Green Balkans

Those of you who follow this blog must have guessed that Cat has a special love for birds. She also had a lot of time on her hands this summer and sometime last month discovered she couldn’t fill it all with painting, drawing, and bird-watching. So we did some googling.

Imagine our joy when we found out that Stara Zagora is home to the only Bulgarian wildlife rescue centre, which amazingly enough welcomed volunteers to help with the care for animals permanently disabled and incapable of surviving in the wild. Imagine our further joy when we learned that those are all birds of prey. It was a no-brainer.

There are about a dozen hawks, falcons, eagles, and owls of various species living in the rescue centre. All are disabled but not too disabled to live reasonably comfortable lives.

Some have formed pairs and are expecting offspring because the people at the centre are really good at their job and they genuinely love the animals.

Care involves preparing their food, which sounds rather gory because you need to, shall we say, manipulate dead animal bodies but apparently this was no problem for Cat because it was for the good of the birds — and those birds eat well.

There are also temporary patients at the centre, some pelicans, a lot — and we mean a lot — of storks and one dainty grey heron. These birds get treated and then they get released back into the wild. We got no pictures of those because Cat’s heart is with the raptors.

She got to prepare their food, she got to feed them — through a special slot at the back of the cage so the person delivering the food remains unseen to avoid upsetting the birds — and she also got to clean their cages — and collect some (a lot) of shed feathers. If any of you thought birds of prey were majestic, now you know they are also absolutely gorgeous, too. (The smallest feather is the size of a pigeon’s longest one.)

Needless to say, Cat’s plans for next summer are already fixed. She’ll be helping full time to keep this part of the Balkans green, or in various shades of white, grey, brown, and black, at any rate. Hawks and falcons, and owls, and eagles are, after all, nature’s pest control department. It is an important department.