A photographer from Sharkovshchyna among the winners of the Smolensk birding rally "Geese-Swans-2015"
The Belarusian team of amateur ornithologists "Bulbashy", which included Valery Kovalenok from Sharkovshchina, achieved an undisputed victory in the prestigious birding rally "Gusi-Lebedi-2015", held in the "Smolenskoye Poozerie" National Park (Russia).
The competition featured the best of the best – photographers capable of silently moving through thickets for a successful shot, walking through flooded areas, standing on one leg for hours, and enduring other hardships. For several days, birds in the national park were under the focus of their lenses. The task for the participants, organized into 11 teams, was to photograph as many bird species as possible and correctly identify them. In one day, the amateur ornithologists registered and photographed 117 species of birds. The photographers' lenses captured not only common sparrows, tits, finches, and crows but also the grey partridge, lesser spotted eagle, European turtle dove, osprey, and other rare birds.
This is not the first time Belarusians have participated in such competitions, and they have always secured prize-winning places. This time, Semen Levy, Maxim Koloskov, Denis Zmachinsky, and Valery Kovalenok demonstrated their high professionalism. Their photographs attracted particular interest from the park staff.
Having overtaken the Russian teams "Dyatly" and "Penta-belki", "Bulbashy"" scored the maximum number of points. Within the allotted time, they managed to photograph and correctly identify 93 species of birds, and also found a species new for the park and the Smolensk region – the European serin, also known as the canary. A high-quality photograph intrigued scientists, who did not even suspect the existence of a small, brightly colored bird in the Smolensk region. It is most often found in Mediterranean countries, as well as Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco.
The observations of amateur ornithologists will help researchers in their future work on studying the birds of the region. The participants of the birding rally themselves received unforgettable impressions. Beautiful photographs will long remind them of their exciting journey along the paths of the national park.
Diana Bernikovich, "Vitebskiye Vesti"