Xinhua News Agency, Jinan, December 16 Title: Birds Fall in Love with the Yellow River Estuary -- Visiting and Hearing of the Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve
Xinhua News Agency reporters Wang Nian and Wu Shuguang
Since the beginning of winter, the scenery of the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve in Shandong is more like the exquisite picture of the scenery film - between the ripples of the water, the reeds on the shoals are like snow, the flocks of migratory birds are either strolling or spreading their wings, and the beautiful chirps come and go.
The Yellow River flows from Dongying, Shandong to the Bohai Sea, and its alluvial Yellow River Delta has a warm temperate wetland ecosystem. In 1992, a national reserve with a total area of 153,000 hectares was established here, which played an important role in protecting the nascent wetland ecosystem and rare and endangered birds. In 2013, the Yellow River Delta wetland was included in the list of wetlands of international importance by the International Convention on Wetlands, and in 2018, Dongying was listed among the first batch of "international wetland cities" in the world.
The reporter visited the reserve and saw that the red-crowned crane walked gracefully, the white crane, warty-nosed swan and the white spoonbill were circling at a low altitude, and the isolated oriental white stork in addition to going out to forage for food, most of the time a female and a male quietly guarded the nest...
In the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve, the nest of the Eastern White Stork with a diameter of several meters on a telephone pole. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Guo Xulei
Liu Jing, head of the Yellow River Delta Ecological Monitoring Center, told reporters that the number of birds in the reserve has increased from 187 species when the area was established to 371 species now, of which 25 species of birds are protected at the national level and 65 species are protected at the second level. The number of 38 species of birds exceeds 1% of the global total. Millions of birds migrate through here every year, some of them even overwintering and breeding here.
This is a great egret photographed in the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Guo Xulei
"It is an important transit point for bird migration, known as an 'international airport for birds', and the peak migration period is extremely busy." Zhao Yajie, a researcher at the reserve, said that among the nine bird migration routes in the world, two routes from East Asia to Australasia and the Western Pacific Rim pass through the Yellow River Delta.
Two red-crowned cranes in the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve inhabit aquatic plants. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Guo Xulei
Since last year, rare birds such as white pelicans and spoon-billed sandpipers have been discovered in the Yellow River Delta. However, in the eyes of researchers, the national first-class protected bird, the Eastern White Stork, is a witness to the continuous improvement of the ecological environment, they first passed through the Yellow River Delta in the middle of migration, began to nest here in 2003, and bred 2 nests of 7 young birds for the first time in the wild in 2005. Observations have shown that this year, the Oriental White Stork breeds 120 nests and 324 chicks, with a total of 2278 breeding. "According to the information we have, this is undoubtedly the largest breeding ground for the Eastern White Stork in the world." Zhao Yajie said.
This is a flock of birds photographed near the tidal embankment in Kenli District, Dongying City. Photo by Ren Xiaojie
The reporter learned that the protected area not only adheres to the priority of protection and natural restoration, but also takes the initiative and acts scientifically. For example, the Oriental White Stork likes to nest in tall trees to lay eggs and hatch chicks, while the Yellow River Delta does not have this type of tree, and after careful research, the reserve has built 115 artificial nests for the Eastern White Stork, which has proved to be effective. The reporter saw that on the high cement pole, the bird's nest with a diameter of more than 2 meters was quite eye-catching.
At the same time, since 2002, the local government has taken advantage of the favorable opportunity of water diversion and sand diversion of the Yellow River to replenish water, and has successively implemented the habitat protection project of key species such as the Eastern White Stork and the Black-billed Gull, and the species and number of birds have increased significantly.
"Water is the life of the wetland, there are water and fish, there are fish and birds." Wang Tianpeng, director of the 1,020 Management Station of the Reserve, said that water replenishment for many years has effectively curbed the degradation of wetlands, the ecology has been restored, the biodiversity of wetlands has grown steadily, and more and more birds have been attracted to inhabit and breed here. According to the Yellow River Bureau of Shandong, the Diaokou River was the flow road of the Yellow River before it was diverted in 1976. Since 2010, the ecological replenishment of this flow road has reached 381 million cubic meters.
Due to the harsh requirements on breeding grounds, the black-billed gull, a national first-class protected bird, is often regarded as an indicator species for changes in the ecological environment of wetlands, and is listed in the Red Book of Endangered Animals in China and the Red List of Endangered Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In 1992, two breeding grounds for black-billed gulls were first discovered in the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve, and since then its population has expanded, with this spring's survey showing that for the first time, its breeding population exceeded 10,000.
The reporter learned from the interview that the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve is also the largest natural vegetation area of the nascent wetland along the coast of China, with 1630 species and 685 species of wild animals and plants respectively. Xu Mingde, secretary of the party working committee and director of the management committee of the reserve, said that they insist on using ecological methods to govern the ecology, and the wetland area of the reserve has increased by 12.3% and 188 square kilometers since 2017.
The endless winged alkali canopy stains the vast tidal flats red. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Guo Xulei
It is understood that the Yellow River Estuary National Park, which is integrated from 8 natural protected areas such as the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve, has entered the stage of creation and implementation. With the goal of building the country's first integrated land-sea national park, the local government is solidly promoting a series of ecological protection and restoration projects to promote a healthier ecosystem and further enhance biodiversity.