An essay about waiting until the tide comes to watch birds

When people see the word "tide", they will naturally think of sea water or river water, because only sea water and river water can have such momentum. If one day you go to the Yalu River Estuary Wetland and see the tidal wave of birds rolling in the air, you will understand why people associate the two words "bird tide" together.

The Yalu River Basin flowing through Dandong City not only provides rich and delicious aquatic products to the people here, but the Yalu River Estuary Wetland here is also a paradise for birds to inhabit. Every year between April and May, the Yalu River Estuary Wetland welcomes hundreds of thousands of shorebirds, migratory shorebirds from the distant coasts of New Zealand and Australia. These birds flew for a week, covering a distance of more than 10,000 kilometers, without eating, drinking or stopping, before arriving at the Yalu River Estuary Wetland in Dandong. Completed a great migration that is unimaginable to humans. The Yalu River Estuary Wetland contains rich marine microorganisms, which provide excellent physical supplies to these migratory birds that have just experienced long-distance migration. They rested here for nearly two months. On the one hand, they rested and recovered the physical energy consumed by the long-distance flight. On the other hand, they made sufficient physical reserves for the next journey north. Therefore, the Yalu River Estuary Wetland has truly become a physical "gas station" for these migratory birds during their migration.

The bird tide in the Yalu River Estuary Wetland is comparable to the tide in the Qiantang River. Approaching the Yalu River Estuary Wetland Bird Watching Park, you can see the eye-catching slogan "Tide watching on the Qiantang River in the south and bird watching on the Yalu River in the north" from a distance. Every April and May, when large numbers of birds fly to the Yalu River Estuary Wetland, many photographers and birdwatchers gather here. With an advocating and pure heart, everyone feels the natural wonders like rolling clouds and waves coming in front of us.

It was a sunny day in mid-April, the 16th day of the third lunar month, which was a good day to watch the bird tide. Because birds follow the tide, only when the tide is about to rise to the shore, flocks of birds will appear in the wetlands and tidal flats on the shore, and people can watch them at close range. A breathtaking spectacle of 100,000 birds. According to the tide table, the high tide time on the 16th day of the lunar calendar is at 8:20 am. Therefore, we chose this day to go bird watching in the wetlands. In order to catch the best time to watch the bird tide, you must arrive at the wetland one hour before high tide. Therefore, at six o'clock in the morning, we set off early.

The Yalu River Estuary Wetland is more than fifty kilometers away from Dandong city, an hour’s drive away. The road conditions in the morning were relatively clear, there was no traffic jam on the road, and we arrived at the Yalu River Estuary Wetland Bird Watching Park smoothly as expected. We parked the car in a square a few hundred meters away from the bird watching park. From a distance, you can see a lot of bird watching people waiting in front of the fence by the river.

This is a rare good weather. There was a gentle breeze under the clear sky, and the sunshine was pouring down thousands of miles. Walking on the spacious road leading to the bird watching garden, my excitement felt like a sail filled with spring breeze.

In addition to people who come here to watch birds, there are also photography enthusiasts who carry "long guns and short cannons". At this time, on the long plank road by the river, men and women, red and green, lined up like a landscape. People look up and wait quietly for the moment when the tide rises and birds sing and thousands of birds take flight.

The sound of the tide is getting closer and closer, and I can see it rushing over the uneven tidal flats and rushing towards the shore. At this time, a large number of birds appeared in the sky and on the wetland, densely packed like stars. The image of the surging tide and the image of flying birds are connected together to form an extremely vivid three-dimensional image, which floods people's vision and ears like a tide. The birds were singing, jumping, and flying. This group and that group made the scene magnificent and dizzying. Sometimes they are looking for food and walking on the wetland, sometimes they pull up long formations and rise into the air, like huge waves that are set off in an instant, rolling over the river. A giant "bucket" shape was quickly formed on the river surface. This "bucket" shape composed of countless birds was rotating, rising, and expanding rapidly on the river surface, mixed with the sounds of birds chirping. , in a daze, like a tornado coming. It caused the crowd on the shore to scream in surprise! Sometimes, they will dance gracefully in the air.

The hundreds of meters long line undulates, one wave after another, with white wings and bright colors, gliding across the river in a coordinated and orderly manner. It's amazing! Sometimes, they also turn into cute mushroom clouds floating in the sky. Not scattered, not messy, not rushed, not slow, it makes people feel special and magical. I thought that this bird must have spirituality and human nature. It was able to dance such an indescribable shape without any practice or rehearsal.

"Every banquet in the world must come to an end", no matter how good the performance is, the curtain call will inevitably come. When the tide reaches the shore, the birds have no place to stand on the wetland. So they took off one after another, circled a few times under people's reluctant gaze, and then flew to other places one after another. Some fly to fish ponds or shrimp ponds not far from the shore to play and feed, while others follow the ebbing river water to farther places in search of their paradise in life.

If you still want to see birds, you have to wait until the next high tide.

Both birds and humans are friends of nature. May the Yalu River Estuary Wetland, a treasure land, become a paradise for birds forever.