Eco Hvar

Birdwatching, April 2023.

We are delighted to share Steve Jones's report from a fruitful week's birdwatching in April 2023.

Wood Sandpiper Wood Sandpiper Photo: Steve Jones

Although no longer resident on the island, Hvar's dedicated birdwatcher Steve Jones comes back to his favourite haunts for spells of birdwatching and catchiong up with friends..We look forward to many more 'flying visits'!

Birdwatching on Hvar - 17th-23rd April 2023.

Monday 17th April. I walked from Dol heading down towards the Hora (stari Grad Plain) and then down the tracks towards Dračevica. I stopped for every sound. As a start, I heard Nightingale, Blackcap, Serin and Cirl Bunting on the way.

Nightingale. Photo Steve Jones

Walking down one of the tracks I saw a Sardinian Warbler and then seconds later a Sub Alpine Warbler.

Sardinian Warbler. Photo: Steve Jones
Sub-Alpine Warbler, Photo: Steve Jones

More Nightingales were calling, but from experience I don’t often spend any time looking for the bird, they're extremely hard to spot. Very shortly into the walk I came across a Redstart, several Wheatears in a field and also Whinchats.

Redstart. Photo: Steve Jones

In my leisurely four-hour four hour walk to Jelsa via Vrbanj I believe I counted around nine Nightingales singing. These were the most common, followed by Sub-Alpine, Corn Bunting and Cirl Bunting. There were a couple of Whitethroats singing, one very close to the pond.

Whitethroat. Photo: Steve Jones

By 11:30 I was sitting at a bar in Jelsa and positive I was hearing a Blue Rock Thrush. I went to look for it a couple of times, but didn't manage to see it.

Blue Rock Thrush. Photo: Steve Jones

Later I managed a photograph on top of a building in the Jelsa Pjaca.

Wheatear. Photo: Steve Jones

In the late afternoon I walked around Dol near the church and the children's play area. This proved interesting: I was hearing a Wryneck, possibly two. However, getting close to the location proved quite difficult, in 40 minutes I glimpsed one three times just for a fraction of a second. The highlight bird for me on the day was a Pied Flycatcher. In several years of birdwatching on the island, this was a first for me, so I was delighted.

Pied Flycatcher. Photo: Steve Jones

My photographs were just sufficient for identification purposes, but poor quality, so this picture is one I took in the UK in 2022.

Whinchats in a field. Photo: Steve Jones

After day one I had 30 species recorded, with probably 8 species by sound only, so about 22 actual sightings.

Cirl bunting (female). Photo: Steve Jones

The rest of my week followed a very similar pattern, wandering around Dol in the early morning and late afternoon, and in the day-time following some of the tracks, always ending at Dračevica. I did try and vary the times I was getting to the pond just in case it affected species numbers. However after the week there was no noticeable difference.

Cirl Bunting (male). Photo: Steve Jones

On Tuesday April 18th whilst walking by the airfield I saw a few House Martins and Swifts, clearly just arrived, as I'd seen no indication of them in Split, Stari Grad, Vrboska or Jelsa in the days before. As I arrived at the pond, which incidentally was as full as I had seen it for a long time, more Swifts were flying overhead with Alpine Swifts amongst them. I think the Alpine swifts were just passing through as there was only the odd bird appearing within the group. On my early morning walk around Dol by the children's play area a Wryneck was calling close by and also a Black Redstart - these are birds that over winter on the island, generally arriving in mid-October, I've never seen any evidence of them breeding here. During the week I was seeing several large flocks of Yellow Wagtails.

Yellow Wagtails. Photo: Steve Jones

As they appeared in several different locations in the fields I couldn’t be sure if this was one flock of up to 30 birds or several separate groups. For recording purposes I am counting all Yellow Wagtails as one species. On the island you do get several sub-species.

Yellow Wagtail. Photo: Steve Jones

I was seeing Hoopoe most days, but was unsure as to whether this was one bird in three different locations or three birds.

Hoopoe. Photo: Steve Jones

Wednesday April 19th followed a similar pattern, although there was no sound from the Dol Wryneck. During my walk down I encountered a brief glimpse of a Mongoose, which was clearly aware of me, but I managed a poor photograph of it standing on its hind legs.

Mongoose. Photo: Steve Jones

During the week I saw three more at different locations. The Wood sandpipers at the pond were going up at the slightest movement and generally one alerted all others. I noticed this as the Swifts were coming in to drink, they weren’t so bothered by the Swallows, but the Swifts often seemed to trigger them to fly up. Then they didn’t return to the pond but were settling in fields nearby.

