Photographer's Lens into the Vast World: Zhenlai, Where White Cranes Dance...
Heaven, how gracious it is of Jilin Province! As the eastern hemisphere's largest migratory bird channel, Jilin Province holds two: Northeast Asia-Korea-Jeju Island-North Korea-Japan Sea coast, the China-Hunchun-Russian Far East channel, which is a stopover site for geese and seagulls, with migration from early March to Qingming Festival, almost a month; China's Yangtze River Basin, Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, Liaoning Faku, Jilin's Zhenlai, Russia's Siberian East, are white crane migration channels. Among them, Zhenlai is the white crane migration residence. Every April 4th to May 1st, white cranes fly from the Yangtze River Basin, stay in Zhenlai for a month.
Today let's go to Nenjiang to see white cranes. Because 80% of the world's white cranes migrate and reside in Jilin Zhenlai.
Zhenlai channel has two peak migration periods.
With heaven and earth, harmonious
And in September and October when the ice melts, about one month. Unlike the Hunchun channel, the Zhenlai channel has two peak migration periods, spring north return, autumn south return.
And in autumn, it's difficult to see the cluster of spring returning, it's sparse and scattered, even flying away, what is the reason for this? It needs bird researchers to study. And every time the migration season, many experts from all over the world come to observe and record, but I didn't see their research results.
Spring north return
With heaven and earth, harmonious
Today, let's talk about Zhenlai white crane migration and residence. Zhenlai has the Momege Nature Reserve, adjacent to Nenjiang, forming a vast area of flat plains and sand-grassland-wetland, the wetland exhibits a basket-shaped terrain, meaning abundant water, sufficient flow, shallow water, suitable for water plants and grass growth.
Why choose to stop in Zhenlai
Golden-crowned eagle, golden shining
Why do white cranes choose to stop in Zhenlai? According to my personal observation, we can compare it with human habits: like before there were no highways, the 102 National Road's Datunbaozi along the line, Longhua district to Tonghua, Changchun to Jilin's Dragonbao, Jilin City to Yanbian's Qingling, Yanji to Hunchun's Liangshui, Changchun to Songyuan's Newstar, these places are all meal stops, both for meals and for traveling and reaching the time.
Autumn south return
White cranes are high-flying birds, white and spotless
The Zhenlai Momege Nature Reserve
White crane migration is also like this. Unlike small migratory birds, white cranes are high-flying birds, they fly in the jet stream for 1-2 thousand kilometers, from the Yangtze River Basin to the Nenjiang Basin, which is within its flight distance. In addition, Momege wetland is covered with three-cornered grass, this grass has a string of black roots, solid, rich in starch, which is the favorite food of white cranes.
A matter that is both amusing and intriguing
Crane dancing with the moon, looking forward to the future
Speaking of this, we cannot ignore a matter that is a bit amusing and intriguing.
In the past few years, in order to create a better ecological environment for white crane residence, local government wanted to let the wetland water soak for a while, expand the water surface, create a more favorable environment for three-cornered grass, and white crane's food will be more abundant. But when the water is soaked, the grass does flourish, but the white cranes that come to forage have decreased. The concentration area of white cranes has dispersed, even running to nearby fields.
Clear blue sky, like a nucleus
Sandstone as the top, shining the morning sun
What happened?
After careful observation, I consulted bird experts, they suddenly realized, the water deepened, the grass grew, which was exactly the case of the water deepening, the white cranes couldn't reach the berries. As for the white cranes going to nearby fields, there were reasons: before farmers hand-picked corn and other crops, little damage. In recent years, mechanical harvesting has begun, and scattered grain has attracted white cranes to forage, the two situations are superimposed.
Crane goes to the lonely mountain, unsuccessful
Cannot be underestimated tourism and photography resources
White jade as feather garments
I once met a very powerful entrepreneur in Changchun, he said he wanted to build a white crane tower in Zhenlai. He said, South has Yellow Crane Tower, North has White Crane Tower, just right for white crane wintering and residence, also provides a viewing platform for tourism and photography. His idea is really good, it can conduct feasibility studies. This is really an unmissable tourism and photography resource.
Now the question is, compared with ten years ago, the local government has attached more importance to tourism; but another phenomenon is very strange, the investment in tourism is not increased but relatively reduced.
Why does this happen, it's another characteristic of tourism: a long cultivation period, a slow return, even within ten or eight years there is no return, this is also why some places only hear the sound of gongs and drums, but don't see the show.
There is no solution.
Instead, photographers have been persistently and unreservedly focusing on white cranes' birth and development in this water and soil.
Dancing with cranes, wishing for the futureJilin Daily published
Planning: Jiang Zhongxiao
Author: Zhao Chunjiang/writer and photographer
Editor: Ma He
