10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 20, 2012
This is the time of year that we rightfully contemplate the noble Turkey. The very first thing we notice about this large member of the Galliformes is that there is a wild version and a domestic version, and although the two are rather different, they are both given the same species name, Meleagris gallopavo. And it isn’t.
10,000 Birds
FEBRUARY 23, 2024
Nesting is now confined to Morocco, irregularly in Boghari in Algeria and in Birecik, Turkey.” (The Sadly, they no longer breed in Algeria, while in Turkey no free-flying birds remain. (In On a visit in October 2022, I found ibises feeding with cattle in scruffy roadside paddocks adjacent to the marismas ( photographs below ).
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10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 17, 2021
Still, the outing did not produce any new species for the year, or enough good photos for a post here. Instead, I have chosen to write about an idea I’ve had percolating for a while: to tell you what the most common species are down here. Cattle Egrets are very common outside of the most urbanized areas.
10,000 Birds
MAY 7, 2020
First, 800 km of driving from Belgrade through Bulgaria to very NE corner of Greece and the Dadia Forest National Park with its 36 species of diurnal raptors, out of Europe’s 38. From there to the nearby Evros River Delta, at the very border with Turkey, with more easterly species such as the Spur-winged Plover.
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 1, 2022
Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks , Muscovy Ducks and Blue-winged Teals were around us, together with Green , Great and Little Blue Herons , Cattle and Great White Egrets , Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons , plus one locally rare Pinnated Bittern in the floating vegetation, as well as several dozen Neotropical Cormorants.
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 14, 2018
Unlike Barred Owls they were accompanied by no great controversy , and unlike Cattle Egrets or Eurasian Collared Doves they didn’t come as an abrupt continent-hopping surprise. But shifting baseline syndrome doesn’t just apply to things that have become diminished.
10,000 Birds
MAY 8, 2013
The smellier the better, particularly as, unusually for birds, many species can boast a robust sense of smell. Maybe it’s important to note that Turkey Vultures , in particular, were well-loved by , and even inspirational to , the people that lived here before Europeans arrived. Vultures famously feed on carrion. Dead things.
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