2023 has been something of an unusual year for me, with some somewhat unexpected changes in my life, and this has also been reflected in my birding over the last twelve months. Perhaps the most significant change has been the fact that, in contrary to the name and general spirit of the blog, I no longer have a birding patch per se, with the year seeing me spending most of my time flitting between several different areas around the city, all of which are shown on the map below.
The key to the map is as follows:
A: Forest above Budimír
B: Rači Potok
C: Horný Bankov to Kamenný Hrb
D: Along the River Hornád
E: Barca and around
F: My local neighbourhood
So my review this year will be a little unusual, as I will speak about the highlights from each location in turn before discussing my off-patch trips in the spring and summer.
Forest above Budimír
As I mentioned in last year’s review, I no longer live in Budimír, but the magic of the forest there still drew me back for the first half of the year despite the more complicated logistics of visiting the site using public transport.
I had hoped to be able to monitor the nesting activity of the local tawny owl pair this spring, but unfortunately it was not to be. Despite my regular visits, I saw only fleeting views of the owls themselves in the first few months of the year, and I wasn’t able to see any signs that they were actually breeding.
Sadly, I eventually did find proof that they actually had nested, but the discovery was not as exciting as I had hoped; I found only a fresh pile of plucked feathers, indicating that a fledgling had been predated, most likely by the local goshawks.
As sad as I was about this, I couldn’t bring myself to blame the goshawks given the remarkable encounters I had had with these birds in Budimír throughout the year.
Time and time again, I was blessed with views of birds displaying above the trees; they did not seem too bothered by my presence, and I was regularly closer than I would ever have expected to them.
Just listening to the background sounds in that video as I write this transports me back to the spring forest, the drumming of woodpeckers everywhere. It is a truly magical place…
The absolute highlight came one March morning in the open area at the top of the hill where a young goshawk circled above me for a long time. It was actually watching me, making full eye contact as it swung heavily through the sky above me. This was an unforgettable moment, and I am fully aware of how lucky I was to have experienced it.
Unfortunately, while I am certain that goshawks are nesting in the area, I failed to find an occupied nest, once again because I am so concerned about the risk of disrupting them that I don’t want to search too thoroughly. I had thought that I had found a young goshawk in the presumed larch tree nest, but ultimately it turned out to be a common buzzard chick instead, one of three such nests in the area.
This was the single buzzard fledgling that I found at the nest that I misidentified as a lesser spotted eagle nest last year.
I also had little luck with my other favourite denizen of the forest there, the white-backed woodpecker. I got only a few glimpses of this species this year, but I would like to make a more determined effort to follow them more closely next year instead.
And also notable for this year was the huge number of collared flycatchers , not only in the forest here but all over the place. In late spring, their calls were audible everywhere, and I don’t remember there being so many of them in previous years.
Rači Potok
I was also happy to spend more time exploring my old patch of Rači Potok during the year, but sadly the long threatened construction of new houses on the meadow above the stream seems to be a looming reality, with considerable damage being inflicted on the area in preparation for future “development”.
Nonetheless, the area still preserves much of its charm, and although I didn’t spend as much time there this year as I would have liked, I did find some great birds.
I was very happy to see that the water rails in the area are still thriving; I had great views of them in February and again in December, with the coldest conditions proving the best time to see these elusive birds.
I didn’t see any juveniles this year, but I am fairly certain that they nested successfully given the fact that I saw up to four rails in December. Another breeding species I was happy to see again were moorhens, with juveniles showing openly in the summer heat.
Not a nesting species but always a welcome sight was the gorgeous Montagu’s harrier that passed over the meadow on a nasty spring day, with the poor light sadly showing up the limitations of my camera.
The stream is still a great place for spotting woodpeckers, with lesser spotteds showing up regularly throughout the year.
And even a very active grey-headed, a species I don’t remember seeing there in my previous time on the patch.
And while I didn’t see them as much as I would have liked, there is no denying the beauty of the wrynecks which still seem to be nesting in the area; there is no better birdcall in Slovakia than this…
Horný Bankov and Kamenný Hrb
The forest to the northwest of Košice is much more accessible for me now than Budimír, and it was the scene of some incredible finds, some expected, some less so.
