□ Reporter Li Ming
In the middle of summer, a hundred birds in the Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve in Shandong Province, a beautiful water bird with black wings and red legs, is particularly conspicuous, it is a national first-class protected animal - the Oriental White Stork.
The reporter used a telescope to see a bird's nest, and 3 young birds were resting next to the adult birds, turning their heads from time to time to comb their feathers. The staff next to them said that there were only two adult birds last year, and in February this year they successfully bred 3 young birds in the wild and brought them back, and now they are a family of 5.
The traditional breeding ground of the Eastern White Stork is not in the Yellow River Delta, so why are they having children here? The reporter came to the Yellow Triangle Nature Reserve to explore the story of the home of the Oriental White Stork.
From appearance to reproduction
Zhu Shuyu, a senior engineer who has worked in the reserve for nearly 30 years, has witnessed the breeding history of the Eastern White Stork on this wetland.
He told reporters that the oriental white stork baby bird will become tall and slender under the careful care of parents, with a light and graceful posture, and full of "noble style". When the wing length of the young bird approaches that of the adult bird, after a period of practice, they can skillfully follow their parents out and learn predation skills.
In summer, the reserve is rich in vegetation and food. The reporter followed the footsteps of the staff and saw 3 young birds following their parents to the nearby wetlands to forage for food from time to time, with long legs wading in the water, long beaks accurate attacks, and elegant postures. Around them, several eastern white storks either forage on the water or dance their large wings in a graceful dance.
"The Eastern White Stork usually breeds at high latitudes north of 40 degrees north latitude, while wintering is between the Yangtze River basin and the Pearl River basin. They are pure carnivorous birds, with fish, shrimp and crabs as their main food, and the Yellow Triangle wetlands can provide a good foraging environment. Zhu Shuyu said.
The Eastern White Stork first appeared in the Yellow Triangle wetlands more than 20 years ago. In 1997, the International Wetland China Project Office cooperated with the Oceania Office to conduct a survey of coastal birds in China. On April 27, Zhu Shuyu and his colleagues and two foreign experts were conducting an investigation near the Gubei Reservoir of the 1,22 management station, and in the swampy wetland on the north side of the reservoir, a group of large white waders attracted Zhu Shuyu's attention, and he quickly picked up the telescope to look at it. "It's the Eastern White Stork!" Zhu Shuyu shouted excitedly, and then the investigation team quickly recorded this precious image, a total of 19, which was the first field confirmation of the Eastern White Stork in the Yellow Triangle region.
"When we went back and analyzed the reasons, it was generally believed that the wetland was well protected and managed, providing them with a good foraging environment." Zhu Shuyu said that since then, the reserve has organized the investigation and monitoring of the Eastern White Stork every year, and has paid more attention to the protection of the wetland.
Since then, the number of Eastern White Storks monitored in the Yellow River Delta has increased every year, and the range of activities and residence time have also increased. In May 2003, a business owner who was doing reed planting and eco-tourism around the reserve called Zhu Shuyu: "Old Zhu, more than 700 meters southeast of the five circles of the reserve, there is a big bird's nest on the abandoned pole of an oil field, you come and see what it is." "Zhu Shuyu immediately rushed to the scene and found that it was the nest of the Eastern White Stork, and an adult bird was hatching." This was the first Eastern White Stork nest we found, and unfortunately, the final hatching did not succeed. Until 2005, on the high-pressure pole on the west side of the No. 1 square platform in the 50,000-mu wetland restoration area of the reserve, 5 nests were found at one time, of which 2 nests successfully bred 5, and in 2006, 5 nests were successfully bred. Since then, the breeding process of the Eastern White Stork in the Yellow Triangle region has begun. ”
Nesting leads to storks
This is accompanied by the increasing population and breeding population of the Eastern White Stork in the Yellow River Delta, which is accompanied by the continuous restoration of the wetland system and the continuous improvement of habitat conditions.
At the beginning of 2000, wetlands were degraded due to the obstruction of water replenishment in wetlands, coupled with the back-irrigation of seawater. To this end, the management committee of the nature reserve applied for the continuation of the second phase of the reserve, and planned a 50,000-mu wetland restoration area at the Dawenliu management station.
