Raft photography

Birdraft with Alen in it

Had no time for birding or photographing for almost a month because of school but today I finally got some time to write this post about little photo sessision with Alen on Medvedce reservoir previous sunday. We started early in the morning at 4.00 and end at 11.00 when the sun was so hard that photo opps were literally at zero point so the best pics were made early when the light was still soft and not overburnt.
Many birds around including numerous families of Pochards and also family of  Red-crested Pochards which had 6 youngsters. Othervise nothing really interesting to report maybe 1 Squacco Heron and  1 Mediterranian Gull.

Some photos:

 Great-crested Grebe

 Black Kite

 Ferruginous Duck

 Pair of Marsh Harriers

 Little Grebe

 Pochard

 Pochardlings

Local patch

Calm days around. I was just checking my garden surroundings these days and some nice birds are hanging around. Yesterday 6 Honey Buzzards flew ower the house (2 of them presents the local pair which will probalbly nest in the forest behind our house). Wryneck is common around I would say 2 pairs are in our small willage and also this year pair of Common Redstarts is nesting above my balcony (total about 5 pairs in the willage). Other interesting birds around like pair of Red-backed Shrikes, Golden Orioles, Spotted Flycatchers, Hawfinches, Cuckoos etc.

 Song Trush

 Common Redstart

 Black Redstart

 Honey Buzzard

 Hawfinch

juv. Bluetits

Island of Pag

Currently i got home from 1 week photo-birding holidays from 26th April to 3rd May with Alen on island of Pag (Croatia).

Weather was bad this year with daily showers but even sun periods on a daily basis. As usual many birds around the island. We checked well known locations Velo blato, Malo blato, Kolansko blato and Dinjiške saltpans every day and also some other locations. Every morning we wake up at 3.30 and went on morning photo sessisions. We wait for about 5 ours and than had a breakfast. After that we drive around the island and look for some birds until 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon when we again went photographing. All in all we managed to get some interesting species and some very good photos. Together we recorded 108 species but no lifers this time.

  1. Mute Swan
  2. Greylag Goose: not really common in this time of the year 
  3. Shelduck
  4. Mallard
  5. Gadwall
  6. Shoveler
  7. Garganey
  8. Rock Patridge: very common, singing everywhere and also some seen well
  9. Quail
10. Pheasant
11. Little Grebe
12. Great-crested Grebe
13. Cormorant
14. Shag (desmarestii subspecies)
15. Pygmy Cormorant
16. Night Heron
17. CATTLE EGRET: 3 individuals at flooded fields near Dinjiške saltpans
18. Squacco Heron: fairly common, up to 12 at Dinjiške saltpans
19. Little Egret
20. Great Egret
21. Grey Heron
22. Purple Heron
23. Glossy Ibis: large flock of 21 individuals at Dinjiške ssaltpans
24. Spoonbill
25. White-tailed Eagle: 1 at Velo blato; probalbly very rare on the island
26. Short-toed Eagle
27. Marsh Harrier
28. Montagu's Harrier: 3 pairs nesting at Malo blato
29. Kestrel
30. Red-footed Falcon
31. Peregrine Falcon
32. Moorhen
33. Coot
34. Avocet
35. Black-winged Stilt
36. Stone Curlew: common on the rocky slopes of the island; some calling even at daylight and about 6 were seen.
37. Little-ringed Plover
38. Ringed Plover
39. Kentish Plover
40. Grey Plover
41. Dunlin
42. Wood Sandpiper
43. Green Sandpiper
44. Common Sandpiper
45. Redshank
46. Spotted Redshank
47. Greenshank
48. Marsh Sandpiper
49. Black-tailed Godwit
50. Curlew
51. Whimbrel
52. Snipe
53. Ruff
54. Black-headed Gull
55. Yellow-legged Gull
56. GULL-BILLED TERN: 3 seen, 1 at sea in front of Malo blato and 2 at Dinjiške saltpans
57. Common Tern
58. White-winged Tern
59. Whiskered Tern
60. Rock Dove
61. Collared Dove
62. Turtle Dove
63. Little Owl
64. Swift
65. Hoopoe: common, singing everywhere
66. Bee-eater
67. Wryneck
68. Skylark
69. Crested Lark
70. Short-toed Lark: 3 were seen well on the rocky slopes above Velo blato
71. Calandra Lark: common on rocky slopes above Velo blato, up to 5 singing males at one point
72. Sand Martin
73. Barn Swallow
74. House Martin
75. Tawny Pipit
76. Red-throated Pipit
77. White Wagtail
78. Yellow Wagtail: ssp. flava, cinereocapilla
79. CITRINE WAGTAIL: 2 seen well at Kolansko blato
80. Nightingale
81. Redstart
82. Black-eared Wheatear
83. Whinchat
84. Blackbird
85. Blue Rock Trush
86. Whitethroat
87. Sardinian Warbler
88. Subalpine Warbler: commonest warbler on the island, at one location i've had about 10 singing males at only one point and points like that are common
89. Great Reed Warbler
90. Willow Warbler
91. Wood Warbler
92. Chiffchaff
93. Spotted Flycatcher
94. Pied Flycatcher
95. Collared Flycatcher
96. Great Tit
97. Red-backed Shrike
98. Woodchat Shrike: fairly common everywhere
99. Hooded Crow
100. Golden Oriole
101. House Sparrow
102. Spanish Sparrow: large colonies at some places
103. Linnet
104. Goldfinch
105. Greenfinch
106. Serin
107. Cirl Bunting
108. Corn Bunting

