Wetland and Migratory Birds

Survey

Shijiu Lake is Lishui's chief wetland and bird habitat, and its designations and bird records are spread across several sources; this entry sets out the designations, the counts and the points.

Designations. In November 2019 the Jiangsu Provincial Forestry Bureau approved the establishment of the Lishui Shijiu Lake Provincial Wetland Park with a planned area of 91.7 sq km (Nanjing Municipal People's Government, 2023). The Jiangsu Provincial List of Important Wetlands records Shijiu Lake, Lishui District, on the list, with an area of 9,140.71 ha and a coordinate range of 118°52′25.1″–118°58′37.0″ east and 31°25′27.9″–31°33′14.3″ north; the list carries no year of publication. In 2023, Announcement No. 23 of 2023 of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration published the List of Important Habitats for Terrestrial Wildlife (First Batch), in force from 1 January 2024; item 167 in the Jiangsu part is the Lishui Shijiu Lake wetland important habitat for migratory birds, whose main protected species are the Oriental stork, swan goose, greater white-fronted goose and tundra swan, and whose existing main form of protection is the Jiangsu Lishui Shijiu Lake Provincial Wetland Park. A district-level wetland-carrier figure records two provincial wetland parks and three wetland protection sub-areas (pre-approval public notice of the Territorial Spatial Ecological Protection and Restoration Plan of Lishui District (2021-2035), July 2026).

Bird counts. Shijiu Lake's birds are chiefly wintering waterbirds. A report carried on the Nanjing Municipal People's Government website in December 2025 records that Nanjing is an important node on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, and that Shijiu Lake has for this reason been called a "swan lake"; a member of staff of the Lishui District forest and speciality-products technology extension station is quoted as saying that the tundra swan is an indicator species of the ecological environment, that ten years ago only 1,000-2,000 tundra swans wintered at Shijiu Lake, that the number rose to over 30,000 in the winter of 2020, that in recent years, with the lake level low, about 5,000 have been kept each year, and that in 2025, with a suitable water level and a good ecology, the tundra swans coming to Shijiu Lake exceeded the previous year's peak and reached a peak for the same period in three years. According to a report in Xinhua Daily in April 2026, in the 2026 Jiangsu synchronized wintering waterbird survey the tundra swan count at the Shijiu Lake wetland in Lishui reached 5,382, the highest in three years. The district government's natural resources page also records that the swans flying south to Shijiu Lake for the winter reach up to ten thousand. These are counts from different years and different survey methods, set side by side here, with none averaged and none shortened.

Species. The People's Government of Lishui District's 2023 reply records that the survey material accumulated over many years at Shijiu Lake lists 117 species of wild birds in 40 families and 14 orders; the same document records that the first swans were found at Shijiu Lake in 2007, that by the date of the document (2023) this was sixteen years, and that monitoring shows 17 species under national key protection, of which 3 are wild birds under Class I national key protection. That figure of 117 species in 40 families and 14 orders and the "main protected species" of the important-habitat list are two different scopes and may not be used to complete one another.

Season and monitoring. The report carried on the Nanjing Municipal People's Government website records that the district's forest and speciality-products technology extension station, with the local authorities, organises four specialist teams that observe and record birds along Shijiu Lake from November to March each year, and that 24 digital video monitoring devices are placed along the lake shore to monitor tundra swans and other birds in real time and promptly detect and stop human disturbance. That period is the monitoring teams' observation period and is not the whole period for which the birds stay.

Wetland areas. The provincial list of important wetlands gives 9,140.71 ha; the Shijiu Lake Provincial Wetland Park has a planned area of 91.7 sq km (Nanjing Municipal People's Government, 2023); and the Main Data Bulletin of the Third National Land Survey of Lishui District, with a uniform reference date of 31 December 2019, records 33.65 ha of wetland in the district, all of it inland mudflat. The three differ in scope — provincially important wetland area, wetland park planned area, and a land-category wetland in the third survey — and may not stand in for one another, nor may the district-wide third-survey wetland total be taken as the figure for Shijiu Lake alone.

Protection measures. On returning fishing grounds to the lake, according to a People's Daily Online report of November 2020, Lishui carried out a comprehensive return of fishing grounds to the lake, removing 28,000 mu of Shijiu Lake enclosure nets, and the tundra swans' range of activity grew accordingly; the 28,000 mu is the area of enclosure nets removed in that operation, not the area of the lake. The Lishui District Ecological Rivers and Lakes Action Plan (2019-2020), Lu Zheng Ban Fa [2019] No. 92, records a target of a natural wetland protection rate of over 50 per cent by 2020 and lists the rescue protection of endangered species at Shijiu Lake including the red-crowned crane, great bustard, tundra swan, egret and common crane; the 2020 targets in that document are planned values. The pre-approval notice records that the key lake-and-wetland protection and restoration areas include the Shijiu Lake and Dongping Lake provincial wetland parks and the Zhongshan Lake (Zhongshan Reservoir) reservoir-and-pond wetland, with directions including the systematic return of enclosed (aquaculture) land to lake-wetland and the gradual expansion of natural wetland. On water-quality monitoring, the Lishui Ecological Environment Bureau's budget performance target declaration form lists the Shijiu Lake provincial-boundary lake-centre point as a state-assessed section. On courteous birdwatching, the report records that the Lishui police extended "ecological policing" to the birdwatching front line, and that the "swan guard" of the Hefeng Town police station has since 2020 patrolled the lake shore on foot and by vehicle, holding up signs reading "watch birds politely, do not disturb living creatures".

