Birdwatching is a fun hobby for many people. Birdwatchers like to watch birds in the wild (野外). They take photos and record birds’ sounds to learn about them. According to Xinhua, there are more than 100 million birdwatchers in China now. Young people are a big part of it.

Zhang Liang is an experienced birdwatcher and photographer (摄影师). When he was a college student, he got ill for a while. His doctor advised him to go outdoors more often. He then decided to take photos of birds.

Once, he took a photo of a small black and yellow songbird, he tagged it as a sparrow (麻雀) online. Soon, someone corrected him. The bird was actually a finch (芬奇). This embarrassing (尴尬的) thing made him check out on a field guide. It also made him interested in birdwatching and photography.

“ ★ ” Zhang told China Daily, “My life slows down. I’ve made new friends. I’ve also met many birds I didn’t know about.”

“It’s difficult to describe such feelings, especially if you have spent a lot of time in finding the bird and learned more about the bird,” he said, “I feel my heart race, my eyes widen and almost begin to smile.”

Besides watching, Zhang Liang also takes photos and records sounds on field trips. Such photos of birds or other animals can also help people understand the importance of protecting animals. “Wildlife photography can catch fantastic moments in nature,” Zhang said, “They encourage (鼓励) people to earn more about what is out there and why it’s worth (值得) saving.”

Once upon a time, in a forest, there was a buffalo（野牛）. He lived with a monkey. The monkey was not very kind and he troubled the buffalo every day. Sometimes he pulled the buffalo's tail. Sometimes he jumped onto the buffalo's back. But the buffalo didn't get mad. He could stand everything patiently and never complained.

The other animals in the forest knew the monkey always made fun of the buffalo. They got angry with the monkey. They even advised the buffalo to catch the monkey and punish him. The buffalo smiled and said he was not angry with the monkey, but he was thankful to him. He thanked the monkey for teaching him to be patient. Other animals just kept silent with their heads down, without saying anything. At that time, the monkey was sitting in the tree and heard the buffalo's words. He felt sorry for what he had done.

He came down from the tree immediately. Then he came up to the buffalo and said sorry to him. After that, the monkey and the buffalo became friends, and they got on well with each other.

Kenneth Riggins and his daughter, Angelica, then 5 years old, had fallen asleep on the sofa in their house when he was woken up around 2 a.m. by their dogs and the smell of smoke. He followed the smell to a small room next to a back bedroom. “I opened the door, and the fire came in the doorway,” says Riggins, a high school teacher and single dad. After pushing the door shut, he ran to the living room and woke up Angelica, shouting at her to get out quickly.

Angelica, who had recently attended a fire demonstration(消防演习) at her school led by Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog, knew exactly what to do. “The smoke was everywhere, so I crawled (爬) under it and out of the house, just like Sparkles taught me,”Angelica says. “I was really afraid, but I moved as fast as I could.” She ran straight to the home of a neighbor, who called 911. When the firefighters arrived a few minutes later, Angelica told them she hadn’t seen her dad and that he might still be in the house.

She was right. After getting out, Riggins had returned to look for a friend’s 5-year-old girl who had been staying with them. “I was unable to think clearly because of all the smoke and I forgot her mom had picked her up earlier,” he says. Firefighters found Riggins unconscious(失去知觉的) in the living room. As they carried him out of the front door, the back of the house blew up. It was later found out that some old electrical wiring(电线线路) had caused the fire. Riggins spent the next week in the hospital with some burns, but he’s healthy now. “If Angelica hadn’t run to our neighbors for help, I wouldn’t have made it.” Riggins says

Since the fire, Angelica and her dad have moved to a home across the street from their old one.