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.

2013 YEAR REVIEW

2013 started with a cold January that brought some amazing northern vagrants. In January and February I made a few trips to Ptuj (Slovenia) and saw the above LONG-TAILED DUCK, both WHOOPER and BEWICK'S SWANS and a large variety of interesting wildfowl and waterbirds.

WAXWING invasion in Udine (north-east Italy) - surely one of the highlights of the winter. More than 200 birds gathered between February and April in the town centre.

Spring brought many highlights and this CUCKOO on the 1st of April in the patch was an excellent start.

An April trip to north-eastern Slovenia provided a very strong dose of pannonian birding with highlight being WHITE-HEADED DUCK (my first lifer of the year), Long-tailed Duck, PALLID HARRIER, Bewick's Swan, Osprey, White-tailed Eagle, Black Stork, a Stoat and much more - all in one day!

A BLACK-EARED WHEATEAR in the garden in April was a local mega - and a new bird for the patch.

The GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOO I went to see at the end of April was perhaps the rarest of all the birds seen this year.

BARRED WARBLER season on the Karst was good and in May I managed to locate several territories of this elusive Sylvia.

LESSER GREY SHRIKE was again breeding successfully in 2013 on one of the few remaining sites for the species in Slovenia.

A trip to Cerkniško jezero (Slovenia) in July represented one of the year's best birding days. COMMON ROSEFINCH was the highlight, along with several other birds like Corncrake, Grasshopper Warbler, Spotted & Little Crake, Short-toed Eagle and many more.

The PECTORAL SANDPIPER at Valle Canal Novo (Marano Lagunare) in July was my second lifer this year.

Between August and December 2013 I enjoyed many happy moments in the company of the DIPPERS on Planinsko polje (Slovenia).

SHORT-TOED EAGLES seen many times on the Karst during July and August were a good summer entertainment.

BLACK STORK was also in the focus of summer 2013. I made several visits to the foraging site of a local pair near Divača and enjoyed many close encounters with this rare and elusive species.

TEREK SANDPIPER was the third lifer of the year. I went to see it at Valle Canal Novo NR, where the Pectoral Sandpiper was present two months earlier.

The first GREAT GREY SHRIKE of the season in October - always a pleasure.

Dinaric forest full immersion - on the university front a 3 day trip to the Snežnik forests (Slovenia) was an absolute highlight of my field lessons career.

SNOW BUNTINGS at Lisert were a major late-autumn attraction - 3 birds were present, but I only saw two of them.

The year started and ended with LONG-TAILED DUCKS. Three birds were seen at Cerkniško jezero at the beginning of December and a female was in the Quarantia canal at the end of the month.

Actually 2013 was stuffed with highlights and probably there are too many to list them all. Some of them will remain impressed in my memory more than others: the trip to the Trnovo forest and Nanos plateau in September with URAL OWLS, TENGMALM'S OWL and GOLDEN EAGLES, the SHORT-EARED OWLS seen at Medvedce reservoir (January) and at Magredi del Meduna (May), the day at Cerkniško jezero in September with an adult WHITE-TAILED EAGLE & singing URAL OWLS, the GREATER SPOTTED EAGLE twitch at Torviscosa in January, the RED KITES seen in October, the male RING OUZEL seen on Mt.Nanos in April, the different WALLCREEPERS seen through the winter, the CORNCRAKE holding territory on the Karst (June) or the self-found SHORT-TOED LARK at Škocjanski zatok in April.

2013 was a very good year for the patch as well. I added several new species to the local list including Alpine Accentor, Tufted Duck, Shelduck, Reed Bunting, Spoonbill, Crag Martin, Black-eared Wheatear and Little Grebe. The latter was a milestone species - the 160th.
In 2013 I also held a local patch year list which at the end of the year numbered 122 bird species.


But of course I cannot forget to mention the botanical part of the year. Below are some personal favourites.

Crocus weldenii

Allium sphaerocephalon

Sorbus aria

Primula carniolica

Gladiolus illyricus

Sorbus aucuparia

Pinus mugo

Gentiana clusii

Primula auricula

Lilium bulbiferum

Helleborus niger

Lush meadow

Gentiana lutea