10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 27, 2016

It’s the boar hunting season. The next morning is for the Kerkini Lake, one of the youngest national parks of Greece, protected only ten years ago, in 2006 and inhabited by 11 amphibian, 27 reptilian, 44 mammal and 312 bird species. One Grey-headed Woodpecker flies across the road – a promising start. Enough of the mountains.

Greece 259

Greece Boars Woodpeckers Eagles 259

10,000 Birds

JUNE 26, 2013

The survival of songbirds depends in part upon eliminating illegal hunting. If you are a migratory bird in Europe and western Asia, this is your sweet spot. That means passing over the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East, where you’re liable to get shot, trapped, or otherwise hunted.

Cambodia 179

Cambodia Slaughtered Slaughter Cyprus 179

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2012

This is despite the fact that the Northern Bald Ibis was one of the earliest officially protected species, thanks to a decree by Archbishop Leonhard of Salzburg in 1504. This strange but beautifully plumaged bird was widely known throughout Europe as the Waldrapp (meaning “Forest Crow”).

Endangered Species 238

Endangered Species Species Morocco South Africa 238

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2016

After the Common Starling , my second bird of the morning becomes the largest eagle of Europe, the White-tailed Eagle , this one with a fairly white tail, yet still dark beak, that I estimate to be in its 3rd calendar year. Looking miserable with its feathers soaked, one yellow and blue European Bee-eater sits on a dead branch.

Sheep 185

Sheep Serbia Eagles Mammals 185

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

the development of field-based ornithological research in Europe and Great Britain; a quick step back through the history to look at bird protection, conservation, and our precarious future, with a focus on Birkhead’s long-term (50 years!) Common Guillemot research at Skomer Island, Wales.

Dissection 264

Dissection Birds Europe Eggs 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 24, 2020

The controversial management of Scotland’s grouse moors for these hunts is discussed in last week’s edition of Birds and Booze.). Red Grouse by English ornithologist and artist John Gould (1804-1881), from The Birds of Europe.

Sheep 262

Sheep Branding Ireland Fowl 262

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2012

Sometimes they have to protect their catches from piratic African Fish Eagles who swoop down as soon as they that see a Saddle-bill has successfully caught a fish. It breeds on chimneys, roofs, buildings and trees throughout Europe, parts of Asia and even North Africa. They also prey on frogs and crabs.

Africa 250

Africa Tanzania South Africa Uganda 250

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2021

I was especially interested in “To Hide From God,” the chapter on songbird slaughter and protection in Cyprus. Has it really been 21 years (almost) from the publication of Jonathan Franzen’s New Yorker article, “ Emptying the Skies ,” six years since the documentary with the same name?

Cyprus 264

Cyprus Slaughter Slaughtered Research 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2014

That was a wild cat, a wild Wildcat, the cat that lives in the wild because that is where it is from and where it belongs, at the southern end of its pan-African range that extended at one time well into Europe and Asia. Read what you want about the origin of domestic cats; the genetic evidence is not properly sampled.

Feral Cats 257

Feral Cats North America Feral Cats 257

Critter News

SEPTEMBER 6, 2009

In a co-ordinated protest, members of the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) destroyed hundreds of traps and set free the birds inside. The hunting and selling of ortolans, which have suffered a Europe-wide decline of 40-50% in the last 40 years, has been illegal in France since 1999. From the Guardian.

France 100

France Endangered Species Protesters Protest 100

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 15, 2018

Habitat destruction combined with hunting has pushed them away from their former breeding grounds. What remains of their range is currently protected as the Pastures of Great Bustard Special Nature Reserve, but in the last several years there are only a dozen birds left, and only one adult male among them.

Serbia 144

Serbia Romania Hungary Hunting 144

10,000 Birds

MARCH 7, 2017

Even when hunting in sub-freezing temperatures on the edge of the Mongolian border or doing her chores around the family ger (yurt) in the isolated Altai Mountains, Aisholpan beams. It’s constructed in three acts: Home, Festival, Hunting. Aisholpan will not be considered a true Eagle Hunter till she successfully hunts.

Eagles 126

Eagles Mongolia Hunters Hunting 126

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

One would think that for a species as common in Europe as the Grey-headed Woodpecker , the HBW would spend some effort to update the species entry. Instead, the entry asks us to “Please bear with us while this update takes place” A few months ago, I wrote an email to my bank asking them a specific question. A worrying trend.

Myanmar 147

Myanmar Birds China Chicago 147

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2016

Out of just under 200 bird species I observed this year in SE Europe, there are 6 threatened species. This species’ population is suspected to have decreased rapidly, owing to levels of hunting on the staging and wintering grounds, and habitat deterioration (largely as a result of land cultivation). Common Pochard Aythya ferina.

Serbia 203

Serbia Montenegro Greece Bulgaria 203

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2024

According to Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World , a handsome volume written by James Hancock, James Kushan and Philip Kohl and published by Academic Press in 1992, Geronticus eremita “once nested in the mountains of central Europe, across northern Africa and into the Middle East. But this range is now much reduced.

Morocco 246

Morocco Austria Algeria Germany 246

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2024

If you see a flock of kestrels in southern Europe, then the chances are that they will be Lessers, for the Common Kestrel never flocks, though occasionally in summer you will see a family hunting together. And unlike the Common Kestrel, Lessers are highly gregarious.

Falcons 246

Falcons Spain Europe Portugal 246

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

The eider is the most common bird for hunting and eating, it lives near all of Greenland’s coasts and breeds on small islands such as Kitsissunnguit. The Arctic terns are very enduring and have the longest bird migration from their way across the Atlantic Sea to western Europe and along the west coast of Africa to the Antarctic waters.

North America 228

North America Eagles Breeding Eggs 228

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2014

Later, Harry Fuller, President of the Klamath Bird Observatory, led us to an open meadow where we saw a pair of Great Gray Owls hunting in a meadow. Once endangered, they lead happy, protected lives, oblivious to the tourists who love them. Larry’s BBOTY – Great Gray Owl.

2014 245

2014 Costa Rica South Africa Penguins 245

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

Hunting: You may have noticed that the Written Species Accounts include a section on hunting. I am a city girl and until I became a birder my contact with hunting was limited to occasionally seeing dead deer on the tops of cars in upstate New York. So–not a fan of hunting. I was really taken aback when I saw this.

Ducks 177

Ducks Geese North America Hunters 177

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2024

But not in Europe either. One of these pages is dedicated to the harm and benefit the species has for humans, while a full page is dedicated to instructions on how to hunt the bird: The translation of the first sentence indicates the general tone: “They are not very shy, and easy to shoot.” Not an in-vitro photo.

Birds 246

Birds Europe Science Illinois 246