Wolverine Time

I mentioned some months ago that the animal that I would really like to see most is the Wolverine Gulo gulo. This fantastic animal, the largest member of the Mustelidae family (polecats, badgers, etc), lives in the boreal and Arctic regions. So, after much planning, I am off to Finland tonight. I am meeting up with some friends and then it is off for a week into Karelia, right up on the Russian border, with high hopes of seeing a Wolverine or two. I hope we can see one like this (photo taken from one of the forest hides we will be visiting). I will let you know how we get on!

Czechs and Rollers

At the weekend I had the pleasure of taking 3 Czech mates (sic) of mine (Josef, Petr and Karel) out in the Kiskunsag region in Hungary. Their main aim was to get photographs of Roller, a bird that has disappeared from their country. Finding a few Rollers was not that hard, but finding birds that could be photographed was another matter. After much searching we ended up at a spot where several pairs breed, mostly in nestboxes. But here we found a very convenient nest-hole, low down in a natural cavity in a tree. My friends were able to carefully place a portable photo-hide and get photos of the birds as they sat near the hole without disturbing them.

More from Romania

When guiding birders in eastern Romania, besides taking folks to see the many, many birds of the Danube Delta, I always include a couple of days in the Dobrudja region. This dry terra firma area hosts all kinds of birds that do not occur in the delta or are are hard to see there. Birds such as Levant Sparrowhawk, Booted Eagle, Spanish Sparrow, Rose-coloured Starling, Pied and Isabelline Wheatears, Sombre Tit, Middle Spotted Woodpecker and Stone Curlew (as in photo here).

Back from Eastern Romania

I am back from eastern Romania after guiding another successful birding tour there. We spent most of our time in the Danube Delta and along the Black Sea coast, seeing around 150 species. Highlights included lots of White Pelicans, daily Dalmatian Pelicans, many Collared Pratincoles, more herons and egrets than we could count, Common and Little Bitterns, many Rollers and Bee-eaters, all 3 Marsh Terns, Paddyfield Warblers, Long-legged Buzzards, Levant Sparrowhawk, White-tailed Eagles and a colony of Rose-coloured Starlings. All in all, superb birding everyday. Here we are watching a Collared Pratincole colony at Letea, deep in the delta.

Butterflies in Abundance

Well, we've just left Aggtelek, up in north-east Hungary. In two days in the valleys and meadows there we identified over 70 species! Now, by any standards, that is a great list for one area in a European country. Appropriately, here is a Hungarian Glider...

Butterfly Lovers at Aggtelek

Guiding butterfly lovers is different from guiding bird lovers. For example, butterfly lovers spend much more time on the ground, lying down, taking photos... as in this photo taken today here at Aggtelek. And today we saw some great species... Sloe and White-letter Hairstreaks, 2nd Brood Map, Purple-shot, Scarce and Large Coppers, High Brown and Lesser Spotted Fritillaries, Berger's Clouded Yellow, Woodland and Great Banded Graylings, Hungarian Glider and Woodland Brown, one of the most endangered species in Europe.

Plitvice

We visited the Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia last week. Now this is a beautiful place with old forests, hand-mown meadows, waterfalls and stunning, clear blue lakes. But this is not an easy place to observe wildlife... there are just too many people around, meaning tourists, and much of the the wildlife (Wolf, Lynx and Brown Bear are here) is hidden away in the dense forests. It is a beautiful place but one needs to get out early and then off the beaten track...