Field day with falcon boxes!

So, we spent last Thursday in the field installing nest boxes for the Red Footed Falcon, which is a globally endangered species. Historically, Red-Footed Falcons do not build nests, but use the nests from old Rook colonies. Rooks are not so popular with the farmers, so they have been "persecuted" in recent years, and their colonies have been in decline. Also, the falcons like to live in tree stands near open areas (like agricultural land), so that they can hunt for insects (the falcons are pretty small).

So, we placed some nest boxes out among some tree stands near agrilcultural land. Often near water swarming with all sorts of "falcon food." We did this loop during the day in northwest Bulgaria, covering quite an ammount of territory actually. Where we were is much flatter than most of Bulgaria (most of which is just chock-a-block with mountains), but the region is scattered with rolling hills with some limestone outcroppings up above river valleys. We passed through all these dreamy-quiet little villages of ramshakle little old houses with gorgeous flower gardens full of tulips at the peak of their blooming. It makes me happy to see that even in the poor regions outside the more quickly devloping larger towns, that people still have some beauty in their lives. We passed over the Iskar (among other rivers I believe); it was brimming with spring runnoff and far enough away from the bigger roads to be relatively free of litter.

Frankly, I am not sure how to react to the litter problem here. My instinct is to condemn it! To scold Bulgarians that I see littering in the same way that I would scold any American that I saw littering back home (full disclosure: I was once a volunteer park ranger, so shaming people into picking up after themselves was part of my JOB!). In the US, we are told from a very young age, "Don't through that on the ground! It is bad for the animals!" I remember all the education campaigns about birds getting their heads stuck in the plastic rings for soda cans, and endangered sea turtles dying from ingesting plastic bags that resembled jellyfish. Plus, in the US, there are signs everywhere warning of steep fines (I've seen $1,000 posted) for littering.

The hidden linchpin in the American system is this: we have had for years, and continue to have, a dependable and efficient waste collection/disposal system. Despite the fact that we are filling landfills and as a nation, produce far to much trash, that trash has a destination. And when the land fills are full, they are capped, burried, monitored and turned into parks! In Bulgaria, I have seen trash heaps on the side of the road, and official landfills and are not nearly as well contained as the ones I grew up seeing (and I grew up going to the dump with my father, as we didn't have collection in our town). Here, if you throw your trash in the dumpster, it is possible that it will be collected in a timely manner. It is also entirely possible that it will stay there until the dumpster overflows and the trash blows around on the street.

In any case, I picked up a few pieces of trash at the end of our field day (causing the Bulgarians to scratch their heads), at our last falcon box site. It was near a fishing pond, with islands in the middle, that happened to be home to a breeding colony of White Egrets (Бяла Чапла) and Night Herons (Нощна Чапла). I had never seen Night Herons before, so it was a highlight for me! Here is a wider shot of the pond.

Here is a "close up" in relatively speaking terms. The white things in the trees are the egrets!