On the occasion of the World Migratory Bird Day, volunteers of the Berehovo Public Center “Everyone can help” and experts of the Institute of Ecological and Religious Studies conducted an ecological and educational ornithological tour. It was joined by children and parents of IDP who came to Transcarpathia due to the war.
The participants of the event had the opportunity to observe a colony of gray herons near the village of Pistryalovo. It’s a nesting, migratory and wintering species in Ukraine. They spend the winter on the Transcarpathian plain, in the Danube region, which could be seen in some parts of the sea coast and in reservoirs in the depths of the land. The largest colonies exist in the valleys of the Dnieper, Danube, and Dniester. They feed mainly on fish and other aquatic creatures. Gray herons are motionlessly waiting for prey, so they snatch it out of the water rapidly. They can also eat small rodents, snakes, frogs, and lizards.
During the tour, they also managed to observe the typical inhabitants of wetlands, namely: large grebes, coot, and mallard. They were lucky to see the migration of white-winged terns. The nesting of a rare gray shrike was discovered in the village of Dunkovytsia. This species is listed in the Red Book of Ukraine and is included in the protection list of the Berne Convention. Leonid Pokrytiuk, an experienced ornithologist and expert at the Institute of Ecological and Religious Studies, told the participants in more detail about each bird that was observed. The bonus of the tour was the observation of a pond tortoise.
The event was held in cooperation with the Institute of Ecological and Religious Studies- IERS (headed by Alexander Bokotey) and the German Nature Conservation Union (#NABU), project coordinator Ivan Tymofeiev.
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Informational Service of IERS