Thousands of swallows perched on wires in Jiaonan city on the morning of Sept 26, like notes from a bar of music in nature’s song. (By Zhao Yuxun)

On the morning of Sept 26, thousands of swallows flew to the lower reaches of the Fenghe River in Jiaonan, a city adjacent to Qingdao in Shandong province, and perched on the telephone wires, twittering and composing an amazing song of nature.

This reporter arrived at the scene at the call of a Jiaonan resident and found that the swallows had attracted many passersby, who stood and admired this masterpiece of nature. Some few thousands of birds hovered in the air and finally perched on several wires in a hundred-meter-long line above the Fenghe River.

About 20 passersby stopped at the scene, and many took pictures with their cell phones.

"This is amazing, and it is the first time I have ever seen so many swallows. It’s as if they are having a meeting,” a 42-year-old resident surnamed Liu told this reporter, saying he could not move his step when he saw the scene at half past six in the morning. Not until eight o’clock did the swallows began to fly away.

"The birds have been gathering in our village for many years. They arrive here each autumn. But there are more of them this year and maybe it’s because the environment has become better,” said a 66-year-age villager surnamed Zhao.

"Animals have their own languages, and so do birds,” Mr. Wang, a biology teacher at the city’s vocational education center said. He added that swallows are migrant birds. As the weather turns cold and insects become harder to find, they have to fly south for a warmer climate and more food since they are not good at searching worms in the cracks of the trunk nor can they feed on berries like grouses and thunderbirds. “So they gather together to discuss their winter migration,” he said.

By Audrey and Chen Zhilin