3000字英文纯手打，女儿阳江观鸟笔记

写在前面：今日的推送，是女儿小小樱撰写的一篇自然观察报告。在小升初的这一年，她，迷上了观鸟。该文详尽记录了，清明假期期间，在广东阳江，这一候鸟迁徙重要驿站的观鸟历程。尽管我们对全球仅400只的极危物种勺嘴鹬追踪失败，但这依然并没有打消她的性质，她用细腻的笔触，描述了蒙古沙鸻、铁嘴沙鸻、白脸鸻、翘嘴鹬等多种候鸟的观察。在长达3000字的篇幅中，女儿全程纯手打，每一句描述都源自她在海滩上透过望远镜的真实观察，展现她在博物学上的天赋。

来吧，去片。

Birding Trip at Yang jiang

Observer: Joey

Date:  Apr.5th ,Sunday

Weather:  A bit rainy, temperature around 26° ,breezy but muggy.

Objective :  Observe the migrant birds . Try to find the spoon-billed sandpipers.

Introduction

Yang jiang is located in the south of Guang dong province. The temperature is warm throughout the year because it is a subtropical city. This special place has a long coastline that faced the southern ocean of China. Migrant birds like plovers and snipes flyover the line annually. They usually begin their journey at southeast of Asia and end it in the Arctic circle to breed and bring up the new generation.This migration route is often called the East Asian— Australasian Flyway (EAAF). In this trip, we hope we can find the migrant that are passing through Yang jiang with their unique breeding plumage.

Also, we expected to come upon the spoon billed sandpiper in our trip cause it is pretty rare. Actually, there is only about 700 left in the whole world. There were not many kind of this bird in the first place, plus pollution and over development which extremely damaged or even destroyed most of their habitats, their number plunged down.Yang jiang is the few remaining habitat that they usually take a rest during their long ,sufferable journey. In the migrant season, lots of bird watchers come here to have look at their daily life.Easy said ,hard do though, since it is not so easy to find them among hundreds of thousands of other birds that look just like them . May just be that l’m unexperienced.

Our Journey

We arrived at Yang jiang in Saturday dusk.The sky was grey and cloudy, but there was no rain . I came with my parents. We are all very tired after the long journey by car from Guangzhou to Yiang jiang so we rested in the hotel that evening.

Other persons who were going to go birding with us includes our birding guide—Mr Bo, other two children and their parents. Since we booked the same hotel ,Mr Bo decided that we should meet at the hotel lobby to take a look at Bo’s earlier check in of the bird species .

When we were all assembled,  he showed us the pictures he had taken that morning : Kentish plovers, white faced Plovers, spotted red shanks , black faced buntings , black winged stilts and other birds I have never seen before.  I was looking forward to next day’s bird watching more and more. It was surprising too, that my friend in the birdwatching group came to this trip too with her parents. We chatted about birding for a while and retired to our own hotel room for resting and sleeping.

The next morning, we all woke up early. A car drive for 50 minute followed,  and we arrive at a little village near the beach. We ate some breakfast and we noticed that the village was full of Barn-swallows.  My friend and I saw a couple who are feeding the little ones in nest under the roof nearby.  They were pretty cute.  But when they saw us, they turned their red face towards us and seemed to snarl . That was pretty scary.

A few minutes later, we were at the beach. The air was fresh and tasted like salt.  Our SUV car plunged into off-roading mode and went staggering along the sea line. A stray snipe was jumping along the shore. We parked and took some photos.

Soon a wide pathway of sand opens before us, with seawater flanking on both sides. A large flock of birds when soaring through the sky. They dived soared, and circled in the sky like a grand flying show. It’s amazing how they moved in unison. They landed on the far end of the shore.

Mr Bo was already waiting for us on the other end of the shoreline.  He told us not to get off our car because the birds are more afraid of human beings than merely vehicles.  That probably because that these birds have already suffered a lot from humans disturb and have grown fearful of them.

Many plovers and snipes had landed around us. There were at least 5000 —— an astonishing number. Despite all the pollution and destruction people have caused ,they still live on. There are many kinds of migrants and they mingled together to form great flocks. Some of them stood still on one leg, resting. Others  saunter around , picking at the sand with their beaks. There were also some seagulls at the distance . They lined the shore , occasionally flew up together to survey their habitat. (More details see below in"Birding Observations")

We go around in our cars filming the amazing birds. We couldn’t identify them because they looked so much alike. But one thing for sure is that we hadn’t found any spoon billed sandpipers. That was a bit disappointing, but we still found a lot of new birds species that we hadn’t yet seen before. It was a successful day.

It began to rain a little, but it was because of a man who was birding in the land said we were scaring away the bird because we drive our car through their habitat that we decided to leave. The rain was falling heavier now. We drove back along the seashore.

Thanks to that man who had warned us not to stay there longer with our tramping cars. We had a marvelous surprise when we got back to the roadside.

It was Mr Bo who saw it first. "There!"he exclaimed "Narcissus Flycatcher! "Us children held up our binoculars almost frantically. "Where?" "On the branch closest to us! "There it was. It was a cute thing with a black back , a yellow brow and its chest was bright yellow. It was definitely a rare species cause Mr Bo and the other two children seemed pretty excited. I didn’t take the binocular that can take photos with me so I couldn’t "catch "the bird. But it was still a surprise.

