The arrival of birds reminds people of the coming winter.

Since late October, more and more rare birds have flown to Shengjin Lake National Nature Reserve in the county of Dongzhi, Chizhou city, Anhui province.

Staff have already encountered flocks of geese and Eurasian spoonbills.

Monitoring efforts have revealed 750 geese, including 650 bean geese, 90 greater white-fronted geese and a few grey geese, as well as 210 Eurasian spoonbills.

Greater white-fronted geese and Eurasian spoonbills are national secondary protected animals.

As expected, more national protected animals, such as white cranes and cygnets, will arrive soon. Shengin Lake National Nature Reserve has enhanced safeguards to ensure the rare birds survive winter safely.

Shengjin Lake, dubbed “China's Crane Lake,” is a national nature reserve and an important wetland internationally. It is also well-known as a popular ecological tourist attraction integrating science popularization, surveying, educational sightseeing and leisure.

The actual water area of the lake covers some 133 square km, and its favorable ecosystem has nurtured abundant aquatic plants and many kinds of plankton, providing a good environment and plenty of food for birds and waterfowl.

It attracts some 100,000-150,000 wetland birds across 170 different species every winter. Its hooded cranes make up 5 percent of the world's total. Its white-naped cranes, white cranes, common cranes, black-necked cranes and Eurasian spoonbills populations are also significantly large.

By Huang Pei

Edited by Michael Thai