Michelle Wang wy_szdaily@126.com Shenzhen Bay Park appeared livelier on December 5 compared with a usual weekend as it bustled with the arrival of many groups of teenagers, parents and teachers. They gathered here to participate in a bird watching competition, one of the events of the 21st Futian District Juvenile Science and Technology Festival for primary and middle school students. The competition attracted a total of 45 teams with 239 participants, including 21 teams from primary schools and 11 teams from middle schools in Futian District, six invitational teams from outside the district, and seven parent-child teams. Each school team was composed of four students with one or two guiding teachers. Tian Suixing, a Shenzhen birding expert as well as a teacher at Futian High School, said his team members all have one to two years’ birding experience and the school has participated in each contest since its inception in 2004 and has achieved very good results, including the top record award, in previous competitions. In this year’s competition, the top record awards went to Huanggang Primary School with 49 species identified in the primary school group, Lianhua Middle School North Campus with 56 species in the middle school group, the Wild Children — The Beauty of Nature Team with 50 species in the out-of-district invitational team group, and the Peregrine Falcons Team with 58 species in the parent-child group which also enjoyed the highest field record with zero errors. Shenzhen Bay was selected as the competition site as it has a good mangrove ecosystem and is a wintering and resting station for many migratory water birds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, with tens of thousands of water birds spending their winter, or making a stop here, every year. Moreover, of Shenzhen’s nearly 400 species of wild birds, more than 250 species can be found in the bay. In the competition, the participating teams were required to record the species of birds they see in a specified time and area, and the records were reviewed by a panel of judges composed of veteran birdwatchers. Between 7:30 and 10 a.m., the participants searched the woods and shorelines with telescopes and binoculars with great enthusiasm and immense interest and recorded the birds they identified with cameras, mobile phones and a record sheet. Hosted by the Futian District Education Bureau and three other units and organized by the Futian District Institute of Education Sciences and Shenzhen Bird Watching Society, the bird watching competition has been held for 17 years since it was launched in 2004, aiming to promote knowledge of birds and bird conservation in primary and middle schools and to encourage students to get into nature to observe the birds around them, so as to cultivate their interest in observing, understanding, loving and protecting nature. “Our school attaches great importance to the competition and has been participating in the event every year since the school’s establishment in 2013,” said Chen Yinjie, a science teacher with Shenzhen Mingde Experimental School Xiangmi Campus. “Bird watching itself is a very meaningful and interesting activity, which can be both mentally and physically beneficial for students.” Zeng Hanle, a senior 2 student of Futian High School who has been birding for a year, said birding has reduced her screen time and helps relieve some of the stress of her studies. The competition also served as a happy get-together for family and friends. Hu Junmin, a parent with the parent-child Black Baza Team, described the competition as a bird lovers’ carnival and felt very happy to be part of the event. She preferred to focus more on the funny behaviors of individual birds. | 