At the end of May, I reported on the successful breeding of Baer’s Pochard at Hengshui Hu, just 300km south of Beijing. It’s remarkable progress in the conservation of this diving duck which, with fewer than 1,000 remaining, is classified as critically endangered, just one step away from extinction.
This week I paid my latest visit to Hengshui Hu to help deliver more training of the local nature reserve staff including the ‘enforcement team’ on waterbird monitoring and identification. During the three-hour train journey to Hengshui, I wondered whether the measures taken by the local government and nature reserve to clamp down on illegal fishing, egg collection and to manage the water levels during the breeding season would be sustained.
I needn’t have worried. Early morning on my first full day, we enjoyed a ‘field visit’ along the causeway to check for Baer’s Pochard and other waterbirds and there wasn’t a fishing boat or net in sight.. There were good numbers of young Great Crested and Little Grebes, Coots, a few groups of juvenile Ferruginous Ducks, tens each of Black-crowned Night, Purple and Grey Herons, Yellow Bitterns were flying back and forth with food and, in contrast to their British counterparts already well on their way to Africa, the Common Cuckoos were still very obvious, calling and chasing each other over the reed beds, much to the annoyance of the local Oriental Reed Warblers. The colony, 100s strong, of Whiskered Terns on one of the disused fishponds with a Pheasant-tailed Jacana pottering on the lotus leaves showed just how habitat, and its associated biodiversity, can recover if given the chance.
After the training, the nature reserve staff arranged for me to be taken out on a boat patrol with the enforcement team and we found a group of at least four juvenile aythyas, tentatively identified as Baer’s Pochards based on head shape and bill size compared with juvenile Ferruginious seen earlier. And my hosts quickly sent packing two groups of fishermen who had sneaked to the shore close to the main Baer’s Pochard breeding area.
On arrival at my hotel along the east bank of Hengshui Hu, I was pleasantly surprised to receive my room card, complete with a picture of Baer’s Pochard.. and in my room was a leaflet with information about the Baer’s Pochard and the importance of Hengshui Hu for the species. Great public engagement!
The bird monitoring team at Hengshui University, led by Dr Wu Dayong and Li Feng, now have an impressive full year of waterbird data, collected at least weekly, for and they’ve even added some new species to the official list for the site.
The future of Baer’s Pochard at this site now looks bright and huge credit must go to the local government, local nature reserve, Hengshui University and the local people who now see Baer’s Pochard as a key part of their identity.
Hengshui Hu is undoubtedly the “Home of Baer’s Pochard”.