“We need our own videos of birds of prey flying,” my American team members emailed to me.
     This was the stimulus for my first bird-watching trip. I packed up my things quickly – my old pair of binoculars to observe the birds better, a camera and a camcorder to shoot magnificent pictures and video, pen and paper to help me remember every little detail. My dad, mum, younger brother and I jumped into our car and started.
    We were heading to “Chernelka,” a rocky region where eagles live. My father was driving slowly and he kept saying “Look around all the time. There are a lot of birds of prey we may see – buzzards, Kestrels, hawks. They may be perching on the trees or the power poles or the wires.” And he was absolutely right. It was November, the trees were bare and soon I saw a big bird sitting quietly in a pine tree. When the car stopped, I rushed out quickly, my brother gave out an exhilarated shout and… the bird flew away. After that I missed another one and another one until I learned my lesson.  Turn off the music and don’t let your folks talk in loud voices, have your window rolled down in advance, slowly aim and take a picture or video. It is better to stay inside the car because birds of prey perch near the highways are much more tolerant of automobiles than of us. A bird of prey will get more and more restless as the car slows down but, in most cases, it works better than getting out and walking to a good shooting distance.
     An hour later we decided to leave the car behind and to take a walk. All the time I was looking at the sky or the nearby trees. Through my binoculars I saw a brownish bird with broad rounded wings and tail. I knew buzzards are not migratory birds, they usually live all year in Southern Europe and they are very common for our area. I compared the bird to the pictures in my field guide. The distinctive features of the bird, called field marks, told me it was a buzzard. But I was confused: was it a Common Buzzard or a Rough-legged Buzzard? To me they looked the same even in the field guide. However, I was proud I recognized it was a buzzard!
     “Would you like to join us for our weekend bird watching?” asked Ms. Komarevska from the Regional Environmental Inspection and that is how my professional bird-watching trip started. I put on my warmest clothes: woolen sweater, warm pants and jacket, thermal socks and boots, a scarf and a hat. In Bulgaria it is cold in January. The people from the Regional Environmental Inspection took me to their favorite raptor-watching site. They gave me a telescope. While waiting, a man named Ivo was talking about the nature of the birds of prey.  The killing and eating of innocent prey is not based on greed or ambition; their actions are based on needs set by evolution. Raptors are simply on the top of the food chain pyramid. They need to survive, that’s why they eat the poor mice, rabbits or sparrows.
     It was Saturday, about 9.30 in the morning and there were some birds flying but no raptors in the sky. We were waiting, waiting, waiting. I started regretting that I didn’t go to the ice rink with my friends.
     Suddenly Ivo whispered:  “Look! That must be something!” I looked through the telescope. The bird grew larger as it came nearer. All my patience had paid off. The flight of the bird was cool: smooth and graceful, and effortless. We all kept quiet and were just watching it. The bird landed slowly on the branch of a tall tree. It looked in our direction. I think it was watching us, too. Then it took off slowly again. Sometimes when I jump over benches in my parkour practice, I imagine I am a bird like this one. The bird disappeared in the distance.
     My fellow bird-watchers exclaimed together: “A Goshawk!’ They identified the bird proficiently because they were experts.
     Later it was me who first noticed a flock of birds in a V-form. I watched them for a while, and then I shot a short video clip without saying a word. I felt as if I was an important photographer for National Geographic Magazine. “This quality video clip of birds of prey would be great for our ThinkQuest project,” I said.
     “May be, but these are only the prey - ducks,” Ivo replied.
     So, I couldn’t shoot a good picture or video of a raptor. It’s a pity. However, I have great memories of the graceful Goshawk and the flock of ducks. What I learned from my bird-watching trips is that the photos in the books are much better than my own photos of birds BUT nothing compares to a real bird-watching trip, to going out in the field or mountain, observing the real birds of prey and taking your own pictures.

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