WHITE-BACKED WOODPECKER Dendrocopos leucotos ssp.
lilfordi. Brilliant views of this male for more than 20 minutes as it fed and preened on a beech tree (
video). Later it moved on the ground to "work" a rotten tree...and alongside it was...surprise:
THREE-TOED WOODPECKER Picoides tridactylus (female) feeding on a dead Norway spruce, just a few metres away from the White-backed Woodpecker!
URAL OWL Strix uralensis hunting in the middle of the day in a spruce forest. Perched in full view for several minutes and allowing a quite close approach.
Tawny Owl Strix aluco curiously attracted to the car's lights. Kept following the car for a while.
Excellent all-day birding in the Snežnik forests. Apart from the above, I also had a
WOODCOCK Scolopax rusticola (flying across a forest road and then perched on the ground in full view), a
Grey-headed Woodpecker Picus canus and a
Great Grey Shrike Lanius excubitor near Koritnice. And of course loads of common forest birds.
