Paphos People

Around midday yesterday, from our verandah we sighted a large bird, soaring on the thermals, we are used to seeing Kestrels doing the same thing, however this bird was considerable larger. later on in the afternoon, we saw two more, and after consulting our bird book, we found them to be Bonellis eagles, a species which is becoming increasingly rare, keep a lookout they were spectacular.

They are not so rare up in the hills, Teddymou.

We have 3 that regularly soar over our valley, and there is a pair (or more) that roost in trees up at Fyti.

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Kay

Those who do not like cats, must have been mice in a previous life.

We also get a number of them soaring over the house here in Amargeti - had five earlier this year - think they are based in the Nata/Choletria valley which is next to the village area....................in fact the whole area is a twitchers delight - we get the Roller, the Hoopoo, Bee eaters, kestrels, Buzzards, various species of owl, Red-legged Falcons, and any number of lovely small birds

Chris

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Merda taurorum animas conturbit

so when are you writing to the Game Department requesting a conservation area? Those cats would appreciate it too.

.......................do you REALLY believe the "hunters" would comply?

...............Besides, they rarely come near us these days due to my unique method of discouraging them - I go watch them with a camera plainly in sight......funny how they seem to suddenly find a new direction to go in

chris

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Merda taurorum animas conturbit

Yea I do, most comply as it is fairly average for the courts to give a €600 fine for just being in a conservation area even with only a dog (not necessarily a shotgun) . The 200 meter distance from houses is a subjective thing and hard to prove in court without a measured distance. Hunters don't stand still for the wardens to measure, and police may have guns but no tape measures. Hunters just argue they were walking past not hunting, an argument that stands up unless the patrol seeing them shooting. Whereas just being inside a Conservation area with either dogs or a gun is enough for the fine. repeat offenders lose their licences and have firearms confiscated.

That said it is not easy to get a conservation area you have to be a bit persistent.

Hmm might be worth a go.....................ok, how does one achieve this beastie?

chris

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Merda taurorum animas conturbit

Well we started by getting the support of neighbours and landowners. Surprisingly Cypriot farmers are not so keen on hoards of Larnaca thugs with guns descending on their fields and vineyards twice a week, shooting up the vines and leaving cartridge cases everywhere. Thus it was not too difficult to enlist their tacit support. Unfortunately these chaps do not have the will or perhaps education to write letters of complaint themselves, but will often sign a group letter.
I was advised 7 landowners are a good number for the Department to take notice.

This letter we sent resulted in a visit from the game Department and Hunters union many months later (yep they have a union and a powerful one too) . We got a few government notices to stay away from the houses put after that. They were partly successful in that it reduced the number of complaints. I then took the matter up with Nicosia central government and that resulted in a much larger than expected conservation area taking in all of North Polemi and the east of Psathi. ( I suspect there were also complaints from Psathi that I was not aware of)

So far the 5am daily exercising of packs of hunting dogs from the dog farms ceased with the conservation notices. An occasional sleep in! This season will be the test of how often we get the wardens in.