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每年秋冬季节，一群群从遥远的西伯利亚和天山博斯腾湖飞来越冬的天鹅来到这里，使整个湖面的上空都回荡着它们高亢而兴奋的鸣叫声。这里，是亚洲最大的天鹅越冬栖息地——山东荣成天鹅湖。
袁学顺，一位居住在天鹅湖畔的中年汉子，一位心中满是天鹅的“痴人”，精心呵护天鹅30年，跑遍了天鹅湖的每一个角落，救助了数百只受伤的白天鹅，被当地老百姓亲切地称作“天鹅卫士”。
为天鹅“打工”
老袁的家在荣成的成山卫镇上。一个小小院落，当街开一间摆满旧家电的小维修店，小店的橱柜里各种电器零件好久没动了，上面落满了灰尘。到他这里来维修家电的顾客没几个，却不断有人来小店看天鹅。从柜台侧面的一个小门，可以直接去他的后院，后院的大部分面积都用网罩着，上面挂满了白绒毛。老袁说，这都是白天鹅梳理羽毛时脱落的。全世界共有5种天鹅，其中最著名的大天鹅、小天鹅和疣鼻天鹅，这些天鹅这里都有。大天鹅体长120-160厘米，体重6500-12000克，尽管重达十多公斤，却能轻捷飞行，是世上飞得最高的鸟类。大天鹅羽毛洁白如雪，体态优雅庄重，对爱情忠贞不渝，深受人们喜爱。
老袁的本行是家电维修，如果从青年时代就好好地照顾他的生意，他家早已成了小康之家。但在前院的生意和后院的天鹅之间，他把主要精力给了天鹅。老袁指着这些天鹅自嘲地说：“我干的这点修理小买卖纯是应付，干一年要歇半年，大部分时间是在为天鹅们打工。”
每当老袁经过后院时，在网中蹲着的十几只大天鹅都“呦呦”直叫，它们是在向老袁要吃的。每只天鹅每天要吃7斤玉米、5斤菜叶，洗一回澡。因为院子里没有下水道，老袁得一桶桶地把臭烘烘的脏水提出去，倒到街上的下水道里。还要用小推车将粪便和垃圾推出去。干完了这些，老袁要发动妻子和女儿到附近的集市上去“募捐”菜叶。每次出发前，女儿的反对声最大，她说，她已经到了考大学的年龄，在同学面前，起码还有个面子问题吧。
这些天鹅，经过老袁的调养，一年之后基本上都可以放飞了。但是有几只断脚折翅的，老袁说要养它们一辈子，如要放了，等待它们的只有死亡。
早晚两次巡视
每年从10月份起，从北方来的大天鹅就陆续到达成山卫的天鹅湖。天鹅湖离老袁家有一公里多路，老袁从青年时代就每天来观察这里的白天鹅，后来改成一天早晚两次巡视。如今，老袁的装备已基本实现了“现代化”：一辆旧摩托车、一副望远镜、一只水壶、一把镰刀、一条水裤，晚上还要带上手电筒。
老袁说，大天鹅生命力最弱的时刻就是一早一晚两段时间，每天太阳露头之前，趁着滩上无人的时候他就要去湖边儿，看看有没有冻着饿着的天鹅。晚上落山之前，他也要赶到湖边，看看有没有偷猎的，有没有飞不动掉队的小天鹅。他还要顺便到滩上挖一种海草，他说，天鹅见了这种草，吃起来特别有滋味。
后来，老袁的巡视范围逐渐扩大到几十公里以外的马山湾和朝阳湖。这里都是大天鹅的栖息地，但是老袁的老伴却反对老袁走这么远的路，“为了救天鹅，他早出晚归，身体已经不行了，跑这么远的路，家里人都提心吊胆的。”
可是，老袁还在家里设了一个“天鹅110”。成山卫边防派出所一位民警讲了这样一件事：去年冬天的一个傍晚，所里接到老袁的电话，声音急切，他说刚刚接到马山湾一位群众的电话，说有一只天鹅被猎具夹住了脚，在湖里已经飞不动了，能不能派警车前去搜寻。当时警车正好执行任务去了，等到回来去接老袁时，他已经耐不住性子，骑着摩托车去了湾里。等到半夜大家找到老袁时，他浑身是水，双手捧着那只受伤的天鹅，已冻得说不出话来了。
30年里，老袁绕着天鹅湖走了十万多公里的路，经他手救助的天鹅不下300只。受伤的天鹅一般都脾气烦躁，但是每当老袁给天鹅疗伤的时候，不知何故，它们都服服帖帖地将长长的脖子绕到老袁的脖子上，安静而温顺地配合他的治疗。
