The Boys Who Loved Birds

<p>&ldquo;In this area you should go just behind me,&rdquo; the stout man says, the&nbsp;<em>th</em>&nbsp;of his&nbsp;<em>this</em>&nbsp;buzzing like a bee. Then, as if to reassure me, he adds, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been here before, with other colleagues and journalists, and no one died.&rdquo; I&rsquo;ve traveled here, to the former Iron Curtain, still studded with the occasional land mine, in pursuit of a love story. It&rsquo;s an improbable tale about two boys, a friendship, and a passion for birds.</p> <p>Twenty-five years earlier, in 1989, the man in front of me had hatched a plan to transform the former no-man&rsquo;s land that separated Western Europe from the Eastern Bloc into an eco-corridor running through the heart of Europe. It was a preposterous idea. The Iron Curtain had been just that &mdash; a series of steel-reinforced barriers. Electrified fences, razor wire, land mines, trip lines, and machine guns: If it could stop, maim, or kill you, the Soviets put it there. Not exactly &ldquo;eco.&rdquo;</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/thebigroundtable/the-boys-who-loved-birds-cd6e117a608"><strong>Click Here</strong></a></p>
Tags: LOVED Birds