I spent quite a lot of time this year searching for Ural owls, either unsuccessfully when accompanied by my friend Dave, or more successfully on my own.
It was during one such search that I came across another of the year’s highlights. While checking out a site where I had seen young Urals in the past I flushed a pair of tawny owls which were nesting in the area.
Over the course of several visits, I was fortunate enough to get better and better views of them; I could hear young birds peeping from somewhere unseen, but the adults did not seem overly concerned by my presence.
Eventually, I caught a glimpse of a newly fledged tawny through the foliage; while I had hoped to see my first juvenile tawny in Budimír rather than here, it was still an undeniably thrilling moment.
When I returned the following week, one of the adults was in full view, preening and bringing up pellets, totally relaxed.
As I took this photo, I heard a sound behind me and was shocked to see four fledglings perched just metres above me. Had I known I was so close to them, I would not have been so relaxed about photographing the adult given their reputation…
This was the last time that I saw the tawny family so I am unsure how they fared; hopefully they spread out through the forest, and I will have a chance to encounter them again before too long.
Another amazing experience was finding a black woodpecker nest in this area. I had seen one bird preparing a possible nest site near the cottages in Horný Bankov and even observed a pair copulating, but I couldn’t track down the eventual nest.
Later, however, I found another nest with a single chick which was almost ready to fledge.
Black woodpeckers are simply top birds, there is nothing else like them; even the rainiest, muddiest tramp around the forest turns into pure joy whenever you hear that piercing call.
There were also a couple of near misses in the forest this spring; the first was a Ural owl nest that I must have walked past a hundred times without realising it was there until I spotted a fledged youngster in July. At least I will know better next year…
And the real kicker was the possibility that I missed a honey buzzard nest in the area. I caught a glimpse of one through the trees and heard it calling in late summer, but I had assumed it was just a bird on passage.
However, when I played this call to a friend who lives in a nearby cottage, he told me he had been hearing this same call all summer, so it seems likely that there was at least a resident bird. Finding out if honey buzzards have returned to the same site will be one of my main priorities for 2024.
River Hornád
Another regular haunt throughout the year, especially during the hot summer days due to its added attraction of a cold beer at the Súdky Bar, was the stretch of the River Hornád between the bridges at Hlinková and Ťahanovce, including the canal known as Mlynský Nahon.
This location offered one of the first highlights of the year in January with a stunning display by a pair of dippers.
I have seen dippers nesting in this area before, but sadly I have not seen them again since last winter, but hopefully I will come across them again before too long.
The area was also seemingly the site of a minor common tern colony in the summer. I regularly saw multiple terns dipping in and out of the river, but I couldn’t find where they might have been breeding; my best bet is possibly the construction site beside the former magnesium plant.
A major highlight in this area were the resident kingfishers who are regularly hanging out either by the canal or on the river itself. They are gradually getting accustomed to people given their very busy territory, and I got some great shots of one at the end of the year.
In addition to these beauties, the grey herons are a regular sight, also not as timid as they perhaps ought to be.
A few common sandpipers also showed up here during the warmer months, always a treat to see them.
I have also seen goshawks here on several occasions, most spectacularly in a fight between an adult bird and a first-year in early spring, possibly a parent chasing one of last year’s young off its territory. The photos are more than a little disappointing, and this was one of many times this year that I contemplated splashing out on some more advanced photographic kit…
I also spotted goshawks hunting during the breeding season, presumably harvesting the local mallard population.
Also spotted drifting over the river in autumn was a single peregrine falcon, not such a common bird around these parts.
The kestrels in this area were also a delight to watch; I was very happy with the pictures I got when the light worked in my camera’s favour.
Anička Park by the river was also a hotspot for wrynecks, giving me my best views of this lovely bird this year.
And an unexpected find along the banks was a very sharp-looking firecrest. Although I saw these more often in the forest above Bankov, this migrant bird gave me the best views of the year.
