Great Journey 🏍 Day 269
After our detour into the plastic world of the mass hotel industry, a nice stop is the Poda nature reserve. Here we can borrow binoculars (we only have one with us!) and get a great guided tour and lots of information about the many bird species that either live here or stop here on their way to or from the south.
By the way: migratory birds do not fly south because it is too cold for them in winter, but because there are too few frogs and such nibbles in winter.
The area here is only 1 square kilometre and according to the guide, all migratory birds fly either across the Strait of Gibraltar or along here, near Burgas. In late summer there are around 200,000 white storks (I always wonder how they count them!). But cormorants and 263 other bird species also stop here to snack and relax.
From the roof of the nature conservation centre or from the observation huts we marvel at the birds. Especially the cormorant babies are about to finally leave the nest. We learn here that at some point the parents no longer provide food and after a 3-day fasting cure the youngsters simply fly off. Hunger drives them. But until then they do daily flutter-wing workouts to train their muscles.
During the tour we also learn that we don't have to measure ourselves in kilos at all. Kathi stands on the scales and learns how much she weighs in "cormorants" or in "bumble bees". Now that's some information, isn't it?
#Poda #Migratory birds #Nature reserve #we like it
