Western Reef Heron in the shadow of Caernarfon castle

"The big one travels alone" they say, referring to the fact that very often true megas don't arrive with flocks of other birds at peak migration times, rather they're often alone, at unexpected times and often in unexpected places. I could cite many examples of megas appearing long after migration seems to have stopped, with June an exceptional month for this strange phenomenon. Cretzchmar's bunting, great knot, black-winged pratincole, little bustard, Hudsonian whimbrel, Marmora's warbler, paddyfield warbler (Hilbre), river warbler (Wigan Flashes), African royal tern, short-toed eagle, white-tailed plover and spectacled warbler are just a few birds that I can think of which I have seen in June over the years, and there have been many others which I haven't bothered going for. I can now add to that list western reef heron.

Last Saturday news broke that a western reef heron had been found at Foryd Bay, just west of Caernarfon. It was a first for Britain and there was never any doubt that I would go for it, especially with it being in North Wales, but there was just one problem - I was in Slovenia at the time! I didn't get home until midnight on Monday and there was no chance of me going on Tuesday, so I just had to wait and hope that it would stay. It was still there on Tuesday evening so at 3:30 on Wednesday I was up and by 4:15 I was on the road.

I arrived at the hide at the Foryd Bay just before 6:30 to find about 20 birders already on site. Not exactly the huge crowd that I had expected but I suppose most people who really wanted to see the bird would have already been, especially since it had been found at midday on Saturday, giving birders the opportunity to go Saturday afternoon / Sunday. At least it meant that the anticipated parking problems did not materialise. There had been no sightings up to that point so I had my breakfast and then had a 30 minute nap in the car. Wake me up when you find it guys!

By 8:30 there had still been no sightings and the first embers of doubt started to creep into my mind. Had it gone? Surely I couldn't be that unlucky? Suddenly I was awakened from my slumbers by a ping on my phone. A message informed me that the bird was in the harbour at Caernarfon. Everybody was now racing to their cars, a mass exodus from Foryd Bay was taking place! 

Twelve minutes later we pulled on to a car park right alongside the castle and even more conveniently right alongside the harbour. There was already a group of 30 birders at the bottom of the car park peering through telescopes and more were arriving by the second. We were out of the car almost before the engine had stopped and joined the growing masses. 

Above the fog on the Vogel trail

A cable car took us out of the dull grey early morning fog in the valley to a world of bright sunshine and wonderful colour in the mountains. There were plenty of great flowers and butterflies today on the Vogel trail high above Lake Bohinj. We walked 7 miles and climbed nearly 1700ft (520m), with the highest point on our route being Šija at 6168ft (1880m). 

Carpets of gentians and mountain avens and a sea of alpine pasqueflower and globeflowers were the canvas, interspersed with lots of other wonderful flowers and butterflies. Water pipits sang on the hillsides, alpine chough flew past and ring ouzels cackled. A really great experience, if a little hair raising at times. Then it was onto a mountain hut to chill for a bit before taking the cable car back to reality. At least the fog had now cleared.

Goodbye dark and dreary world, hello sunshine.

A walk around Lake Bohinj

Today we had an 11.5 mile (18km) walk around Lake Bohinj and the surrounding area. Whilst perhaps not as scenically breathtaking as Lake Bled, from a biodiversity point of view Bohinj seemed much more interesting and wild to me.. 

Botanically Bohinj was outstanding today, with many species that I've not seen anywhere else so far on this holiday, including various species of orchid, dwarf masterwort and Sternberg's pink.

Bird highlights included a flying nutcracker and a hawfinch.

In the garden of the butcher bird

We arrived at our apartment in Bohinjska Bistrica two days ago, and almost the first bird I saw from the balcony, in the garden below, was a male red-backed shrike. It was on a fence in full sunlight, about 10m away, a stunning bird! Unfortunately, I've not seen it so close since, but it does still patrol the perimeter of the garden, and today I watched it hunting insects and chasing small birds to add to its larder. 

