Looking for birds, somewhere in the middle of Mediteranean sea

My name is Nika Budagashvili, ecologist and keen birder from the country of Georgia. I am volunteering at organisation BIOM, in the project called „Life Artina“. The project is about the conservation and research work of three locally and internationally threatened bird species: Audoun's gull, Scopoli's shearwater and Yelkouan shearwater.

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.