WEBVTT 00:19.126 --> 00:20.278 Every kind of call 00:20.342 --> 00:22.262 not only has never been heard 00:22.390 --> 00:25.846 but surpasses what was heard before. 00:26.166 --> 00:28.662 Some are like breaking branches, 00:29.046 --> 00:32.246 some like falling gravel, 00:33.206 --> 00:36.278 some like light thunder. 00:37.430 --> 00:38.646 Every shape and color, 00:39.158 --> 00:40.822 crisp and bright, 00:41.782 --> 00:44.726 every sound rings through the valleys, 00:45.814 --> 00:46.838 scratching the sky. 00:50.486 --> 00:51.766 The first thing I did after leaving the army 00:52.342 --> 00:54.198 was go to a birding association 00:54.518 --> 00:55.606 to take part in birdwatching. 00:55.798 --> 00:57.270 I didn’t even have binoculars then. 00:57.846 --> 00:58.806 To start with 00:59.126 --> 01:00.854 I borrowed someone else’s and went 01:01.558 --> 01:02.838 to Dadu River Mouth Wildlife Refuge. 01:03.286 --> 01:04.694 That’s how I started. 01:07.638 --> 01:10.198 I believe a good birder 01:10.966 --> 01:17.622 should, from liking birds, develop 01:17.878 --> 01:21.462 a joyful and compassionate mood 01:23.723 --> 01:25.067 Animals that stand on two feet 01:25.515 --> 01:26.795 and then can fly away. 01:27.051 --> 01:28.523 They have human form 01:28.587 --> 01:30.955 then demonstrate they can do 01:31.147 --> 01:32.299 what humans cannot. 01:32.875 --> 01:34.987 So for me, birds -- 01:35.115 --> 01:36.267 the activity of birding 01:36.331 --> 01:37.483 and the birds themselves -- 01:37.675 --> 01:40.555 are a bridge between myself and nature. 01:42.850 --> 01:43.810 The Work 01:43.810 --> 01:44.514 Of a Birder 01:44.900 --> 01:48.519 The growth rings of trees 01:48.519 --> 01:50.375 suffice to show the tree 01:51.275 --> 01:53.087 is prosperous and strong 01:53.151 --> 01:56.095 No two rings are the same, 01:56.479 --> 01:59.167 just like on a journey 01:59.295 --> 02:00.383 no frame of mind is the same. 02:01.727 --> 02:04.543 I still continue my birding career. 02:15.551 --> 02:16.447 Look on the back there. 02:16.511 --> 02:17.407 There’s a spot on the head. 02:17.535 --> 02:18.559 Do you see it? 02:18.687 --> 02:19.455 I know that one. 02:19.519 --> 02:20.095 Sure of it. 02:20.159 --> 02:21.183 It’s not every Muscovy duck 02:21.247 --> 02:22.207 has a spot on the back of its head. 02:22.271 --> 02:23.167 I see him and I feel assured. 02:23.295 --> 02:24.959 I don’t have a way for every one. 02:25.087 --> 02:26.559 You see that flock of egrets there? 02:26.815 --> 02:27.711 No chance. 02:29.183 --> 02:31.999 Most observers of natural habitats, 02:32.191 --> 02:35.647 no matter how scientific they are 02:35.775 --> 02:36.479 or how rigorous, 02:36.671 --> 02:37.631 when they’re doing some monotonous 02:37.695 --> 02:41.279 long-term data collection, 02:41.343 --> 02:44.799 they name the animals they know. 02:44.991 --> 02:46.335 If you see a bird after ten years, 02:46.399 --> 02:48.447 you know it can live at least ten years. 02:54.783 --> 02:56.511 When Little Winter Melon wakes up, 02:56.767 --> 02:59.391 Potato is already gone. 03:01.631 --> 03:05.663 He has a strange premonition 03:06.687 --> 03:10.399 that Potato won’t come back. 03:10.911 --> 03:13.343 But he doesn’t get up to pursue, 03:13.727 --> 03:16.223 rather he just blankly 03:16.479 --> 03:17.823 stares into the distance. 03:19.359 --> 03:20.063 Perhaps this 03:20.703 --> 03:23.519 is how wild dogs say goodbye. 03:25.631 --> 03:27.295 I take stray dogs as “unnatural” notes. 