Page 39 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #12

In the UK, you
to rickety and crumbling nests. Milan and
his friends at the Bird Protection and Study
Society of Serbia have set up a nestbox
programme, providing warm, dry and strong
boxes, so the owls can raise their young safely. a month later what did we find? All the rings
“This has increased breeding productivity by
1.5 chicks per brood, on average,” Milan says.
Celebrating success
At the end of October every year in Kikinda,
there is an owl festival. During the week-long
event children are educated about the owls,
there is music and dancing, poetry and art is
created, and stories are told, all celebrating
the owls. Word has spread, and these owls are
beginning to be cherished. Better still, groups
of owl-aholics are visiting, bringing their
long lenses, notebooks and binoculars, and
boosting the local economy, too.
The image of a friendly owl, made up of
biscuits and cakes, welcomes us to the town.
The local people are used to the tree-pointing,
owl-counting foreigners by now, and enjoy the
eccentric invasion. A smiling man approaches
x4
M gue and speaks to us in Serbian, then in broken
English, “In there, in there! More owl,” he
C ockw se from top r ght: Ceda Vuckov c; Pau ever runs out of owls to ring? “Sometimes,” FIND OUT MORE Long-eared owls feature
´ tells us, enthusiastically, grabbing my hand.
Along the skyline, owls are perched,
ˇ gathered in loose bundles of 10, 20, 50. Many
ˇ of them have been ringed. I wonder if Milan
he tells me. “One year we got bored and
ringed a whole load of blue tits, but they
are vicious! The owls don’t mind it, but
the blue tits turn their heads and rip you!”
December 2018
may see a
communal roost
of around 20 long-
eared owls; in
Serbia, hundreds
can be found
amongst the
tree branches.
If you’re wondering what the owls eat in
really cold years, when the supply of rodents PLANNING TO VISIT?
runs thin, Milan has the answer, “Blue tits,”
he laughs. “When we ringed all the blue tits, kkThe Urban Birder,David Lindo,
(theurbanbirderworld.com/
in the owl pellets – every last one.” tours) runs owl-spotting tours to
I spot a gigantic pile of owl pellets and go to northern Serbia in December,led by
collect one for myself. Understandably, there himself and Milan Ruzic.The 2018
is a law in Kikinda about not disturbing the tour costs £1,200,plus flights via
owls. Amongst the high and low branches, Belgrade.Spring tours to Serbia
staring down at me, the owls must have been are also available,but these will
round-eyed at my clumsy intrusion into their have a diferent focus.
pine-needle kingdom. Innocently, I pointed kkThere are many other interesting
the camera to record the pellet heap. In the birdwatching tours in Serbia that
midst of calming, resin-scented needles, the are ofered by Birdwatch Serbia,
camera shutter quietly clicked. There was a whose website also ofers useful
slight delay, and then… the flash. information about the country:
The tree erupted. Silent, winged things birdwatchserbia.rs
scattered in every direction. I stumbled out
into the dusk to see my birdwatching group
standing aghast. There must have been The trees that line Kikinda
town centre create an urban
about 100 owls, all of them flying from their
oasis for long-eared owls
perches at once, swooping around, orange-
eyed and ghostly, then dissolving again
into the nearby trees. My walk of shame
brought me back to my friends in a swirl
of disapproval. I had forgotten to look up.
MIRIAM DARLINGTON is a nature
writer whose latest book is Owl
Sense (£15.99, Guardian Faber).
Nature’s New Wild, coming soon on BBC Two.
in the first episode of the new series Cities: BBC Wildlife 39