Wood Sandpiper. Photo: Steve Jones

Whilst scanning the fields not only did I pick up several Sandpipers scattered around, I also picked up a solitary Ruff, which of course was another new species for the week. Very shortly afterwards I had my favourite bird of the week – a Purple Heron. I had super views with binoculars for around a minute and watched it go down in a field about 400 metres away. I went off in search, hoping to get a photograph, but after 30 minutes of looking alas I couldn't find it.

Ruff. Photo: Steve Jones

Having seen several Whinchats and Wheatears at the beginning of the week, they appeared less and less as the week wore on, so no doubt they were just passing through.

There was nothing at all different on Thursday April 20th, but Friday April 21st brought in three new species for the list. The first being the Woodchat Shrike, initially seen in fields 400 metres down from Hora, with probably another three seen at various locations in the following days. The Shrikes seem to appear and disappear with very little sound.

Woodchat Shrike. Photo: Steve Jones

At Soline beach I heard my first Turtle dove and then another. The third new species of the day was down at the pond and was picked up by an app on my phone. I often record sounds so as to test myself, however on this occasion when the Sandpipers flew the app picked up a Green Sandpiper: I hadn’t previously noticed anything other than Wood Sandpipers but on the strength of the app identification I added it to the list. I visited the pond a further three times in the next couple of days, alas I only saw Wood Sandpipers and that was also all the app picked up.

Disappointingly, Bee-eaters were not in evidence. During the week I paid three visits to Gringo's boatyard in Jelsa, where they usually settle for the summer, but without seeing or hearing any. On one occasion I thought that I picked up the characteristic Bee-eater chirruping call quite high up, but as I couldn’t see any I didn't include it in the list.

Saturday April 22nd followed a similar pattern, I picked up another first for the week and a first picture for me on the Island: a Raven. I'd often seen them in flight overhead, but never settled on a tree, albeit 150 metres away from me. So unfortunately my picture is not great, and the same goes for my photo of a Cuckoo, taken from about 300-350 metres away, just for the record.

Raven. Photo: Steve Jones

On the Saturday afternoon I visited Pitve museum which I thought was well worth a visit. On leaving I immediately heard and saw a Blue Rock Thrush on the roof of the building. Sadly I was without binoculars or camera, conditions were perfect for a good picture!

Sunday April 23rd was my last day, and a new bird for the list at the pond was a Red Backed Shrike, clearly another new arrival.

Red-Backed Shrike. Photo: Steve Jones

Finally while eating lunch on Sunday a Cormorant.

Cormorant. Photo: Steve Jones

I really enjoyed my week and it was certainly the right time to come to enjoy the birdwatching!

List of Species:
  1. Scops Owl (Ćuk)                                             24 Linnet (Juričica)
  2. Blackcap (Crnokapa grmuša)                          25 Collared Dove (Gugutka)
  3. Nightingale (Slavuj)                                         26 Wood Pigeon (Golub grivnjas)
  4. Sardinian Warbler (Crnoglava grmuša)           27 House Martin (Piljak)
  5. Wheatear (Sivkasta bjeloguza)                        28 Pied Flycatcher (Crnoglava muharica)
  6. Corn Bunting (Velika strnadica)                     29 Wryneck (Vijoglav)
  7. Redstart (Šumska crvenrepka)                        30 Black Redstart (Mrka crevenrepka)
  8. Whitethroat (Grmuša pjenica)                         31 Green Sandpiper (Crnokrila prutka)
  9. Hooded Crow (Siva vrana)                              32 Swift (Čiopa)
  10. Blackbird (Kos)                                               33 Alpine Swift (Bijela čiopa)
  11. Great Tit (Velika sjenica)                                34 Pheasant (Fazan)
  12. Goldcrest (Zlatoglavi kraljić) *                       35 Wood Sandpiper (Prutka migavica)
  13. Serin (Žutarica)                                               36 Ruff (Prsljivac)
  14. Yellow Wagtail (Žuta pastirica)                       37 Purple Heron (Čaplja danguba)
  15. Swallow (Lastavica)                                         38 Yellow Legged Gull (Galeb klaukavac)
  16. Blue Rock Thrush (Modrokos)                        39 Chaffinch (Zeba)
  17. Kestrel (Vjetruša)                                             40 House Sparrow (Vrabac)
  18. Cuckoo (Kukavica)                                           41 Turtle Dove (Grlica)
  19. Whinchat (Smedoglavi batić)                           42 Woodchat Shrike (Riđoglavi svračak)
  20. Greenfinch (Zelendur)                                      43 Raven (Gavran)
  21. Sub Alpine Warbler (Bjelobrka grmuša)          44 Red Backed Shrike (Rusi Svracak)
  22. Cirl Bunting (Crnogrla strnadica)                     45 Sparrowhawk (Kobac)
  23. Hoopoe (Pupavac)                                             46 Cormorant (Veliki Vranac)

© Steve Jones, April 2023

For more of Steve's nature pictures, see his personal pages: Bird Pictures on Hvar 2017, Bird Pictures and Sightings on Hvar 2018, and Butterflies of Hvar

Related items

back to top
You are here: Home Nature Watch Birdwatching, April 2023.