03:27.487 --> 03:28.575 Observing a pack of dogs, 03:28.703 --> 03:29.791 I made notes until -- 03:30.687 --> 03:31.199 Aiyo! 03:31.583 --> 03:34.591 I had more than my usual notes. 03:34.783 --> 03:36.895 You might note one bird action per day. 03:37.023 --> 03:38.431 You can’t accumulate much. 03:38.623 --> 03:40.159 But stray dogs have a story every day. 03:41.311 --> 03:42.783 In the end, 03:42.847 --> 03:43.679 because there were so many, 03:43.935 --> 03:45.599 I gave them names. 03:45.791 --> 03:47.071 I was already naming birds 03:47.135 --> 03:48.159 so of course I named the dogs. 03:48.479 --> 03:49.823 And there were so many stories. 03:50.015 --> 03:52.703 I wrote that book because 03:52.767 --> 03:54.943 through watching birds, I met stray dogs. 03:57.055 --> 03:59.359 Think from a stray dog’s point of view. 03:59.615 --> 04:03.711 They do not come from the wilderness. 04:04.479 --> 04:09.663 They have never lived in the wild. 04:10.623 --> 04:12.223 But yet in the cities, 04:13.055 --> 04:14.975 their abandonment by humans 04:15.359 --> 04:19.007 forces to them to this extreme path. 04:19.647 --> 04:20.479 It is a pity people have never respected 04:20.863 --> 04:26.239 the right of animals to survive in the city. 04:28.607 --> 04:30.079 There was a child I’d only known 04:30.271 --> 04:31.423 for an hour, I told him a story 04:31.743 --> 04:33.599 of meeting a stray dog. 04:33.983 --> 04:35.647 It made him laugh. 04:35.775 --> 04:37.503 But in that one hour, after I left, 04:37.759 --> 04:39.039 he would remember that 04:39.103 --> 04:41.215 for his whole life. 04:41.343 --> 04:43.583 It gave him a natural inspiration. 04:43.839 --> 04:46.335 The story was a gentle one, 04:46.911 --> 04:47.743 happy 04:48.191 --> 04:49.407 but moving. 04:51.583 --> 04:53.183 When I’m traveling 04:53.247 --> 04:54.079 I always make notes. 04:54.143 --> 04:54.911 All kinds of notes. 04:55.039 --> 04:57.023 I’m curious about everything. 04:57.151 --> 04:58.047 When I make notes, 04:58.175 --> 04:59.839 when I encounter something, I start 04:59.967 --> 05:01.439 to go through what I’ve done before. 05:01.631 --> 05:02.911 So I have many 05:02.975 --> 05:04.959 life stories 05:05.727 --> 05:07.327 I have acquired through travel. 05:12.191 --> 05:17.247 I give myself to a train going far away, 05:17.311 --> 05:21.983 like giving my life to another person. 05:22.559 --> 05:26.015 The railway for me is not just a ruler 05:26.271 --> 05:27.807 but a compass. 05:27.871 --> 05:30.623 The station is its point. 05:30.943 --> 05:33.823 My adventures are the pencil, 05:33.951 --> 05:39.135 slowly drawing a radius or circle, 05:39.391 --> 05:43.039 measuring off cities and towns. 05:43.231 --> 05:44.767 villages and dwellings. 05:46.175 --> 05:47.583 Travel is like the sea. 05:47.775 --> 05:49.823 You take this tool. 05:49.887 --> 05:51.423 You bring the bait. 05:51.615 --> 05:53.023 This is your book. 05:53.087 --> 05:54.431 But the book you take, 05:54.559 --> 05:56.351 you make a dialogue with the sea. 05:57.247 --> 05:58.783 You lay the bait, 05:58.847 --> 06:00.063 what fish will you catch? 06:00.255 --> 06:02.815 This is an interesting kind of interaction. 06:03.583 --> 06:04.735 The children I know 06:04.927 --> 06:06.655 who want to be in touch with nature, 06:06.847 --> 06:08.191 who are often in touch with nature, 06:08.511 --> 06:10.559 are very resilient. 06:11.327 --> 06:13.247 More so than in the cities. 06:13.823 --> 06:16.767 Of course I hope kids can be like me, 06:17.023 --> 06:18.367 can share the growth and happiness 06:18.495 --> 06:21.823 that I have found in nature.