We disbanded soon after. And we drove back home to Guangzhou . We gained a lot from this trip.

Birding Observations and Some Informations From the Internet

General observation :

Difference between plovers —> Snipes have excellent eyesight. they use their eyes to watch out for prey. Plovers, on the other hand, use their sense of touch. Their sensitive beaks can detect ripples in the water and sudden movements in the mud. Also, plovers tend to have spotted fur on their wings, whereas the Snipes’ fur are usually smooth, often with no distinctive patterns

Mixing of species —> different kind of snipes and plovers like mingling together. Most of the time they stay at the ground in the sand. Generally they face the same direction. It is a kind of preparation for taking flight. If they face different directions and scatter around with no principles, they could not be able to leave the ground quickly when danger came. Of course, some individuals are not as quick witted as others. So you will find individuals who face opposite directions in the photos above.

Greater sand plover & Lesser sand plover :

Appearance———These two species look alike. The males had their breeding plumage on. Their chests , foreheads and back necks are reddish brown and their backs are grey. They all have unique black "eyeshades". The females and juveniles  have lighter colored fur. The most distinctive difference is that the greater is bigger than the lesser , you can see it in their names.  The Lesser have short beaks and dark colored legs, whereas the other one have long, thick beaks and yellowish legs. But still, you have to look really careful to tell them apart.

Behaviors———their running abilities are usually underestimated because they have such short , thin legs. But they can ran across the sand in an astonishing speed. So usually they prefer staying still with one leg standing or sauntering slowly around . When they need to hurry up a bit, they use one leg to jump across the sand. A very interesting thing is that they usually stretch their wings and close them before they took off.  Maybe it is a signal that they send to one another that means:"we are taking off, prepare! ". So that is the secret why they keep their movement so unified. They even face the same direction when they are resting on the ground . Sometimes they go together to form great flocks, usually about 150 individuals in one group. In other occasionsthey often stay in one  small group about 20 individuals. They stay quiet most of the time, but they call out sometimes with a shrill noise, maybe to warn others that our cars are coming. Or perhaps they have found something to eat and is calling their mates to have a look.

White faced plover：

Appearance———16 to 17 centimeters in length, this kind of plover are small and lively, They usually have a round face and light fur. Their upper body is brownish gray, their lower body is pure white, and their back is sandy brown . Their face, especially the forehead , the brow and the places around their eyes and nose , are white. The black beak is medium sized with pointed tip. Their legs are often pinkish and quite long. When they are breeding, the males have black fur across the top of their heads. Behind the crest is a patch of orange fur. The black patches on their flank are also unique. The female’s fur color is lighter.

Behaviors——— They join with the Sand plovers in the flocks, rest with them , run with them. They can run fast too when foraging. I’ve seen a white faced plover staggering across  with its wings half open , drooping on the sand. I thought it was hurt and ran to see if it had any trouble. I got out of the car and followed the plover. It noticed run so quickly away. It stopped momentarily in a patch of green grass, then went on running more fluently with it wings tucked in and soon takeoff. It turns out that it wasn’t hurt at all. It had a baby under its wing and dropped the chick in a safe place —— maybe their temporary nest —— in the grass.  Indeed, they are adorable and can be loving parents the same time.

Terek sandpiper :

Appearance———This migrant bird is a type of medium sized grey sandpiper. It has the length of 22 to 25 cm, the wingspan of 57 to 59 cm, and the weight of 52 to 126 grams. It is easy to identify because it has an obvious upward curve at the end of the beak. They are upper body is often brownish grey.  The center of their wings are nearly black. They have indistinct lines in their heads, back necks, faces, and flanks. Their white bellies are also helpful  for deciphering them . Their legs are short and yellowish. In non-breeding seasons, adult birds tend to have duller color.  The chicks look like their parents in breeding plumage, so their fur is darker and browner.

Behaviors——— Tereks like to forage with their beaks poking in the mud. They don’t have a very sensitive eyesight. But by this kind of forging, they can easily find food to eat and feed their offspring using their special upturned "probe". Since they can only find food in places near the water, they rarely mingle with other plovers. Instead, they stay in the shoreline where there is mud. They shake their head side-by-side, so their beaks can scan the water for pray.

Broad billed sandpiper :

Appearance——— Their beaks are shorter than the Terek’s and they curve downward. They are 16 to 18 cm in length, 28 to 68 g in weight and 34 to 37 cm in wingspan. They have obvious brows on their head. Often brown. Lower body is white and the upper body is brown. The legs are a little short,it made you think how they can support such a heavy, round body. But in fact it is just because that they have thick layers of fur. The breeding plumage is very typical : brownish black backs and indistinguishable lines on their chests and bellies. The fur coat on their wings seems ragged and untidy because dark brown fur have white lining the edges . Chicks have light brown chests with brown lines. We often think that the males are always bigger than the females, but it isn’t so with the broad billed sandpipers. The females are slightly bigger than the males. This is an interesting fact.

Behaviors——— I haven’t observed it very carefully so I can’t give a conclusion of their behaviors. They usually stick to the group and rarely leave the flock.

Migration