This year, the Eleonora"s Falcon (Falco eleonorae) “traveled” to many islands of the Aegean through a series of presentations organized by the HOS between July and September 2005. The islands were not selected randomly, since these host large falcon breeding colonies. The main goal of these events was to inform the public and raise awareness on the natural heritage (underlining the importance of the avifauna) of the Aegean region and to stress the necessity of protecting the islets that constitute ecosystems of great ecological value. For this reason, the actions, implemented by the HOS for the purpose of protection and conservation of wild avifauna habitats on islets, and the value of volunteer work towards this aim were presented, through the projection of a documentary for Eleonora’s Falcon LIFE-Nature project.
In the course of this public awareness campaign, the HOS visited the islands of Anafi, Antikythira, Kalymnos, Kos, Leipsoi, Naxos and Samothraki with a total audience (locals and tourists) of about 600 people. A total number of 20 volunteers of the HOS participated in the organization of these events that were all integrated into the agenda of summer events organized by the local authorities or cultural societies of each island. After each presentation information material was distributed, followed by a discussion with the audience.
However, presentations were not the only “weapon” that HOS used! During the same period two information kiosks were operating. The information kiosk in Pothia, Kalymnos was established and operating for a second consecutive year, whereas another information kiosk was set up in the Chora of Naxos. The person in charge for running the information kiosk in Kalymnos was Mrs. Irene Mailli and for this one in Naxos was Mr. Kostas Kontopoulos. These two kiosks became the info hubs for the Eleonora’s Falcon project as well as for the other conservation actions implemented by the HOS in the Aegean Sea. Our 13 volunteers contributed greatly in informing more than 2000 visitors and helping the responsible communication personnel run smoothly the info kiosks. We would like to thank all of them for their voluntary contribution and we also hope that we’ll see them again next summer together with new volunteers.