Paphos Life

Giglas?

There have been much less hunters this year.

We have see less hunters this year in our area.. We have a cat and a dog. The dog is always on the lead with us... The cat is a stray, and comes and goes as she likes..

What are Giglas?

Thrushes

My first attempt at Louise's question

Generically Inferior Guys Loving A Shot

Poor thrushes! Why on earth do they need to be exterminated? Too small to make a decent meal.
I share Jagwheets thoughts about those carrying guns. Shouldn’t these people be at work anyway?
Dee

A few months ago we had to be out of the house before 5-30am to travel down Polis road to Paphos.. Monday Tuesday Thursday and Friday were traffic free.. But on a Wednesday, Hunting day, I could hardly believe the number of vehicles coming fro the town to the countryside... We would see Hundreds in a 20 minute journey.. I too wondered why all these 'Hunters' were not going to work

Many of them insist that their employers give them the Wednesday off so they can go hunting - I presume if this is the case, then the hunters have to work extra on other days to compensate.
Overall, I would agree with Dominic and Trev - far fewer hunters than previous years. Except ... some of them have decided that our road is a good place to hunt, despite one side being No Hunting/Conservation and the other being too close to houses. Yet again this morning I had to do my impersonation of a loud fish wife (with apologies to the genuine article ) and shout them away - in Greek to avoid misunderstandings. Each time I hear the spent shot landing on my land, I yell out very loudly "Owwwww!" followed by, in Greek, "there are houses here, keep further away, forbidden to hunt here, go away". So far, it's worked, they pack up and leave. Next stage, if they don't leave, would be to get close enough to read the number plate and report them to hunting patrol.

The small birds are ambelopoulia and too small to shoot, so those giglas must be another kind of bird and bigger than the ambelopoulia.

Ah, just checked. Not giglas but tsigles. Τσίχλες τραγουδιού in Greek.

They are unfortunately allowed to shoot song thrush these days (tsigla) but won't stop only with that type of lovely song bird. (black bird and everything small and moving) But with this weather today birds will hopefully hide and not sing... What I don't understand is why the "hunting" season in Cyprus goes on so long. In Italy they are only allowed to shoot until 31.12. and after that the local police is very strict and quick with huge fines if they catch someone after that time...

Max

I agree with you about he length of the hunting season. It should all be over before the start of the birds breeding period in spring. There don’t seem to be that many birds about on a day to day basis. If it weren’t for the spring and autumn migrations Cyprus could be a place with few birds which would be a shame.

Dee