Eco Environment News feeds

  • UK opening new oil and gas fields would imperil global climate goals, experts say

    Senior climate figures warn North Sea drilling would encourage fossil fuel exploitation by developing countries

    Opening new oil and gas fields in the North Sea would “send a shock wave around the world”, imperilling international climate targets, undermining the UK’s climate leadership and encouraging developing countries to exploit their own fossil fuel reserves, experts have warned.

    The UK government is under stiff pressure from the oil industry, the Conservatives, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, some trade unions and parts of the Treasury to give the green light to new oil and gas fields, despite clear evidence that doing so would not cut prices and would have almost no effect on imports.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Should it all just be renationalised?’ – your water crisis questions answered

    Sandra Laville has been reporting on England’s sewage crisis for years. She answered your questions on the water privatisation scandal.

    Guardian environment correspondent Sandra Laville’s reporting on the sewage crisis in English water has helped to expose a scandal of privatisation that has created a swell of fury across the political divide.

    Sandra has now finished answering your questions. Read the Q&A and join the discussion below.

    The government has put the cost of renationalising water at £100bn. But this is a disputed figure. Academics working with the People’s Commission on the Water Sector say this figure is ‘serious scaremongering created on biased evidence’ which was paid for by water companies. It is based on the Regulatory Capital Value of companies as determined by Ofwat, not the” true and fair value in law”, which reflects losses from market failures, like the cost of pollution or the monopoly profits taken by shareholders and banks.

    The route to renationalisation could come via the system set up legally when the companies were privatised. Under the law companies can be put into special administration if they are unable to pay debts, if they breach licence obligations, such as on sewage pollution, or failing to supply water, and if it is considered in the public interest to do so. Special administration is a form of temporary renationalisation.

    This is the million dollar question! While tackling separation across the whole network at once is considered too disruptive and costly, particularly in urban environments, the chartered institute of water and environmental management says moving towards separated systems is their key focus to address urban pollution and storm water sewage releases. New developments, for example, are now mandated to have separate pipes for foul wastewater and surface water run off.

    They also want to see the increased use of sustainable drainage systems like water butts, and storage basins for existing properties, to reduce the amount of runoff into the system. Keeping gardens rather than paving them over, and creating so called sponge cities is also key to tackling pollution.

    The UK was described as the dirty man of Europe back in the 70s and 80s, due to levels of pollution. For example in coastal towns there were no water treatment plants to treat sewage, raw sewage was just pumped and dumped into the sea. It was only when the EU directives came in that the clean up began. Chief amongst these was the Urban Wastewater directive, the Water Framework directive, and the Bathing Water directive.

    Since leaving the EU there have been fears that these pieces of legislation could be watered down. James Bevan, as CEO of the Environment Agency, talked about changing the Water Framework Directive, essentially to make it easier for rivers to pass tests for chemical and biological health. Currently no river is rated as in good overall health under the WFD where rivers have to pass both chemical and biological health tests.

    Continue reading...

  • Say no to pesticides, mix up your lawn – and six more ways to help bees to thrive

    Like so many flying insects, these essential pollinators are suffering because of habitat loss and the overuse of chemicals. Here’s how to give them a healthier, happier home

    We know about honeybees and bumblebees, but most of the UK’s bees are neither: they’re solitary bees, loners who come in a dizzying range of sizes, colours and varieties – more than 240 species. Have you heard, for instance, of the hairy-footed flower bee? “They’re one of the first bees to emerge each year,” says Laura Larkin, the chief conservation officer at Buglife. “The males have got fantastic little fluffy bits on their feet.”

    How about leaf-cutter bees, which chomp “a perfectly circular hole” out of leaves to build their nests? Or bright-orange tawny mining bees, wool-carder bees, ivy bees? “There are so many of them and I’m still learning,” says Kate Bradbury, a wildlife gardener, writer, bee lover and the author of One Garden Against the World. “They’re just great – there’s a solitary bee for every occasion.”

    Continue reading...

  • ‘The water is no longer our friend’: how dredging is pushing Lagos Lagoon towards ecosystem collapse – photo essay

    Taking sand from the Nigerian city’s lagoon to supply a building boom harms more than fish – it affects the entire food chain, erodes coastlines and is depriving fishing communities of their livelihoods

    Before dawn, when the noise of Lagos’s danfobusesfills the air and generators rumble to life, the city’s lagoon is already stirring. Not from fish splashing or canoes gliding, but from the long suction pipes of the dredging machines, pulling up the lagoon bed and spitting out wet sand that will be used in the construction of high-rise blocks, housing estates and flyovers.

