First Cranes and good signs of spring

Yesterday i went to look lake Žovnek which is quite close to my home and situation with birds was still quiet so i should wait a month or so when more birds is going to come back to breed there and than i'm going to be available to start making some good pictures after a calm winter.

 The lake itself.

First i went to look nearby Grey Heron colony which is settled in a willage just 100 metres away from the lake and as i could see there were about 10-15 active nests. Othervise on the lake itself there was a nice flock of Mallards which included some Pintails and Teals, 10 Cormorants (2 of them were also ringed, 1 had a blue plastic on the right and a metal ring on the left leg, the other one have only metal ring on the right leg. I also have one ringed Cormorant from Estonia 2 years ago in the same area.), 22 Grey Herons, 3 GW Egrets and 1 GC Grebe.

The highlight of the day was an owerflying flock of 49 Cranes which was heading NE and was nice to see there!

Surrounding forests held some nice birds like several calling Grey and Black Woodpeckers, Buzzards are now in every part of the forest, lots of Crested Tits in some high trees etc. Also an owerwintering Great Grey Shrike was present.

It was a nice sunny day and i enjoyed it but hopefully tomorrow on lake Ptuj it's going to be better so stay tuned!