Sara Masó, volunteer European Solidarity Crops

I chose this particular volunteering project in order to learn more about birds of prey, and that’s what happened in reality, however I’ve also gained knowledge about other issues. Dadia is a unique place to immerse yourself into nature and the real Greece. If you want to learn Greek you can do so without even realizing it. It’s a small village, but its residents are charming even with little (or not all) English, still they are very curious to know who you are and keep trying to communicate with you.

I think the best part with the Society for the Protection of Biodiversity of Thrace is different ongoing projects depending on the season when volunteers join the program. During my staying, I had often an opportunity to work with dogs. Those that are always here as a part of the team, Kiko and Dalton, wonderful dogs that have been trained to sniff for poisoned baits and animals. Moreover, for a few days our team of volunteers was taking care of some Greek shepherd puppies until they were ready to be provided to some local livestock breeders. And of course we gave them Spanish names (Pepe, Paco, Antonio). We also participated in installation of electrical fences around sheepfolds what minimizes the risk of wolf attacks on livestock and financial losses to livestock breeders. In this way, the use of poisoned baits might be reduced as well as a possibility of getting poisoned for birds of prey. The contact with local livestock breeders gives us the opportunity to learn more about local residents and their way of living and thinking. We always try to raise awareness and inform both senior residents and children from local schools about the importance of maintaining biodiversity.

Our office work was comprised of different tasks, we monitored feeding stations while checking pictures of vultures and other birds of prey from trap cameras installed there, we tracked movements of vultures through satellite transmitters and we created an awareness video for youth. I personally invested a lot of time in a brief study about the impact of wind farms on birds, as they cause a huge threat for bird collisions with wind turbine blades.

This voluntary service contributed to my professional career as a biologist with new experience and at the same time it made me open-minded on other environment, completely different with the one in my city. Living with other volunteers from other countries, also taught me about different cultures, languages and gastronomy (for me, the best part of a trip far away from my country).