Some Photos:

 Kentish Plover

 Spotted Sandpiper

 Little-ringed Plover

 Common Sandpiper

 Wood Sandpiper

 Black-winged Stilt

 Ruff

 Citrine Wagtail

 Short-toed Lark

 Gloosy Ibises and Little Egrets

 Tawny Pipit

 Subalpine Warbler

Sardinian Warbler

Migration update

Yesterday I was on quick check at Vrbje pond and it was preety nice. I was again pleased to see Night Heron but this time there were 3 individuals on the island in the middle of the pond as usual. Also 9 Common Sandpipers and 1 Garganey and this is it out of interest. Later I went to check fields around the town of Šempeter. As usual some singing Crested Larks, 1 Wheatear, 1 Lapwing, 2 Stonechats and some Stock Doves. At home also first 2 Red-backed Shrikes (my earliest record for Slovenia i must say), singing Woodwarbler and around 3 Common Redstarts singing in the willage (one pair is again nesting on our house above the balcony). Today i went to lake Žovnek and i was suprised with low number of birds but anyway there was something to see. around 20 Great-crested Grebes, Little Grebes, Coots, Grey Herons (again found 7 dead herons in the fishfarm and they were probalbly shot by the fishfarmers...), 1 Cormorant, 1 Greenshank, 7 Common Sandpipers and 3 Little-ringed Plovers. Ponds of the fishfarm were again interesting with feeding Black Stork, 1 Purple Heron, 2 Lapwings (they will probalbly nest in one of the empty ponds), my years first singing Great Reed Warbler and an awful lot of hirundines (few hundred). Also White Stork is back in the nearby willage and already sitting on the eggs.

Rače ponds, Požeg reservoir and Medvedce reservoir

On saturday me and Alen were leading a small group of birders to Rače and Požeg. Weather was quite miserable at first so birds were not much active but anyway there were some good birds around. Ponds held usual seasonal stuff with lots of Ferruginous Ducks, Pochards, Tufted Ducks, Shovelers, Teals, Garganeys and other commoner waterfowl. Later on we headed to Požeg where we spotted Osprey as soon as we get out of our cars. Bird was soaring low above the water surface and then flew towars the fish farm and there he get a fish in about a minute. After he get the fish two other Ospreys apeared above the fish farm and also they get their fish soon. All 3 birds were later feeding on some nice low perches above water. Other birds included 5 nice Black-necked Grebes, lots of Shovelers and Teals among some Aythyas, 1 Night Heron, 2 Kingfishers, 1 Common Sandpiper and others.

