How To Become A Professional Bird Guide. Boris Belchev of Lithuania

Boris Part 2

And thank you for listening on apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify Podbean. Well, your favorite podcast platform. Music by the legendary and, talented Chris Nole.

Check out Chris and his awesome music at ChrisNole.com. C H R I S N O L E Thank you again for listening and for your support of this podcast,

Your positive imprint.

What's your PI?

Boris Belchev surrounds himself with nature and interesting people. He captures the natural world by focusing on the magic he finds in wildlife throughout Lithuania's wilderness. As a bird guide, he educates visitors on the life of birds, but also the declining numbers of bird species. It's not easy to become a certified birder and guide in Lithuania.

Boris Beche is transforming how we live today. For a more sustainable tomorrow through education and information. And now Boris Belchev shares his journey into the window to nature.

Well, Boris Belchev, it is so fabulous to have you here on the show, and you are out there in Lithuania, which is one of my spots that I visited, and I so much enjoyed Lithuania. Welcome to the show, Boris.

It's, it's really, really special

cause this technologies just were not so accessible in Eastern European countries. And I start first birdwatching and volunteering for Bulgarian society, for protecting our birds, making common bird monitorings. I was counting the breeding birds in the graveyards of our town.

I got a job of dishwasher, .

I really want to speed up the process, I still find another job night shift and one of the fast food chains I managed to do my schedule this way that I have my day offs the same time on both jobs, so I can go to the park and explore and practice with, with my still out equipment until I got the new one.

And in two months I managed to earn the money I need and I have the chance , to start learning to use the digital camera with with longer lens.

I was feeling that I. I live here and I, I need to, to make something here. So this is the breaking point when I decide that I will stay here for, for good and I'll start organizing my own tours. Because in Bulgaria I was working for a company and I was just their guide. But I always wanted to, to work for myself and do that the way I feel that it's, it's the right way and decide how much cost my tourist.

And I saw that in Bulgaria tourist pay to the companies too much money for for things that are really cheap, and I think that the birdwatching should not be expensive. It should be accessible for everyone. When I finish university in Lithuania I finish the regular guide courses that were available this time because there was no nature guide courses organized by any organization still.

And I starting and to become full-time guide in Lithuania and I start

researching and found one platform called Birding Pal. (http://birdingpal.org/Lithuania.htm)

It's based in USA and they have a website where you can find local guide and I was still thinking about maybe I should come back to Bulgaria, but they have only one local guide for each country. And Bulgaria spot was already occupied, but I saw that Lithuania, nobody registered as professional local guide and I already have quite enough experience.

And explore enough good areas and I apply for this, it cost only $10 per per year. So it was a sign for me that I should stay here in Lithuania. And so I registered there. I got my first guest. First one was from Spain and then I got some from Italy and Netherlands and even from US and slowly but steady. I like this job and I want do it more.

So I move to the area that I live at the moment and it's River Delta (Nemunas Delta). It's one of the regional parks in Lithuania. It's really exciting area cause all the birds pass through here and staying

staging here on their migration roads, Siberia and Scandinavia. So this area have really good birds biodiversity and birth diversity. In this area it's have been seen more than 320 species of birds, which for Europe it's quite good numbers.

And I started my small company

so now I local guide here and I live in a very small village on the biggest island of Lithuania, island of Rusnė ,

When I start advertising my tours I should be certified guide, not just uh, somebody that thinks that is a guide.

After few years, they were established the first nature guide courses in university and Coronian Spit National Park. They run this pilot project. So, made such nature guide courses with south Baltic countries Germany and Lithuania. And I was really curious what, what they gonna prepare with these guides.

So even I already was working as a nature guide and I participate as a one of the students. You never stop learning and it's.

Enough uh, time to, to be become better guide.

Do you have a lot of migratory birds or do they stay there year round? What is the birding population like as far as residents?

residents. So resident birds, they're not a lot because of our birds, even this, that we see every day they're swapping locations because we get some, some of the same species individuals staying here in the winter.

But our same species are moving southern. And if we speak only about the area that I live, there are about 200 breeding species that are breeding in the area. And all the rest are migratory birds. Birds that now with the climate change even it's difficult topic, but also it's bringing really strange bird species even so north to Lithuania.

For example, this year we have some really hot species like, desert wheatear, which is normally found in north Africa. And it came to Baltic Sea and it was found by the local birders. And in the same time we had King eider that it's from Arctic Tundra and come in October to Lithuania and we managed to to see it.

It's called Great Wheat Warbler and the amazing migration that he's making to the, to Africa. And That it's flying over the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea five kilometers high even it's just like, 25 40 grams like starling size. And I even didn't know that the scientist that make this discovery was from Lithuania.

And then I met him on my tour .

And we need to sustain that. We have to be able to sustain these animals on the planet with our actions, and bird guiding is one way because you're bringing education and your website, of course, is another because you're educating people on the birds and the importance of them.

So are there any laws, against pesticides?

Great Bustard. And we were exploring the historical habitat that it's used to live in. And we found one small bird that is called yellow whack tail, and it was eating the insects that were poisoned with pesticides. And it was, I was able to take it to my hand and it was barely standing on its legs.

