VietNamNet Bridge – A flock of hundreds of herons have been found as living in peace at a longan orchard in Vinh Long province for the last three years. These may be the birds listed in the Vietnam’s red book.

Le Van Chia, 64, a local resident in Tan My commune, Tra On district, led the guests to his orchard to see the flock of hundreds of herons who perch and nest on the longan trees in the orchards of Chia and his nephew – Le Phuoc Dai. He said that the flock of birds have been residing here for the last three years on the total area of 2.4 hectares.

Following slight footsteps of Chia, the guests walked around the longan orchard. There was much guano on the earth, while the branches of longan trees were full of big bird nests. When coming to the middle of the orchard, he clapped his hands, and hundreds of big grey birds looked like storks flew out and shouted “oac …oac”.

Chia thinks that these are herons, which have relations with storks, but they have different color and they have bigger bodies. Meanwhile, the legs and the beaks are shorter than storks.

He related that a flock of tens of herons appeared at his orchard in 2009. At first, he thought that the birds would stay for a short time and leave. However, he still tried to protect the birds from hunting. The birds seemed to understand Chia, and they have been staying there since then. To date, the flock of birds has become 10 times bigger than in 2009.

Though the presence of the herons has made the longan yield decrease and caused a lot of difficulties for him to take care for the orchard, Chia still loves the bird.

He said that he and the nephew have to irrigate the trees and spread fertilization at night, when the birds leave. When harvesting longan, they have to pick up fruits from every tree. He always requires people to work in quietness, and no once can speak loudly.

Chia’s wife – Le Kim Thoi – also said that though the flock of birds has caused a lot of troubles, and that her family has to spend much time and money to prevent from hunting, she still feels happy with the birds.

Chia said that only his wife and he live in the house with the orchard, while all the three children have graduated universities and now they work in cities. Since the day when the birds appeared, Chia does not dare to go too far. He has to stay at home to take care for the orchard and the birds.

Poachers have different tricks to hunt for birds, but they mostly use airguns. In the daytime, they move secretly to the orchard to shoot birds, because birds sleep on trees in the daytime. When it gets darker, they try to shoot the birds when the birds fly in crowds. Some birds were seen receiving gunshot wounds and had to return to the nests before falling into the ground.

Chia has to report to the commune’s police and the provincial environment police. On July 15, state agencies sent staff to the orchard to discuss the solution to protect the flock of birds.

Vo Van Hong, an environment policeman, believes that the birds are the herons, but he is not sure if they are listed in the Red Book, saying that the final conclusion could only be made by competent agencies. In the immediate time, the Tan My commune’s police have been asked to support Chia to protect the birds.

Chia said that a lot of wild birds have been in the danger of getting extinct as people have been hunting for them. Like many other kinds of birds, herons have been away from the sky of the west of the northern region. Chia believes that the lovely birds need to be protected.

Source: NLD