Birdwatching in Serbia
At the beggining, a disclaimer: I have absolutely no clue whatsoever about birds, birdwatching, nor birding. But the article on pelican birds near Belgrade really caught my attention today, because, who doesn’t like pelicans? They are weird looking, have great beaks and they make all sorts of cool office stuff out of them.
Back to the point. It turns out that Serbia is, according to this article and to the British Birdwatching magazine, a number one “off the beaten track” destination in Europe for birdwatching. To quote one of their journalists, and reputedly the first foreign birdwatcher to tour Serbia for 15 years, Mike Unwin:
Serbia undoubtedly has its problems. The economy has not yet recovered from a near decade of sanctions and the strain of accommodating nearly one million refugees, and the average monthly wage is among the lowest in Europe. This makes Serbia’s natural resources vulnerable to those who’ll pay good money to exploit them – most notably Italian hunters, who massacre Serbian birds with impunity.
In September 2004 (shortly after I returned), this grisly trade hit the deadlines when Croatian customs officers impounded a truckload of dead Serbian birds en route to Italy. And while there is no shortage of knowledgeable ornithologists and committed conservationists, there is little interest in birds among the general public.
But the birds are there, the infrastructure is perfectly functional – if a little creaky – and the people are charming. Ecotourism will no doubt arrive soon, and with luck its revenue will prove that there’s more to be gained from protecting wildlife than selling it to hunters.
Meanwhile Serbia is a cheap and accessible destination, with some real surprises in store for the visiting birder and some excellent guides to show you around.
You can read his full, day-by-day trip report here, and on this address you can find tons of usefull information and other links that may be of interest to you if you are a birdwatcher.
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Yeah right, now even birds are being oppressed and discriminated by the Serbs! Go on, Viktor, fuck Serbia in the ass and call her a bitch, that’s what you do best!!! From article to article, every single time I optimistically believe that’s it – you’ve hit the bottom of your Serbophobia, but you always prove me wrong.
If you want know the Real Truth™ about this issue, the one that the media financed by G. Soros have kept away from you, read this article (I have many more, and they are all very interesting):
http://www.nebojsamalic.com/serb-eating-terrorist-birds-pwned
That article doesnt exist as far as I can see….
On the topic there is quite a lot of money in bird smuggling so the authorities will have to be active as increasing amounts of nature tourists come this way. At least some of them will be looking to take home souvenirs…
Keep your eyes out for an Italian lady who’s looking to take out one of Serbia’s Great Bustards.
Well, well, well…either Ian, Owen or Nemanja (I suspect the latter) showing a weird kind of imagination (!). Imagination, hey! It can’t be all bad.
Hahahahaha…...haha…ha…h..a…..no, I tried to find this humorous, but it’s not funny really, just pathetic. Sad case, really.
Of course Whitebird (BG 2.0) is Nemanja (BG 2.0) – you can easily recognize his screecher monkey style of writing. All he does is scream and harshly abuse those of us who disagree with the parroting of the “humanitarian” bombers. And when we aren’t posting he still has to get out his screeching.
What would be best for Belgrade would be to send Nemanja to the jungles of Africa where he’d be surrounded by screecher monkeys, so he couldn’t bother any humans. Belgrade and Serbia suffer from his ilk – rude, harsh, Serb-hating, aping others who hate Serbs.
The media: radio, TV, print and blogs must clearly make it known in Serbia how important it is to send Nemanja to Africa and not allow him back to Serbia. Politicians must spend time, including after elections, to visit screecher monkey Nemanja and make sure he establishes the jungles as his new home.
Serbs don’t throw out those who hate Serbs, Ida. That’s how the whole problem came to be in Kosovo — extreme tolerance on the part of Serbs, as is typical, and the great irony is that it is exactly what Serbs are accused of not being, but of course that’s by deliberate and conscious policy by those who continue to hysterically demonize the only country that came out of the former Yugoslavia that is still very much multi-ethnic.
Nemanja can live wherever he likes, nobody should interfere with that, and continue to be a true NEMA-nja. He has managed to politicize a topic on this thread that I would never have politicized, myself.
How about an article now on the Serbian tennis stars that the whole world is falling in love with, Viktor?
Seriously, it’s not such a bad idea. Serbia’s road network makes it a lot easier to get around the country and see different habitats than a trip to the Danube delta would allow. Bird-watchers in the UK will travel from Lands End to the northernmost tip of Shetland (detouring via Norfolk as well) to see something interesting.
I found the first comment rather funny
Bganon is a bigger expert on tennis I think so maybe he can do a better job writing about Jelena, Ana, Nole and our other players than I could.
I’m writing something up about our tennis stars today. First one will be on them / their potential, strength and weaknesses.
If one of our quarter finalists wins the French Open I’ll do another one at the beginning of next week.
I’d also like to do a general one about contemporary history of Serbian / former Yugoslav tennis but another time soon…
interestingly, out of nine comments, onlu one (1) has anything to with birds and birding… to reveal you a secret, at the same fishfarm where those pelicans were observed, glossy ibis can be seen as well
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