If you haven't read the first two gripping installments, they're here .. 288-when-i-was-in-lithuania-part-1.html and here .. 293-when-i-was-in-lithuania-part-2.html As you all know by now, a few years ago I went to Lithuania for a week. After all, I never shut up about it. It's about the only memorable birding-thing I've ever done. It's my own, tiny shred of uniqueness. I was actually at a conference, so I didn't have much time to do any proper birding, but I did manage to do a bit, mainly in the wee small hours of the dawn ... Anyhow, here's part three .... it's the first morning, and a stumbling, knackered version of me set off to Kaunas's Azuolynas Park ... only a 20-minute stroll from "our" hotel. ..... so ... part 3 then ... I was impressed ! The local park was an amazing, massive, overgrown, semi-wild oak/willow-hornbeam ancient forest with a few paths hacked through it. The cold and drizzle meant that I didn't see a lot, but the potential was obvious. I slithered down a ravine, crossed a road and went down by the river. This was a big,big, river but the now-soaked and cold me had to get back to the hotel. I suppose I ought to mention "our" daily routine ... that is, the 20 or so people at this conference thingy ... each day we walked from the hotel after " breakfast" which was awful, and sat in a room somewhere in the bowels of Kaunas University and did our various things. At 5pm we walked back to the hotel, and then we were all dragged out to experience Lithuanian Culture , ie eating out on different restaurants each night. Actually I think this was a precautionary measure to stop us males getting into "trouble." If you know what I mean. Lithuania is reknowned for organised crime and prostitution, and I suspect that one or the other, or both, had landed visitors in the soup on previous courses. This would be soup of a Dead Sea nature judging by the amount of salt in Lithuanian "cuisine". It was awful. I think I could have floated my Lithuanian coins in that soup, it was 97% salt. And the courses arrived so slowly we were there till 11pm plus. And almost in the dark. It was all very odd. By the end of the week I was feeding myself on peanuts and raisins like a Blue Tit. I can state now that there are no sandwiches in Lithuania. Just mountains of fish and meat and salt. Mostly eaten in those ¾-dark restaurants . Meals out last all evening in Lithuania ( for the same precautionary reasons I mentioned above) but each morning I was out at 5am scouring the outskirts of Kaunas. I found some interesting things. All the grey/black birds were far more black-and-white here, so the Hooded Crows were much more pied and the "Pied" Wagtails were White Wagtails. The main danger to the wanderer (me) in early-morning Kaunas is the preponderance of massive nasty dogs and I soon learned to shout SHOO-AAH at their huge, hairy owners as these huge hairy hungry viragos nibbled my ankles. Shoo-ah = "dog" in Lithuanian. I saw some good birds too. In Azuolynas Park were breeding Icterine Warblers, Golden Orioles, Red-Breasted Flycatchers plus goodies like Wood Warblers etc. On my one "big" excursion by trolleybus ( yes) to a coniferous forest over a huge bridge (= tiltas) I found Serins, breeding Fieldfares flying between the trees, more Icterines etc, a Barred Warbler singing by the river where there were also some v. pale Yellow-Legged Gulls. The river was further explored on another morning, where Blue-headed Wagtails were seen.... I bet you can't wait for the 4th and last installment. I hope the excitement isn't too much.
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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