Jacqueline Burrell
February 24th, 2008, 04:26 PM
Last weekend, I sent a couple of days on Crocodile Island in Luxor.
The minority of island was owned by an Egyptian businessman who built a low rise 300-room resort some twenty years ago. The majority of the island was agricultural land centred round a small mud brick village where the inhabitants were farmers or fishermen.
It is a year since my last visit, and to my absolute horror, I hardly recognised the place. The businessman has now obtained the entire island at a grossly inflated price and has destroyed the village saving one typical farm house as a ‘museum.’
Acres of reeds beds have been cleared and dozens of acacia nilotica have cut down, and they are one of the few indigenous trees in that part of the world.
One particular tree was located on a mini island a few feet from where there had once been reeds beds. At dawn or dusk, there would be up to a hundred cattle egrets perched on the branches. It was also a favourite look out post for the pied kingfishers that now have to make do with a few precarious reeds and in the varied undergrowth there would be squacco, Western reef, grey and purple herons. Around the perimeter, moorhens, a variety of ducks and the occasional Purple Gallinule.
Within the hotel grounds, every ‘untidy’ plant has been massacred. Among the fatalities were all the justicia adhatoda bushes beloved by the Nile Valley sun birds, and none of the birders on the island including myself saw a single one. The gardens may now be neat and tiny, but the river bank is now a rubbish trip.
There also some terrible rumours about the ultimate fate of Crocodile Island: an enormous resort, a golf course, a theme park etc. etc.
In a country such as Egypt, where I doubt the minister of the environment would know the difference between an Egyptian vulture and a house sparrow and virtually no local birders, does anyone have some brilliant ideas about how to mount a campaign?
Despite the doom and gloom, below is the list of the birds I did see.
1. 2 Purple Gallinule
2. 50+ Barn Swallow
3. 4 Black-headed Gull
4. 1 Black-shouldered Kite
5. 6 Black-winged Stilt
6. 4 Bluethroat
7. 1 Bulbul
8. 50+ Cattle Egret
9. 10+ Chiffchaff
10. 1 Clamorous Reed Warbler
11. 1 Cormorant
12. 6 Crested Lark
13. 4 Egyptian Black Kite
14. 10 Eurasian Hoopoe
15. 3 Eurasian Kestrel
16. 9 Eurasian Teal
17. 1 Graceful Prinia
18. 3 Gray Heron
19. 6 Gray Wagtail
20. 10+ Hooded Crow
21. 100s House Sparrow
22. 6 Lesser Whitethroat
23. 6 Little Egret
24. 4 Little Green Bee-eater
25. 8 Moorhens
26. 10+ Palm Dove
27. 20+ Pied Kingfisher
28. 4 Purple Heron
29. 20+ Spur-winged Plover
30. 30 Squacco Heron
31. 1 Western Marsh-Harrier
32. 20+ Western Reef Heron [White Morph]
33. 2 White Wagtail
34. 2 Willow Warbler
The photos show an aerial view of the island, a Nile Valley sunbird on justicia adhatoda, acacia nilotica and the rubbish.
Jacqueline
The minority of island was owned by an Egyptian businessman who built a low rise 300-room resort some twenty years ago. The majority of the island was agricultural land centred round a small mud brick village where the inhabitants were farmers or fishermen.
It is a year since my last visit, and to my absolute horror, I hardly recognised the place. The businessman has now obtained the entire island at a grossly inflated price and has destroyed the village saving one typical farm house as a ‘museum.’
Acres of reeds beds have been cleared and dozens of acacia nilotica have cut down, and they are one of the few indigenous trees in that part of the world.
One particular tree was located on a mini island a few feet from where there had once been reeds beds. At dawn or dusk, there would be up to a hundred cattle egrets perched on the branches. It was also a favourite look out post for the pied kingfishers that now have to make do with a few precarious reeds and in the varied undergrowth there would be squacco, Western reef, grey and purple herons. Around the perimeter, moorhens, a variety of ducks and the occasional Purple Gallinule.
Within the hotel grounds, every ‘untidy’ plant has been massacred. Among the fatalities were all the justicia adhatoda bushes beloved by the Nile Valley sun birds, and none of the birders on the island including myself saw a single one. The gardens may now be neat and tiny, but the river bank is now a rubbish trip.
There also some terrible rumours about the ultimate fate of Crocodile Island: an enormous resort, a golf course, a theme park etc. etc.
In a country such as Egypt, where I doubt the minister of the environment would know the difference between an Egyptian vulture and a house sparrow and virtually no local birders, does anyone have some brilliant ideas about how to mount a campaign?
Despite the doom and gloom, below is the list of the birds I did see.
1. 2 Purple Gallinule
2. 50+ Barn Swallow
3. 4 Black-headed Gull
4. 1 Black-shouldered Kite
5. 6 Black-winged Stilt
6. 4 Bluethroat
7. 1 Bulbul
8. 50+ Cattle Egret
9. 10+ Chiffchaff
10. 1 Clamorous Reed Warbler
11. 1 Cormorant
12. 6 Crested Lark
13. 4 Egyptian Black Kite
14. 10 Eurasian Hoopoe
15. 3 Eurasian Kestrel
16. 9 Eurasian Teal
17. 1 Graceful Prinia
18. 3 Gray Heron
19. 6 Gray Wagtail
20. 10+ Hooded Crow
21. 100s House Sparrow
22. 6 Lesser Whitethroat
23. 6 Little Egret
24. 4 Little Green Bee-eater
25. 8 Moorhens
26. 10+ Palm Dove
27. 20+ Pied Kingfisher
28. 4 Purple Heron
29. 20+ Spur-winged Plover
30. 30 Squacco Heron
31. 1 Western Marsh-Harrier
32. 20+ Western Reef Heron [White Morph]
33. 2 White Wagtail
34. 2 Willow Warbler
The photos show an aerial view of the island, a Nile Valley sunbird on justicia adhatoda, acacia nilotica and the rubbish.
Jacqueline