Yinianniao photography

Liu kexiang

Last September, Captain Simpson, nicknamed "Pirate", arrived from Japan as scheduled.

Captain Simpson went south from Japan with winter migratory birds. When winter migratory birds set out from the sky, they set sail from the sea. As soon as the ship docked at Keelung Port, he couldn't wait for me to take him to Guandu for bird watching and meet the group of bird friends who arrived at the same time.

Captain Simpson and I met by chance. The year before last, when I was still in the navy, a warship was transferred to Keelung. During the holiday, I wandered in the street near the port. As a result, we met him with a pair of binoculars in hand. We know that each other is watching the eagle in the sky. Because of this relationship, our hearts seem to have a tacit understanding, so we met and became warm friends. During our stay in Keelung, we either sat in a cafe and talked about birds, or went to the nearby mountains to watch birds together. Until I returned to the outlying islands with the warship, he continued to drift with the ship.

Captain Simpson is an American and has been sailing for 20 years. Why did he choose the hobby of watching birds in the sea? I can understand the loneliness of people who sail the same way, regardless of nationality. He also told me that if he didn't travel around and watch birds, he couldn't spend his life at sea. However, bird watching is still lonely, otherwise he won't know me when he is in Keelung Port, and he won't be eager to exchange bird watching experience.

Although he began to watch birds at sea, he soon got off the boat and retired. Fortunately, my interest is undiminished, and I continue to follow my professional life wherever I go.

Last September, I also planned to do waterfowl observation and photography in Danshui River for one year. Captain Simpson came at the right time because he has more than ten years of bird watching experience.

As soon as I entered Guandu swamp, I took him directly to the shoal where waterfowl gathered. These waterfowl have just arrived in the south from the north. I think Captain Simpson must have seen them in Japan and is eager to see them.

Sure enough, he shouted happily and read out the names of each kind of waterfowl one by one. He said that he met them when he was in Seto Inland Sea last month. I thought, this is probably an old friend from another country, but he met a bird friend.

But his happy expression suddenly became unhappy. It turned out that he saw several pairs of bamboo poles standing on the shallows where waterfowl gathered. He asked me what it was, and I knew it was a bird net.

At first, I thought it had nothing to do with him. I wanted to make a move. I thought he wouldn't be so stupid, so I told the truth.

I didn't expect to be so stupid that I haven't even seen a bird net. He said angrily, "I have never found this thing in other countries." Don't you even care about people? "

Looking at him, I am really speechless and don't know how to explain it.

Later, he complained about the shortcomings of this swamp area and pointed out all the noise, pollution and waste soil, as if it were all my fault.

I thought to myself, you don't live here, so why blame? I was so angry that I replied tactfully and told him that because of these problems, we had the idea of an ecological reserve. It may become the first waterbird reserve in Taiwan Province Province.

Captain Simpson asked me:

"Why hasn't it happened before?"

It's really hard for me to explain this problem, and I can't say it clearly. I can only say:

"In our case, there are many things that may be more urgent than establishing a protected area."

Of course, Captain Simpson does not agree with this statement. He intuitively believes that the establishment of a protected area is more important than anything else, and it should have been established twenty or thirty years ago.

Maybe he's right. Anyway, I'm glad he's not from China.

After Captain Simpson left Taiwan Province Province, I continued to travel in Guandu swamp. I used to be indifferent to bird nets, and I don't know if I was influenced by them. After the number of trips increased, it became unbearable to see waterfowl trapped in bird nets.

I no longer care about how deep and dirty the bird nets are in the swamp. I have to wade down to rescue them. It turns out that waterfowl migrate from south to north by strong wings. As soon as they fall into the bird net, they struggle desperately, their wings are entangled in the bird net, their feathers fall off one after another, and their bodies become twisted and painful, and they have no resistance. Every time I release one, it takes me five or six minutes to get their wings out of the bird net. When they are caught by me, they don't know what I am doing, and they often shit in fear. Some waterfowl may never fly again after they are put in the net, either their wings are injured or their legs are broken. Fortunately, it's better to live than to stand on a bird barbecue stall. Starting from saving waterfowl, I gradually realized the reason why Simpson was angry. This anger should be out of a painful mood.

From the experience of traveling, I also found that bird catchers sometimes know birds better than bird watchers. When I was in the central mountainous area, I once saw the hunting methods of bird catchers. They know how to scare mountain birds by setting off firecrackers and knocking gongs, and drive them to the open area of the valley. They set up a bird net there to let the mountain birds fly blindly and sink in. But in two or three hours, all the birds in the whole mountain were caught empty.

They changed their course in the swamp. Because when the sea is at high tide, waterfowl will fly in from Danshui River and settle in the swamp area. So they set up bird nets in every possible habitat, and even set up flight routes on the way, so that waterfowl could fly in and have nowhere to go. At first, waterfowl were caught one after another. After a long time, they moved to other places. So 10 months later, the waterfowl in the swamp area gradually decreased.

At that time, in order to maintain the survival of these waterfowl, I went to the police station to sue. As a result, the police told me that Guandu was under the jurisdiction of Beitou, which was so big that many things in the weathering field could not be managed. Who cares about any waterfowl? That's right. Later, I learned that there was only one person in charge of crossing, and he could not stay in the swamp all day, waiting for the bird catcher. What's more, Guandu is not just a swamp area. The Guandi Temple adjacent to the swamp area is full of incense, and thousands of tourists come in and out every day. The problem of catching waterfowl is naturally considered unimportant by the police.