装扮成一只大天鹅
1999年11月的一天，袁学顺在天鹅湖边“巡逻”时，发现湖中有一只受伤的天鹅。由于受到惊吓，迟迟不敢上岸，只是在水中不停地哀鸣。袁学顺立即跳到水中，想抱起天鹅，那只天鹅见状，却胆怯地向深水区游去……
袁学顺拿出自己的“绝活”，“装扮”成一只大天鹅，站在水中，用“心”与这只天鹅展开“对话”。天鹅是很有灵性的。慢慢地，这只天鹅似乎读懂了袁学顺的心，停在水中观望起来。两个多小时后，它竟奇迹般地被引至浅水区，乖顺地奔向老袁的怀抱。
回家后，袁学顺发现这只天鹅的翅膀骨折了，立即对其进行了接骨手术。由于害怕天鹅“乱动”，导致手术失败，袁学顺竟将它整整地抱了一夜!当天鹅由于疼痛发出阵阵哀鸣时，善良的袁学顺也流泪了!
天鹅死亡他流泪
在成山卫镇，老袁反对在湖畔进行盲目开发建设，是一个“顽固派”。他有一张手绘的天鹅湖越冬天鹅分布图，哪里是水源地，哪里是湿地、森林，天鹅的行动规律及分布特点，他都记得清清楚楚。
老袁说，对于天鹅，他虽然称不上什么专家，但是起码可以算作一名忠诚的朋友。“为什么大天鹅能够来这个湖?因为天鹅湖最适宜它们居住。”老袁说，天鹅湖的森林、淡水和湿地以及丰富的食物，给它们提供了非常好的生存空间，如果将林子伐了、湖水污染了或者将淡水掐了、湿地毁了，这四个条件少了任何一样，就从根本上断绝了天鹅的生路。
前几年湖畔搞度假别墅，老袁坚决反对。如今湿地又被淤泥破坏了，他放声痛哭，“毁了天鹅湖的原始生态，天鹅失去了基本的食物链和水源，我不知道这些天鹅还有多少呆在这里的理由!”
去年霜降之后，当一群白天鹅因为找不到水源而在滩地上徘徊的时候，老袁知道他的预言不幸印证了。他找人将被沙坝挡住的小溪挖开，但是溪水最终还是被淤泥层挡住，于是他加强了对天鹅巡查力度。11月18日，他在滩地上发现了一只被淤泥淤死的幼小天鹅，老袁蹲在干裂的泥块上抱着它放声大哭。
袁学顺说，每只在他怀中死去的天鹅都会流泪。这天鹅泪，别人不懂，他懂。他陪着天鹅哭，死去一只哭一回。
有天鹅永远不孤独
回忆起儿时的一件事，他感慨万千。他说，小时候每到夏天，他的外婆就拿一把用捡来的天鹅羽毛做成的扇子为他扇凉，边扇凉，边讲天鹅的故事。“天鹅是老天赐给人的朋友，赶走了天鹅，人就会变得孤单。”外婆的话在老袁的脑中打下极深的烙印。有天鹅就永远不孤独，这是老袁心中的信条。
一般的家庭养鸭养鸡，但没有养天鹅的。袁学顺为什么要去救治和喂养天鹅呢?这还得从一个凄美的故事说起……袁学顺早年在渔业公司操作船舶机械，常常驻足与天鹅对视，对天鹅的感情日渐加深。一年冬天，19岁的袁学顺在下班途中发现湖区多了一只叫声高亢、高大健壮的雄性天鹅，很快被其“雄姿”吸引了，便将其取名为“白玉”。
又一天，他在湖边浅水苇丛中恰好遇见“白玉”，此时它已身陷偷猎者设下的网罩，正在惨烈地挣扎着，殷红的血从它的翅膀根部汩汩渗流!袁学顺的心像刀割一般，未加思索便跳入刺骨的水中，奋力向“白玉”游过去，但受惊的“白玉”挣扎得更加强烈了，而尼龙绳越缠越紧……无奈之下，袁学顺只好疾步跑回家。当他拿着剪刀赶到湖边时，却看到惨烈的一幕：“白玉”仰天一声哀鸣，愤而回望了一眼，竟一头扎进了身下厚密的杂草和泥沙中“自杀”了!袁学顺被震撼了，更为这种高贵的动物悲痛不已!从此，他开始了倾心救助伤病天鹅的行动……
粗略地统计一下，这么多年来袁学顺已先后救治了300多只天鹅，投入资金20多万元，邻居们早已都盖了楼，甚至买了汽车，而袁家至今“留守”在4间破旧的小平房里。然而，袁学顺一家始终无怨无悔，因为他们和天鹅之间已奏出世间最美妙的和谐音符，这才是他们人生中很有意义的事啊!
“你救天鹅，谁救你!”
