Dalia, these are very nice pictures! I think these boats are very interesting. Some day, I want to build my own boat. I have read some about the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq. They have a very ancient lifestyle, but they suffered greatly under Saddam, who drained many of their marshes. I have heard that some of the marshes have been restored recently. I think that this is a very good thing. The marshes are important for the people who live there and also for the animals. These birds look like ducks. We have a lot of ducks in the U.S. This time of year, there are many baby ducks swimming behind their mothers in the lakes here. They are very cute! :)

Thank you David

hi Dalia...these are soo nice photos ..
I hope you visit my blog and see the puzzles which I posted them

Ihope you like them

Hi Dalia,

I have been to the marshes when I was little (back in the seventies) and both my parents lived there when they were little, I remember it to be a landscape the like I have never seen anywhere in the world, of course it has been damaged and should be conserved for future generations for knowledge and as a unique part of the world, as a child the boats that cut in the vast still waters and the reed huts towering were magical, my mum has some pics and she once described to me the birds that come from all over the world in spring, today I am trying to find out more about these birds migration paths, there is well recorded information about migrating ducks in Canada and the Us, but sadly there are no records of the ducks (Mallards and Teal is what I have identified)anywhere else in the globe, my husband insists that they don't migrate far ie inter-continental, but from my mums descriptions of the water birds bounty in spring in the marsh when she was little, I have reason to believe that they migrate further than anyone has ever charted, I would be interested to hear from anyone who knows more, and if they have tagged any..

Rgds
Deena