As the weather warms up and the ice and snow melt, the Ketarek National Park in the Sakha (Yakut) Republic of Siberia, Russia, is ready to welcome the white cranes returning north one after another. The white crane is known as a "living fossil" of birds and is listed as "critically endangered" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. In Yakut mythology, the white crane is regarded as the bird of happiness, symbolizing the fragility and beauty of nature. Ketarek National Park is an important breeding ground for white cranes, also known as the "Hometown of White Cranes". In summer, white cranes hatch their chicks in the tundra near the Arctic Ocean. At the end of autumn and the beginning of winter, white cranes cross thousands of rivers and mountains and migrate all the way to Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province, China to winter. Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China, as well as an internationally important wetland and the largest wintering habitat for migratory birds in Asia. Every autumn and winter, about 700000 migratory birds arrive here, including the white crane, which accounts for over 95% of the global population. Poyang Lake is also known as the "Kingdom of White Cranes" and "Bird Paradise". A migration path has formed a special intersection between two places 5000 kilometers apart. Maria Vladimirtseva, a senior researcher at the Institute of Ice and Rock Biology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said, "China is my second home. When white cranes overwinter in China, my heart has always been with them." Maria said that climate change and human factors now pose certain challenges to the ecosystems of migratory birds in breeding grounds, transit stations, and wintering grounds. Migration is a very difficult and critical period in the lives of crane birds, and she is very concerned that these "elves" will face difficulties during this process. Maria is not the only one walking on the front line of bird love and protection. For Xu Chao, born in the 1990s, he often encounters birds more frequently than people every day. Xu Chao is a patrol officer at the Dacha Lake Protection and Management Station in Poyang Lake National Nature Reserve (Poyang Lake Reserve) in Jiangxi Province. He travels hundreds of times a year to protect the lake and birds. Bird observation, quantity registration, combating poaching, assisting law enforcement... "Although they are on the same route, the scenery they pass through each time is different." Xu Chao explained that Poyang Lake is a throughput and seasonal lake, with a large difference in area between its wet and dry seasons. The rich wetland ecology between the rise and fall provides a good habitat for more than 300 migratory birds, and different migratory birds accompany each lake patrol. This seemingly 'mountain and water adventure' job is not easy, and only oneself knows the pain involved. I was once trapped in the lake area with my colleagues for three to four hours, "Xu Chao said. In autumn and winter, when the area of Poyang Lake shrinks, the lake beach with long grass at the bottom will be exposed, like a vast grassland. Two years ago, due to insufficient preparation and lack of experience, they got lost while carrying out a patrol mission in the lake area. On winter nights, the lake area is windy, the temperature is low, it is pitch black, there is no light source, and the mobile phone signal is intermittent. There are many large puddles scattered in the grassland, and we were worried that the car would get stuck and dare not wander around. It was not until other colleagues arrived at the shore and used flashlights to help us identify the direction that we were able to safely return, "Xu Chao said. With the advancement of technology, the methods of patrolling lakes and protecting birds are also becoming increasingly new. According to Xu Chao, in addition to traditional methods such as hiking, boat rides, and tractor rides, the application of technologies such as drones and artificial intelligence has also made bird counting and bird protection work more precise and efficient. In order to ensure that migratory birds can safely overwinter, Poyang Lake Nature Reserve also thoughtfully prepares vegetables and food for them. Affected by extreme weather conditions, the submerged vegetation in Poyang Lake has significantly degraded, leading to food shortages for rare migratory birds such as white cranes that rely on submerged vegetation tubers for overwintering. To this end, Jiangxi Province continues to explore the cultivation technology of the important "food source" of white crane, prickly grass, and successfully transplanted it for the first time in the Poyang Lake water area at the end of 2024. This means that significant breakthroughs have been made in the restoration of submerged vegetation in Poyang Lake, which will provide technical support for the later restoration of submerged vegetation and wetland ecological restoration in Poyang Lake Luo Hao, a fourth level researcher at the Poyang Lake Nature Reserve Management Bureau, said. In addition to optimizing the monitoring methods for migratory birds and restoring their habitats, Poyang Lake Nature Reserve also actively promotes international exchanges and cooperation. Maria stated that significant achievements have been made in the joint monitoring of overwintering white cranes and research on breeding grounds between Russia and China, as well as timely sharing of data information. She said that timely updates by Chinese colleagues on the wintering situation and foraging status of white cranes are crucial for their reproductive success rate and survival. Thanks to the joint efforts of China and Russia, the number of migratory birds has been continuously increasing in recent years. The Chief Executive of Sakha (Yakut) Republic, Eisen Nikolayev, once posted on social media that the population of white cranes will exceed 6700 in the autumn of 2024, setting a record for the highest total number of white crane populations currently monitored. From winter to spring, flocks of migratory birds have gathered at Poyang Lake, preparing to migrate northward. In the long and difficult journey, China and Russia have also taken multiple measures to safeguard their migration routes. Maria said that in the future, Russia and China may use satellite detection to conduct detailed research on the migration routes and related ecosystems of migratory birds between the two countries, in order to optimize the protection strategies of migratory bird species and their habitats. (New Society)