天鹅给袁家带来了许多乐趣，而喂养天鹅却是十分不易的事。由于天鹅的食量很大，养活它几天可以，但要养活它二三年，绝对是个不小的负担。就拿食量来说，一只天鹅每天要食用萝卜丝、大米饭、苹果等鲜饲料3-4公斤，而伤愈后的“大白”一口气能吃下4公斤饺子。时间长了，便常有商贩隔三岔五地往袁家运送整车的蔬菜和水果!
由于经济拮据，两个女儿放学后，一个在家照料天鹅，一个随父到野外割青草，而妻子每天都要焖一大锅米饭，拌在草料里喂天鹅。随着救治和喂养的天鹅数目增加，袁家的经济压力也越来越大，甚至连孩子的学费都交不起了。但再苦再难，袁学顺也没有亏待天鹅!实在无钱买菜，妻子只好带上孩子们利用节假日，四处捡白菜帮子和萝卜缨子!一次，袁学顺病倒了，医生诊断为鼻腔血管变形，随时会复发，建议他立即住院治疗。谁知袁学顺拿不出住院费，只好在家中硬挺着，妻子心痛道：“老袁你救天鹅，谁救你啊!?”
袁学顺越来越发现人工喂养天鹅有着许多的局限性，不仅困难大，还会改变天鹅的种群发育，放飞才是天鹅的最终归宿。荣成天鹅湖的天鹅是每年3月中旬迁徙的，它们主要利用高空季风气流并依赖齐飞共振高速滑翔，能在3天之内抵达目的地。
要想将家中病愈的天鹅放飞，让它回归自由自在的大自然，那么放飞的时间必须要算得准确，那是关系到它的生命啊!
（李 德杨 帅摄影）
The Man Who Guards Swans
By Wang Yixin, Li Junyi, Zhang Jiandong
Rongcheng in East China's coastal Shandong Province has a swan lake where hundreds of swans spend winter days after a long journey from Siberia or Xinjiang. It is Asia's largest winter habitat for swans. In the coldest months, swans swim happily there and their loud songs can be heard over the vast water expanse.
Yuan Xueshun, a middle-age man who lives in Chengshanwei Town near the lake, has been a volunteer guard of swans for the last 30 years. He has rescued hundreds of injured swans. Local people warmly call him "Swan Guard".
Yuan runs a small repair shop to fix home appliances. The shop fronts his house. He takes more care of swans than he does his business. A lot of people nowadays walk into his shop. But few come to him to get home appliances fixed. Most people come to see swans. They walk into his shop and then walk past the counter through a narrow short passage which leads to the back yard. The backyard is mostly covered by a huge net, to prevent injured swans from flying away.