"The wetland restoration area has planned the depth and shallow water area of the large slope ratio, constructed a variety of micro-terrains, and built 3 dams, 4 diversion channels, multiple connecting gates, and water inlet in the spring of 2003, which has a very good effect." Zhu Shuyu introduced that nearly 200 oriental white storks were found that year, and rare birds such as red-crowned cranes, black-billed gulls, and giant swans also increased significantly.
The continuous improvement of the environment has made more and more Eastern White Storks intend to make a home here. However, there are no tall trees in the Yellow Triangle, and the Eastern White Stork often chooses to nest on high-voltage poles, which is a threat to power security, and the lack of nest material also makes some of the nests built by the Eastern White Stork less robust.
"I remember very clearly that on May 1, 2004, a strong wind touched a pair of eastern white storks on top of a high-pressure pole and had just built a prototype bird's nest on the ground for a week." Since then, Mr. Zhu said, he has been figuring out how to build artificial nests for them and attract more white storks to settle here.
Subsequently, Zhu Shuyu consulted the literature, carried out nest investigation, studied the breeding habits of the Oriental White Stork, and finally designed the artificial nest construction plan of the Oriental White Stork: 15 meters high pole, buried 3 meters, 12 meters above the ground, and built a bird's nest skeleton made of nickel-plated steel at the top, with a design diameter of 2.5 to 3 meters. In the winter of 2008, 21 artificial nests built with an investment of 130,000 yuan were erected.
"The effect of this is obvious, in the spring of 2009, there were nearly 70% of the occupancy. So far, we have made 115 artificial nests, and the occupancy rate is nearly 80%. Zhu Shuyu said.
In addition, the reserve has also implemented the Oriental White Stork Habitat Protection Project, and the Oriental White Stork and Black-billed Gull Habitat Construction Optimization Project have greatly improved the habitat environment of the Eastern White Stork.
Build a monitoring network
Tripods, cameras, telescopes, positioning devices... Wu Lixin, a 51-year-old senior engineer at the Dawenliu Management Station, first thing he does every day after going to work is to carry a backpack containing nearly 10 kilograms of equipment on his back and start patrolling, and in each bird habitat, he must accurately "dot".
More than 100 kilometers of round-trip every day, the data such as inspection location, longitude and latitude, population status and quantity must be carefully recorded and uploaded to the scientific research center of the management committee. "The accumulation of this data is crucial to bird conservation efforts." Wu Lixin told reporters.
The process of patrolling and monitoring is an important part of scientific research and protection. In 2006, the reserve issued the "Regulations for the Protection of the Eastern White Stork", which made specific normative requirements from the aspects of protection scope, measures, systems, patrols and so on. At the same time, a detailed patrol monitoring system has been formulated, with three management stations, each station planning 5-6 routes, which must be patrolled once a week. "By determining the sample line, sample point, sample square, observing and recording the bird status, vegetation distribution, water quality, soil, feeding area resource status, etc., so as to carry out more targeted protection." Zhao Yajie, senior engineer of the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve, said.
In order to better understand the habits, migration paths, health status and other information and biological characteristics of the Eastern White Stork, and to provide more valuable information for conservation, since 2010, the reserve has cooperated with Anhui University and the Chinese Academy of Forestry every year to install satellite rings for the Eastern White Stork. "At present, 73 Eastern White Storks have been successfully wearing satellite trackers, color rings and metal rings, and through the Internet + global positioning system, they can grasp the breeding and migration dynamics of wild birds in real time." Zhao Yajie said that in addition, more than 50 high-definition video surveillance has been installed.
Since last year, the construction of the integrated monitoring network of "sky, earth and sea" in the protected area has also been officially launched. The ecological monitoring platform with a total investment of 16.79 million yuan comprehensively uses the Internet, big data, Internet of Things, remote sensing, radar, unmanned aerial vehicles and other information technology means, with the help of the "sky, earth and sea" integrated monitoring network, to create a monitoring platform, display platform, science popularization platform.