Piran

A single gull-billed tern was off the promenade at Piran today, with a couple of common terns, otherwise pretty quiet, except for three Mediterranean gulls and a few Italian wall lizards .

Dawn chorus at Strunjan

I was awake at 5am and could hear the song of a nightingale in the garden outside our apartment. I decided to get up and sit on the patio.

It was a glorious morning, sunny and with the temperature around 18'C even so early. Looking across the valley I could see olive groves, gardens and woodland. Yesterday evening at least four scops owls were calling nearby, but this morning it was over to the songbirds. 

The nightingale was now so loud that it nearly burst my ear drums, almost right overhead, but I couldn't see it. Blackcaps and blackbirds were also singing heartily nearby, a single cirl bunting churred and a hoopoe called distantly, then suddenly an unseen golden oriole burst into song. All around I could hear the jingle of serins. 

Then, just as I'd almost given up seeing them, two bright yellow orioles chased each other past me and disappeared into the woodland opposite. It still was barely 6am. What an experience !

Škocjanski zatok Nature Resreve, Koper, Slovenia

Today we moved from the mountains north of Ljubljana to the Mediterranean coast in the south of Slovenia, between Koper and Strunjan. Near Koper we called in at Škocjanski zatok nature reserve. It's a great place which surely would be even better on an early morning in late April, but today I had to be content with a couple of hours in the baking heat just after lunch. 

Even so, I saw my first pygmy cormorants since Greece in 1988, plus a lot of other more typical Mediterranean wetland species. 

I'm currently unable to access the photos on my camera, so all photos are from my phone. I'll update these posts with hopefully better photos when I get home.

Velika Planina, Slovenia

Today we visited the spectacular Velika Pelina just north of Ljubljana in Slovenia. It's an alpine plateau at 1550m (5000+ ft), which fortunately is easily accessible via a cable car and a chairlift.

There are a few good birds to be seen, which today included alpine Chough and a pair of black redstarts feeding four hungry chicks in a nest on the patio of a cafe at the top of the cable car. 

The highlight of the day though, the masses of gentians in full flower. Two species I think, trumpet and spring. Also many other flowers which will need to be identified when I get home.

Trumpet gentians.

Kamniska Bistrica

Continuing north for a few kilometres from the Velika Planina cable car car park we arrived at the spectacular Kamniska Bistrica and did a short 3 mile walk along the river. Lots of interesting flowers, most of which will need to be identified when I get home, including a good array of orchids.

White-winged black terns, Marton Mere

Two adult summer plumage white-winged black terns were at Marton Mere near Blackpool today. One of the birds is really stunning, the other a little less so. I'm not sure if it's a male / female thing, or perhaps one is a full adult, the other a second year, but both are really fabulous birds. This is the first time that I have seen more than a single white-winged black tern in the UK, though I did see a flock of 200 in Greece a many years ago.

I always struggle with photos of flying birds, especially terns, but fortunately these birds were following a repetitive feeding pattern so I tried manually focusing on the lilly pads and then just waited for them to come back. These were easily the best I achieved all afternoon, I'm happy with them. 

The osprey saga continues

I was in Horrock's hide at 13:20 when an osprey appeared at the western end of Pennington flash. My obvious assumption was that it was the adult female which has been frequenting the flash since Tuesday, and in fact I'd gone back this afternoon precisely because I expected that bird to reappear mid-afternoon following a very early morning appearance today at 06:20. 

However, though the bird circled over the water a few times it clearly wasn't for staying and it drifted off over the main car park and east, but not before flying right over my head enabling me to fire off a few reasonable photos which clearly show that this osprey was in fact a 2nd calendar year bird and not the adult female.

It's just about conceivable that this is the same bird which roosted 4th-7th May, though if it is, where it's been for the past 10 days is a mystery. Perhaps it's more likely that this is the fifth osprey of the year at the flash and the fourth in the past two weeks!

What a mad year!

Note the damaged tail of the adult on the right and compare with the bird on the left. Also the barring on the underwing coverts of the lefthand bird compared to the pure white of the adult female. Another bizarre twist in the story of ospreys at the flash this year.

Osprey again, fishing in East Bay

The osprey at Pennington Flash continues to perform well. Yesterday it was present from about 10am to 12:15pm, and today came in over the spit at 8:45am then headed to East Bay where it spent most of it's time with the occasional foray over to the western end always harassed by gulls. It dropped into the water on at least four occasions and on the first three came up empty handed. On the final occasion it came up with what looked like a bream and headed off west with the fish at 9:20am. Great to see such a sight just a 10 minute walk from home!

Osprey on the way to Asda

I'd just got home from an early morning visit to the flash when I got a call from Bill at 9:15 informing me that there was an osprey over East Bay. Having had some decent views over the past week I didn't feel the need to rush back, but waited until I'd got my shopping list together and was ready to head to Asda which would take me past the entrance to the flash! 

I arrived back at the main car park at about 9:45 and saw the osprey through the trees even before I'd parked the car. I walked down to the shoreline and joined a couple of other birders who were watching it and stayed until about 10:25 when the bird flew right over our heads and was lost behind trees. I left then to do my shopping, but messages from John who arrived after I'd gone confirmed that the bird was still present up until at least 11:00 when it was seen to head towards Lightshaw.

This is clearly the same bird that was present on Tuesday, you can see the damage to the tail which is obvious in photos from both days. This bird is an adult and probably a female.

Further analysis of photos from last week confirm that it is a different bird from the two which were present between 4th - 7th. One of those birds was clearly a 1st summer while the other, which I didn't see, looks like an adult male and has damage to a primary feather which is not evident in the photos from this week. The bird which I saw on 24/04/2026 is a different bird again, so that's at least four ospreys at the flash so far this year, two of which have stayed for a couple of days or more, quite unprecedented.

Temminck's stints, spoonbill and ruff at Marshside

May is the month for Temminck's stints, in fact in the UK I've never seen the species outside May. So today I decided to call in at Marshside since I was in the area, to catch up with two that have been in front of Nel's hide over the past few days.

They performed admirably, coming as close as 5m but unfortunately the light was always a little against them. Still, can't complain, these were probably the closest view that I have ever had. Now we just need one at Pennington Flash.

Knot Martin Mere

On the Mere today, a summer plumage knot, only my fourth ever at Martin Mere, this was the second this year.