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| | Whinchat Saxicola rubetra |
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| Black Kite Milvus migrans |
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| Purple Heron Ardea purpurea |
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| Great Reed Warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus |
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| Little Ringed Plover Charadrius dubius |
New spring migrants are on the way. Today (and partly yesterday) at Škocjanski zatok NR I had some year's firsts in the form of
Sand Martin (about 40 today), 2
Purple Herons, 1
Squacco Heron, several
Little Ringed Plovers and 2 singing
Great Reed Warblers. However the major highlight today was a
BLACK KITE flying over the freshwater marsh. In general there was a good movement of birds. Together with the Sand Martins, there were lots of Swallows and a few House Martins, as well as
Common Swifts (+20) and a single
Alpine Swift (yesterday). Ten
flava Yellow Wagtails and a male
Whinchat were good to see on the grazing marsh. Other birds, already recorded in the previous visits included things like
Little Gull (2), Lapwing, Wood Sandpiper, Ruff (+25), Black-winged Stilt, Black-tailed Godwit, Common Sandpiper,
Marsh Sandpiper (1 in the lagoon), Redshank,
Common Tern (10) and Marsh Harrier (1 f).
On Sunday I had a small guided trip to the karstic lake of Doberdob which was quite unproductive in terms of migrants and/or waterbirds. However we managed to see an adult
Night Heron, a few
Common and
Alpine Swifts, heard a Water Rail,
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, a distant
Cuckoo and a load of Nightingales. In the early afternoon I saw my first two
SHORT-TOED EAGLES of the season (soaring together), which were quite cool to see again.
