Pigeons of Turkey

Okay, I'm not even going to try and make you guess.  I went to Turkey in June.  (I have been very fortunate to have been able to travel a lot these past few months!)  While the scenery was INCREDIBLE, the bird life was not so dramatic.  Of course, it didn't help that I didn't have a field guide to Turkish birds.  But even with my limited bird knowledge, I could recognize our friend the rock pigeon when I saw him.

Bonus white dove(?)  in this photo.

Other birds seen in Turkey include the following sparrow-like varieties:

Then there was this fellow, looking out of a pipe:

Interesting head shape!

Here we have some kind of swallow, I believe.  There were a whole bunch of these sitting on a wire at the ruins at Patara.

A few more unidentified avians to round out the sampling:

So there you have it!  I did see many swallows flying around, but they were hard to get a picture of.  And I think the Turkish people are raising pigeons for their poop for farming purposes...hence the plethora of pigeons.  Here is the exotic home of these pigeons:

Let's back up a little to get the bigger picture:

And even more, for an idea of the landscape:

Not bad digs, eh?

We passed these bags on one of our hikes...

...which we surmise are filled with pigeon poop, thus lending credence to our pigeon-raising theory.

Finally, just for fun, here's a photo of me and my traveling companions, friends Claire and Gillian:

It was a wonderful trip!