    Sand dredging is regulated by the Lagos state government and the waterways authority but in a city of more than 20 million people, where sharp sand has never been in higher demand, not all dredging is being done by the book.

    Dredging leaves its mark on the landscape along the shores of the Lagos Lagoon in Epe

    Continue reading...

  • Oil slick from bombed Iranian ship threatens protected wetland

    Shahid Bagheri leaking fuel towards Hara mangrove forest, home to migrating birds and endangered turtles

    An oil slick from a stricken Iranian ship threatens to contaminate one of the Middle East’s most important wetlands, satellite image analysis suggests, making it one of a number of spills posing a risk to the livelihoods of coastal communities in the Gulf.

    The Shahid Bagheri, a drone carrier, began leaking heavy fuel oil in Iranian territorial waters near the strait of Hormuz after it was hit by a US warplane in the first few days of the US-Israel attack on Iran.

    Continue reading...

  • Birdwatch: Climbing to 4,400 metres to spot a rare rufous-bellied seedsnipe

    Our writer travels to the eastern Andes in search of one of Ecuador’s most elusive birds

    I’m out of breath – and not just because I’m desperate to see one of Ecuador’s most elusive birds, the rufous-bellied seedsnipe. To have any chance of success, I’ve come to Cayambe Coca national park in the eastern Andes. At 4,400 metres (14,400 feet), this is the highest altitude I have ever experienced.

    Fortunately the skies are clear, the sun is shining, and my guide, Juan Carlos, is optimistic. I don’t tell him I have a track record of missing nailed-on certainties.

    Continue reading...

  • Country diary: Watching the cows, chewing on memories of protest and parenting | Nicola Chester

    Woolton Hill, Hampshire: I visit an old friend in an old haunt, where a small herd of Shetlands has been set to work

    Thirty years on from the impassioned action of the road protests, the Newbury bypass soars above us on the old railway embankment. I can’t entirely accept it even now, having been part of the campaign. Today, walking in The Chase, the nature reserve that lies adjacent, the roar of traffic slips into a background hum, aided by other memories I’ve built up here.

    Many of those have been with my dearest friend, Sarah. She volunteers as a “cow watcher” for the National Trust, and I’ve come with her as she checks their whereabouts and wellbeing. They are conservation grazers; keeping coarser scrub in check, spreading seed and poaching areas, and encouraging greater biodiversity and plantlife.

    Continue reading...

  • Cars make way for bikes as Sydney commuters saddle up to circumvent ‘crazy’ fuel costs

    The shock of the oil crisis is playing out on Australian streets, where bike sales are up and cycle lanes are busier

    Before the 1970s global oil crisis, city planners in Copenhagen were considering removing bike lanes. Bicycles were considered outdated now car was king, and just 10% of locals were cycling regularly.

    But as economic shock waves reverberated around the world, Denmark, which almost entirely relied on imported oil, took a dramatic U-turn, with citizens staging mass protests in the middle of highways demanding better cycling infrastructure.

    Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

    Continue reading...

  • ‘All we can do now is pray they continue’: Maasai welcome the first rains but know that drought is far from over

    Harsh weather is nothing new in Kenya but the country’s climate is showing clear signs of getting hotter and drier

    The day is hot and dry but the soil underfoot is soft. “After four months of drought, we received the first rains yesterday,” says Maasai elder Abraham Kampalei. “All we can do now is pray that they continue.”

    Kampalei has lived for more than 50 of his 70 years with his family and animals in Oldonyonyokie, a hamlet in southern Kenya’s Kajiado county. He has witnessed the slow decline of the pastures. “I came here because of the abundance of grass for my livestock to graze. Today, there is almost nothing left of it,” he says.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘I escaped death a lot of times’: one man’s lifelong work protecting gorillas and communities in Congo

    As a child, Dominique Bikaba, was displaced by a new national park in the DRC. Now he is helping to secure land for wildlife and Indigenous groups against the backdrop of ongoing fighting

    Mist hangs low over the forested slopes of Kahuzi-Biega national park, where the canopy still shelters one of the last strongholds of the eastern lowland, or Grauer’s, gorilla. It is a landscape of immense biological wealth and equally immense political fragility. For 54-year-old Dominique Bikaba, it was once home.

    His family was among those displaced when their ancestral land was incorporated into the park in the 1970s. The protected area, in the lowlands of South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), harbours elephants and a remarkable range of wildlife, but it is best known as the principal home of the Grauer’s gorilla, the largest subspecies of primates, known to grow up to 250kg (39st) in weight. It is one of five great ape species found in the DRC’s vast forests, including mountain gorillas, which are also found in other parts of the Great Lakes region, such as Rwanda and Uganda.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

Copyright © 2026 Eco Hvar. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Orion Informatika.