At this time of year, you may not know it at all, but it is true that there are waves of small guests who stay in Hangzhou for two or three days, settle down, drink water, eat something, come quietly, and quietly go.
These little guests, talking about migratory birds.
Just like our annual Spring Festival, birds also have a collective migration period.
Their ability to perceive the seasons is much more powerful than that of us humans. Every year in September and October, when the genius is just getting cold, some birds are busy taking off from their hometowns in the north and going all the way south to the warm south for the winter; in March and April of the following year, spring comes, and these migratory birds who have wintered in the south are rushing back to their hometowns to breed their offspring.
As a city full of birds and flowers, Hangzhou has many birds living here. The resident birds that live in Hangzhou all year round include blackbirds, white-headed plovers, red-billed blue magpies, kingfishers, big, etc.; winter migratory birds that come in season include cormorants, mandarin ducks, weaver girl silver gulls, and ordinary autumn sand ducks; summer migratory birds have hair crowns and capuchins, strong-legged tree warblers, domestic swallows, and small gray mountain pepper birds.
Resident birds live in peace, migratory birds come and go, and it is not difficult to find them in the city. But transit birds are different. They only show their faces in our city all year round, leaving us with a glimpse of surprise, and in the blink of an eye, they flapped their wings and flew away.
Cold and summer, these birds fly from north to south, or from south to north, thousands of miles of road, there must always be a place to stop and breathe in the middle. Geographically, it is not counted as north, nor is it south of Hangzhou, and good mountains and good water have become the "service area" selected by many birds.
For many people, it may be at all unaware that these little guests have ever been here. But for bird watchers, although they only stayed for a few days, they have a high status.
Song Jianyue, a member of the Zhejiang Wild Bird Society, said that March and April every year are the "most golden time" for them as bird watchers. And now, the "most golden time" has arrived.
"The winter was not very cold, and the birds migrated a week earlier than in previous years." Since the end of March this year, Song Jianyue has begun to run the South Lake and North Lake in Yuhang, the forest sandpiper, the ring-necked sandpiper, the black-winged long-legged sandpiper... These "vanguard troops" all left a shadow in Song Jianyue's camera.
Song Jianyue said that even if it is the same kind of bird, perennial observation will find that when winter flies past, and when it flies back in spring, the radiance is completely different.
"In winter, a gray feather flies over, not good-looking, but convenient camouflage, but also warm; in spring, the breeding season has arrived, especially the male birds, in order to attract female birds, early to change into breeding feathers, colorful, that is called good-looking." 」
After a long journey back to their hometown in the north, it was the best time for these birds to look. In Hangzhou, halfway up the road, Song Jianyue said that it was also very good to see the fifty or sixty percent of these birds when they were at their most beautiful.
These beautiful birds, usually rare in Hangzhou, every year on the migration road, flying tired, hungry, stop for two or three days, replenish physical strength and leave immediately. Because of the short time, it is more cherished for bird watching enthusiasts in Hangzhou.
How many transit birds are there in Hangzhou for such a short time? Zhejiang Wild Bird Association has not been specifically counted, and at least sixty or seventy species have been photographed. Specific to the West Lake, there are about dozens of transit birds that have left photos.
DongSi, a member of the Zhejiang Wild Bird Association, especially likes to shoot birds by the West Lake, saying that the black-winged long-legged sandpiper was photographed in the West Lake the other day, and in a few days someone photographed it again, because they came wave after wave, wave after wave, back and forth, until almost May.
white-winged tern
Black-winged sandpiper
A few years ago, Dongsi said that on the Su Causeway, he photographed more than a hundred whiskered floating gulls and white-winged floating gulls, and this year he did not know how many would stop by the West Lake.
Black-necked
black-headed gull
These transit birds also have no rules, some flew over this evening, left early the next morning, in a hurry; some came, shopping east, west, rest for two or three days and then go; there are not anxious, a look here is a good environment, stay a few days, but generally will not exceed a week.
Ribbed duck
Green-winged duck
Now in April, when these transit birds are passing through Hangzhou in waves, maybe when you look up, you will see that they are passing overhead.
So, is there any place in Hangzhou where the chance of seeing these transit birds is greater?
Fan Zhongyong, vice chairman of the Zhejiang Wild Bird Society and research librarian of the Zhejiang Natural History Museum, said that there are naturally few in the city, such as the West Lake, there are some, but it cannot be compared with the suburbs. Like the mouth of the Qiantang River, especially close to Xiaoshan, Fan Zhongyong said that a few days ago, he saw at least more than 2,000 birds in several paddy fields, all of which were partisans, and a large area flew over together, and the scene was quite spectacular.
Yuhang South Lake, North Lake, Qiantang River, especially Xiaoshan and Dajiangdong area, are quite popular bird watching places; in addition, like Xixi Wetland, Hangzhou Botanical Garden, Jiangyangfa Park, you can also see birds, a small group of small groups passing by.
Mallard duck
Now, for bird watchers, it's the best time to meet a transit bird. We asked the Zhejiang Wild Bird Association to help us sort out some of the more common transit birds in Hangzhou and make a "transit bird collection", you can compare and recognize, maybe one day you can meet them. When the time comes, remember to tell them that you are welcome to come to our city to rest.
Fish gulls
Whiskered floating gulls and white-winged floating gulls
When the day is hot again, the summer migratory birds are coming, and the birds from the south who are "afraid of heat" will fly north every spring and summer, find a comfortable place to stop, and then fly back to the warm south for winter in the late autumn of the next year. Although we always feel that the summer in Hangzhou is too hot, these summer migratory birds feel that it is very suitable, so when they fly to Hangzhou, they think "Oh, this place is very good", so they stopped and stopped walking.
Pintail duck
There are not many summer migratory birds in the West Lake, the most common is the green heron, which can be seen in many places in the West Lake. In addition, there are quite a lot of summer migratory birds in the Hangzhou Botanical Garden, such as the white-browed bird, the mountain wagtail, the red-bellied eagle, the hair crown capuchin, the red-tailed Burrow, the gray capuchin, the three treasure birds and so on.
Green herons
From bird monitoring in 1997 at the Hangzhou Botanical Garden, to 2006, a total of 109 species of birds were recorded, including 39 species of resident birds, 21 species of summer migratory birds, 27 species of winter migratory birds, and 22 species of transit birds.
Photography | Zhejiang Wild Bird Society Song Jianyue Dongsi