Every spring, migratory birds fly to the former tailings pond – that has been purified and is now pristine. [Video provided to chinadaily.com.cn] 

Nature photographer Bai Lixin and his colleagues take snaps of migratory birds this spring at a former mining tailings pond in Baotou in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Two migratory birds dance over the surface of the pond. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Before the photographer arrives at the prime filming point, he captures an image of this beautiful bird in the grass. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The fish in the tailings pond of Baogang Group – China's major steel producer and operator and rare earth base, located in Baotou city – swim to its clear shallow bottom and the migratory birds fly there every spring.

On their journeys, it's an obvious boon for the traveling birds to find the constructed wetland.

In the spring, water birds – such as swans, white cranes, swan geese, grey herons and wild ducks – rest and cavort there, before they head off to distant lands after replenishing their supplies.

Bai Lixin, Chinese national photographer, uses a telephoto lens to capture these monarchs of the sky.

Bai said that on the way to the dam slope, birds such as chicks were constantly startled in the grass, while small animals such as hares and weasels often appeared in their viewfinders.

Every year at this time, he goes there to greet the animals and plants with his camera – and the tailings pond has become a prime check-in place for the nature shutterbugs.