Axe-shaped Paddy 斧頭田
Stop 7 of the Wetland walk · 濕地路線第7站
First Ivory and Pearl rice, then old Shui Hau and Hong Kong varieties: villagers were proud of their black glutinous rice.
The team is looking for "black glutinous", "rat's tooth" and "Chai Mei", and testing "Fa Yiu Tsai", "Kam Pau Ngan" and "Tso Kuk Tsai".
As the rice heads, skipper butterflies come to the grass.
The critically endangered Yellow-breasted Bunting stops here in autumn to feed on the rice before flying on south.
Bird migration: each spring and autumn, millions of birds fly between their breeding grounds in the north, as far as Siberia, and their winter homes in the south, as far as Australia. They can't do it in one go: they must stop to rest and refuel on the way, and Shui Hau is one of those stops.
We now keep 13 Hong Kong rice varieties growing here.
先種象牙粘及珍珠米，再加入水口及香港本地品種；村民昔日以盛產黑糯米自豪。
團隊尋找「黑糯米」、「老鼠牙」、「齊眉」，並試種「花腰仔」、「金包銀」、「早穀仔」。
稻米抽穗時，弄蝶等喜愛禾本科的蝴蝶隨之出現。
極度瀕危的黃胸鵐秋季在此停留，吃稻米補充體力，再繼續南飛。
候鳥遷徙：每年春秋兩季，數以百萬計的雀鳥往返北方的繁殖地（遠至西伯利亞）及南方的度冬地（遠至澳洲）。牠們無法一口氣飛完，途中必須停下休息、補充能量，水口正是其中一個中途站。
我們現時保育 13 個香港稻米品種。