Qingdao Morning Post
Silver Gull AF53 and friends, welcome home
More than 100,000 silver gulls with wing markings have appeared for 8 consecutive years in the green winter
Every year, this seagull appears in Qingdao. The "AF53" wing mark makes it distinctively recognizable among thousands of seagulls. It has been 8 years since I met birdwatchers in Qingdao in 2014. At the beginning of each year, I can't go back to Qingdao, which worries the hearts of Qingdao people. Yesterday, Xu Keyang, vice president of Qingdao Bird Watching Association, told reporters the story of Qingdao and seagull "AF53" for 8 consecutive years of "dating". This is not only a concern for Qingdao birdwatchers, but also the expectation of Qingdao: AF53 and your friends, Qingdao will always be your home.
Silver Gull AF53 photographed in 2021. Photo by Zhou Zhe
This seagull with wing mark is the "star"
Just past the Spring Festival holiday, many citizens have had the experience of watching and feeding seagulls on the pier. "Seagulls eat too much and float on the surface of the sea to digest food", many people in the circle of friends have posted similar photos.
In fact, on the coast of Qingdao, there are seagulls everywhere. In Jiaozhou Bay, in the nearby seas such as Zhanqiao, May Fourth Square, and Maidao Island, they often appear in piles.
It is understood that there are currently more than 100,000 seagulls wintering in Qingdao, and they are increasing every year. Among the more than 100,000 seagulls, there is a silver gull with the "AF53" wing mark, which has appeared on the coast of Qingdao for 8 consecutive years.
"There must be many seagulls in Qingdao for many years in a row, but this is only because of the wing mark, the most recognizable, it can be said that it is a symbol of the 'star' representative of the indissoluble relationship between seagulls and Qingdao." Xue Lin, president of Qingdao Bird Watching Association, introduced.
Silver Gull AF53 photographed in 2020. Photo by Xu Keyang
The "AF53" touches people's hearts every year
Fast back in January 2014, on the reef outside Polar Ocean World, Xu Keyang, vice president of the Qingdao Bird Watching Association, was photographing seagulls and other birds when he was photographing a silver gull: the silver gull had a wing mark "AF53". "The wing mark is a kind of bird ring commonly used by bird observation researchers in the world, which is engraved with the country, institution, address (mailbox number) and bird ring type and number of the ring, etc., which is convenient for studying the migration dynamics and laws of migratory birds." Xu Keyang said that he later learned based on the wing mark information that the seagull was a Mongolian silver gull that German bird researcher Andreas Buchheim had circled on the shores of Lake Baikal in Russia in 2008, and huanzhi was 4 years old.
From 2014 to 2021, every January, Birdwatchers in Qingdao began to consciously "stare" at the reef outside the Polar Ocean World, hoping to find the figure of "AF53". The "AF53" did not disappoint everyone, except for April 2017, which only appeared in April 2017, and in other years it appeared on time in early January.
"Birdwatchers in the island city already have a tacit understanding and concern in their hearts, and every year in January, everyone will feel that the figure of an old friend will appear." Xu Keyang introduced that bird watching enthusiasts also agreed on one thing: seeing the silver gull AF53 should share the news at the first time.
Silver Gull AF53 photographed in 2019. Photo by Xu Keyang
"AF53" is already an elderly seagull
"Will AF53 still come to Qingdao this year?" Qingdao birdwatchers' fears are not unfounded. AF53 turned 4 years old when Huanzhi was in 2008 and is at least 18 years old this year. According to reports, the recorded lifespan of silver gulls is 18 years old, 19 years old, 32 years old, and "AF53" is already considered to be an elderly seagull. For young seagulls, as long as they are with the group, trekking thousands of kilometers, it is a high probability that they will arrive safely. But for the elderly seagulls, it is not an easy task.
The straight-line distance from Lake Baikal to Qingdao is more than 2,000 kilometers, and along the way, the changeable geomorphological environment of the lofty mountains, the gobi desert, the major rivers and rivers, coupled with bad weather such as wind, snow, rain and fog, may become the "roadblock" of the "AF53" migration. "It felt like I was very lucky when I met 'AF53'. I've photographed several big gulls with wing tags, and only I can meet them every year. "Speaking of this silver gull, Xu Keyang was very emotional, he sent an email to Buchheim saying that he found the silver gull AF53 in Qingdao, and the other party did not expect that his observation and research work had received a Chinese response, giving him more information about the silver gull."
On January 9, 2021, Zhou Zhe, a bird watching enthusiast from Shenzhen, found the figure of "AF53". "I am very pleased to tell Buchheim that silver gull AF53 has arrived safely in Qingdao." Xu Keyang said.