Other birds present over the past couple of days, singing male redstart and black redstart, plus a singing serin. Then tonight, just as we were about to go out for our evening meal, a hobby shot into the garden and started chasing sparrows. Breathtaking!

Lake Bled

Another touristy day, this time at the stunning lake Bled. A few too many people around for me, but we had a nice but tough walk to a view point at Mala Osojnica where I was delighted to hear a black woodpecker calling but then disappointed not to see it. Oh well, it all added to the experience.

Vršič Pass, Krnica livada

A nice walk this afternoon through the woodland and pastures of Krnica livada produced black-bellied dipper, firecrest, crag martin and some nice flowers, especially the endemic woodland coltsfoot.

 

Woodland Coltsfoot, an endemic of this area.

Kranjska Gora, Zelenci NR

A poor day for weather for once, we spent the morning at the Zelenci Nature Reserve just west of Kranjska Gora. An interesting reserve, the highlights being a singing male marsh warbler and Siberian Iris.

Siberian iris, a rare and protected species in Slovenia.

Slemenova Špica

Not content with tackling the Vršič Pass yesterday, today we went back for seconds, this time from Kranjska Gora, 24 hairpin bends up and the same back down. We parked at the top and walked to the summit of Slemenova Špica, altitude 1911m (6270ft), which involved a climb of 1600ft for us and a walk of 9km (5.5 miles). Just when we thought we'd seen every spectacular view available, this walk offered us even more. Truly breathtaking. 

Lots of amazing flowers on the way including alpine and least snowbells, glacier crowfoot, shrubby milkwort plus the usual dwarf alpenrose, mountain avens and twoflower violet. Plenty of birds including alpine choughs and once again a high altitude lesser whitethroat singing at 1850m! A short walk this afternoon and I managed to find Dinaric hawksbeard, a Slovenian speciality and a rarity even here.

Vršič Pass

Today we took on the Vršič Pass in the Triglav National Park region of the Julian Alps to get from Bovec to Kranjska Gora. Infamous for it's steep inclines and 50 hairpin bends, the road climbs to 1500m (nearly 5000ft), but fortunately we found the reality a lot less intimidating than the myth and certainly I've faced worse roads in Scotland. At least there was no single track.

No doubting the scenery though, absolutely awesome, every day seems to get better at the moment. Some nice birds, the biggest surprise of all, a lesser whitethroat singing at 1750m (5700ft)! Who knew that lesser whitethroat was an alpine species? Loads of great flowers as well, including more gentians with a probable endemic and carpets of mountain avens. Add to that a couple of great stops at spectacular mountain huts in truly breathtaking scenery and it really was a day that will live long in the memory.

Vultures at Korita Možnice in the Julian Alps

Back in Slovenia and today we had a great walk to Korita Možnice, just north of Bovec. The walk goes through beech woodland following a river as it carves it's way through limestone, creating gorges, waterfalls and pools along it's course. Just the most stunning scenery, we were surrounded by the high mountains of the Julian Alps. Birds included two griffon vultures being mobbed by a honey buzzard, several alpine swifts, a flyby black woodpecker and a black-bellied dipper. Also lots of flowers including several orchids such as bird's-nest, common twayblade and white helleborine. Many interesting butterflies including large wall brown, swallowtail, southern white Admiral, black-veined white and various blues.

Isola della Cona NR, Italy

We spent this morning at the Isola della Cona nature reserve in north east Italy. What a place, easily the best wildlife site we have seen so far with several bee-eaters, greater flamingos, 27 little gulls, 50+ Mediterranean gulls, several golden orioles, nightingales in full song, spoonbills, great reed warblers, purple heron, pygmy cormorant and the biggest surprise, two Russian white-fronted geese lingering from winter, when a few thousand can be present here. 5,400 were counted in January this year I believe. From the looks of my photos it appears that one of the pair has an injured wing and is probably unable to take the long flight back to Siberia and the other has just stayed with it.

None birdy highlights included a couple of snakes, several Italian Wall lizards and best of all a wild boar, only the third I have ever seen.

As usual on this holiday, camera photos will be uploaded to these posts when I get home.