A festival for nature lovers

A student from Menglun High School shows her drawings of violet cuckoo, a rare bird seen at the garden. [Photo by Chen Liang/China Daily]

Liu Yang, an ornithologist from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, gave a lecture to more than 70 students from Menglun High School on the morning of Nov 5, and Zhu Lei, a professional bird-watching guide with a PhD in ornithology, followed with another to about 70 students from Menglun Primary School.

Liu said he was impressed by the paintings that had been done by members of the middle school's bird watching club.

"A lot of their work is surprisingly vivid and bears a striking resemblance to the birds," Liu said. "I hope the students can become a force for conservation in this area, with its fragile ecosystem and extremely rich biodiversity."

Zhou Bo, the high school's headmaster, said attendance at the event had been limited to 10 pupils per class, "so we considered it a chance to encourage good behavior".

He said bird watching has become a popular extracurricular activity in the school, with some pupils using binoculars donated by the botanical garden.

"They are residents of the area, and they need to know the richness of our homeland so as to protect it for the future," he said.

Some students have already tried to effect positive changes to their environment.

"My mother asks me to watch birds and write compositions about my bird watching," said Yi Lahan, a 14-year-old student of the Dai ethnic group from the school. "I have also asked my dad to stop hunting birds."