Birds fly, leaving no trails in the sky. Only people with a purpose are capable to catch birds’ trail. A teacher in Fudan University has recently shared online photos of 80 wild birds he has taken in the past four years on the campus, which caused a great sensation. “I had no idea there are so many different kinds of wild birds on the campus!” All the viewers so exclaimed.
Yang Deqing, the photographer who has been given the nickname “Brother Bird” is very worried about the ecological environment on the campus. He said, the variety of birds that he could take photos on the campus in 2012 was much smaller than two years ago. He called for everyone to love nature and protect the environment.
“I have been on the campus for seven years and had no idea the school could have hosted such a large variety of birds,” said Feng, a student who is in the third year for his master’s diplomat. After seeing the picture named “Fudan Birds Celebrate the New Year” online, he was deeply shocked. He had been reading on the lawn for so many mornings. However, he had never paid attention to birds flying around him.
Yang Deqing is a teacher of Computer College in Fudan. He has recently made a picture of the wild birds with photos he has taken on the campus and uploaded the picture onto his microblog, which attracted huge attention from viewers like Feng. People are now friendly calling Yang Deqing “Brother Bird”.
The picture features 80 kinds of wild birds, some flapping their wings in the sky, some walking in the pond leisurely. The high-resolution photos clearly show the brilliant colors, postures and even expressions of all these loving birds.
To facilitate “outsiders” to learn the variety of the birds, Yang has labeled every bird in his photo with their Chinese names. Therefore, the picture is just a good tool to learn birds.
“I have been a fan of nature since my childhood. I do a lot of shooting of flowers and plants. I started to take photo of birds since 2009,” said Yang. Taking photos of birds gives a very high demand toward the camera. After getting a long lens, he started to capture the trail of wild birds on the campus. He would take his machine on most of the sunny weekends to “find and stay on a good post” for the shooting.
As Yang lives close to Jiangwan Campus of Fudan University where there is rich vegetation and small rivers and ponds, most of the photos included in the picture he uploaded online were taken on Jiangwan Campus. Many people could hardly believe there would have been so many kinds of wild birds on this campus. “I have been shooting for four years. Some of the birds are migrants and stop here for a short while in spring and autumn, the migration season. Another reason for me to be able to take photos of so many birds is that I am much familiar with the living habits of birds and know where they like to perch and when they are more likely to come out,” explained Yang. Yang said taking photos of birds requires experience and great patience. Sometimes, you need long time waiting; sometimes, you need to approach slowly; sometimes, you have to be very quick snap. Weather is a very important factor to take into consideration as well.
As a fan of birds, Yang has also joined Shanghai Wild Birds Society. He will go to wet lands and parks in the suburbs to watch birds. “When friends come to take birds’ photos, I will be their guide because I am very familiar with the landscape,” said Yang.
He also said frankly that the environmental protection is still a great challenge. Based on his observation, the variety and population of birds in 2012 were both shrunk than two years, which was echoed by many other fans of birds.
As Yang analyzed, migrant birds like to stay on the shallows and woods of large area. It is unlikely for birds to stay on the “oasis” where there is nothing but high buildings. With the urban development, more and more high buildings are mushrooming, leaving less and less space for wild birds. He called on people to love birds, protect birds and protect the environment. “We don’t hope these photos are their last photos,” he said.