A conversation with Dan Rhoads who will be familiar to many people as the man behind the excellent Migrations blog. An eastern Pennsylvania (USA) native who grew up surrounded by birdwatching and nature documentaries Dan caught the itch, so to speak, when he arrived at Sapsucker Woods in Ithaca, New York, and refined his birding skills with the Lab of Ornithology’s Spring Field Ornithology course. While there he studied Molecular Biology, met a Cypriot, married, and ended up moving with her to the 
Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus. Dan is now a member of BirdLife Cyprus and is a strong and active voice in campaigns to raise awareness both within Cyprus and overseas about illegal trapping and the huge toll that trapping for the illegal ‘snack’ ambelopoulia is taking on migrant birds: he now blogs and tweets almost exclusively about these topics at Migrations.
Disclaimer: This podcast has been produced by Talking Naturally to support conservation. No fees or benefits of any kind have been charged or accepted by Talking Naturally. Bandwidth costs for this podcast are sponsored by Digital Spring.
Show Notes
From Dan’s blog:
What is Ambelopoulia?
What are limesticks and mist nets?
What bird species are caught and killed by poachers?
Bee-eater caught on limestick. Photo copyright CABS
For more on the work of BirdLife Cyprus please listen to an earlier podcast: TN005 – Martin Hellicar, BirdLife Cyprus
“BirdLife Cyprus is the Cyprus representative of BirdLife International – a globally active conservation organization that operates in over 100 countries and territories worldwide and is the recognized global authority on birds.
BirdLife Cyprus aims to promote the study and protection of the birds of Cyprus and their habitats, and to enable the citizens of Cyprus and other countries to play their part in achieving this goal
BirdLife Cyprus is working to bring an end to illegal bird trapping. Birds trapped on limesticks and in nets die a horrible death and are then sold for profit to be eaten as an expensive ‘delicacy’. Many birds of threatened species fall foul to the indiscriminate nets and glue sticks. A recent opinion poll showed that the majority of Cypriots are against this illegal activity.”
The BirdLife Cyprus website (English): http://www.birdlifecyprus.org/
UPDATE: A superb article by American writer Jonathon Franzen about ambelopoulia is now online at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/8102878/Songbirds-poached-and-eaten.html
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