VietNamNet Bridge – For more than 50 years, the three generations of a family in the central province of Nghe An have been taking care and protecting a natural bird sanctuary with tens of thousands of birds.

At the sunset, the sky above the bamboo, eucalyptus and cajuput garden of Vu Van Ngan, a farmer in Ly Thanh commune of Yen Thanh district, turns white with thousands of white hovering storks.

When it gets darker, about 6 pm, the birds perch on the tops of trees in the 2-hectare garden and sing songs, thus making the whole region boisterous.

Bird shelter on good land

The birds have got very familiar with Vu Van Ngan and his family members, who have been protecting them for the last 50 years.

“The bird sanctuary is the gift from God. It is the precious thing handed down from generations to generations,” Ngan said.

When Ngan led the reporters to the garden, the birds flapped wings and tried to fly up because they discovered strangers. “They leave in the morning to seek for food and return in the afternoon,” Ngan said. “They have been settling down here.”

According to Ngan, the birds have been living here for the last many decades. At first, there were only one or two flocks of hundreds of birds. But later, more and more birds, belonging to tens of species, have flocked to the peaceful garden.

“The birds began living here since the day my grandparent was alive. The number increased gradually to tens of thousands. However, as people have been hunting for birds, there are only some 6,000 birds left,” Ngan said.

He said that one needs to be patient and caring to protect the birds. When it rains heavily, young birds fall down from their nests to the garden. He and the family members pick the birds up off the ground, warm them and give them back to the nests. They have to plant more bamboo, cajuput and eucalyptus every year to create more “accommodations” for the birds.

“If the birds cannot find the suitable places to nest, they would scream noisily,” he said. “We feel sorry for them; therefore, we try to create more homes for them”.

Will the birds be safe?

Ngan complained that it is more and more difficult to protect the birds. “I am afraid that the birds would not return to our garden one day. They are being hunted everywhere,” Ngan said.

The birds could be safe when they stay in the garden. However, they may be at risks while they are away seeking food.

People once tried to catch birds right in his garden, when Ngan and his wife were away from home. Therefore, either Ngan or his wife has to stay at home to protect the birds. If they both have to be away, they have to ask others to come and stay there to keep an eye on the birds.

Some millionaires asked Ngan to sell the garden with the birds’ sanctuary for billions of dong. But Ngan refused.

“If I sell the garden, there would be no place for the lovely birds to shelter,” Ngan said.

NLD