I’m in a state of shock: late Could, heat climate and fog! Within the morning within the lowlands, fog out of season! Nonetheless, quickly we’re sneaking out of Belgrade, getting ourselves giant cappuccinos on the en route drive-in McDonald’s and persevering with to our first website: Beljarica Backwaters. The water degree is kind of excessive, no uncovered mud bars nor shorebirds. The fog will not be thick, however drizzle obstructs distant views.
A Frequent Cuckoo calls from the mist, there are quite a few Whiskered Terns and just one Frequent Tern, Nice White Egret, Squacco Heron (flying at eye-height in entrance of us), Black-crowned Night time-Heron, Crimson-backed Shrike, Sand Martins and Barn Swallows, and so forth.
From Beljarica, we supposed to proceed eastward, in direction of Deliblato Sands Reserve, so en route we visited Reva Pond to discover a Ferruginous Duck (cowl photograph by Boris Okanovic), Black Tern and a few extra Whiskered Terns, European Bee-eater, Eurasian Golden Oriole…
European Bee-eater by Boris Okanovic
Heading in direction of the town of Pancevo alongside the motorway and… Hey! There’s an incoming automotive in my lane, and I’m not in India! A mile later, there’s a visitors jam in entrance of us, the place everybody stands nonetheless. At first I considered a attainable highway accident, however quickly I discovered that protesting farmers have blocked the highway forward.
Okay, there’s one other highway to Pancevo, resulting in the town centre. Making an attempt that choice, I discover it blocked as properly. And now I’m checking the map and altering our plans: as an alternative of going east, let’s go north. I do know of a small side-bridge in a sleepy village, hopefully, that one is forgotten and never blocked. Success!
Pied Avocet by Boris Okanovic
Subsequent we discover ourselves on the well-known fish farm within the village of Sakule. There are not any traces of the mist any extra, the solar is lastly out. An enormous lake in entrance of us, intertwined with reedbeds and rafts of water lilies, with Greylag Goose, Nice Crested Grebe, White Stork, Pygmy Cormorant, Purple Heron, Shiny Ibis, Eurasian Spoonbill, Western Marsh Harrier, Nice Reed Warbler, and so forth.
Espresso and a few poppy seeds cake break in a backyard of a small restaurant and, not even a mile later, one other tractor blockade is in entrance of us. I flip again, solely to see extra tractors gathering on the close by highway junction. So I requested one of many farmers if the bridge within the subsequent village upriver can be blocked or not, solely to seek out out that the farmers are letting the drivers go each full hour, and it’s 12:45, solely quarter-hour to attend, so I flip again to the blockade.
Am I irritated with the farmers, indignant at them? By no means, they’re very proper to protest, and I’ve no concern with the farmers – all of us share the identical enemy, our personal President. He began his political profession as Slobodan Milosevic’s Minister of Propaganda. Now, attempt to think about Germany having Joseph Goebbels as a Chancellor across the 12 months 1970, greater than quarter of a century after WWII – unimaginable, isn’t it? Why ought to one thing so unimaginable in Germany be attainable in Serbia? Protest certainly!
Ecka Fish Farm by Mileta Cekovic
Quickly we reached the Ecka Fish Farm, part of the broader Carska Bara Vital Chook Space (but, not part of the protected Carska Bara Reserve). It’s getting sizzling within the solar, however this place is bursting with birds, I can’t resolve the place to look! Whereas we noticed one earlier at Beljarica, now White-tailed Eagles are in every single place, one to the left of us, low above the lake, one within the entrance of us, one other one to the left of us, one other one within the entrance of us, and at last one standing within the water and displaying how enormous it’s, some 4 or maybe 5 altogether! A Frequent Shelduck in low flight, Garganey, Black-winged Stilt, Pied Avocet, Northern Lapwing, a dozen smallish brownish shorebirds, but shimmering above the water stopping me to see them properly, Caspian Tern, Little Bittern flying throughout the highway proper in entrance of us, Sedge Warbler, Savi’s Warbler, European Stonechat, a number of White Wagtails and as icing on the cake, a Bluethroat proudly displaying its throat!
Bluethroat by Ceda Vuckovic
On our manner again to Belgrade, one other tractor blockade awaits us. This time we arrived quarter-hour after the total hour, so we’ll have to attend for 45 minutes. Truly, I used to be extra fearful over the unconfirmed data that the bridge over the Danube on the very entrance to Belgrade is likely to be blocked as properly, as that visitors jam can be of epic proportions. Fortuitously, there have been no additional blockades.
Farmers managed to get some type of an settlement with the Authorities the following day, however the parallel, a lot larger protest – every time greater than a 60 thousand individuals who wish to take away a rotten tooth – continues to be going sturdy.
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