Greece and Hunting - Animal Rights Zone

The Kerkini Lake, Greece: Dipped One, Got One

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 27, 2016

While crossing Gramos Mountain in northern Greece, a Dendrocopos woodpecker flew over the road and landed in a pine tree. It’s the boar hunting season. I dipped a bird recently – possibly a lifer. I had two possibilities, an uncommon Middle Spotted or scarce White-backed Woodpecker – which would have been a lifer for me.

Greece

Greece Boars Woodpeckers Eagles

Only for Dogs and Birders – Kalamas Delta, Greece

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 15, 2015

“The estuary and the delta of the River Kalamas form the most important wetland of northwest Greece”, so the “ Birding in Greece ” guidebook claims for the area where I am heading, a bit late since I overslept this morning. I am checking the grass for any flash of white and soon my suspicion is confirmed: Cattle Egrets (cover photo)!

Greece

Greece Dogs Pelicans Cattle

Acheron Delta, Greece: Hell is Closed for Renovation

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

And here I am now, avoiding the two barking dogs trying to bite my tires while I am driving through pre-dawn darkness towards the delta of the river Styx, or Acheron , as it is known today at the Ionian Sea coast of Greece. A guy on a motorbike is approaching me… perhaps a leader of the hunt to warn me off the area for safety reasons?

Greece

Greece Serbia Hunters Cows

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BIRDING ACHERON: Hell is closed for renovation

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

And here I am now, avoiding the two barking dogs trying to bite my tires while I am driving through pre-dawn darkness towards the delta of the river Styx, or Acheron, as it is known today at the Ionian Sea coast of Greece. A guy on a motorbike is approaching me… perhaps a leader of the hunt to warn me off the area for safety reasons?

Greece

Greece Serbia Hunters Cows

Could have done better? Confessions of a year-lister.

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 29, 2023

I also travelled to Kerkini in Northern Greece in June and Kefalonia in south-east Greece in October, so my overall year list was a more satisfactory 272 species. I only scored 43 in March, but that was because I was away birding in Portugal and Estonia. My overseas trips did boost the overall year list considerably.

Estonia

Estonia Portugal Greece Barn Owls

The Beach Falcon

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

An afternoon is already growing old while I am driving downhill to the Livadi marsh at the island of Kefallonia, Greece. In the approaching sunset, a male Common Kestrel is hunting… possibly some of the Common Quail whose “wet-my-lips” I can hear from the grass. Trips falcons Greece'

Falcons

Falcons Greece Madagascar Game

Fur and Fangs rather than Feathers and Beaks

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 12, 2024

A Greek Wild Cat , photographed near Lake Kerkini I’ve had a few encounters with wild cats, too, in both France and Greece. These cats are quite numerous around Lake Kerkini in Northern Greece, and I’ve encountered them there several times, including the individual above that allowed itself to be photographed.

Fur

Fur Otters Bulgaria Estonia

Foreign Languages on a Birding Trip

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

While tracking brown bears in Greece some time ago, B. The story goes, after the coffee at the first homestead, he visited the neighbour’s, where he had a tsipouro (or two – in itself, a reason enough to travel to Greece). His host’s house was smoke-blackened, everything but his shiny hunting rifles. At some stage they stopped.

San Jose

San Jose Bears Greece Costa Rica

Definitively the Egyptians!

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 3, 2013

And so, I was driving from Greece to Serbia… in central Macedonia, two birds were circling not far from the motorway… black and white (above)… perhaps White Storks on migration? Neighbouring (FYRO) Macedonia nowadays has about 20 pairs, while two decades ago they had 135! Reasons for this situation are numerous.

Sudan

Sudan Macedonia Botswana Serbia

A winter miscellany

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2023

Hawfinches have declined in the UK in recent years and become harder to see, though they remain common on the Continent: this year I’ve only seen them in Greece. It was a Barn Owl, or what country people around here still call the White Owl, hunting the water meadows at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

Barn Owls

Barn Owls Rats Japan Blackbirds

Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History from Cave Art to Conservation–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

He continues with images found in illuminated manuscripts such as Catherine of Cleves’s Book of Hours and Frederick II of Germany’s On the Art of Hunting With Birds. Egyptian tomb painting depicting duck hunting in the marshes, from the eBook version of Birds and Us, © 2022, Tim Birkhead and Princeton University Press.

Dissection

Dissection Birds Europe Eggs

Highs and Lows from the Champions of the Flyway Bird Race in Eilat, Israel

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2016

Uncontrolled hunting, commercial and otherwise, is threatening formerly species like Eurasian Turtle-Dove with extinction, and is taking a horrible toll on just about everything else including Blackcaps , Ortolan Buntings and even Eurasian Bee-eaters. This year’s recipient was the Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS) in Greece.

Israel

Israel Costa Rica Eagles Raised

My Year so Far – Modest but Satisfactory

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2024

The next couple of months will of course see a boost to my British list, as summer migrants flood into England, while forthcoming trips to Cyprus, Greece and northern Spain will also turbocharge the European list.

Spain

Spain Eagles North America Cyprus

We are Just Money Grubbers

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2016

I dipped it once before and only this autumn found them in Greece. 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). Lesser White-fronted Goose by Ingar Oien. 40,000 birds.” (The

Montenegro

Montenegro Serbia Greece Bulgaria

Andalucia’s City-Slicker Falcons

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.

Falcons

Falcons Spain Europe Portugal

The return of the Old Man

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2024

Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills goes on to give greater detail of the former nesting sites in Europe: it could once be found “in southern Germany and Austria, in the valleys of the upper Rhine and Danube Rivers, and in the Alps of Switzerland, Italy and Germany, and perhaps in Hungary and Greece”.

Morocco

Morocco Austria Algeria Germany