Birding at Poyang Lake

Guo Geng

I spent the first Spring Festival of the new Millennia in the wild. After packing only necessities, I set off on the second day of the Lunar New Year with a group of bird-loving friends. After one night's travel on train, we arrived at Nanchang, where we changed to a passenger liner and went down the Ganjiang River. It took us two hours to reach our destination--the Poyang Lake Nature Reserve.

Poyang Lake, which retains the waters of five rivers including the Ganjiang River and Xiuhe River and flows into the Yangtze River through the lake mouth in the north, is now the largest freshwater lake in China and one of the most important wetlands in the world. I had thought that Poyang Lake must be a vast expanse of water, but that's the sight which occurs when it swells, whereas we were there during its dry season when watercourses were crisscrossed with a dense distribution of diversely sized lakes. There are more than 300 lakes of different sizes in the reserve area, but the reserve itself only covers 5% of the entire Poyang Lake. Most of our time was spent at Wucheng town where the reserve administration is seated.

As one of the four most famous towns in southeast China, Wucheng is situated at the convergence of the Ganjiang and Xiuhe Rivers where the muddy Ganjiang River meets the clear Xiuhe River and forms a distinct green-yellow band. Climbing to the Wanghu (literally river-overlooking) Pavilion, one can get a bird's eye view of the clear-cut scene. As soon as we got to the reserve, we climbed up to the magnificent Wanghu Pavilion. It was the location of the "National Bird-loving Week" event launched by China Wild Animals Protection Association last spring. Looking out, I saw a bird on the bank. I shouted, "look!"

Perhaps because most of us were not prepared for birding yet, nobody believed it was a bird. Instead, my friends thought it was nothing but a common plastic bag. When we set up a high-powered telescope, we found a middle-sized black-capped pied avocet in sight whose beak was long and curved. We then started to observe or take pictures of the bird with great interest.

At dusk, a group of seven geese were seen flying in the sky. After a while, rows after rows of wild geese flew by and all of us were fascinated with their large number. A reporter exclaimed, "It seems they come from nowhere!" Then the number of geese increased and their "V" formation expanded. We were all absorbed in this spectacular scene. Suddenly, a distinctive sound drew our attention to an orderly line: swans. Through the telescope we could see clearly their pure white feathers against the golden afterglow.

Night is the time when weary birds return to forests. Light-vented bulbuls (most living in congregation, characterized by clear chirping and feeding mainly on berries and insects), great tits, Eurasian blackbirds (eating worms, larvae or fruits), hill mynas (covered with black glossy feathers with purple forehead and top; flocks often gathering on the tree; good at imitating the singing of other birds; and feeding on insects and plant seeds), spotted dove, black-collared staling (its blue feathers shining with milk-white spots; with small yellow bills and eyes near the end of mouth; often living in groups and staying in warm weather; and eat fruits or seeds of plants)¡­ The list is endless. Above the broad water a huge gray heron was approaching, calling its company to fly away together, and on the morass afar several oriental storks were searching for food. Gradually everything was cast in the evening gloom. Staying in the reserve overnight, we could still hear the sound of the geese in the distance.

The next day began with the mixed singing of birds. At eight o'clock a motored fishing boat took us to a tranquil river bay. Stepping onto the slippery bank, we were immediately captivated by the sight of fowls on the shore: ranging from the drifting little grebe (one of the water birds that make up copymdidae and colymbiformes, which have blood relationship to loons yet have lobed rather than webbed feet and an underdeveloped tail; good at diving and are able to swim long distance under water) to the walking-or-flying northern lapwing, from the black-capped kingfisher which were looking at their reflection in the water to the hovering pied kingfish. There were simply too many of them. A black-and-white white wagtail (belonging to the wagtail family and related to pipit, which resembles the lark in terms of its habit, color, sound and long hind claws, and having a slim build and a long tail which usually shakes) flapped its tail up and down with pride, the male-bird of daurian redtant (characterized by a small body, a long tail, a short and sharp beak as well as pretty feathers) not only boasted of its bright color but also posed for us to take pictures. Naturally dozens of pictures were taken, and he seemed just proud to exhaust all our films.

Yet some self-claimed bird-watching tourists passed by in a rush, grumbling that they saw no birds at all. The guide said most of the bird-watching tourists came here to see flocks of large birds, like cranes and swans; otherwise they would complain. In contrast, as one of the few non-professional bird-watching groups, we would spend a couple of hours observing with great interest the sites where others didn't expect many birds. Even in the living quarters of the reserve where we stayed, we recorded more than a dozen kinds of birds, such as common hoopoes with long beak and splendid crest and "lady-like" spotted doves, etc. Moreover, along the reserve's tiny pond lived a kind of dirt-color chicken-build wetland bird--the brown crane. Due to their protective color, inattentive people would never detect their presence.

Of course, we enjoyed our birding trips the most. When a group of nearly a hundred swans flew by silently, we could feel the wind their wings stirred. Though none of them uttered a sound, the scene was indeed touching. The beauty was beyond description, and "sound of heaven!" was the only thing I could think of. After enjoying the helicopter-like performance of pied kingfishers and oriental skylarks, we realized that black-shouldered kites were also good at it. Although they belong to the categories of scansorial birds, warblers, and raptors respectively, they can all hover in the sky.

Soon we were also "moved to tears" by thousands of tundra swans and Eurasian spoonbills. Far in the distance where the water met the sky, wasn't the long line of water birds just "the second Great Wall of China," as foreign bird experts call it? In fact, what they referred to were mainly Siberian cranes. There were almost 2,900 Siberian cranes around Poyang Lake, accounting for 98% of its total in the world. It was a pity, however, that we didn't see any of them this time. Neither did we spot any dollarbirds, which the staff of the reserve highly recommended.

After all, one needs some luck with bird-watching. It was said that there were 312 kinds of birds in the reserve and we observed only 60, or one fifth, of them in three days; yet we enjoyed it very much, and indeed the scene of ducks shivering in the wind and hooded cranes regarding each other in silence would stay with us for many years to come.

A brief introduction to the Poyang Lake National Nature Reserve in Jiangxi
Province:

The Poyang Lake National Nature Reserve lies in the northwest corner of China's largest freshwater lake-Puyang Lake, which is situated in the north of Jiangxi Province and on the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Located at 115o 55' E-116o 03' E, 29o 05' N-29o 15' N and covering 22400 hectares, Poyang Lake National Nature Reserve is an important wetlands in the world and a pearl on the line of Jingjiu (Beijing-Kowloon) railroad. Field studies show that there are 310 kinds of birds, 47 beasts, 48 reptiles, 122 fishes, 40 shells, 227 insects and 47 zooplanktons in the reserve.

Ice free in winter and abundant in food, the wetlands is home to such migratory birds as Siberian cranes and swans. The reserve is a haven to 300,000 birds, of which 54 species are under the protection of the state.

The reserve is especially famous for its Siberian cranes in winter, which attract bird-lovers from around the world. The season for observing migratory birds starts from mid November and ends at early March, with the best time being mid and late November.

Guo Geng, known as a "Species Defender," has written numerous articles in newspapers and journals and contributed scripts to CCTV programs "Animal World" and "Human and Nature". He is a member of Friends of Nature. He wrote this article on International Wetlands Day, 2001.

(Translated by Guan Hui)

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