Birding Babylon

Something I've been meaning to mention for a while now is a blog called Birding Babylon. It's written by J, a soldier (and birder) serving in Iraq, about the birds and other wildlife he sees while out and about.

Iraq isn't a place you often hear birdwatchers talking about, and nor does birding feature heavily in anything you see, hear or read about Iraq. So it's a refreshing perspective on a country most of us don't really know anything about.

Here's a sample:

"Monday, October 18, 2004
This morning I had to go to a meeting at one of the high security buildings. For the last two weeks I've seen a bunch of small hairstreak butterflies flying around one of the bushes outside. Because of the location I can't catch one to ID it and I can't bring in a camera to photograph it. The butterflies have tiger striped underwings and little black tails on their back wings.

A new bird I saw a couple of days ago was a male Redstart hopping around in the tamarisk trees near our building. It flew down to the ground and was running around under some old boards.

When we were out on our patio a few nights ago a barn owl flew in circles over us screeching. The noise flushed a couple of wood pigeons out of our Eucalyptus tree."

There's a clip about Birding Babylon on the NPR (National Public Radio) website. Click here to hear it!