Our „working
office“ is situated on the island Lastovo that is extremely beautiful and quiet
place. Every day is different here, every sunset and every sunrise is
different. Its a small paradise in Croatia, with nice people and atmosphere.
What should be the
sourse of pleasure for the birder during the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown,
when all the bars and restaurants are closed and you are on a small island that
is in the middle of the sea?! – It's Birdwatching. We were here during the
spring migration, when all the birds leave their wintering places and go to
their nesting places. When the weather is bad, they have to take a rest
somewhere and this place may be the island called Lastovo that is in the middle
of the sea. And here we are – people who can watch and look for birds every
day, all the time. The luckiest day of our birding here ended up with 45 bird
species and it is not bad result for such a small place. After the fieldwork,
when the bird conservation becomes tiring you can always take a rest and go
birding, its an exelent way to take a rest by being in a quiet place that is
surrounded by different species of birds that are singing nonstop, watching
those beautiful creatures and listening to them will definitly give you a
chance to rest.
Island is full of
dead trees but you can't find any woodpeckers here, they could not menage to
reach this island. You won't find any feral pigeons or common sparrows here
that couse a bit strange feeling when you don't see one of the common birds of
the world. The bird species that is known for all of us and is very common
lives here during the winter but when the migration starts and different birds
come on Lastovo European robins leave the island, for some reason they don't
like this island for nesting and migrate somewhere
far or near from Lastovo.
When I came on this
island, the first bird I saw was Mediterranean Shag. I wanted a good picture of
this species but they were not very friendly with me and were always far from
me when I was trying to take a picture. But one day the storm called „Hugo“ did
one and only good thing in the history of its existance and brought Shag very
close with me so I could finally take a good picture.
Now its
time to tell you about this very beautiful and very angry bird. It's name is
Subalpine warbler, one of the most beautiful warbler species in my opinion. I
was waiting for their arrival for a long time here and one day my colleague
Dries came from the field with an excellent news. When he asked me If I had an
idea about the possible bird species that he saw in the field I immediately
realized that It was Subalpine warbler, because he knew that I was waiting for
this bird for a long time. The next day I took my camera and went birding to
look for my long wished bird and I succeed.
It's one of the
most territorial birds I've ever seen. When you walk near some bush that is a
nesting place for the couple, male immediately appears on the top of the bush
and starts singing and displaying his reddish throat and that means „you have
to leave the place as soon as possible, if you don't want problems with him“.
There are no any
lakes on the island, but you can find some small ponds that attract migratory
birds as a resting place during the migration. This beautiful bird is Black
winged stilt that spent about one week near the pond on the field below Lastovo
town together with the partner. I spent several days and hours watching them.
When they finally recovered energy, left the island and continued their trip to
their breeding grounds.
Another bird that was attracted by the pond
of Lastovo is this Wood Sandpiper. If you know what to do to get closer with
these birds you will be able to take a lucky picture that will be reminder of
the moment when you saw a bird.
Here on these
pictures you see some more different species of the bird that were seen on the
island. There are Pied flycatcher, wood pigeon and northern wheatear. We have
also found Eurasian Wryneck and Black headed bunting, both were first records
for the island.
On this picture you see Whinchat. Probably
these migratory bird species spent the most time here on the island. We had
this species in our observations for quiet a long time, But now it's getting more and more difficult to find
them on the island.
Maybe
you think that Pheasants are common birds for Europe and there is nothing with
them to be exited but at least for me they are very unique birds. I have some
reasons for that. The first and most important is the origin of this bird. The
latin name Phasianus colchicus is the answer. Kolkheti is the ancient region
from my country and it is the place where this bird was first described and
after that they were introduced in other parts of Europe for hunting purpose.
This bird species don't migrate and that's how this bird managed to come on
this island, people brought it for hunting.
Another reason is the legend how the capital of
Georgia was established. We have an old legend about that: One of our King,
Vakhtang I of Iberia was hunting with raptor. The raptor found pheasant
followed it and during their fast flight both birds ended up in some thermal
water and died. When the king was looking for the birds he saw that place and
decided to build a new town there with the name of Tiflis that comes from the
name of warm water because „Tbili“ means warm in Georgian. Even now you can
find the natural old thermal bath in Tbilisi. Thats how pheasant became an unique bird for Georgians. You will find pheasants on some local coats of arms, on some
emblems, post marks etc. In Georgia.
The project I am
volunteering in is about the conservation and research work of three locally
endangered bird species that breed on isolated islands in Mediterranean sea in
Dalmatian region of Croatia. We are trying to find out the problems that have a
negative effect on our target birds’ populations and do our best to help them
to increase their breeding success. The aim of the project is to find out more
about what are the main problems of the protection of three marine bird
species: The Audouin’s Gull, The Scopoli’s Shearwater and Yelkouan Shearwater.
The project is planning to set up a base for the recovery of marine bird
populations in Special protected areas in southern part of Croatia. I have
already spent nearly four months here and had many memorable moments.
We
were working several small islands that are on the territory of Lastovo Natural
Park. Did some conservation work to help previously mentioned bird species to
have a successful breeding year. Now they have chicks and we hope that they
will all menage to survive. We have also done nest searching and found more
nests of our target birds than was found last year, so it is a positive news
and sign of the success of the project. We do more than 10 sea transects every
month to find the resting and feeding territories for our target birds in the
Mediterranean sea and find out which bird species use the sea routes during the
migration. For the next months as planned according to the project I will go to
another town and volunteer in the local office of the organisation Biom, do
some more fieldwork in the Dinara mountains and will for other bird species
which need to be scientifically understood better.
