Too many hawks around here!

Carrion! The buzzards are late.

Locations of the Ahwar of Southern Iraq, World Heritage Site.

Around 20,000 Marsh Arabs live in southern Iraq.

The marshes today remain one of the poorest areas in Iraq.

This guy, unfortunately, one of these met an unfortunate end.

And I believe it will guarantee the safety of the hawks.

Come and get it, you hungry buzzards!

The wetlands span thousands of square miles in the middle of desert.

Alwash says he feels vindicated by the UNESCO listing.

And so now all the birds come in. And I have hawks.

José and Jesse are keeping off the buzzards.

But the marshes that survived for thousands of years have taken a beating in recent decades. Iraqi governments since the 1950s began draining parts of the marshes to expand agriculture and drill for oil.

The hawks were right to be in a hurry.

You get a male and a female each of those, and out of them comes falcons.

Kiwis are, and so are these hawks trapped near Antarctica.

Now, here's the most recent progression of Falcons.

We can't have everyone deciding the hawk is fair game, now, can we?

Besides, there's a law against killing buzzards.

Much of the land along the Gulf Coast is, or was, marshland.

International Congress organized by the International Falcon Movement Socialist Education International

Both parties include conservatives and liberals, defense hawks and doves.

This is why most economists are deficit hawks.

They're as hungry as young hawks an' foxes.

' All the same, one is responsible. He watched me like a hawk.

The hawks, he thought, that come out to sea to meet them.

Look at them buzzards. They'll be back. You couldn't scare 'em off with artillery.

But since Saddam was toppled in 2003, there have been efforts to restore the suffering marsh ecosystems.

There are still threats to the marshes primarily from agricultural runoff as well as drought attributed to climate change.

Neither the hawks nor the doves (nor anyone else) expected that.

You have better luck with falcons. She'll never call you daintyface!

A few years ago, people were looking and laughing at me saying why do you want to restore the marshes?

Ideological hawks usually come from the National Religious Party and from members of the Likud.

It's known about the Amur Falcon. This guy, unfortunately, one of these met an unfortunate end.

The hawks also suffer from what can be called a catch up complex.

Any time, any place. This ain't nothing. Let the buzzards have her.

In the 1980s, at war with Iran, Saddam Hussein sped up their destruction so the marshes couldn't serve as a refuge for fighters.

No American band sold more records than the Eagles during the 1970s.

Iraqi American environmentalist Azzam Alwash and Nature Iraq, the group he founded, have set up an eco camp in the heart of the marshes.

As a result, they can pull the plug on the program if its stringent criteria are not met.

Bankers must expect robbery the same way chickens expect hawks.

While men in the marshes fish, women and girls do most of the manual labor including cutting and transporting the reeds.

Some students of ancient history believe the marshes, lined with reeds, teeming with fish and filled with birds, are the site of the biblical Garden of Eden.

On June 17, the UN cultural agency, UNESCO, added the marshlands and the ancient Sumerian cities that once flourished among them to its list of World Heritage Sites.

On the surface, party competition has been between left and right, or hawks and doves.