Demystify 1
Where do the seagulls of Qingdao come from
Where the seagulls in Qingdao come from, what are the "secrets" of their migration time and route, the reporter interviewed Xu Keyang, vice president of the Qingdao Bird Watching Association.
The red-billed gull is the most common gull in Qingdao, so named because its mouth is red. It began to appear sporadically along the coast in late November of each year, and then gradually increased in numbers, peaking in March and April due to the increase in the number of people returning from the south to the north. Since April, large flocks of red-billed gulls have gradually left Qingdao to give birth to children in Siberia, Mongolia and other places.
As the name suggests, a black-tailed gull is a gull with a black tail. Black-tailed gulls are marine gulls, unlike other gulls that breed on small islands in inland lakes and wetlands, black-tailed gulls breed only on islands.
The grey-backed gull, named after the gray-black upper body of an adult bird, is a large seagull with a body length of between 55 and 67 cm. Grey-backed gulls breed mainly in the Kamchatka Peninsula to Hokkaido, Japan, and because of geographical barriers, there are relatively few individuals that can enter the eastern coast of China. The grey-backed gulls in Qingdao are also rare, but they appear steadily in several locations along the coast of the city every year.
The Mongolian silver gull is the largest and most common large gull in Qingdao, which can be seen in the seashore, rivers, reservoirs and wetlands, and is also the earliest large gull to reach Qingdao. According to observations, these gulls may not spend the winter in Qingdao, and will continue to move south after a period of rest. The Mongolian silver gull breeds in the south, mainly from Lake Baikal to Outer Mongolia and eastern Inner Mongolia.
Demystify 2
The seabirds of Qingdao fly as far as they can
Xue Lin, president of the Qingdao Bird Watching Association, said that in the summer of 2020, researchers found that they installed TWO yellow-billed egrets with GPS locators on Nagato Rock Island, one wandering near Tangdao Bay in Qingdao's West Coast New Area, and the other wandering in the mudflats near Rushan in Weihai City.
By late October, the two egrets began to move south. They all chose to migrate across the sea, one of which landed from Jiangsu Dongtai Tiaozi mud and the other from Lianyungang, subverting the usual habit of migrating along the coast for wintering and turning inland. One of them made a short stop at Tongling, Anhui Province, and then continued to fly towards Poyang Lake. Another egret crossed the entire jiangsu province, entered anhui province, and then entered Poyang Lake from the Huangshan Mountains to the southwest and also entered Poyang Lake to begin wintering. He left Poyang Lake in mid-November and eventually reached his wintering ground in Shantou. The white-fronted stork, which installed a GPS locator on Dagong Island, was active in the waters around Dagong Island throughout October, as far as about 170 kilometers away from Dagong Island, but returned on the same day. On October 22, the white-fronted stork began to move south, first making a brief stop along the coast of Zhejiang, then continuing south, and finally arriving at GPS coordinates from Papua New Guinea on December 11, 2020.
"The installation of this GPS tracker not only made new discoveries in the wintering grounds of the yellow-billed egret, but also let us know that our successful breeding of white-fronted storks in Qingdao had to overwinter on the other side of the earth (Papua New Guinea)." Xue Lin said.
extend
Hundreds of thousands of birds landed in Jiaozhou Bay
Jiaozhou Bay is fed by many rivers such as the Dagu River, so the sea water is rich in nutrients, and it is a haven for hundreds of thousands of birds of 156 species. Jiaozhou Bay Coastal Wetland is located on the three major international migratory bird migration routes, is a transit migratory birds, travel birds migration stop, an important "gas station" to replenish energy, as well as a wintering ground for winter migratory birds and a breeding place for summer migratory birds.
Jiaozhou Bay Wetland is an important resting place and wintering ground for waterbird migration in the Asia-Pacific region in the East Asia-Australasian bird migration route.
Daikojima Island and Nagato Rock Island: Breeding grounds for rare birds
Qingdao has a long coastline and open sea, and island birds are also the biggest features of Qingdao birds. Dagong Island and Nagato Rock Island in Qingdao are one of the only few breeding grounds for flat-billed puffins, black fork-tailed petrels, white-fronted storks and East Asian locust warblers in China, among which it is also the only known breeding ground for East Asian locust warblers and flat-billed puffins in China.
Since 2018, with the cooperation and support of Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Landscape Architecture and Forestry, Dagong Island Provincial Nature Reserve, Quality Orchid Foundation, Beijing Forestry University, Sun Yat-sen University and Institute of Forestry of chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao Bird Watching Association has begun to systematically monitor, protect and research the characteristic breeding birds of Dagong Island and Nagato Rock Island. (Guanhai News/Qingdao Morning Post reporter Wei Niobong)