Malancrav 10/07 - 14/07

A new set of villages, and a new set of students/volunteers. Although I know I'm here to identify and record the birds, it's very easy to get distracted by all the other wildlife. For instance, this (I think a Balkan Wall) Lizard used to sunbathe just outside my tent every day. 

I also spotted my first Red Squirrel of the trip from the campsite to. As well as lots of Lizards, there were to be good number of snakes here too, again proving the abundance of general wildlife. Having only ever seen two Snakes in the UK, I was very pleased to be able to get great views of this Grass Snake.

Anyway back to the birds (as that's why I'm here). This particular village had a large orchard on one of the hills, which was full of bird life (presumably because they don't use pesticides?) including Bee-eater, Red-backed Shrike, Golden Oriole and at least 4 species of Woodpecker. We did manage a few hours mist netting here, which again resulted in only catching a few birds. But  we did manage to catch 2 Woodpeckers, a Green and this awesome Lesser Spot.

Serin was also added to the species list here, with other notable species seen again including Scops Owl, Woodlark, Hobby, Honey Buzzard, Black Redstart, Wryneck, Tree Sparrow and Hawfinch.

Viscri 05/07 - 08/07

I can't believe two week has passed by already!! But we're still managing to pick up new species. On the bird front new species were Jackdaw, Rook, and unidentified large Warbler sp and this handsome Little Owl. There turned out to be a family of six at the farm where we found him.

Although we're finding lost of evidence of large mammals (footprints and scats), we're still not seeing many so it was nice to see a Roe Deer and 2 Brown Hares on the walk from Mesendorf to Viscri. We also found a very large dog paw print, which from the size we think was probably from a Wolf?!?

I've added this picture for comedy value. While out on one of the surveys, Maria spotted this Grasshopper. She thought it was giving birth and said 'what a magical moment', only for do to be doing  poo!!

Mesendorf 01/07 - 04/07

On the walk from Crit to Mesendorf we were already seeing some good Species including this displaying Honey Buzzard carrying some food to its 'screaming' mate.

The birds life was much the same again here, with a few more notable species Golden Oriole, Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Tawny Owl and Scops Owl.

The mist nets finally turned up while we were here. This meant myself and Alex could demonstrate to the students how mist netting works, and why it's such a useful way of monitoring birds. Despite only actually five birds in this village, we weren't complaining as they were Marsh Tit, Common Whitethroat, Hawfinch, Middle Spotted Woodpecker and a SCOPS OWL!!!

(a very happy Alex Tozer)

(the Middle Spotted Woodpecker, with an excited Matt Payne in the back ground)