Птицы - это древняя мечта человека... чтобы можно было так же легко и стремительно вознестись над этой грешной землей полной страданий и лишений, и улететь по синим небесам в лучшие края - где счастье и нет горя...
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Приют для птиц
На западе Эстонии находится красивейший в мире залив Матсалу. Он глубоко врезается в материк, образуя причудливую береговую линию. Здесь множество бухточек, песчаных кос, каменистых островков.
В Матсалу впадает река Казари, берега которой густо заросли камышом и тростниками. Это один из интереснейших заповедников, настоящий приют для птиц. Миллионы пернатых населяют прибрежные заросли и луга. Здесь встречаются такие редкие залетные гости, как черный гриф, фламинго, морской зуек, белокрылая крачка, белозобый дрозд и др.
Только за сезон через пролив пролетает не менее 1 млн. одних морянок, синьги и турпанов. Каждую весну тысячами появляются белоснежные лебеди, утки и другие птицы.
Ф. Смирнов
Birds are an ancient dream of man... to be able to soar so easily and swiftly above this sinful earth full of suffering and hardship, and fly away across the blue skies to better lands - where there is happiness and no sorrow...
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Bird Shelter
In the west of Estonia is the most beautiful bay in the world, Matsalu. It cuts deep into the mainland, forming a bizarre coastline. There are many bays, sand spits, rocky islands.
The Kasari River flows into Matsalu, the banks of which are densely overgrown with reeds and reeds. This is one of the most interesting nature reserves, a real haven for birds. Millions of birds inhabit the coastal thickets and meadows. Here you can see such rare visitors as the black vulture, flamingo, kelp plover, white-winged tern, white-throated thrush, etc.
Only during the season, at least 1 million long-tailed ducks, scoters and scoters fly through the strait. Every spring, thousands of snow-white swans, ducks and other birds appear.
A cruise ship sailing from Yalta to Sochi ran into a storm. All of a sudden strange little dark lumps started raining down on the deck. To the astonishment of all, the lumps turned out to be birds.
"Nightingales!?” a woman said disbelivvingly.
Passengers began to rescue the birds, risking being washed overboard in the storm. They took them to their cabins to warm them and dry out their feathers but the birds lay still, eyes glazed. It became obvious they were exhausted and starving.
What do nightingales eat? Books in the library were of no help.
Somebody said insects would do. But there were neither flics nor cockroaches on board ship. A woman recollected that once she had fed a swallow fledgeling with boiled egg white. Someone else remembered that birds of passage cat verdure in spring.
It was decided to prepare such a salad for the birds. With the permission of the manager of the restaurant the flowers on the tables were stripped of their green leaves and the chef prepared a salad. But the birds would not touch it Then it was the doctors' turn to try to save the birds One of the tourists, a professor, converted his de luxe cabin into a first-aid post. He called a meeting of all medical personnel on board. The ship's doctor, two surgeons, a dentist and an oculist turned up. Collective-farm poultry-maids who were on the cruise were also invited.
It was decided to try glucose and caffeine injections made with an ordinary syringe.
It was the equivalent of injecting a person with a needle a metre and a half long, but there was no alternative... Out of the 20 dying birds, 15 were saved.
What was the reason for the accumulation of so many nightingales? Most probably a natural calamity of some type.
By morning the storm abated. At the port of Sochi there was no mooring space immediately available for the ship as she arrived behind schedule. The captain sent a message: "Unable to wait. Have migratory birds aboard. They are starving and might die."
The reply came immediately: "As an exception you may use the freighter pier."
... One after another the birds rose into the air. Never before have there been so many nightingales in the parks of Sochi as this year.
