Modern workers are constantly very anxious. We tend to be obsessed with the future rather than pay attention to what is happening around us. 

At dawn, Zhang came out of the door with a birdwatching mirror and a cell phone stand. There are very few people getting up this early, only a few sanitation workers and old people doing morning exercise. From the treetops at a distance came the bird's singing, sweet and melodious.

Zhang pays special attention to different sounds. Today he has good luck for he hears the special crisp "squeak hey, squeak hey" birdsong, it seems to be the community's "new guests." He set up a bird-watching mirror, adjusted his mobile phone, and photographed a round-shaped bird with gray-brown feathers, a blackhead pointed tailed, and yellowmouth, with the scientific name Eophona personata.

Zhang, born in the 80s, the head of an Internet startup in Zhejiang, in the company, he is a young and talented "director".

He used to be a workaholic, since the company is a start-up, the staff is basically dozens of people on the team, as the head of the region, he threw himself into the cause, getting up at 5 a.m., going to sleep after midnight. Businesses have to survive and make a profit. With external peer competition and internal teams PK, professional performance is the total indicator of his career, which breaks into small targets such as team building, market development, customer service ...

"When the performance is not satisfactory, I simply couldn’t sleep, thinking about where it goes wrong and what to do next ... Even when eating and sleeping I am thinking about work. "

"Then I found out that even if I work day after night, the outcome wasn't necessarily good, and in that state, the whole team was tense, which can hurt morale as well as health, working with overdraft time and energy is not the way for long-time sustainable output."

During the epidemic at the beginning of the year, people trapped at home cannot go anywhere, in addition to the occasional video conference, a lot of time at home was just spent on browsing through mobile phone apps and accompanying the family. In those days, Zhang began to look up out of the window and found unexpected surprises.

"I bought this house in Dingqiao, which is located in a new neighborhood with excellent virescence. My home is on the 4th floor, there is a tree outside the window, I have not paid attention to it before, but that day I saw a plump little bird with bright color on the tree. At that time, I could not name it correctly, only knew that it was good-looking and well-sounding. That day I watched it jumping around, turning its head for a long time..."

The unexpected observation of the bird made him happy. He wanted to know what the bird was, so he sent a picture taken on his cell phone to a college classmate. The classmate told him that it was called Eophona personata.

"This college classmate of mine works in a government department, and he is a birdwatching enthusiast, every weekend holiday he will take a professional lens to the mountain forest or beach to take pictures of birds, even posts them occasionally in Moments. My interest in birds was also greatly influenced by him. "

After graduating from college Zhang has taken a specialized course in video-making, the vivid figures of birds in the treetops, she lights on the idea of shooting records, so he spent more than 1000 yuan to buy an entry-level birdwatching mirror, plus a phone stand, which is all his equipment.

Birds are most active in the morning, Zhang has to go to work during the day, to photographing birds has to be early.

"Over the years I've developed a habit of waking up at 5 a.m. on time, no matter whether I go to sleep at 11 p.m., 12 p.m. or later. After waking up I was either dazed or just looked at my mobile phone, thinking of problems at work. "

After starting birdwatching, Zhang still gets up at 5:30, walks around the community with equipment and looks for birds, takes photographs, returns home around 6:30, the mood relaxed and happy to his wife carefully cooked breakfast, and then go out, drive to work. (Winter starts a little later, but it's also dark.) 

Every time a new bird is taken, he sends photos and videos to his classmates asking for advice on species, habits, shouting, eating, distribution..."Wow, I've learned a lot of unheard knowledge. "

"Some birds are afraid of strangers, and some are bold. Some of the melodious calls are for courtship, some of the fierce calls are for fighting, all the birds have a strong sense of territory ... The best season for birdwatching is in the spring, autumn, and winter when there are fewer leaves on the tree, which makes it easier to observe birds; in the summer the leaves are thick, often people can hear birds but can’t spot them. "

From the record of birdwatching, Zhang also gets more insight into life and work.

"My friends around me are usually very anxious, fighting for a decent career, buying a house or a car, children education, busy, we will only stare at the front, never pay attention to the side. We are constantly very anxious. We tend to be obsessed with the future rather than pay attention to what is happening around us.”

"A lot of times, when you immerse yourself in something completely, it feels infinitely complex and chaotic, that’s when we take the exit, slow down a bit to observe the big picture, it may lead you to a solution all of a sudden. Looking for suitable opportunities to slow down, to see a tree’s changes throughout the four seasons, to observe a bird, often there will be unexpected surprises and discoveries waiting, it can also attribute to a comfortable and serene heart. "

Zhang said he had a goal: to keep taking photos and videos for a long time and find 100 species of birds in his neighborhood.

Cheng Guolong, vice president of Zhejiang Wild Bird Association also found Zhang’s idea very interesting. " Zhang insists on birdwatching, I think it is very good, but if only in his own community, it is not very realistic to find 100 species of birds. There are about 100 species of birds in Hangzhou, excluding migratory birds. I suggest that Zhang can go out, for example, to the Botanical Garden or Xixi Wetlands, which are the most bird-intensive places in Hangzhou."

(Edited by Ye Ke, Translated by Wu Hongjie)