As of January 9, Poyang Lake, Asia's largest wintering migratory bird habitat, has seen a record number of 801,000 overwintering birds. With the boom of incoming birds, the animal protection measures have been strengthened, too. More people are starting to join the team that aims to secure a safer environment for the birds.

However, it was a completely different story a couple of years ago when the now protected birds were regarded as the major enemy in the farmlands as they kept stealing the grain hard-grown by farmers.

"At that time, our rice was not fully ripe and could not be harvested, so we used firecrackers or made a big noise by knocking the metal basins to drive them away," said Jiang Liangqing, a farmer from Yugan County, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province.

In order to solve the conflict between "people and birds " in the lake area, and guarantee the migratory birds could live in peace, the local government reserved over 60 hectares of rice fields only for birds to eat in. Meanwhile, the farmers were given corresponding compensation according to the market rice. Jiangxi has invested 187 million yuan over the past eight years in making up the losses of the local farmers.

Now, all of the bird-chasers have become bird-carers. For Jiang Liangqing, he has welcomed a big turn in his career as a bird-watching guide. With his great interest in birds, he is now busy in educating the tourists on basic bird knowledge in the fields and how to protect birds. Others have joined the team with staff from fishery and forestry authority in daily patrolling across six checkpoints in the lake area in order to protect the birds from any harm.

On top of that, the idea of wild life protection is being integrated into people's lives in various ways. In the Nanjishan Wetland Nature Reserve, weekly research activities on birds have become a new norm, creating a good opportunity for the public to learn more about bird protection by watching them in short distance.

"There are indeed more and more migratory birds, and we are able to get closer to them and see their appearance, so I feel that the protection of migratory birds should continue. In the future, I will also try to mix this kind of knowledge in my teaching," said Yu Yun, geography teacher from Jiangxi Normal University affiliated High School.

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