Hà Văn Lâm on the Hoàng Long River. Photo vietnamnet.vn

NINH BÌNH ­– For more than 10 years, one couple in Ninh Bình Province has paid themselves to rent land, build banks and plant trees to make shelters for wild storks and other birds and protect them from illegal hunting.

Hà Văn Lâm and his wife Nguyễn Thị Luyện from Gia Phong Commune have worked to preserve the entire area as a home for the birds, voluntarily keeping them safe from hunters.

“Every afternoon, flocks of white storks fly across the sky, chirping and perching on the treetops, creating a vivid picture of nature,” Lâm told vietnamnet.vn.

Lâm said that since 2006, he has rented alluvial land for farming. In the area, there are about 2ha of swampy land, with trees and reeds growing everywhere.

Local residents were hired years ago to build banks and plant more trees to provide shade for grazing cows. During the rainy season, the Hoàng Long River water rises, and Lâm has to take a boat to get to the area.

Over time, as the trees grew bigger, more and more flocks of birds and storks came to roost.

Lâm's garden has become a stork shelter. Photo vietnamnet.vn

“My family spent nearly VNĐ100 million (US$3,800) to rent the land, build dikes around the marsh and plant bamboo and trees for the birds and storks to roost and breed, and to shield them from hunters,” Lâm said.

“Many people said I was crazy or eccentric, but I do not care, I just want to protect the storks,” he added.

In the flood season, when the river's water level rises so high that people have to use boats to reach the stork island, there are fewer poachers, Lâm noted.

Since the end of 2015, flocks of storks (mainly white storks and pond herons) have increasingly gathered here, sometimes reaching up to tens of thousands.

By day they forage for food, and in the evening they return. During the breeding season, from the 11th to the fourth lunar month, storks build nests in dense clusters in the trees. When the trees shed their leaves, the entire area turns white with storks covering the branches.

“I think this is truly a good land where birds naturally gather, which is why the storks choose to roost and nest here. Along the Hoàng Long River there are many similar forests, but few places have as many storks as the alluvial forest in front of my house,” Lâm said proudly.

The breeding season is also when poaching increases.

At night, when he hears storks crying loudly and circling near his house in warning, he has rushed out and caught poachers in the act many times. Only when he tells them he is protecting the flock do they leave, Lâm said.

"Some nights while sleeping, I hear the birds and storks crying out in alarm. They often fly to my doorstep, about 200m from the forest, as if to signal and call for help when there are poachers,” he said.

Nguyễn Đức Định, head of Mai Sơn 1 Hamlet in Gia Phong Commune, said Lâm rented about 7.2ha of alluvial land along the Hoàng Long River from the former Gia Lạc Commune People’s Committee to plant trees for the storks to roost and to use for rice cultivation.

According to Định, local residents support Lâm’s efforts to protect the storks, while authorities also carry out awareness campaigns to persuade people not to hunt, to safeguard the flocks.

Lâm is known for his dedication, especially in nursing any injured stork back to health until it recovers.

During the nesting season, Lâm and his wife regularly patrol the forest, picking up eggs or chicks that fall to the ground and returning them to their nests. To him, the flock of storks is no different from children who need care and protection.

Local people now call this area “stork island".

Lâm is determined to protect the storks as if they were his own children, Định said. VNS