¡¡Grass Sea-A Paradise for Birds

¡¡¡¡In the west of Guizhou, the center of Yunnan-Guizhou plateau, there is a 27.5 square kms fresh water lake, it is Caohai in Chinese, Grass sea in English. The Grass Sea was listed as the provincial level nature reserve in October, 1995 and entitled as the national nature reserve in October, 1992. As a rising precious bright pear, the Grass Sea is becoming a popular spot for bird fans from both at home and abroad.

¡¡¡¡Situated within the county of Weining, with an elevation of 2170 meters above sea level, the Grass Sea nature reserve covers a total area of 120 square kms, 40 square kms is covered with water and wet lands. The rest is farm lands and slopes eroded by rain. The climate of here belongs to sub tropic climate, it is not cold in winter and not hot in summer, it's an idea paradise for birds.

¡¡¡¡The Grass Sea is rich in all kinds of aquatic weeds and rare birds, there are 155 kinds of birds, 9 kinds of fish, 115 kinds of floating animals according to a survey. Among the birds, the most rare bird is black neck crane, it's the only one kind of bird that can live on plateaus among the 15 kinds of cranes in the world discovered so far, also the black neck crane is the latest found kind. The black neck crane is the kind which is surviving to die as giant pandas.
There are 6 good spots for watching black neck cranes, namely Bojiwuan, Zhujiawuan, Baijiazhui, Luoluoshan, Yangguanshan and Jiangjiawuan, the best place is in Bojiwuan. The black neck cranes give birth in Tibet, Qinghai and Sichuan during the summer and immigrate to spend the winter from cold on the Grass Sea and the middle south of Tibet. About more than 400 black neck cranes come to spend the winter in the Grass sea every year, the Grass sea is the place where has the most groups of black neck cranes and the most concentrated place for black neck cranes. 1994, the number of black neck cranes came to spend the winter in the Grass sea was up to 502, thus caused a great supprise and attention to the world.

¡¡¡¡The season to see black neck cranes is from October of the first year to the middle of March of the second year. If you are a professional bird-watching fan, I suggest you to stay in Weining for about 2-3 days, you also need to have a guide from the nature reserve of Grass sea, the staff I used in 1998 was very professional and excellent, he knew when black neck cranes get up and where is the best place to see them, he even knew the specific get-together time of the black neck cranes. I'm not sure he is still working there or not, but anyway there still must be some good ones too.

¡¡¡¡In the area of the nature reserve, there lives more than 20 thousand pheasants and some citizens, their daily works in the fields have a huge impact on bird habitant. Since the local people are starting to understand the needs of birds and pay more attention to the birds, now the number of birds is increasing, an impressive view of man and bird living in harmony is coming into being.
In a word, the Grass is the best place to see birds in the province.