My Entry For The Amazing Nature Contest - September 2021

Have you noticed what kind of animals live next to your doorstep? Or even in your house, on your balcony, roof? It does not really matter if it is a house or a flat, if you live in a village or a town. What amazes me is how all these animals adapt to our life style, find ways to live with us humans. All that came to my mind when my cats made quite a noise on the balcony one night. Their hunter instict to chase everything that crawl or fly drew my attention. This time it wasn't a moth, but a gecko.

Fortunately the little night visitor was on the ceiling, far from the reach of the cats.

I love the geckos and I am happy to have some around as they feed on mosquitoes. This is the only gecko that can be found in my country and his scientific name is Cyrtopodion kotschyi. We call it Balkan gecko. Recently I found out that it makes sounds similar to the crickets. Makes me wonder if I hear crickets at night or geckoes as well.

I saw gecko maybe couple of years ago, slightly bigger and braver and it was inside the room. Again luckily we managed to let it go, before the cat caught it.

Other nocturnal creatures are the hedgehogs. This year I have no photos, as I am skipping the night walks with the dog and missed to take pictures. At dusk the bats appear and it is impossible to make a photo of them, they are bloody fast. I believe many of the residents don't even notice them and they are oblivient of how many different creatures can be seen where we all live.

And of course - the birds. I am not talking about the pigeons and the sparrows and the seagulls, they are constantly around. All the other we see and photograph make the number of the animals in my list to increase.

Some of the birds come to breed, raise their chicks and go back to the warmer places in the winter. Others live constantly in the park or around the block of flats. We have plenty of trees where they nest. The woodpeckers make holes in the tree trunks where they nest and after they leave them, new occupants arrive - usually the starlings.

The nests of the house martins, after they migrate, are used by the sparrows. But what I read recently is about the swifts, who found the crevices on the concrete facades suitable for their nests. Isn't it amazing how birds reuse old nests or find way to adapt to what humans have built?

I will finish the post with some woodpeckers photos. This is Syrian spotted woodpecker, the most common in my area.