Chickens and other Turkish wildlife

This is the first of my two final posts about Turkey, this one's for the kids because it is all pictures of animals :) Sadly no pictures of the more exotic species - dolphins frolicking from our ferry along the Bosphorous in Istanbul as well as off the coast of Çanakkale, or the sea turtle (caretta caretta) we saw from a winding path down the mountains by Kas, identifiable as a greenish gray blob with an occasionally protruding head, too distant to photograph. Much more common were the tortoises we heard rustling in the brush or came across on our path,

plodding along at a much slower pace than the lizards who darted quickly away when we startled them as they sunned themselves.

The kids loved to try and catch (and release!) the many frogs, big and tiny, who chirped loudly from the marshy canals and cool ponds.

Spring was very much in evidence, with goslings in the ponds of Pamukkale,

and tiny kittens everywhere. 

Kyra played with one while Jacob learned some Turkish dance from friends he met in the park in Çanakkale.

We saw lots of puppies too, some among the fishing boats of Phaselis,

others on the boardwalk around the ruins of Troy, so adorable that we all had to have a cuddle

until mom discovered a tick on one and it was "bye bye puppies".

Not a pig to be seen, which makes sense in a largely Muslim country. But all other farmyard animals were in evidence everywhere except farmyards. In Çirali baby chicks chased after their mother behind our table at breakfast

(that's our bread on the table sticking out in the foreground - great photographic composition I know), and we derived childish glee from seeing turkeys in Turkey.

Cows were spotted occasionally too, grazing in the ditches of Goreme,

along with horses, looking a little sad tethered to a tree all afternoon.

Goats were ubiquitous and would startle us on hikes up in the mountains

while herds of sheep forced us to make way as they travelled down our path in Faralya.

Dogs were the biggest puzzle for us. We are used to seeing feral dogs on our bikes, and are always wary of their growls or charges as we cycle through rural areas. But the vast majority of dogs we saw in Turkey seemed to pose no threat to anyone. From Istanbul (I swear we didn't just kill this

one)

and the Prince's Islands off Istanbul,

to Kas on the coast where they lay oblivious to everyone passing by them in the busy central square, they appeared to literally be sedated, lying comatose on the ground, many with chips embedded in their ears. We never figured out why.

Our lack of ornithological expertise meant we weren't able to identify the species of birds we came across, but we enjoyed watching the swallows flit across the evening sky, and hearing the coos of the morning doves. Our favourite were the giant storks, brilliant white with black tipped wings. Much bigger than the herons we see at home, they roosted atop tall trees in the gardens outside Toplakpi Palace in Istanbul, but loomed nearer and larger all over Selçuk, where the municipality had installed cages to support nests on the tops of ancient arches in the city centre.

The daily encounters we had with wild and not so wild life brought great joy to the kids, and will be a large part of what they remember about our time here.