It is a pleasant summer evening. The village, surrounded by mountains, looks tranquil and peaceful. Villagers are enjoying a cool breeze in front of their houses, with egrets twittering in distant woods or hovering in the sky.

Thus that's how Egret village in Dandong city, Northeast China's Liaoning province got its name. Now that autumn has come, egrets should have by name migrated southward. But several hundred egrets seemed reluctant to part.. On the evening of August 11, our reporter went to Egret village to go looking for these egrets.

Egret eggs become food in mouth

It was a long and hard march to trudge along the rugged road to the top of the mountain. The reporter got close to big trees where egrets rested. The egrets, 20 meters off the ground in the crown of the trees, suddenly became aware of the reporter and began to chirp and hop.

Zhou Chaozhong, a native of the village, said that when life was tough several generations ago, half of the villagers ate egret eggs. Zhou, 57, said he heard about his ancestors eating egret eggs, which taste like duck eggs.

As they learnt more about this precious species, villagers stopped eating the eggs. They now protect egrets like treasures.

The village was listed a city-level nature reserve in 2004.

In 1996, a biology professor of Liaoning University inspected the village. He estimated that about 1,000 egrets live in the village.

Villagers become egret-protection volunteers

The villagers cherish these egrets and would step out against anyone who tries to hurt them.

Lu Guofa, a villager living at the foot of the Egret Mountain, heard a car driving into the village one midnight. Sensing something was wrong, he got up in a hurry and saw two men sneaking downhill. Lu bellowed, "What are you doing here?" The two men were frightened away.

Lu ran after them and found a basket, which he picked up and saw dozens of nestling egrets in it. He brought them back home and raised all 50 of them in a secluded site.

They would crowd around and grab for food when Lu held a bowl of fish near them. In a month, nature reserve staff workers took over looking after those egrets. Last year, Lu also rescued two wounded egrets and set them free after their recovery.

Natural resources attract egrets

Egrets have been living here for more than 300 years, said Jiang Licheng, a villager in the Egrets village.

Villagers say there is a small lake, some hundred square meters in size, at the eastern foot of the Egret Mountain. The lake does not freeze in winter nor dry up in summer. There were even two age-old tortoises that used to live there many years ago.

Zhou Chaozhong said a few egrets would circle above the water when insects begin to wake in early March and then leave. Later during the rainy season, large flock of egrets fly over and migrate to the village.

The first few egrets are like scouts, villagers say.

When autumn began this year, about 500 egrets lingered around the village. Zhou said egrets must fly southward before rivers become frozen. Otherwise, they would die from hunger and the coldness.

Egrets breed twice a year. The first flocks of baby egrets grow up and fly away when autumn comes. The remaining egrets in the village make up the second flock of baby birds that practice flying skills in preparation for their southward migration.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Tania Lee