After the somewhat downbeat report in the last post, a couple of very welcome finds have done more than enough to lighten the mood.
Maybe two years ago, I was waiting for a delayed evening flight from the airport in Košice, and taking a little wander around the carpark I was amazed to hear little owls calling, at least three. I had no idea that they were there, as there were no records of this species in the city whatsoever.
Since then, I have visited the airport many times but I have never been lucky enough to spot them. Maybe it was a hallucination? Too much coffee in the airport foyer?
Two weeks ago, I got the shock of my life when I actually spotted one in the grounds of the Air Museum. I had cycled there like many times before and was scanning the distance, hoping to see a distant lump on a rooftop. However, out the corner of my eye, I realised that there was a little owl perched on a shed just above my head, over a collection of MiG-21 fighter jets. I turned my head so quickly that I almost fell off the bike…
After a handful of photos, it disappeared, but could hardly believe my luck; undoubtedly, this was one of my birding highlights of the year so far.
I’ve been back a few times since, but sadly the little owls have stayed out of site. It is a remarkable birding area, however, with lots of great birds, most prominently the many marsh harriers that are hunting over the fields.
A handful of lesser spotted eagles are also grist to the birding mill, the bird in the video being pursued by a marsh harrier.
There were also a few nice common buzzard encounters, including this one who was very cool with me inching closer and closer towards him.
And many kestrels, by far the most populous raptor but always a welcome sight. They are so much larger than the city kestrels, I assume that the eating is good in the surrounding fields.
The forest at the end of the runway is very difficult to negotiate, truly wild, but I heard a couple of wrynecks calling and also a white-backed woodpecker, difficult as that might be to believe, given that it is an isolated stand of trees in the near vicinity of the city’s steel mill…
I couldn’t get a shot of any wrynecks, but one is audible in the background of this video of a stag beetle .
Budimír has had a lot to show me too over the last few weeks. Of course, the highlight has been the goshawk nest. After three years of checking this area, I was delighted to finally get a momentary glimpse of a hatchling at the end of May…
Only a couple of weeks later, I was treated to even better views of a beautiful fledgling.
This is the culmination of so many visits to the site, and I am over the moon to have finally seen proof of a successful goshawk nesting in my old patch…
No sign of the tawny owls since the last post, but the common buzzard nest has fledged two chunky looking individuals, more than in previous years.
There also appears to be at least two young white stork youngsters in the nest in the cemetery.
A recent visit to Budimír also gave me an incredible meeting with a red fox. It was hunting openly in the field , only a few metres from me, seemingly unaware of my presence.
Eventually it stopped, sniffing the air, knowing that something was amiss…
…and then scarpered as soon as it realised I was lurking in the bushes.
Only a couple more visits to the forest above Bankov, and still no sign of tawnys or pygmy owls, but I did come across a Ural owl; thanks to the furious blackbirds and jays for pointing me in the right direction…
A lot of lovely birds around my flat too; I was very, very happy with this shot of a kestrel on the TUKE campus.
Less elegant by far was this recently fledged kestrel looking very sorry for itself after being caught in a downpour. Every bird on the campus was furious at it and it looked a picture of misery; however, after a bit of preening it took to the air again and is hopefully thriving.
There are also a pair of collared flycatchers nesting on the campus.
And lots of black redstarts.
And a lovely lesser whitethroat nest in low bushes just metres from my building; threatened by rats, feral cats and off-leash dogs, it is a sheer miracle that they have got this far…
So a real improvement since the last post, and it is only mid-June; still plenty of time for a few more surprises…
Košice Patch Birding 