earlier and not carrying out manual intervention as soon as possible. Zhang Xitao sighed deeply, "This is all the same as my child, I can see it with one less." ”
Vehicles stop and go, Zhang Xitao up and down, wearing thick-soled rubber shoes can also step into the muddy water, november of the Yellow River beach north wind, let people feel particularly cold, Zhang Xitao skillfully set up a telescope, observation, take pictures, a step can not be less.
Along the way, Zhang Xitao kept introducing the precious birds in the reserve, just like showing off his healthy children, Zhang Xitao frankly said, "Watching them get better and better, I really have a sense of pride, a sense of mission, and a few years to retire, it is really reluctant, I really want to accompany them for a lifetime." ”
With Delta "love at first sight", "post-85" female Doctors sink a line for 7 years
At the same time, on the other side of the Yellow River, there is another group of bird inspectors. At seven o'clock in the morning, Zhao Yajie left home for the Yellow River Delta National Ecological Reserve, a long one-and-a-half-hour work trip, Zhao Yajie sorted out the previous day's work report, and continued to study the relevant information of birds in the reserve.
Zhao Yajie, 34, a bird inspector, graduated in 2014 at the age of 27 with a Ph.D. in ecology from the Shenyang Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. After graduating with a doctorate, she originally planned to work at the Dongying Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and by chance, Zhao Yajie learned about the work content of the Management Committee of the Yellow River Estuary Ecotourism Zone, and the wetland ecology of the Yellow River Estuary was also very compatible with her profession, so Zhao Yajie chose to stay here and work.
At the beginning of coming to the reserve, although Zhao Yajie was a girl, she also followed her colleagues to "run in the wild", and Zhao Yajie, who lived in Liaoning, had never seen the plain landscape of the Yellow River estuary, and fell in love with it at once, "A large plain, with reeds growing, flocks of birds perched in it, this spectacular scene I have never seen." For this favorite job, Zhao Yajie's husband and daughter stayed in Dongying together.
With the development of technology and the improvement of the level of field monitoring, the reserve has been arranged in part of the monitoring, Zhao Yajie focused on bird trackers and other projects that cannot be monitored artificially in the reserve, and every day he was alone in a monitoring room of more than 100 square meters, checking the monitoring of the protected area one by one, and counting and monitoring the number, species, living area, etc. of birds. A seemingly boring job is quite important to Zhao Yajie.
Six years of grassroots work so that Zhao Yajie is fully familiar with the ecological environment of the Yellow River Estuary Delta, as well as bird migration paths, she believes that the protection of wild animals, the protection of endangered species, relying solely on the protection of staff, the effect is minimal, more importantly, let all mankind realize the importance of ecological protection, let all mankind realize the necessity of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, so Zhao Yajie boldly transformed, in addition to bird monitoring, strengthen the knowledge of birds and the protection of the environment of science publicity work. Zhao Yajie said: "Protecting nature is far from enough to rely on our dozens of hands, and nature depends on everyone to jointly maintain it." ”
In recent years, various departments in Shandong have also done a lot of work in promoting the ecological protection and restoration of wetlands in the Yellow River Basin, especially in the Yellow River Delta. Through the combination of natural restoration and engineering restoration, the Yellow River Delta has completed the return of 72,500 mu of farmland to wet land and 72,500 mu of farmland to beaches, and the cumulative restoration of wetlands is nearly 300,000 mu. Since 2019, we have further increased the intensity of ecological protection and restoration, successively implemented 16 ecological protection and restoration projects with a total investment of 1.08 billion yuan such as the Protection and Restoration Project of the InternationalLy Important Wetland in the Yellow River Delta, and effectively promoted the benign maintenance of the wetland ecosystem in the Yellow River Delta through a variety of restoration methods, the wetland ecosystem has been significantly improved, and the wetland biodiversity has been significantly improved.
Today, the Yellow River Delta Reserve located at the mouth of the Yellow River has become the most complete, broadest and youngest wetland ecosystem in China's warm temperate zone, and the number of birds has increased from 187 species in 1992 to 371 species today, of which 12 species of birds are protected at the national level to 25 species, and the number of 38 species of birds exceeds 1% of the global total, becoming the world's largest breeding ground for the Eastern White Stork, the second largest breeding ground for black-billed gulls in the world, the second largest wintering ground for white cranes in the world, and the southernmost boundary for wild breeding of red-crowned cranes in China.