If the prosecution fails, I will be desperate and can only go back to the swamp to act on my own. As long as I find the bird net and look around, I will secretly take out my knife and cut it off. As a result, I made remarkable achievements. I dismantled a third of more than 30 bird nets in the whole swamp area.

I walked too much at night and finally met a ghost. Once I was cutting a net, someone found me, shouting from a far-away paddy field and chasing me all the way. I felt guilty, so I ran, got on a motorcycle and hurried back to Taipei. However, I still didn't give up. The next day, I went to Guandu again. I didn't expect them to send someone to guard it. However, I don't believe he can come here every day, but I can appear at any time. They may have guessed that I did it later, but they were silent. As soon as I got to the swamp, I watched my actions carefully.

As a result, we didn't succeed, because the weather was getting colder and colder, most waterfowl crossed the border, and the bird net was often blown down by strong winds, so we had to give up catching birds. I wonder where they have gone. I travel more and more, and I focus on shooting birds.

Birds are afraid of people. Hunting birds is the same as fishing. There is only one way: wait. When I first started filming birds, I was very depressed. They had already flown away before I got near. After several contacts, I learned to be good and know how to choose hidden Woods and grass to hide and wait for the appearance of migratory birds. This way of waiting for him later felt unwise. I often sit for one morning without seeing birds passing by me, but when I first decided on this position, the most important factor was that birds often appeared here. I thought the birds must know I was hiding in it, so I gave up.

I took a proactive approach. When I saw a bird, I climbed up to it from more than ten meters away. This way only lasted for a while. Later, several times, when I was shooting waterfowl in the swamp area, I did not hesitate to crawl on the mud. As a result, it took me more than half an hour to stop and climb, and finally I was close to four or five meters. When I raised my camera, they flapped their wings and flew, making me dumbfounded when I stood on the shallows. It's too expensive to be covered in mud, so I have to give up.

Fortunately, I thought of another way. I found a bamboo fence nearby, inserted branches on the fence, dressed myself as a soldier of the field task force and hid behind the fence all day. Push the fence where there are birds

One day, I dressed up like this and went to Danshui Estuary, moving on the beach with my camera. Unexpectedly, I went unnoticed, followed by a coastal defense soldier. When I aimed at the bird and pressed the shutter, he also pointed a gun at me.

He shouted behind me, "Don't move!"

Hearing a voice behind me, I got a fright and stood up quickly. Seeing that the bird in front was scared away, I stamped my feet with anger.

Looking back, I found that he probably saw my equipment was very special, thinking that he had caught someone and pushed me step by step with a rifle. At this time, I felt that something was wrong and quickly changed my smiling face.

"What are you doing?" He still asked me with a tight face, and the rifle continued to point at my chest.

I also raised my hand in panic and explained to him, "I'm patting a bird!" " "

"According to this bird? Where are the birds? " He looked around with his eyes wide open. There is nothing but the beach.

"I ran away." When I said this, I thought to myself, "You idiot, you scared the birds away. How can you see it? "

This soldier is really conscientious. Seeing me sneaking around on the ground in my clothes, he naturally didn't believe what I said, so he pointed a gun at me and went back to the camp. Fortunately, I brought a bird to prove that the negative is useless. After a long talk, they let me go.

With this lesson, I became very careful when I went to the seaside or went back to the inland to shoot birds. I'm not afraid of the above things, but I'm afraid of making noise and losing the opportunity to shoot valuable shots. Because passers-by watch me dress up and hide in the grass, they always stop curiously, and sometimes they come to me, and the birds will be scared away.

Because I have photographed waterfowl in the swamp area for a long time, I am naturally familiar with the local environment and am very concerned about its changes.

In spring, I see trucks loaded with waste soil come in every day and then dump the waste soil into the swamp. I feel like they are stabbing me with a knife every time they dump the wasteland. The swamp area is only the sum of the size of a dozen paddy fields. Trucks are loaded every day, and in less than a year, the swamp will be flooded sooner or later. The swamp is gone, where are the waterfowl? Not to mention any plans for ecological protection areas in the future.

At the end of last winter, the waste soil brought in by trucks has split the swamp in two, and illegal pig houses have been built on the waste soil. Now, according to local people, it is necessary to build a bigger pigsty. How can illegal construction expand the project? What's more, it is an ecological conservation area to be established soon. Where are the law enforcement officers? I'm alone. How can I stop it?

I think by the time the planning of waterfowl ecological reserve is worked out and ready to be implemented, the swamp area must have disappeared. No wonder even foreigners like Captain Simpson are sorry and impatient with us. Later, I remembered what he left behind when he left: "Your land is hopeless anyway. You might as well go out with me and we'll watch birds everywhere together. "

That's true. Besides, I'm a sailor, and my heart is bound to waver. It's just that I have an indescribable feeling about the birds here, and I care a little more. I still dare not travel too early, really, I dare not say where to go.

******

Liu Kexiang is famous as a "bird man" and a "bird poet" in Taiwan Province literary world. For decades, he has traveled all over Taiwan Province Province, engaged in bird observation, photography and reporting. This article is selected from his collection of essays "Walking with Birds", and describes the author's observation and shooting of waterfowl in Guandu swamp. At first, the author only looked at birds with an ornamental attitude. Later, under the influence of Captain Simpson, he began to consciously pay attention to the situation of waterfowl being killed, swamps being polluted and birds losing their homes, and took the initiative to rescue waterfowl, expressing the author's deep concern about the destruction of nature. Read the text carefully, think about what the author mainly wrote, which ones are very emotional, and feel the author's feelings.