Or Bosnia and Herzegovina. Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama make up Central America. Notice that had I not used the Oxford Comma there, you’d be thinking “Costa Rica and Panama” was a country like Trinidad and Tobago. Or Antigua and Barbuda. MORE

Catastrophic floods following three days of extremely heavy rain this month have left large portions of Bosnia and Serbia submerged and millions of people and animals in desperate need of help. Please join BlogPaws, Pet 360 and World Vets in the global disaster response effort to the Bosnia and Serbia flooding. MORE

Along the Drina River, which marks the border between Serbia and Bosnia, lies the 6 km / 4 mi long and 500 m / 1600 ft deep Tresnjica River Gorge, on a small tributary of the Drina – and a Griffon Vulture Sanctuary. The coronavirus has locked us all in, literally, doing something that was totally unthinkable only a few months ago: it has prevented us from birding abroad! And now we are all dreaming about new destinations to explore, once airports are working again and borders re-open. MORE

Somewhere between the latest TV footage from Bosnia, I saw a pair of ornithologists, one a biology student, the other one the Natural History Museum director, birding the nearby mountain. I think I was 19 when I made my first bucket list of things I’d like to do, from horse-back riding to sailing, rafting, caving, climbing… all sort of things Willie Garvin was good at (minus the knife throwing). Somewhere at the very back of the list was birdwatching. Why at the back? MORE

Our destination lies further west, along the Drina River, which marks the border between Serbia and Bosnia. Morning at the slopes of Mt. Povlen, a quick stop filled with a song that sounds familiar, but I haven’t heard it since last year. Checking it on my phone – yes, it is an Ortolan Bunting ! We are heading to the 6 km / 4 mi long and 500 m / 1600 ft deep Tresnjica River Gorge, on a small tributary of the Drina originating on the slopes of Povlen – and a Griffon Vulture Sanctuary. MORE

Yet, Bosnia and Herzegovina was the very heartland of former Yugoslavia, with Sarajevo in its geographical centre. My friend is an ornithologist at the National Museum, Bosnia’s biggest and best-endowed museum of ancient and, especially, natural history. Trips Balkans Bosnia and Herzegovina SarajevoGonna take a sentimental journey. Gonna set my heart at ease …. Gotta take that sentimental journey. Sentimental journey home. MORE

The Ural Owl inhabits old and undisturbed boreal forests, in an unbroken belt from Sweden and Finland across Russia to Japan, and is rarely seen to the south, only here and there, in the Carpathians (Slovakia/Ukraine/Romania/eastern Serbia) and Dinaric Alps (Croatia/Bosnia/western Serbia). MORE

This whole mess reminds me of other similar situations.Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda. I suppose I've come to this pretty late and gorilla people already knew that this trouble was brewing. The rebel forces in the Congo have controlled the gorilla sector of Virunga since 2007. Clearly, I haven't been following this as I should have been. Right now, I am frustrated with the EU and the UN. There is a crisis and the UN and the EU do the proverbial "fiddling while Rome burns." MORE