Bearded Tits

Male Bearded Tit Panurus biarmicus - phone-binned!

Škocjanski zatok NR: this afternoon I made a 20 minute stop at the reserve and got rewarded with brilliant views of a pair of BEARDED TITS, feeding at the edge of a reedbed, close to the "double screening". Besides the two birds observed close by, there were at least another two calling deeper in the reedbed. This small flock is wintering in the area and can be sometimes observed quite well from the main circular path. My visits of the reserve have greatly diminished in the last months, so I didn't have the chance to catch up with this little reedbed beauties until today. My last proper Bearded Tits were in Hungary back in 2011, although I heard them in January 2012 at RSPB Minsmere (England).

Golden Eagles in the sun

Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos, incl. 3 birds together (2nd pic)

View from the Nanos plateau, looking N. On the left side to the back is the Trnovo forest, while in the far back, the snow-covered Julian Alps are visible.

The view from the Nanos edge down into the Vipava valley and Karst

A splendid sunny day, perfectly clear and unusually warm for being February. The best possible idea for today was to go on Mt. Nanos (Slovenia) and enjoy some Golden Eagles while basking in the sun. And so I did. As soon as I arrived on the grassy plateau, first 2 and then 3 GOLDEN EAGLES performed very well while soaring above the Vipava valley. I identified them as 2 subadults and one adult. After the initial show, the birds disappeared very high in the sky. Then, for the rest of the morning, only one bird (an adult) made quite regular appearances above my head and kept me entertained...until about midday, when two birds were seen again together. Almost at the same time I noticed another massive raptor gliding SE above the Nanos ridge: it was a Griffon Vulture. Other raptors included a Sparrowhawk and a few Buzzards, but not much else. Smaller birds of note included Rock Bunting, Siskin, Crossbill and Woodlark (singing). A pair of Ravens was constructing its nest on a cliff ledge on the rocky slope.
Later in the day I made a brief visit to the river Hubelj, not far from the town centre of Ajdovščina, where a pair of DIPPERS was building a nest in a concrete bank.
Later on I also added Great Grey Shrike to the day list (seen perched on a bush) while I was driving back home. Perfect way to round up a pleasant day.

Wallcreeper memories

Not quite the perfect time for birding, due to a lot of studying, flu and a terrible weather. So here's a small selection of a must-see bird in winter...Wallcreeper. Just in case I don't see it this season, because no winter is complete without a Wallcreeper post on the blog!

Crocus power

Crocus reticulatus

Crocus weldenii

Today was sunny and quite chilly - actually the first day of real cold and sun in a while. Wallcreeper searching seemed a good idea, but at the end it didn't produced the hoped-for crimson butterfly-bird. This winter they are very difficult to see on the Karst and there has been just one single observation for the area as far as I know. The situation is a bit different in the Alps, where today 6 birds were seen by a single observer. Probably the lack of real cold until now has kept the birds up in the mountains.
Alpine Accentors instead are always present with small numbers. Today I saw two of them, feeding on the rocky slopes of the Glinščica/Val Rosandra valley. A pair of Ravens is now probably nesting in the area. A singing Mistle Thrush was also of note, along with 3 Rock Buntings on the ridge.
When there's a lack of birds, flowers are a real salvation on the Karst...even in winter. Today I found the year's first Crocus reticulatus (common species) and a nice carpet of Crocus weldenii (a rare Balkan endemism) - see last year's post.

Smrekova draga - Trnovski gozd

Crossbill - male

Smrekova draga (foreground) and the Julian Alps (bakcground)

The bottom of Smrekova draga covered with mountain pine Pinus mugo

Mountain pine Pinus mugo

Mushroom on beech tree

Great Grey Shrike

Visited the Trnovo forest (Trnovski gozd) with a friend today; once again with complete absence of snow and relatively mild temperatures. We took a nice walk down to the bottom of Smrekova draga - a karstic doline with vegetational inversion - mountain pine Pinus mugo and Norway spruce Picea abies are covering the bottom, as it's otherwise usual for the top of the mountains. The walk through the mountain pine stand was quite an experience! Best birds of the day were 2 singing PYGMY OWLS heard at dusk. Still quite a lot of activity in the forest, with Crossbill being the most obvious species - the above bird was part of a very collaborative and fearless flock. Otherwise quite a lot of Coal, Willow & Crested Tits, Goldcrests and 2 Ravens.
An out-of-place Cormorant was migrating above Predmeja; the Vipava valley produced 2 Great Grey Shrikes and a Peregrine with a freshly killed pigeon in the talons.

Karstic Eagle Owl

Male Eagle Owl singing

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Black Woodpecker calling

Above are the highlights of today's short afternoon stroll on the Karst. Saw a pair of singing Eagle Owls at dusk, 1 male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and 2 Black Woodpeckers (m & f). All pics are phone-scoped.

Cinclus fever

On the 1st of January I was early in the field in Slovenia, seeing my first birds of the year. One of them was the above DIPPER on the Unica river near Planina, which entertained me for quite some time in the morning. The water current was pretty wild (with an awful lot of water in the river), but despite that, the Dipper kept diving and swimming with a certain ease. I didn't imagine it could perch on the submerged rocks in the middle of the riverbed, where the current was the strongest... but it did. Amazing.
Next on plan was a visit of the Cerknica lake (Cerkniško jezero). The large water bodies held just a small portion of the usual wildfowl present in the area. Among a consistent flock of Coots I only managed to spot some 20 Goldeneyes, +25 Wigeons, 1 Gadwall and 2 Pochards. However the major highlight on the lake were 2 adult WHITE-TAILED EAGLES perched for most of the morning on some low poles in the lake's centre. Both birds were seen flying off from time to time. One of the two even took a bath in the lake and then went to perch back on the pole to dry the feathers in Cormorant-like fashion. Never seen anything like that.
Other birds of note around the lake included a Redwing (in a small flock of Mistle Thrushes), a pair of Grey-headed Woodpeckers (both on the same tree), 1 Great Grey Shrike, 3 female Hen Harriers, several Fieldfares, a flock of 14 Common Gulls and several commoner species like Yellowhammer, Brambling, Black Woodpecker, Hawfinch, Kingfisher, Grey Wagtail, Coal, Marsh, Crested & Willow Tit, Goldcrest and so on.
All in all an excellent start of the year in the field, even better than last year's.