Monday 17 March 2014

Spring week review

Had no time to write until today so I will write observations from week or so back in this post. Firstly I was at Velenje lake twice at the begining of previous week and there was preety much spring style birding with first arriving ducks and other stuff. The most interesting was a group of 6 FERRUGINOUS DUCKS foreiging close to the shore. Other spring arrivals included several mixed flocks of other ducks which included also years first 12 Garganeys among the Teals, Pochards, Pintails and others. Also the overwintering Red-necked Grebe was still present in the area now allmost in the complete summer plumage. Lots of Willow Warblers, Starlings, Green and other woodpeckers etc.




On wednesday I headed to nearby Vrbje pond (about 10 minutes form my home) and I was quite disapointed because of the abscence of the birds. There were only 6 Coots, 3 Great-crested Grebes, few Mallards, one Cormorant, 2 Kingfishers and 2 Swans. All in all the situation was a little bit better when I spotted a pair of Ferruginous Ducks.



Yesterday I headed to Medvedce reservoir where I was testing bird raft made with Alen and I was not really looking around for birds but still managed to se some. Also there Ferruginous Ducks numbers are increasing with a flock of 14 seen but I would say that there are more of them but as I said I was not looking for birds preety much these time and also there was wind blowing crazily. Among the others lots of Garganeys, Shovelers, Teals, Wigeons, 5 Greylags, Marsh Harriers, Lapwings etc. Later we check Rače ponds and also there some Ferruginous Ducks (we saw about 10 of them), lots of Pochards and Tufted Ducks, Garganeys, Teals, our years first 2 Ruffs and other commoner stuff.



Later in the evening I was on my location for EAGLE OWL and as I was expecting at dusk male started to sing on some rocks nearby and scared some Fieldfares crazily. I was suprised when I heard Tawny Owl calling about 50 metres away but I heard it calling only once. It's interestig because it's well known that where Bubo bubo is nesting no other smaller owls are nearby...