Travel Tips

I usually visit the pet shops that sell wild birds with the forestry office. I identify the wild birds and the forestry officers do their duty, confiscate the birds and take the owner to court. After that we release the birds together. This time it was New Year's Eve 2003. I was spending New Year's in Lake Kerkini and visited the nearby city Serres for the last shopping. I spotted these wild goldfinches in cages outside the shop. I knew that the forestry office would not be very delightful to do confiscations on such a day and to be honest I was not in the mood for confrontations either. I went in. There were more inside, and still more at the back of the shop. I started bargaining. I wanted to buy them all at a lower price. He agreed. I left the shop with 11 goldfinches and 3 greenfinches.

Back at the room we put all the birds in a large cardboard box and left them to rest for the night. Early the next morning we took them to the lake. The greenfinches were the first to go. They flew out of the box with the speed of light. About 5 goldfinches perched on a nearby blackberry bush and started munching away the ripe blackberries. Even though I went far too near them with my camera they would not move. I know they were just too hungry and could not resist the plump juicy blueberries. But I want to believe this was their way of saying thanks to us for having given them back their freedom.