Birds 2 (The Uvac Canyon, Serbia)
A couple of years after my visit to the landfill for the purpose of counting gulls, I finally managed to fit into an excursion to the canyon of the Uvac organized by the Birds of Prey Protection Foundation. It was a two-day trip and already on the first day we had a close encounter with griffon vultures. Admittedly, this was by going to a nursing-kind of place where a few griffon vultures are placed in large enclosures until they recuperate and are ready to be reintroduced into nature. That was also good for me to take photos at close range, since I don’t have such a powerful zoom lens to be able to get a closer look at them while they are in nature.
Griffon vultures are exceptionally important for the nature and the entire natural cycle. They are scavengers which means that they feed on carcasses of dead animals, but not just any animals, but large four-legged ones. The system is generally envisaged in such a way that scavengers follow large herds, which is still the case in Africa for instance, and those animals whose flesh becomes inedible for most of other animals, i.e., the carrion, scavengers, including griffon vultures, eat up until the bone. The nature has designed it and organized it all perfectly. For instance, as far as the sequence of birds is concerned, when a large animal dies, the first ones to come are eagles, while the meat is still fresh. On the other hand, eagles also have sharper beaks than vultures, so they can pierce through the skin of animals they feed on more easily. Once the eagles have eaten all they could and the meat starts to decay, scavengers come along and devour the rest, so that in the end only bare bones are left. Griffon vultures have fantastic stomach acid that can digest almost anything. There are even opinions that they could digest carcasses of mad cows without having any problems. In other words, the nature has provided for perfect recycling, for there is another kind of eagles in charge of the final touch. Namely, those eagles use bone marrow in their diet and they get to it by catching in their beaks the remaining bones which they then let fall from a height onto rocks below. When the bone breaks, the eagle lands there and eats up the marrow, by which the final pieces of nutrients get into the food chain.
As a part of our trip, we came to visit a household that cooperates with the Foundation, although they are also open to other visitors. It is possible to stay there and they also offer local honey and herbal teas picked in the area. What is very important and good about them is that their land extends to the top of the canyon and we went there in order to watch the cliffs where griffon vultures build their nests, as well as to see the birds flying. I went to the very edge of the canyon and found a piece of rock that had some soil and grass around it and that was perfectly shaped for my derriere. As if somebody has taken the measures. So, I sat there and spent a couple of hours enjoying a beautiful view.
Griffon vultures build their nests in inaccessible cliffs and from the place where I was sitting I could barely distinguish a couple of birds in the rocks on the other side of the river. In the photo that shows the vista I had from the viewpoint, those rocks are up and to the left.
The day was warm and sunny and there was nothing to disturb me. At some point, griffon vultures took off and started to fly and it was all in harmony – the birds that glided left and right, the nature around them and I.
The nature, of course, entails a motley multitude and this is what it was like around me.
Still, after a couple of hours of sitting there in harmony with my setting and myself, I had to join the group with whom I first walked to yet another viewpoint and then we all together moved on.
The next destination on our trip was the feeding ground for griffon vultures. We actually got off the mini bus on the road leading to the lake and the dam, and then we climbed up a dirt road that led through a nice, relatively thin forest. We came to a clearing and what can I say next? It’s a feeding ground of griffon vultures and vultures are scavengers. In order words, the lot was full of bovine skeletons quite thoroughly cleared off any meat. There were also some left-over hides, but the skeletons took centre stage that day. And flies, enormous swarms of flies.
And should I mention the smells? We were surrounded by remains of rotten meat who knows how old and it was all happening in summer when it’s warm. Still, griffon vultures not only have that digestion system which perfectly processes the natural biological waste which would otherwise seriously pollute the environment, but what is additionally fantastic and almost incredible is that they are very clean birds in fact. During this trip I heard people saying that there had been sightings of griffon vultures flying down to the lake in order to wash off any residual carrion. Of course, they are also cautious animals, so they all took off from the feeding ground as we were approaching it. They don’t like to socialize with humans, so we stayed there only for a short while and then started to return to the asphalt road and the bus. Along the way I saw some wild strawberries that grew in the forest and then it occurred to me what I believed to be a good joke which I soon shared while picking and eating the strawberries: “When one sees all that food, it’s difficult not to get hungry!” I was faced with a confused reaction of the people walking with me, but that was obviously because they are not of the appropriate horoscope sign for this type of “humour.” It’s only us, Scorpios, that can appreciate it.
And then we came to the Uvac lake and went for a very pleasant ride by a boat, which was more of a small ferry with an engine, since we could walk around it. By the way, this was all happening within the Uvac Special Nature Reserve.
We sailed along the meanders of the Uvac, which is famous for them, and through the canyon valleys of smaller tributaries and it was incredible what a myriad of possible passages there are. We were not the only ones visiting the lake that day though, so with great joy we exchanged waving to other vessels and shouted greetings ones to the others. Along the way we came across numerous high cliffs where griffon vultures congregated, but there were other birds, too. Thus, for instance, every now and then we saw flocks of grey herons in the distance, but as we approached them by our vessel, they would all fly away.
The boat eventually took us to a place where there were metal and wood ladders which we used to climb to a small cave, where we had a short walk around and where we got refreshed by the considerably colder air than the one outside.
After the visit to the cave, the boat headed back, but along the way we also made a break for lunch for which our hosts had prepared local specialties including of course pie made with buckwheat pastry which this region is famous for. And then, as the ending of our two-day trip, we went to Radojinjsko lake where we walked for a little while, after which we were ready to go back home.
In the meantime, the project dealing with griffon vultures has progressed even more and now there are a couple of hundred pairs in the Uvac canyon that are regularly monitored. Also, the project has been expanded to some other sites in Serbia and in the region.
As I am a dedicated shadow fan both of the griffon vultures and of the Birds of Prey Protection Foundation, a couple of years ago I was offered to name a chick from a new generation, but they told me that it wouldn’t be known if it was a boy or a girl until it started to fly. In other words I was offered to become a god-mother to a griffon vulture! (In Serbia, the person naming a baby would be considered a god-mother or a god-father, even without the religious ceremony.) So, I was delighted at the prospect and I chose a pet name “Cile” [to be pronounced as: ‘tsee-leh!!!]. It is not a sublime name, but I thought it could equally be used either for male or female and I could easily say: “Hey, look at my Cile, god-mom’s little angel!“ and it would not matter a single bit if it is a boy or a girl. I also received a kind of unofficial birth certificate with data on his/her rings and I am very proud of it. I still haven’t seen my god-bird, but I’m sure he/she has grown into a large scavenger that devours carrion. God-mom’s little angel!