Whenever Yuan appears in the back yard, more than 10 swans call out to him asking for food. Yuan says that each consumes 3.5 kilo rice and 2.25 kilo vegetable leaves a day. And they take a bath everyday. As the backyard doesn't have any drainage system, Yuan has to carry the used water to a water drain in the street after giving each of his beloved birds a bath. He needs to clean the courtyard of the manure and rubbish. After all the feeding, bathing, and cleaning, Yuan asks his wife and daughter to help him collect vegetable leaves from local vegetable vendors who donate vegetables to Yuan. Yuan's daughter always protests. She is about to sit for the college entrance exam. She regards collecting donated vegetable leaves as a disgrace. Yuan says to us that some of the swans in his backyard will be able to fly away in a year. But some will never go away since their wings or legs are broken. If they are set free, they will die soon.
Yuan works as a repairman only for half the year. When swans begin to arrive in October, he shuts down his business and gets busy. He goes to the lake in the morning and in the evening everyday. The lake is about 1.5 kilometers away from his home. His equipment is simple and effective: a second-hand motorbike, a telescope, a water bottle, a sickle, a pair of water-proof rubber trousers, and a torch for the evening patrol.
Yuan says that swans are weakest in the morning and in the evening. He arrives at the lake before sunrise. Before the sunset he goes there again to make sure no poachers sneak into the lake area and no young swans get separated from the group.
In his younger days, Yuan limited his beat to the sawn lake only. But later his patrol extended to two other lakes about dozens of kilometers away from home. His wife was against his faraway trip for she worried that the physical exertion of morning-evening trips day in day out might be too much for him.
So he set up a swan hotline at home. Last winter, Yuan called the local police substation to say that he had received a call saying that a swan had been caught by a hunter's trap and was not able to fly. It happened that the patrol car had been out. Yuan was asked to wait for the car to pick him up. But when the police car arrived, Yuan had already set out on his motorbike to rescue the swan. When his family finally found him later that night, Yuan was wet all over holding the swan in his arms, and he was too cold to say a word.
Over the years, Yuan has rescued more than 300 swans. Injured swans are always agitated. But when Yuan is operating on them, they become tame. They find Yuan trustworthy and put their long neck on Yuan's necks while Yuan applies medicine to the wound.
On day in November 1999, Yuan found a swan injured on his patrol. Frightened, the swan refused to come to Yuan. It whined painfully. When Yuan waded into the water and tried to approach it, the swan escaped to the deepwater area. So Yuan stood in the shallow water and acted as if he were a swan. He coaxed the swan for more than two hours before it understood Yuan's wish. It swam to Yuan's arms. The swan had a broken wing. Yuan was unable to set it right. That night Yuan held the swan in his arms and wept.
Yuan is strongly against the haphazard development projects on the swan lake. He has drawn a map with all the details indicating where the wetland is, where the fresh water is and where swans gather in the lake. Though he is not an expert on swans, he knows what the lake offers to the swans: forest, freshwater, wetland, and rich food. If any of the four is destroyed, swans can't survive there. A few years ago, some resort villas were built by the lake despite Yuan's fierce protest. Now the wetland is being invaded by silt. He says swans will lose the food and water if primitive ecology at the lake is destroyed. Last year, when he spotted a group of swans lost on a beach when they failed to find freshwater, Yuan knew that what he had predicted had come true. He asked people to open up the creek that had been stopped by a sand dike. But the creek got choked in the silt before it was able to reach the lake. On November 18, he found that a young swan had been trapped in the silt and died there.
If Yuan had put his heart into his repair trade since his youthful days, he would have been able to live a comfortable life today like many of his fellow villagers. But he just can't give up his lifelong passion for swans. The money he has spent on swans, if roughly calculated, is up to 200,000, a sum that could allow his family to build a new house and live comfortably. But his family still lives in a dilapidated four-room bungalow. But Yuan and his family do not regret what they have done for swans. They find the meaning of life in doing things for swans.
