China's 'Salt Lake' Cities Welcome Diverse Wild Birds; Ecological Environment Improves

The picture shows many wild birds gathering in flocks to play and forage in the water. Photo taken by Ma Caiying.

Xinhua News Agency, Xining, March 26th (Sun Rui, Ma Caiying, Ma Fuyun) On March 26th, after the spring equinox, accompanied by the thawing of ice, the 'City of Salt Lakes' of Qinghai Province, Kegu, has welcomed more than 2,000 migratory birds returning and passing through. They were seen gathering and playing in the water and circling in the air, which was spectacular, forming a beautiful and harmonious ecological landscape.

'Kegu' is the Mongolian translation of 'dense rivers', located at the south of the Tibetan Plateau and the southern margin of the Qaidam Basin. It rose 60 years ago due to the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway and is now a transportation hub for Qinghai, Gansu and Xinjiang provinces. Kegu City's wetland area is 144.9 million hectares, of which river wetlands are 11.4 million hectares, lake wetlands are 15.9 million hectares, marsh wetlands are 113.5 million hectares, and artificial wetlands are 4.1 million hectares, ranking first in Qinghai Province.

According to Mr. Zhou Qing, the ecological guardian of the small artificial lake in Kegu New District, the artificial lake is an important content of the construction of Kegu New District's wetland park. In recent years, with the continuous advancement of the wetland park construction, the ecological environment here has been further improved, and more and more wild birds choose to reside here.

Zhou Qing and his wife have been responsible for managing this artificial lake since 2017. Every spring, there are more than 2,000 migratory birds here, and the couple is busy patrolling and picking up garbage every day.

'It's almost winter when wild birds come back from afar. They slowly migrate away when the ice melts and spring opens.' Mr. Zhou said.

'Now many wild birds are building nests on the lake, and I have also seen many bird eggs and newly hatched chicks.' Mr. Zhou said. In addition to his and his wife's patrolling, local residents' awareness of ecological protection is becoming stronger and stronger, and people fish and observe birds by the lake, but they will not disturb these nesting wild birds.

According to reporters, Kegu wetland belongs to the ecological system of the arid and desert oasis, which is a major area of biodiversity enrichment. In recent years, Kegu City has continuously strengthened the ecological protection efforts and implemented greening and afforestation, wetland ecological protection, grassland grazing restriction, etc., which has greatly improved the ecological environment of Kegu, creating a good habitat for these wild birds.

Now, at Kegu's Fish River Wetland, Guozhen Wetland, Goldfish Lake, Charhan Freshwater Lake, due to the good vegetation and water systems, many birds reside and breed, such as the Green-headed Duck, Ring-necked Pheasant, Swans, Geese, Barheaded Geese, and Red-necked Grebe, which are more and more high-demand wild birds for the ecological environment.