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

Srodni sadržaj (po oznakama)

na vrh članka
Nalazite se ovdje: Home Novosti iz prirode Birdwatching, April 2023.

Eco Environment News feeds

  • As Iran war exposes global dependence on fossil fuels, the biggest emitters are reaping the rewards

    Worst polluters hold world’s future in their hands as they benefit from higher fossil fuel prices, but global trends favour renewables

    Oil stands at about $110 a barrel and some forecasts have predicted it could reach $150. Food prices are on the rise and are expected to leap further owing to the fertiliser supply crunch, leading the World Food Programme USA to warn that global food insecurity could reach record levels, with 45 million more people pushed into acute hunger. Industries from steel to chemicals have alerted markets that they face shortages and soaring costs, while households across the world are feeling the pinch – people have been told to turn down their thermostats, take the bus or cycle, and cut their speed on motorways.

    The impact of the US-Israel war on Iran – the third global shock in six years, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic – has laid bare how reliant our economies still are on fossil fuels. Simon Stiell, the UN climate chief, said in March: “Fossil fuel dependency is ripping away national security and sovereignty and replacing it with subservience and rising costs.”

    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...

  • Country diary: A bum note amid the dawn chorus | Mark Cocker

    Hogshaw, Derbyshire: Our old Buxton tip is an area rich in nature. It’s depressing out local council wants it developed

    Our old Buxton tip might bear the scars of former abuse, but it’s now an entangled, self-willed wood, largely made up of willows and birch, which is surrounded by flowers in summer and has a species list of 870, composed mainly of insects. The diversity arises because these two pioneer trees are among the most invertebrate-friendly in our islands.

    Where you find insect abundance, you’ll also hear birdsong, because the music is fuelled largely by invertebrate protein. Recently we organised a dawn-chorus walk and managed 20 early spring vocalists. Song and mistle thrushes, dunnocks and wrens, as well as bullfinches and greenfinches, were among the breeding birds we heard and which are red- or amber-listed by the British Trust for Ornithology.

    Continue reading...

  • German mayors call for night-time ban on robot lawnmowers to protect hedgehogs

    Leaders say automated mowers’ blades threaten nocturnal animals as studies highlight risks to wildlife

    German mayors have called for a nationwide ban on night-time use of robot lawnmowers to protect hedgehogs and other small nocturnal animals from being killed or maimed in the dark.

    Recent studies have highlighted the threat lawnmower blades pose to wildlife active between dusk and dawn, prompting growing calls for regulation. Hedgehogs also tend to curl into a ball when threatened rather than running away, making them harder for a robot mower’s sensors to detect.

    Continue reading...

  • Weather tracker: Warm March in US leaves snowpack critically low

    Concerns about coming wildfire risk, and temperatures also remain high on other side of Pacific where rare tropical cyclone has formed

    After a historically warm winter across nine states in the US, the first month of meteorological spring again brought exceptionally high temperatures, with numerous states recording new all-time high temperatures in March. The remarkable intensity and longevity of the warmth have left much of the mountain snowpack, a crucial source of water for millions in the American west, at critically low levels.

    Though precipitation totals tend to increase in spring, the low snowpack has raised concerns about a potentially severe wildfire season if conditions do not improve soon. And with further spells of abnormally warm, dry weather expected this week, the outlook is becoming increasingly worrying heading into the late spring and summer months.

    Continue reading...

  • How Paris swapped cars for bikes – and transformed its streets

    Under Anne Hidalgo – mayor for 12 years until last week – the French capital added bike lanes, cut traffic and reclaimed public space, but not without resistance

    When Corentin Roudaut moved to Paris 10 years ago, he was too scared to cycle. The IT developer had biked everywhere as a student in Rennes but felt overwhelmed by the bustling French capital. Cars were everywhere. Cyclists had almost no protection.

    But once authorities carved out space for a segregated bike lane on Boulevard Voltaire near his home in the 11th arrondissement, Roudaut returned to the two-wheel commute and did not look back.

    Continue reading...

  • Country diary: Lambing season is here – how long until white-tailed eagles are overhead? | Andrea Meanwell

    Tebay, Cumbria: A planned reintroduction of these apex predators has got us upland farmers worried. We’re still not convinced they won’t harm our flocks

    The years seem to be coming around very quickly – this will be my ninth spring at this farm. As the days get longer and the grass begins to grow, my mind turns to lambing. We have a short growing season here, so we plan for lambing to start mid-April, hoping the grass will have started growing by then. The tiny Ouessant sheep, which have to lamb indoors due to predation, started lambing on April Fools’ Day.

    Last year I put a large group of Ouessants outside to graze on the Roman fort when they were four days old, and they disappeared without a trace – 13 lambs lost. It wasn’t a fox or a badger, as we know what a predated carcass looks like, and it wasn’t the mink that had been killing hens, as that was leaving dead bodies.

    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...

  • Used EV prices rise as Australia’s fuel crisis hits: ‘Doesn’t make sense to hold on to a combustion engine’

    Stock runs low as oil crunch increases enthusiasm for electric vehicles

    When a used vehicle rolls into a car yard, the usual trajectory for its price tag is down if it lingers too long.

    That is the (almost) iron law of the secondhand market – until the oil crisis hit and dealers started raising asking prices for used electric vehicles.

    Continue reading...

Novosti: Cybermed.hr

Novosti: Biologija.com

Izvor nije pronađen
Copyright © 2026 Eco Hvar. Sva prava zadržana. Developed by Orion Informatika.