Polish marshlands are Europe's birdwatching mecca

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

BURZYN, Poland (AFP) — Starting as a single excited shout, the words rippled down the line: "Hoopoe! Hoopoe! Hoopoe! Left! Left! Left!"

To the uninitiated ear it rang like a chant by a group of sports fans, all the more so when another voice boomed out: "Montagu's Harriers!"

But the gasps of delight came from a jovial group of a dozen binocular-wielding Britons doing what they love best -- "birding" -- in Europe's avian megalopolis.

The hoopoe, which has striking black and white wings and a pinkish-brown head crest, never fails to impress.

Nor does the noble-looking Montagu's Harrier, a bird of prey named after an early 19th century naturalist.

But the goal of the amateur ornithologists was also to catch a glimpse of rarer species such as the...