Sunday 3 May 2015

Strix n' tridactylus

Male Ural Owl Strix uralensis (same ind. in all three pics).
The 3rd uralensis of the day.
Male Three-toed Woodpecker Picoides tridactylus - note the thin yellow stripe on the head.
Old nesting cavities of Three-toed Woodpecker in a dead conifer.
Three-toed habitat.
Somewhere in that fog was lurking the 5th Ural Owl of the day.
Scopolia carniolica - never tired of these!
Cardamine trifolia
Excellent day in the Kočevje forests doing a census of Three-toed Woodpecker Picoides tridactylus. Had 3 individuals, one of which was a nice male with yellow crown. Thus I accomplished one of my targets for 2015: to see a male (after last year's 15 or so females). In the daytime hours Ural Owls Strix uralensis were particularly active with a total of 5 birds contacted. Four of them were seen (2 pairs and one singleton). An adult Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos gliding above a forested slope was also of note. By far the commonest bird of the day was Cuckoo Cuculus canorus - heard one at every census stop (about 15 in total).