Whats the greatest experiance you've had with a bird

[Tanny]

The greatest experiance I've had was spending eight years studying the Osprey on a small island off the North West coast of Western Australia. I worked for an Oil Company on a two week on and two week off shift. In my spare time I was a volunteer for Conservation and Land Management of Western Australia, mainly studying the four species of marine Turtles that nested on that small island. For my own interest I studied the birds on the Island and the Osprey being the most common became a special bird to me. the Island was only 2 kilometers long and 500 meters at the wides part, there were five small sandy beaches and the rest was rugged wave washed cliffs. Seven pares of Ospreys nested on this island each year and as there were no trees the approach to the nests was very easy as they were on the ground or on the cliffs. I monitored the the nests each year, first the laying of eggs and later the hatching till the eventual first flight of the young. the most Ospreys I counted in the sky at one period was sixteen. All my photograph were taken with an old Pentax SLR camera but I will try to take pictures of them with my digital camera and post some in the gallery.

[Earth Hart]

Winter Solstice 2005, Shapwick Heath Reserve, on the Somerset Levels. With the Sun low in the late afternoon sky, my lady & I watched what seemed like millions of Starlings coming into roost. I wished I'd taken my camera but at least I had a bottle of Moniack Mead & a Bottle of Whisky, so we could drink Hart's Breath(half Mead half Whisky) as the Sun went down. The sight & sound will remain with me for a long time. On que, as the Sundipped below the horizon the Starlings dropped out of the sky into the reeds and alders. We stayed there all night and were welcomed at first light with the voices of all those birds, giving it all to the reborn Sun. We drank our final toast and left the site. On our way back we saw two Cranes in a field of cut maize breaking their fast. I'd never seen them in the wild before. What a way to end our vigil.

[balkantrek]

I have spent a lot of time watching and monitoring Black Vulture, Griffon Vulture and Egyptian Vultures in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria. My most special memory was right at the end of a full day's monitoring at a special vulture feeding station when, just as I was about to leave, a Red Fox started an argument with a Griffon Vulture for the last remaining piece of carrion. One moment the fox would lunge towards the Griffon Vulture showing its teeth, and the next moment the Griffon Vulture would hop back towards the fox with its neck extended and wings out-stretched, forcing the fox to turn tail and retreat ten metres. The confontation went on for a good fifteen minutes before the fox finally gave up the battle and left the Griffon Vulture to finish its feast in peace!