 White Stork

 Osprey with freshly cought fish

Common Buzzard

When we finished leading the group me and Alen went to Medvedce reservoir which was as allways much lively. Water surface was covered with birds. Most numerous were Coots, Pochards up to 200 and Tufted Ducks. Other ducks included 2 male Goldeneyes (quite late record for this area), Teals, Garganeys, Shovelers, Gadwalls, Mallards, Pintailed Ducks, Wigeons and Ferruginous Ducks. It was also nice to see 16 Black-necked Grebes displaying and they were probalbly one of the loudest birds around. Also 1 female Montagu's Harrier, 1 Osprey, Black Kite, first Hobby of the year, few Marsh Harriers, 17 Black Terns, 1 Common Gull etc.

Ferruginous Ducks 

Lapwing

 Lapwing on the nest

Male Shoveler

Cerknica lake and Vrbje pond

Yesterday I was on a school trip to Cerknica lake and I had one our to look for some birds at one part of the lake. Nothing much interesting to report just one Osprey, 1 Night Heron, 1 Little Egret, 4 Little-ringed Plovers, 1 Greenshank and other commoner birds.

 Osprey

 Night Heron

 Little-ringed Plover

Yellow Wagtail

Today I was on Vrbje pond for just aboud 15 minutes and spotted 1 Night Heron perching on some low trees and 7 Shovelers and this was it from the interest. This small pond of a size only 13 acres had 7 breeding pairs of Great-crested Grebes which is quite high number for such a small water space.

Night Heron

Magic weekend on Pohorje!

Tengmalm's Owl

An amazing weekend is behind me. Around 24 birders from DOPPS gathered on Pohorje to get as many locations for out target species (Tengmalm's Owl, Pygmy Owl, Ural Owl, Three-toed Woodpecker, Hazel Grouse and Western Capercaillie) as we can and we did that quite well though! We were seperated in several groups and I was with Alen, Matej and Aleš Tomažič.We started on Friday night with owls and we got 3 Tawny Owls and also 1 Tengmalm's Owl. Next morning we were searching for Three-toed Woody but with no luck on our locations. Later on we got one but it was on the other's group territory but all in all it was good when we flushed Ural Owl sitting by the road. After lunch we decided to check nearby Črno lake and also there no Woodpeckers but the situation was much better when we heard Tengmalm's Owl calling in the middle of the day and after a while we find male singing above our heads. Amazing!

After we fed up with it we went back towards our car and about 20 metres away from the main path the male Pygmy Owl started to sing on the top of a tree and also there we got amazing views!

Pygmy Owl

Night owl census was again bad with only 1 Tawny Owl. Today in the morning we headed to Lovrenška lakes for Black Grouse and for Woodpeckers. Before we park our car on Rogla we stoped by the main road and we got another Pygmy Owl singing on a high tree in amazing morning light. When we arrived to car park Alen and I stayed around the nearby hotel and we were photographing Crossbils, Ring Ouzels,Wheatears and others while Matej and Ivan headed to Lovrenška Lakes and they got 2 Grouses and 3 Woodpeckers.

 Ring Ouzel

Crossbil

While we were waiting for them I decided to go a little bit further around the forest and after 10 minutes I found female Black Grouse sitting on a branch and nicely saw her.

Black Grouse

Together all groups had more than 40 Tengmalm's, many Pygmy's, 5 Ural Owls, Woodpeckers, one Hazel Grouse, 3 Capercaillies, some Black Grouses, Woodcock and other commoner forest species. What an amazing weekend i must say!!!