(Translated by David)
袁学顺，一位居住在天鹅湖畔的中年汉子，一位心中满是天鹅的“痴人”，精心呵护天鹅30年，跑遍了天鹅湖的每一个角落，救助了数百只受伤的白天鹅，被当地老百姓亲切地称作“天鹅卫士”。
为天鹅“打工”
老袁的家在荣成的成山卫镇上。一个小小院落，当街开一间摆满旧家电的小维修店，小店的橱柜里各种电器零件好久没动了，上面落满了灰尘。到他这里来维修家电的顾客没几个，却不断有人来小店看天鹅。从柜台侧面的一个小门，可以直接去他的后院，后院的大部分面积都用网罩着，上面挂满了白绒毛。老袁说，这都是白天鹅梳理羽毛时脱落的。全世界共有5种天鹅，其中最著名的大天鹅、小天鹅和疣鼻天鹅，这些天鹅这里都有。大天鹅体长120-160厘米，体重6500-12000克，尽管重达十多公斤，却能轻捷飞行，是世上飞得最高的鸟类。大天鹅羽毛洁白如雪，体态优雅庄重，对爱情忠贞不渝，深受人们喜爱。
老袁的本行是家电维修，如果从青年时代就好好地照顾他的生意，他家早已成了小康之家。但在前院的生意和后院的天鹅之间，他把主要精力给了天鹅。老袁指着这些天鹅自嘲地说：“我干的这点修理小买卖纯是应付，干一年要歇半年，大部分时间是在为天鹅们打工。”
每当老袁经过后院时，在网中蹲着的十几只大天鹅都“呦呦”直叫，它们是在向老袁要吃的。每只天鹅每天要吃7斤玉米、5斤菜叶，洗一回澡。因为院子里没有下水道，老袁得一桶桶地把臭烘烘的脏水提出去，倒到街上的下水道里。还要用小推车将粪便和垃圾推出去。干完了这些，老袁要发动妻子和女儿到附近的集市上去“募捐”菜叶。每次出发前，女儿的反对声最大，她说，她已经到了考大学的年龄，在同学面前，起码还有个面子问题吧。
这些天鹅，经过老袁的调养，一年之后基本上都可以放飞了。但是有几只断脚折翅的，老袁说要养它们一辈子，如要放了，等待它们的只有死亡。
早晚两次巡视
每年从10月份起，从北方来的大天鹅就陆续到达成山卫的天鹅湖。天鹅湖离老袁家有一公里多路，老袁从青年时代就每天来观察这里的白天鹅，后来改成一天早晚两次巡视。如今，老袁的装备已基本实现了“现代化”：一辆旧摩托车、一副望远镜、一只水壶、一把镰刀、一条水裤，晚上还要带上手电筒。
老袁说，大天鹅生命力最弱的时刻就是一早一晚两段时间，每天太阳露头之前，趁着滩上无人的时候他就要去湖边儿，看看有没有冻着饿着的天鹅。晚上落山之前，他也要赶到湖边，看看有没有偷猎的，有没有飞不动掉队的小天鹅。他还要顺便到滩上挖一种海草，他说，天鹅见了这种草，吃起来特别有滋味。
后来，老袁的巡视范围逐渐扩大到几十公里以外的马山湾和朝阳湖。这里都是大天鹅的栖息地，但是老袁的老伴却反对老袁走这么远的路，“为了救天鹅，他早出晚归，身体已经不行了，跑这么远的路，家里人都提心吊胆的。”
可是，老袁还在家里设了一个“天鹅110”。成山卫边防派出所一位民警讲了这样一件事：去年冬天的一个傍晚，所里接到老袁的电话，声音急切，他说刚刚接到马山湾一位群众的电话，说有一只天鹅被猎具夹住了脚，在湖里已经飞不动了，能不能派警车前去搜寻。当时警车正好执行任务去了，等到回来去接老袁时，他已经耐不住性子，骑着摩托车去了湾里。等到半夜大家找到老袁时，他浑身是水，双手捧着那只受伤的天鹅，已冻得说不出话来了。
30年里，老袁绕着天鹅湖走了十万多公里的路，经他手救助的天鹅不下300只。受伤的天鹅一般都脾气烦躁，但是每当老袁给天鹅疗伤的时候，不知何故，它们都服服帖帖地将长长的脖子绕到老袁的脖子上，安静而温顺地配合他的治疗。
装扮成一只大天鹅
1999年11月的一天，袁学顺在天鹅湖边“巡逻”时，发现湖中有一只受伤的天鹅。由于受到惊吓，迟迟不敢上岸，只是在水中不停地哀鸣。袁学顺立即跳到水中，想抱起天鹅，那只天鹅见状，却胆怯地向深水区游去……
