Much as I love Greece there have always been a few things that, to varying degrees, annoy me. One is that few vehicles stop at pedestrian crossings, most cruising on by with indifference, even looking you in the eye as they do. It’s a minor inconvenience compared to others but still bothersome, although it’s better in some areas than others. It’s not so good in Kalamata.

Another is the way some Greeks drive, although with the caveat that this doesn’t apply to them all. It seems such a paradox that in a culture where it sometimes takes ages to get anything done, once some Greeks get behind the wheel, an abandon takes over that immediately deprioritises basics like doing your best to stay alive, with getting to wherever you’re going becoming the absolute number one. As mentioned in an earlier post, Greece ranks among the most dangerous EU countries for road mortality. In fact, last year on Crete I came close to becoming a statistic myself which, if you fancy a white-knuckle ride, you can read about here: https://arktrip.uk/footnote.

Another thing, more sad than annoying but both, is the massive scale of the country’s trapping of and trade in wild birds, a response to many a Greek’s desire to own and cage a songbird. But the caged bird doesn’t sing because it’s content. It evolved to fly, forage and socialise, and singing is the only means of expression it has left. Its singing “help, get me out of here”.

In May 2015 Pip and I spent some time on Corfu and, incensed by the sight of so many caged birds, returning home we did some sniffing around, having had one or two fruitless conversations with jailers. Intending to return to Greece again someday, we wanted to equip ourselves with more ammo to fire back at their usual crappy defence that their chirpy captives are fine: “Look! She wouldn’t be singing if she was unhappy!”, overlooking the fact that she might actually be singing the blues. 

As our sniffing revealed, although prohibited in Greek law, many species are targeted by trappers, especially from the finch family, such as goldfinches, greenfinches and serins, which are then sold on to ‘bird lovers’ in open markets on the outskirts of large cities. Current estimates suggest that 500,000 wild birds fall victim to trappers and traffickers every year in Greece. 

We found plenty of useful information and, although we didn’t get to deploy our newly acquired expertise together, I’ve been able to on a couple of occasions since, drops in the ocean in the grand scheme of things but sometimes that’s all we have.

Pip, exceptionally good at cryptic crosswords, knew it already, but I leant a new word in the process, stereotypies:

‘Repetitive, invariant behaviours that have no obvious purpose or function, widely recognized in animal welfare science as indicators of chronic stress, frustration, or psychological distress, especially when animals are kept in environments that restrict their natural behaviours’.

Examples of these in caged birds are:

• Pacing back and forth along the same perch or cage bar
• Head bobbing or swaying repeatedly
• Feather plucking or self-mutilation
• Bar biting or pecking obsessively at cage walls
• Route tracing – flying or hopping in the same tight pattern

Being trapped in a small cage also elevates the stress hormone, corticosterone, which weakens immune responses, often leading to dull, ragged plumage and slower recovery from illness or injury. And with no space to fly muscles weaken, bones get fragile and they become obese. As if that wasn’t enough to put off the bird loving jailers, birds being intelligent and social types, getting inadequate stimulation in captive isolation can also lead to depression and an early demise. 

I like to think that the serious look on Pip’s face in the picture below, taken on our visit to Corfu, is of her deep in thought as she planned her return, rehearsing the fact laden and better-informed line of attack we’d need once we’d absorbed all the info we eventually gathered.

But who knows? It was more likely her annoyance at me taking the picture. Apart from the bird fury it was a nice holiday.