Barca and around
The tram that leaves from the terminus by my apartment building goes to the suburb of Barca at the other end of the city, and so I have regularly taken advantage of this easy connection this year in addition to cycling there when the weather allowed it. The main attractions in Barca are the lovely park with its duck pond and the extensive fields around the perimeter of the airport.
The park gave me yet another wonderful encounter with a goshawk, a bird whose omnipresence this year suggests that it has chosen to act as my spirit animal. I was alerted to its presence by two very agitated kestrels as soon as I got off the tram, and the big beast in the tree was very obviously the cause of their distress. I grabbed a few shots into the sun before it flushed, but the sheer majesty of this bird is still immediately apparent in the photos despite the poor lighting.
The duck pond was also home to a pair of wigeons earlier this year; my usual sightings of wigeon are from far off across a misty pond, so it was quiet a treat to see them close up.
The fields around the airport turned up a fantastic peregrine falcon during a scorching hot bike ride in addition to dozens of wheatears.
My local neighbourhood
I am incredibly lucky to enjoy a beautiful view of Košice from my apartment; the skyscape never seems to be the same even on the dreariest days, and I am always surprised at what this little patch of the world has to offer me.
My balcony is, of course, perfectly suited for watching birds, and some of my best sightings this year have actually come from the comfort of my own home.
Indisputably the highlight has been the regular sightings of goshawks hunting pigeons and rooks over the city centre, something which I see on an almost daily basis during the winter months. While most of my attempts to photograph these hunts have resulted in blurry shots of various dots, I do sometimes get something to show for my efforts, such as this video:
Every so often, however, goshawks fly over my building as they make their way back to the forest above Baňa Bankov (a possible goshawk breeding site that I will also be checking more carefully in the spring). I was very excited to see this brick shithouse of a bird powering past my balcony after flushing every bird in a five mile radius.
A close runner-up to the goshawks was this distant honey buzzard spotted from my balcony as it beat its way up the line of the river.
While less substantial than the goshawks, the regular sightings of sparrowhawks in my street are also worthy of some respect.
And the end of the year turned up a real delight with a large flock of waxwings spending a couple of weeks around the campus of the Technical University, only two minutes walk from my flat. This is my first sighting of this species in Košice since 2017.
Another nice find from my neighbourhood was a very visible spotted flycatcher nest above the entrance to one of the buildings on my street. The pair managed to raise two clutches over the course of the summer.
A little further from my block was this very fancy great tit nest in a decorative urn in Kalvária; it looked like a tight fit for the parents…
And my daily dogwalks around Komenského Park say me in regular contact with the beautiful local posse of hooded crows, including this lovely juvenile from the summer.
The park also had some other charming residents such as this amazing one-legged fieldfare that was successfully raising a full brood of chicks despite its disability.
And I got amazing views of a green woodpecker as it probed the grass after a heavy rainfall.
This year also saw some off-site birding in several locations in the Slovenský Kras National Park as part of my participation in a national bird monitoring project organised by SOS/BirdLife Slovensko. This was extremely hard work in difficult terrain and under demanding time constraints, and while the birding was a little underwhelming, there were a couple of highlights such as the great views I got of rock buntings, a new species for me.
And perhaps my birding find of the year, this remarkable tawny owl nest above a cave.
I didn’t even think they could be tawnys at first, but then I got a glimpse of one of the parents as it eyed me warily from amid the foliage.
I have also had many exciting wildlife encounters this year, the best of which was this wildcat on Červený Breh in January. This is quite a busy spot, so I was extremely fortunate to see a wildcat here in broad daylight.
So, as the length of this post attests, it is fair to say that 2023 has been quite a successful year in birding terms. This was also the first year that I didn’t keep a list, and I highly recommend that more birders consider doing this; it made the year much more enjoyable and less stressful than in previous years.
This year has also seen a 30% drop in visits to my blog, but I think that this is connected to the ongoing demise of Twitter/X, the site from which I derived most of my views in the past. I myself am also posting there much less often than in the past, and I assume that this will continue into the next year too.
But I will do my best to keep up the blog and write more entries in the coming year than I managed in 2023. I am already curious to see what Košice has in store for me in 2024…
Košice Patch Birding 