袁学顺拿出自己的“绝活”，“装扮”成一只大天鹅，站在水中，用“心”与这只天鹅展开“对话”。天鹅是很有灵性的。慢慢地，这只天鹅似乎读懂了袁学顺的心，停在水中观望起来。两个多小时后，它竟奇迹般地被引至浅水区，乖顺地奔向老袁的怀抱。
回家后，袁学顺发现这只天鹅的翅膀骨折了，立即对其进行了接骨手术。由于害怕天鹅“乱动”，导致手术失败，袁学顺竟将它整整地抱了一夜!当天鹅由于疼痛发出阵阵哀鸣时，善良的袁学顺也流泪了!
天鹅死亡他流泪
在成山卫镇，老袁反对在湖畔进行盲目开发建设，是一个“顽固派”。他有一张手绘的天鹅湖越冬天鹅分布图，哪里是水源地，哪里是湿地、森林，天鹅的行动规律及分布特点，他都记得清清楚楚。
老袁说，对于天鹅，他虽然称不上什么专家，但是起码可以算作一名忠诚的朋友。“为什么大天鹅能够来这个湖?因为天鹅湖最适宜它们居住。”老袁说，天鹅湖的森林、淡水和湿地以及丰富的食物，给它们提供了非常好的生存空间，如果将林子伐了、湖水污染了或者将淡水掐了、湿地毁了，这四个条件少了任何一样，就从根本上断绝了天鹅的生路。
前几年湖畔搞度假别墅，老袁坚决反对。如今湿地又被淤泥破坏了，他放声痛哭，“毁了天鹅湖的原始生态，天鹅失去了基本的食物链和水源，我不知道这些天鹅还有多少呆在这里的理由!”
去年霜降之后，当一群白天鹅因为找不到水源而在滩地上徘徊的时候，老袁知道他的预言不幸印证了。他找人将被沙坝挡住的小溪挖开，但是溪水最终还是被淤泥层挡住，于是他加强了对天鹅巡查力度。11月18日，他在滩地上发现了一只被淤泥淤死的幼小天鹅，老袁蹲在干裂的泥块上抱着它放声大哭。
袁学顺说，每只在他怀中死去的天鹅都会流泪。这天鹅泪，别人不懂，他懂。他陪着天鹅哭，死去一只哭一回。
有天鹅永远不孤独
回忆起儿时的一件事，他感慨万千。他说，小时候每到夏天，他的外婆就拿一把用捡来的天鹅羽毛做成的扇子为他扇凉，边扇凉，边讲天鹅的故事。“天鹅是老天赐给人的朋友，赶走了天鹅，人就会变得孤单。”外婆的话在老袁的脑中打下极深的烙印。有天鹅就永远不孤独，这是老袁心中的信条。
一般的家庭养鸭养鸡，但没有养天鹅的。袁学顺为什么要去救治和喂养天鹅呢?这还得从一个凄美的故事说起……袁学顺早年在渔业公司操作船舶机械，常常驻足与天鹅对视，对天鹅的感情日渐加深。一年冬天，19岁的袁学顺在下班途中发现湖区多了一只叫声高亢、高大健壮的雄性天鹅，很快被其“雄姿”吸引了，便将其取名为“白玉”。
又一天，他在湖边浅水苇丛中恰好遇见“白玉”，此时它已身陷偷猎者设下的网罩，正在惨烈地挣扎着，殷红的血从它的翅膀根部汩汩渗流!袁学顺的心像刀割一般，未加思索便跳入刺骨的水中，奋力向“白玉”游过去，但受惊的“白玉”挣扎得更加强烈了，而尼龙绳越缠越紧……无奈之下，袁学顺只好疾步跑回家。当他拿着剪刀赶到湖边时，却看到惨烈的一幕：“白玉”仰天一声哀鸣，愤而回望了一眼，竟一头扎进了身下厚密的杂草和泥沙中“自杀”了!袁学顺被震撼了，更为这种高贵的动物悲痛不已!从此，他开始了倾心救助伤病天鹅的行动……
粗略地统计一下，这么多年来袁学顺已先后救治了300多只天鹅，投入资金20多万元，邻居们早已都盖了楼，甚至买了汽车，而袁家至今“留守”在4间破旧的小平房里。然而，袁学顺一家始终无怨无悔，因为他们和天鹅之间已奏出世间最美妙的和谐音符，这才是他们人生中很有意义的事啊!
“你救天鹅，谁救你!”
天鹅给袁家带来了许多乐趣，而喂养天鹅却是十分不易的事。由于天鹅的食量很大，养活它几天可以，但要养活它二三年，绝对是个不小的负担。就拿食量来说，一只天鹅每天要食用萝卜丝、大米饭、苹果等鲜饲料3-4公斤，而伤愈后的“大白”一口气能吃下4公斤饺子。时间长了，便常有商贩隔三岔五地往袁家运送整车的蔬菜和水果!
