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A kestrel in the rain

10,000 Birds

A Marsh Harrier hunting over Elmley Nature Reserve before the storm The wind was building up as I started my slow drive along the track, pausing every few yards to scan for birds. Observation is strictly from inside a vehicle, safari style, until you reach the main car park and start exploring the rest of this spacious site on foot.

Shelters 220
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The return of the Old Man

10,000 Birds

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 226
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Morning Coffee with Eastern Imperial Eagle

10,000 Birds

Actually, I am not waiting for them, but for the Eastern Imperial Eagle to come here to hunt Susliks – an eagle from one of the last two remaining nests in Serbia. Susliks are becoming rarer: they need cattle to graze and keep the grass short. On some earlier occasion I observed an Imperial Eagle hunting. It is still cold.

Eagles 104
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The Great Bustard Search is On (1)

10,000 Birds

Habitat destruction combined with hunting has pushed them away from their former breeding grounds. In breeding season grazing cattle may walk through the nest, breaking the eggs, while wild and domestic pigs may eat both eggs and chicks. What treats do they face?

Serbia 104
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Only for Dogs and Birders – Kalamas Delta, Greece

10,000 Birds

I am checking the grass for any flash of white and soon my suspicion is confirmed: Cattle Egrets (cover photo)! This species is still uncommon in the Balkans and despite the recent spread, Kalamas is the most reliable site for it in Greece (and this made my only second ever observation of them in Europe).

Greece 233
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The Domestic Turkey and the First Thanksgiving

10,000 Birds

Thus, the cattle we raise for meat and dairy are sometimes called Bos taurus while the extinct wild form is always called Bos primigenius. Some time after the Spanish encounter with the Turkey, birds were brought back to Europe where they were raised and became an important source of food and fancy feathers. According to R.D.

Turkey 203
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Birding Botswana’s Borders

10,000 Birds

I have caught a bus across Europe, but I can’t really claim to have “been” to Germany or Belgium. Hippo and attending Cattle Egret. But I do have rules about whether I can have said to have visited a country, ie does the country “count” which I have inherited from my family, particularly my Dad.

Botswana 162