, We know, all the pesticide are accumulating in organisms and it's usually the result of this poisoning, it's that birds become infertile and they cannot sustain as a species.

I, I can't tell you how many people I have met that are unaware of what they're doing to the population of the wildlife, just even in their backyards and with what they plant or the fertilizer. Even the fertilizer, a chemical. I listened to a podcast. Susie Buttress from England. You were on that podcast and that's where I found you was your talk of some of the birds in Lithuania. And it was a fantastic discussion that Susie had with you. But another one that she had was with, I think his name is Dick. And he did some research and some studies and learned about the feces from the birds in the bird feeders he was doing the studies in his area, England, and found that bird population was dropping with one particular bird, especially because of the

type of flu that the birds had and spread to each other through their feces because of the certain mm-hmm. feeders that were in backyards. So he formulated, he, he designed this new bird feeder so that the birds could eat their food and not be stepping in feces and then carrying disease with them.

So, I mean, that's why we don't wear our shoes in the house cuz we go walking into public restrooms and your shoes get all sorts of junk on them so they stay at the front door. But anyway so there's so much that still needs to be done in our world. And you are, number one, you became this environmentalist for

wildlife. Listening to you, you are of an activist as well in bringing awareness to the public with information that, that we need. And then you continue your photography so that you, again, education awareness.

And this has been so interesting, and one of the things that's interesting is hearing from somebody that is across the world from me. Listening to your words of wisdom and where you want to bring our world as far as sustainability with regard to birds and bird awareness. And I thank you for that. So thank you so much and I, I I love meeting all the people around the world and learning so much about what everyone is doing with their positive imprints.

? So puppy.

okay.

Let show it to you. Yes.

And what research and all the medicine that's out there. It's, it's incredible. Our dog is 18 and she survived cancer, but probably not the same way your dog did. Mine just had it removed. And your dog probably went through a, a much longer process. So, and our other dog had diabetes and had two shots of insulin a day for 15 years.

Boris is also an artist who uses his talent to educate us with the identification of birds, through his drawings.

the cormerants as, they warmed their, their bodies when they spread their wings. It was so much fun. Yes, cormorants and puffins were out my front door. Oh. So. All do you do these oil, pencil,

For now it's just like a journal with some drawings.

Small drawings.

and the red throated loon.

And they have that, that striped neck so detailed.

It's almost like listening to the wolf song and Yes. And also the loon is very mysterious because you mm-hmm. when they're calling and you're in a, in a canyon, it echoes and you don't know where it's coming from. It's just, so, I don't know. For me it's a, it's a thrill to be out with, with any of the wildlife and, and spend time with

And we, we, we, we can get them breeding on Iceland. It's the only place in Europe. even. It's so far. But it's still Europe. So Iceland, it's the, where the tectonic plate of Europe and North America Connect, splitting and I, I spent almost two weeks in Northern. Northwest Iceland, and we have the common loons there and the song in the, in the fjord.

It's

I am thrilled that they have that breeding ground in Iceland because it's, it's, it feels safe to me. The Icelandic waters.

It used to be a dream to have this, all this book that they make it easier. They make it online and cause I reviewer for Lithuania. I have access to the, to the website. And you can see there is all the, all the texts from the books it's inside and you have photos and videos of all the birds and also maps with distribution.

And where they spend the winter.

I still find it very exciting to find new things about birds that are here in Lithuania. And this, this summer even I, I knew that it's special warbler, but the greenish warbler, it's only a few species in Lithuania that are breeding, but they're not going like all other birds to Africa, but they're going to Asia, to, to India and Pakistan to, to spend the winter.

So this year I have few guests that wanted to see these species and we managed to see it very well. Oh, that's,

it's our, it's like Barrier Reef, but it's dunes that are stopping the Baltic Sea. And behind them it's the Curonian Lagoon. So they have their, this nature school and they can accommodate about 30 people. So we were thinking about making Bird ID courses and also cause I found drawing really involving for children.

With adults, it's easy to grab their attention with some interesting facts, but with children was much more easier to, to involve them in, in learning the words by drawing them. So it's taking their attention for longer and thinking about making these courses to teach children to make a natural journals for themselves.

And it's not, not need to be just birds, but everything, what they can find and investigate and explore. Discover to, to draw it in Nature Journal.

Thank you for sharing that. Well, good luck with that program. It is a fabulous one that you have engineered here and working with the locals there at the national park in education and, and the, the coursework.

Thank you, Boris. So, Boris, this has been so inspirational. I loved hearing your journey from Bulgaria to Alaska and how so many of your own dreams have come true as you researched and, and traveled around looking for wildlife and found which you wanted your dream in

ornithology, you're now a bird guide and thank you for the awareness that you are bringing to the world with regard to education and of course conservation and preservation of our bird populations. So we always end the show. Boris, with your last inspiring words

I hope this will happen soon..

Thank you so much.

Our, our, my friend Teanis he's building the canoes himself, so they're masterpiece .

And to find Boris in Lithuania as your bird guide go to birding pal.org. B I R D I N G P a L.

Thank you so much for joining me here with Boris over these last two weeks, I am enjoying bringing you guests who are transforming how we live today for a better tomorrow through education and information. Join me in April to learn more about Lomi getting smart about your food waste. That will be on April 17th.

Your positive imprint. What's your PI.