由于经济拮据，两个女儿放学后，一个在家照料天鹅，一个随父到野外割青草，而妻子每天都要焖一大锅米饭，拌在草料里喂天鹅。随着救治和喂养的天鹅数目增加，袁家的经济压力也越来越大，甚至连孩子的学费都交不起了。但再苦再难，袁学顺也没有亏待天鹅!实在无钱买菜，妻子只好带上孩子们利用节假日，四处捡白菜帮子和萝卜缨子!一次，袁学顺病倒了，医生诊断为鼻腔血管变形，随时会复发，建议他立即住院治疗。谁知袁学顺拿不出住院费，只好在家中硬挺着，妻子心痛道：“老袁你救天鹅，谁救你啊!?”
袁学顺越来越发现人工喂养天鹅有着许多的局限性，不仅困难大，还会改变天鹅的种群发育，放飞才是天鹅的最终归宿。荣成天鹅湖的天鹅是每年3月中旬迁徙的，它们主要利用高空季风气流并依赖齐飞共振高速滑翔，能在3天之内抵达目的地。
要想将家中病愈的天鹅放飞，让它回归自由自在的大自然，那么放飞的时间必须要算得准确，那是关系到它的生命啊!
（李 德杨 帅摄影）
The Man Who Guards Swans
By Wang Yixin, Li Junyi, Zhang Jiandong
Rongcheng in East China's coastal Shandong Province has a swan lake where hundreds of swans spend winter days after a long journey from Siberia or Xinjiang. It is Asia's largest winter habitat for swans. In the coldest months, swans swim happily there and their loud songs can be heard over the vast water expanse.
Yuan Xueshun, a middle-age man who lives in Chengshanwei Town near the lake, has been a volunteer guard of swans for the last 30 years. He has rescued hundreds of injured swans. Local people warmly call him "Swan Guard".
Yuan runs a small repair shop to fix home appliances. The shop fronts his house. He takes more care of swans than he does his business. A lot of people nowadays walk into his shop. But few come to him to get home appliances fixed. Most people come to see swans. They walk into his shop and then walk past the counter through a narrow short passage which leads to the back yard. The backyard is mostly covered by a huge net, to prevent injured swans from flying away.
