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.

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.

Veliki Možniški slap, a waterfall through a natural arch

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, nightgales in full song, spoonbills, great reed warblers, purple heron, pygmy cormorant and the biggest surprise, 2 Russian white-fronted geese lingering from winter, when a few thousand can be present here. 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, though it must be able to fly short distances because the reserve wardens were surprised when I showed them the photos and said that this was the first time that they had seen them.

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.

Venice

Sorry for the very touristy nature of the photos in this post, but this morning we caught the 6:50 train from a little town near Trieste and less than two hours later we arrived at Venice Santa Lucia train station. Tall narrow streets with buildings crammed together, no parks and thousands of tourists, I just wasn't expecting much bird life. Add to that the near 30 degree heat and even I was never going to carry binoculars and a proper(ish) camera today.

It turned out ok in the end though, there were a few common terns, a single pygmy cormorant, three more African sacred ibis flew over, a few little egrets and best of all, five pallid swifts chased each other close to the waterbus we were on, fortunately close enough for me to be confident of the identification without binoculars.

 

Valle Cavanata NR, Italy

We moved to North East Italy today and called in at a couple of decent nature reserves on the way. The first was Valle Cavanata, just east of the holiday resort of Grado, which is an impressive site with a large saline lagoon. We were told that greater flamingos were quite scarce visitors in the area but today there was a flock of around 150. Most pleasing though, an unfamiliar geweck-eweck-eweck call overhead, alerted me to a flock of 20 gull-billed terns flying over. This was the first time that I have heard this distinctive call which apparently is unmistakable when identifying this species. Also here, around 15 pygmy cormorants and 19 Mediterranean gulls.

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, Clusius' and spring. Also many other flowers which will need to be identified when I get home.

There are at least two species of trumpet Gentian at Velika Planina, Gentiana clusii and G. acaulis. Due to time limitations, today I was only able to identify the former, commonly known Clusius' Gentian.

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.

Another day, another osprey at Pennington Flash

I nearly went to Martin Mere this afternoon to see the reported turnstones which I thought would be a new species at the Mere for me. On checking my database, it turns out that I've had several sightings over the years, including a flock of 20 in 2004 which I've somehow managed to forget about. So I decided to stay at Pennington Flash.....

At about 14:20 I was watching a 1st summer drake pintail and four dunlin on the spit from Horrock's hide when suddenly all of the gulls went up. I dashed outside and there was and osprey flying over East Bay. 

For about 30 minutes it was flying around East Bay and for a while it was even over the bay off the car park. Then it moved towards the sailing club so I also moved there. When I arrived it was still flying around the western end and I watched it for a few minutes, before it headed back to East Bay. Finally it returned to the sailing club for another 10 minutes before flying high and heading off west at about 15:50. A fabulous sight. Also at the sailing club, a ringed plover.

Comparing photos, I'm pretty confident that this is a different bird to the one that was roosting at the western end last week. Todays bird has a much more prominent breast band and looks like an adult to me, probably a female. Last week's bird I think was a first year bird. That's the third osprey I've seen at the flash so far this year and probably the fourth in total.

Osprey at Pennington Flash

Early Monday morning and again yesterday, an osprey was found roosting in trees at the western end of the flash, so yesterday evening I went to Green Lane and waited to see if it would come in again to roost. Sure enough at 7:15pm it did. I watched as it approached from the direction of Lightshaw surrounded by it's entourage of lesser black-backed gulls, before circling around the western end and then appearing to land in trees near Mossley Hall, but out of view from Green Lane.

This morning I was back at Green Lane at 5:30am to see if the bird was still present. I was joined by a couple of other birders and at first we couldn't see the osprey in the half light. However, at about 6:30am it was picked up on top of a telegraph pole clearly eating a fish. It was hard to believe that it had been fishing before we found it, the calls of the gulls alone would surely have betrayed it's presence, so perhaps it was a fish from the night before.

After a short while it flew into trees at the side of the outflow and perched there in full view for at least another 90 minutes. I moved to Mossley Hall Farm and watched it from there.

Dragonflies emerge at Bickershaw

The first dragonfly action of the year at Bickershaw Country Park today, with the highlight being a recently emerged broad-bodied chaser drying out next to its exuvia. 

It's hard to believe that this broad-bodied chaser has just emerged from the exuvia. The adult is considerably larger than it's larval exoskeleton. How on earth did the wings alone fit in there?

Also today lots of large-red damselflies including at least two colour forms of females, melanotum and fulvipes. Large-red damselfly is the 20th species of dragonfly / damselfly that I have recorded at the site in under 12 months. It's actually quite a common species at the site but we only started looking for dragonflies here in June last year so missed the flight period of large red damselfly.

The photo above shows the female form melanotum.

Mediterranean gull x black-headed gull x black-headed gull hybrid pairing

It's starting to get confusing now, if it wasn't already! Two weeks ago I reported on a hybrid pairing of Mediterranean gull (thought to be the male) and black-headed gull on the Mere at Martin Mere. I said at the time that the Med gull was a 3rd calendar year bird because it had black markings on the primary tips. I also said that I'd never seen the resultant offspring of a hybrid pair so was looking forward to seeing the young of this pair. Wrong on both accounts it seems! The bird facing left with the black hood is not only a hybrid Med x black-headed gull, it's also not 3cy, I think it's an adult.

The first clue is in the photo above and I really should have noticed it the first time that I saw the bird. The bill is too slim, the wrong shape and the wrong colour for adult or near adult Med gull. Then there's the hood - I realise that this can be variable depending on how the bird is behaving, but the hood clearly does not extend as far down the nape as a typical Mediterranean gull. There are plenty of the latter about for comparison, at least 10 adults at Martin Mere at the moment, including a pure pair on the next island to this. They're like chalk and cheese!

Finally there is the wing pattern. It's almost adult black-headed gull, with the pale outer primaries. Far from being a 3cy Mediterranean gull, I think that this is actually an adult Med x black-headed gull hybrid. As it's now paired with an adult black-headed gull, the resultant offspring will be 2nd generation hybrids. That should be interesting....

Thanks to Graham Clarkson for pointing this out to me and Ian McKerchar for feedback on my photos.

Grey Plover at the sailing club

A message from Phil had me dashing to Pennington Flash this evening to see a grey plover on the foreshore of the sailing club. It was a good job that I didn't hang around, he found it at 18:10, I was there for 18:30 and by 18:40 it had been flushed by a dog walker and flew off and was gone.

Grey plover is much scarcer than turnstone and Sanderling at the Flash, and this was a first here for me.

Ruff at the Flash

A flock of five ruff on the spit today were my 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th individuals the flash. They all look like females to me, but only the bird in the photo above has bright orange legs, the rest had dull legs, and I did wonder if she was an adult with four offspring. She's certainly a smart looking bird, I love the dark speckling on the side of her breast which extends onto her flanks.

Osprey, Pennington Flash

A very brief visit to Pennington Flash this morning to see a greenshank that was reported on the spit proved very productive! I was standing outside Horrock's hide watching the greenshank when the cries of the gulls alerted me to an osprey that was circling over the southern side of the flash. It was gaining height and ultimately flew south east which seemed a bit of an odd direction. This was my third osprey at the Flash, all of which have been spring birds.

Also today, two black-necked grebes still, redshank, and three common terns. Not a bad 15 minutes!

 

It's not necessary to learn the call of the osprey, just listen out for the irate cries of lesser black-backs as they mob it!