 |
| Mt. Poldanovec |
Pleasant day spent hiking in the Trnovo forest: on mount Poldanovec (morning) and mount Kucelj (evening). Poldanovec (1299 m) is one of the highest tops in Trnovski gozd and its northern rocky slopes mark the end of the plateau. Thus it hosts an interesting array of alpine plants. Saw a couple of them although the main flowering season it's a bit over.
 |
| Campanula cespitosa |
 |
| Euphrasia salisburgensis |
 |
| Salix sp. (maybe retusa?) on top of mt. Poldanovec |
 |
| Leontopodium alpinum growing out of a rock hanging over a steep ravine. |
 |
| View from the top of Poldanovec down into the Trebuša valley, with the Julian Alps in the background. |
 |
| On the top. The green cushion on the rocks are the leaves of Dryas octopetala, a typically alpine plant. |
 |
| View on mt. Krn through the beech woodland. |
 |
| Epipactis helleborine |
 |
| Gentiana asclepiadea - very common in the forest. |
 |
| Larch Larix decidua - the Poldanovec area is the southernmost native location for the species outside the Alpine region. |
Birds were few - highlight being two calling
Nutcrackers Nucifraga caryocatactes. Pied Flycatchers
Ficedula hyploeuca and Tree Pipits
Anthus trivialis were the most obvious migrants, along with a fly-by Marsh Harrier
Circus aeruginosus and a Whinchat
Saxicola rubetra. Forest species included Eurasian Treecreeper
Certhia familiaris, Crested Tit
Lophophanes cristatus, both Willow
Poecile montanus & Marsh Tit
P. palustris, Firecrest
Regulus ignicapillus, Bullfinch
Pyrrhula pyrrhula, Crossbill
Loxia curvirostra and Black Woodpecker
Dryocopus martius.
 |
| Euphrasia liburnica on Mala Lazna - one of the two locations where this species grows in Slovenia. |
 |
| Allium ericetorum on mt. Kucelj. |
 |
| View from mt. Kucelj towards the Nanos plateau. The top of mount Nanos is on the right, while far back on the left, mt. Snežnik is also visible (volcano shape). In the valley, the town of Vipava with its extensive limestone cliffs. |
 |
| Sunset on Kucelj with its distinctive shadow over the southern edge of Trnovski gozd. |
 |
| Last pic before going home... |
