Photo captions Dam Vac is most beautiful in the sunrise. The sun shines through the forest of High Hill, dyeing the water pink. In the sky, flocks of white storks and white cauldrons fly. Occasionally, kingfishers swoop down to the lagoon to catch fish. Under the lagoon, two or three bamboo boats are lined up horizontally, while swimming and knocking the fish to the east. Suddenly, the three boats turned sideways, the sound on the boat was as gentle as the music, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. It is the sound of mincing eel, mincing meat as bait for oil cloves. Chopping up an eel, my grandfather threw the bait into a large basket to soak it in the water. The oil shrimp rush to eat. My grandfather gently pulled up the big basket, hundreds of oil cloves lay white in the basket. He quickly dumped the shrimp into two pickles for my grandmother to carry to the provincial market to sell. People in the street compete to buy, blister oil is a specialty. People along the Vac lagoon have a rhyme: Dam Vac shrimp, lost in the sedge market A meal of nine pigs and ten buffaloes is not as good as an oil clove in Vac lagoon Dam Vac oil shrimp is most delicious at the end of summer and early autumn when it has eggs. My grandfather said, they call them oil cloves because they are very fatty, when fried without lard, the oil cloves are still very fragrant, fatty and delicious. Process oil cloves into many delicious dishes. The oil shrimps picked up from the lagoon are still fresh, squeezing out the intestines, keeping the egg bags, making them a little bit crispy, deep frying, drinking a glass of wine or a beer is delicious. Or buy some pickled cassava tops, cooked with oil cloves are also delicious. My grandmother said, the most delicious in the dishes made from oil shrimp is shrimp braised with soy sauce. She is also fussy. Wash shrimp, sprinkle with a little salt, shake well. New hard shrimp for storage. My grandparents are from Hung Yen, she makes very good soy sauce. The jar of soy sauce is usually left at the base of areca. Before storing the shrimp, a little sugar and ginger must be burned to form a bitter candy. She reserved a pot of land for shrimp storage. Ginger soy sauce with bitter candy boil old, evenly fire. She sprinkled a batch of cloves in and continued to boil. Like that, sprinkle boiled shrimp in turn. The fire is not too big, the pot of shrimp is simmering until the soy sauce is exhausted, reduce the fire, boil the fireflies, burn the edges, the sweet aroma is new to the pot. The dark shrimps are still intact and not broken, Watching her pick up the shrimp on the plate, smelling the aroma of braised shrimp, we both looked at the plate of shrimp and rubbed it. Now that I think about it, I still feel hungry. When we ate with new rice, we all said “delicious, delicious”. My grandfather sipped a cup of wine and read the verse: Even though the horse is nine cows and ten buffaloes, Not as good as the oil in the Vac lagoon. Shrewish!

The study estimates that many bird species in Australia, such as the rainbow parrot, number in the millions. Photo: Guardian. The world has about 50 billion individuals of nearly 10,000 bird species, according to a new study that uses public scientific observations to estimate bird populations. Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), led by scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), shows that there are six times as many bird species on the planet as possible. human times. There are four species of birds that researchers call the “billion-person club,” with an estimated population greater than 1 billion individuals. These are house sparrows, European starlings, ring-billed gulls and swallows, found in many parts of the world. The researchers estimated the population of 9,700 species, based on hundreds of millions of bird observations recorded by birdwatchers on eBird, one of a number of community science projects on diversity. The world’s largest biome. They combined records with professional scientific observations to develop an algorithm that estimated the population numbers of most species. The team of scientists found that there are relatively few individuals of common bird species, but a large number of rare species. “They can be rare for natural reasons, as they really only live on one island,” said Associate Professor Will Cornwell, a UNSW ecologist and one of the lead scientists on the study. island or the top of a mountain, or they may be rare due to human causes.” Over time, he said, he hopes the models can chart which species are in decline and where conservation efforts are needed. Many bird species in Australia number into the millions such as the rainbow parrot (19 million individuals), the yellow cockatoo (10 million individuals) and the laughing kingfisher (3.4 million individuals). Mr. Sean Dooley, BirdLife Australia’s public affairs manager, is a longtime bird watcher and a contributor to community science programmes. The paper shows the value that people’s observations can contribute to scientific knowledge, he said. “This is a great first step to trying to discover what we have. It will be important if we can continue to do this over time, as we are witnessing a massive loss of wildlife. Research can help us do what is needed to get close to quantifying what’s going on.” By combining bird-watching records and professional monitoring of birds that are the subject of rigorous academic research, scientists have tweaked some of the things that have not been done, said Associate Professor Cornwell. certainly through public science. The model was then applied to birds that have not been studied professionally, he said. The figure of 50 billion birds represents the model’s average estimate for the total number of bird species worldwide. “The really big breakthrough in this study is that we can take the scientific data and the public science data and then fill in the gap for birds that are not expertly studied by scientists,” said Mr. Cornwell. research industry”. There is still some uncertainty in the figures, said Mr. Cornwell, and the researchers plan to refine the model as more professional studies of more species become available. He also said that the study revealed gaps in information due to the importance of scientific attention to birds in developed regions compared to developing countries of the world, and the need to It is necessary to refine global population estimates for all species. According to him, this also shows the role of public science in those efforts. Scientists will conduct another survey in the next few years.