Periods and areas

This entry is not divided by period: the sources give year-by-year counts and document years, and the year-to-year fluctuation of bird numbers offers no comparable basis for division. It is divided three ways, by designation, by count and by observation point.

By designation, each attaching to Shijiu Lake:

• Provincial wetland park: the Lishui Shijiu Lake Provincial Wetland Park (approved November 2019, planned area 91.7 sq km).
• Provincially important wetland: Shijiu Lake (the list gives 9,140.71 ha and carries no year of publication).
• Important habitat for migratory birds, on a national list: the Lishui Shijiu Lake wetland important habitat for migratory birds (Announcement No. 23 of 2023 of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, in force from 1 January 2024).

By count, year by year side by side:

• Ten years ago: 1,000-2,000 wintering tundra swans.
• Winter 2020: over 30,000.
• Recent years: about 5,000 kept each year, with the lake level low.
• 2025: above the previous year's peak, a peak for the same period in three years.
• 2026 synchronized survey: 5,382, the highest in three years (according to Xinhua Daily).
• "Up to ten thousand" (district government, natural resources page): a peak figure, not a year-round count.

By observation point, each with its own basis:

• The "Longmao grass sea" beside Zhongyang Village in Hefeng: one of the popular birdwatching points along Shijiu Lake, as recorded in the report.
• Xujia Village in Hefeng Town and Sanxing Village in Shiqiu Subdistrict: places where, in April and May of recent years, an internet-famous grass landscape has appeared along the lake, as recorded in the district government's reply.
• Zhangxu Village in Hefeng Town: a camping spot on the lake shore and mudflat, as recorded in the district government's reply.

Open questions

• The tundra swan counts are year-by-year and fluctuating (1,000-2,000 → over 30,000 → about 5,000 → 5,382 in 2026) and may not be shortened to "30,000 a year" or "5,000 the year round"; each is cited with its year and source.
• The 5,382 comes from Xinhua Daily's report of the 2026 Jiangsu synchronized wintering waterbird survey; this site has not verified the original of that sub-figure on the Jiangsu Provincial Forestry Bureau's website, so it is a relayed figure. It is a single count from the January 2026 synchronized survey, not a year-round number, and may not be rewritten as "Shijiu Lake has 5,382 tundra swans".
• "November to March each year" is the monitoring teams' observation period and is not the whole period for which the birds stay; the wording must be limited to the monitoring period.
• "Up to ten thousand" (district government, natural resources page) is a peak figure, not a year-round count, and may not be rewritten as "ten thousand swans every year".
• The important-habitat list gives only "main protected species", not a full bird list for the site, and may not be completed or converted into the district agriculture bureau's figure of 117 species in 40 families and 14 orders.
• The provincial list of important wetlands carries no year of publication, so this site does not write "listed in such-and-such a year"; the 2020 in the entry rests on the municipal government's reply that the following year saw the siting and installation of boundary markers and signs, and that reply gives no approval year.
• The three wetland-area figures differ in scope: the provincially important wetland at 9,140.71 ha, the provincial wetland park planned area at 91.7 sq km, and the third-survey bulletin's district wetland of 33.65 ha, which covers only inland mudflat; the three may not stand in for one another, and the third-survey figure is a district total with a uniform reference date of 31 December 2019, not the state of things in the year of publication, 2022.
• The 28,000 mu is the area of enclosure nets removed in that operation as reported by People's Daily Online, not the area of the lake and not the whole area of enclosure nets; it is a media report and must be cited as such, with its year.
• Only one birdwatching point has been verified from the report — the "Longmao grass sea" beside Zhongyang Village in Hefeng — together with three places from the district government's reply: Xujia Village in Hefeng Town, Sanxing Village in Shiqiu Subdistrict and Zhangxu Village in Hefeng Town. This site does not supply other points.
• The target of a natural wetland protection rate of over 50 per cent is a 2020 planned value in Lu Zheng Ban Fa [2019] No. 92; whether it was met must be checked against a bulletin or summary, and it may not be written up as an achieved result.
• The red-crowned crane, great bustard, tundra swan, egret and common crane are endangered species listed for rescue protection in that document, not a species list, and carry no numbers; they may not be used as a bird list for Shijiu Lake.
• The "Shijiu Lake provincial-boundary lake-centre" is a state-assessed section name (Lishui Ecological Environment Bureau budget performance target declaration form); the form gives section names and assessment levels, not water-quality classes, and no class may be written from it.
• Shijiu Lake straddles Jiangsu and Anhui, and although the important habitat is named "Nanjing Lishui", the name does not warrant the assertion that the whole lake belongs to Lishui; the People's Government of Lishui District's 2023 reply records that Shijiu Lake is managed jointly by Lishui and Gaochun in Nanjing and by Bowang and Dangtu in Ma'anshan, Anhui.
• The Periods and areas section sets out no periods in time: the sources give no comparable basis for dating changes in bird numbers or the wetland, and every year in the body is an observation year or a document year.