Whenever Yuan appears in the back yard, more than 10 swans call out to him asking for food. Yuan says that each consumes 3.5 kilo rice and 2.25 kilo vegetable leaves a day. And they take a bath everyday. As the backyard doesn't have any drainage system, Yuan has to carry the used water to a water drain in the street after giving each of his beloved birds a bath. He needs to clean the courtyard of the manure and rubbish. After all the feeding, bathing, and cleaning, Yuan asks his wife and daughter to help him collect vegetable leaves from local vegetable vendors who donate vegetables to Yuan. Yuan's daughter always protests. She is about to sit for the college entrance exam. She regards collecting donated vegetable leaves as a disgrace. Yuan says to us that some of the swans in his backyard will be able to fly away in a year. But some will never go away since their wings or legs are broken. If they are set free, they will die soon.
Yuan works as a repairman only for half the year. When swans begin to arrive in October, he shuts down his business and gets busy. He goes to the lake in the morning and in the evening everyday. The lake is about 1.5 kilometers away from his home. His equipment is simple and effective: a second-hand motorbike, a telescope, a water bottle, a sickle, a pair of water-proof rubber trousers, and a torch for the evening patrol.
Yuan says that swans are weakest in the morning and in the evening. He arrives at the lake before sunrise. Before the sunset he goes there again to make sure no poachers sneak into the lake area and no young swans get separated from the group.
In his younger days, Yuan limited his beat to the sawn lake only. But later his patrol extended to two other lakes about dozens of kilometers away from home. His wife was against his faraway trip for she worried that the physical exertion of morning-evening trips day in day out might be too much for him.
So he set up a swan hotline at home. Last winter, Yuan called the local police substation to say that he had received a call saying that a swan had been caught by a hunter's trap and was not able to fly. It happened that the patrol car had been out. Yuan was asked to wait for the car to pick him up. But when the police car arrived, Yuan had already set out on his motorbike to rescue the swan. When his family finally found him later that night, Yuan was wet all over holding the swan in his arms, and he was too cold to say a word.
Over the years, Yuan has rescued more than 300 swans. Injured swans are always agitated. But when Yuan is operating on them, they become tame. They find Yuan trustworthy and put their long neck on Yuan's necks while Yuan applies medicine to the wound.
On day in November 1999, Yuan found a swan injured on his patrol. Frightened, the swan refused to come to Yuan. It whined painfully. When Yuan waded into the water and tried to approach it, the swan escaped to the deepwater area. So Yuan stood in the shallow water and acted as if he were a swan. He coaxed the swan for more than two hours before it understood Yuan's wish. It swam to Yuan's arms. The swan had a broken wing. Yuan was unable to set it right. That night Yuan held the swan in his arms and wept.
Yuan is strongly against the haphazard development projects on the swan lake. He has drawn a map with all the details indicating where the wetland is, where the fresh water is and where swans gather in the lake. Though he is not an expert on swans, he knows what the lake offers to the swans: forest, freshwater, wetland, and rich food. If any of the four is destroyed, swans can't survive there. A few years ago, some resort villas were built by the lake despite Yuan's fierce protest. Now the wetland is being invaded by silt. He says swans will lose the food and water if primitive ecology at the lake is destroyed. Last year, when he spotted a group of swans lost on a beach when they failed to find freshwater, Yuan knew that what he had predicted had come true. He asked people to open up the creek that had been stopped by a sand dike. But the creek got choked in the silt before it was able to reach the lake. On November 18, he found that a young swan had been trapped in the silt and died there.
If Yuan had put his heart into his repair trade since his youthful days, he would have been able to live a comfortable life today like many of his fellow villagers. But he just can't give up his lifelong passion for swans. The money he has spent on swans, if roughly calculated, is up to 200,000, a sum that could allow his family to build a new house and live comfortably. But his family still lives in a dilapidated four-room bungalow. But Yuan and his family do not regret what they have done for swans. They find the meaning of life in doing things for swans.
(Translated by David)