On the road to Croatia 21st - 28th May

I've only visited Croatia once before when I went to the island of Krk in April 2016 looking, unsuccessfully, for Rock Partridge. It's an interesting country and ornithologically it marks where east meets west for a number of European species which either just reach Croatia from the west or extend no further west than Croatia from the east, if that makes sense? It's also probably the most reliable country in which to see Rock Partridge so with the promise of some interesting stops on route Pam and I set off in the camper late on 21st May to catch the midnight ferry to Dunkirk spending our first night in a lay-by on the Belgium border.

Our route to Croatia with stops highlighted

Our first stop was Bruges and as luck would have it, or so I thought, a Black-winged Kite had been reported the previous day about 5km from our campsite at Memling so that was our first stop. We wondered around an unremarkable road side for about an hour with few birds and no birders in sight then headed to our campsite and walked in to Bruges.

Bruge central square

Heading towards Luxembourg we stopped in SE Belgium at Chateau Lavaux-Sainte-Anne, Pam paid €5 for a walk around the Chateau whilst I walked around the small lake. A Bluethroat was singing from a small island on the lake and there were distant Honey Buzzards over the woods but Pam saw many more birds as the Chateau was filled with stuffed birds!
Our 3rd overnight stop was at the tiny village of Rodemack just inside France on the border with Luxembourg. The weather was warm and sunny and the local woods resounded to the songs and calls of Nightingale and Golden Oriole with Wryneck calling in an apple orchard. In the evening Nightjars churred around the camping area.

Nightingale in song

The following morning I added Black Kite and Marsh Harrier to the raptor list before we continued on our way.
Our next stop, chosen at random from places close to the route we were following, was at Blaubeuren between Stuttgart and Munich. Steep wooded sides to a valley had several Red Kites circling overhead and the river had Dipper by a picturesque water mill. A Marsh Warbler was singing by the river but evaded my attempts for a photo. Fieldfare were nesting around an area of parkland and we saw what was almost our only White Stork of the trip crossing the valley. 
Pam had highlighted a number of places on the journey that she wanted to visit and one of these was Hallstatt the iconic Austrian lakeside town. We had booked accommodation for a couple nights in Obertraun at the Sportspension Schober which proved to be a good choice as we could walk the 5km to Hallstatt or as it turned out catch a small boat and walk back. 
There were not many birds but Lesser Whitethroat and our first of many Black Redstarts were new for the trip. The weather had deteriorated and we arrived in the rain but fortunately we had decent weather for our visit to Hallstatt. The vast majority of visitors  were Chinese and we were surprised to hear that a replica of Hallstatt has been built in China!

Hallstatt in the rain

After Hallstatt we crossed the border in to Slovenia and stopped at Bled at a campsite right by the lake. It rained all the time we were there which was frustrating as Bonelli's Warblers were singing in the campsite and it was a difficult decision whether to stay and wait for better weather or continue. The weather forecast was poor for several days ahead so we decided to continue southward making a stop at Lake Cerknica. Light rain was still falling but I spent a couple of hours around the lake and had reasonable views of Ashy-headed Wagtails (Motacilla cinereocapilla) which the lake is well known for.

Ashy-headed Wagtail - males

Ashy-headed Wagtail - female type

At least a dozen Hobby were hawking over the lake but very distant. Several Serin were in bushes close to the track and I heard another Marsh Warbler but the persistent rain got the better of me and we continued on crossing the border in to Croatia which was only about 90 mins south of Cerknica.
Our next stop was on the island of Krk which I'll cover in the next post.

Lake Bled Slovenia

Kolka and the Latvian Coast 15th - 21st May

Driving north across the border from Lithuania we decided to stop at Liepaja which has both coast, a lake and woodland. We picked the camp site Verbelnieki which proved to be a good choice and with its own restaurant. 
Local birds included Wryneck, Thrush Nightingale, Hawfinch, Red-backed Shrike and Woodlark and Common Rosefinch which appeared to be moving through the area. I also finally got some reasonable photos of Icterine Warbler which were reasonably common but still mainly singing from the tops of trees. 

Icterine Warbler

A pair of Crested Tits feeding young in the nest were the first we had noted on this trip and were easy to photograph as they were in and out the nest every few minutes. I also had a female Ring Ousel which is the only one seen so far.

Crested Tit

I wandered around the marshy areas which although showing as lake on the map were fairly dry reeddbeds and were a little disappointing.
From Liepaja we drove to Riga which took us through an undulating area with large numbers of small lakes. Stopping at one of these Durbe on the A9 we had two pairs of Red-necked Grebes, along with several Great Crested and 5 Whooper Swans. During the drive we had a couple more Montagu's Harriers and single Lesser Spotted Eagle.
Pam flew back to the UK from Riga on the 19th, I think the three hour flight cost 23€ which is amazing and would make a good start to a follow-up visit.
From Riga I drove up to Kolka which, due to it's geographical position, as the northern most point of a land mass pointing in to the Gulf of Riga is a bird migration hotspot. Lots of similar places are only hotspots in specific weather conditions and can be very quiet at other times but Kolka was hot. I birded the area around the Usi camp site which is at the northern edge of the village and proved to be in the ideal spot. Nothing special on the first afternoon but some reasonable groups of Grey-headed Wagtails in the fields and flying over.

Grey-headed Wagtail

There were rafts of Long-tailed Duck on the sea and although they were a long way out the evocative calls could be clearly heard from the land. I met Gaidis Grandans, which was very helpful as he is an expert on the area. He suggested I start the following morning on the tip of the Cape at first light, so that's what I did.

Sunrise at Cape Kolka

The sun rose over the Gulf of Riga silhouetting the gulls and other wildfowl on the water. The site is famous for the passage of wildfowl and divers but the main passage is in March and April but there were still a few divers passing and one Black-throated flew right overhead. 
Groups of swans came round the Cape and surprisingly there were more Mute than Whooper but both species looked spectacular in the early morning light.

Swans passing the Cape (Mute upper, Whooper lower)

A White-tailed Eagle circled over some gulls in the bay but never came close. All the while large numbers of Chaffinches and Siskin with smaller numbers Bullfinch, Greenfinch and Brambling were calling from the pine trees just inland from the Cape and would periodically explode in to the sky in groups of several hundred flying out to sea towards the Estonian coastline, sometimes turning round after flying hundred metres and dropping back in to the trees. Surprisingly large numbers of Yellow Wagtails, mainly Grey-headed were behaving similarly with groups of 40-50 sometimes landing on the beach but more often than not dropping in to the trees. Quite a spectacle and one I would like to repeat at some point.
Heading back to the bushes north of the camp site I was amazed at the calls coming from them. There had been warblers in the bushes yesterday but not big numbers but now the noise was like standing at a Starling roost with all the calls merging to form a cacophony of sound. Only the strident notes of the Thrush Nightingale stood out against this background. It was so unusual that I made some recordings and when I've worked out how to, I'll place them here.
Blackcaps, Garden and Sedge Warblers and both Whitethroats were in the largest numbers with a supporting cast of Grasshopper Warblers, Redstarts, Golden Orioles, Thrush Nightingales and a single male Bluethroat. The song of Common Rosefinch kept starting and then disappearing as I can only assume they were flying north with groups of Chaffinch and Siskin that were also in the bushes. As the day wore on the sounds subsided as the birds dispersed. 
In the middle of the day I drove to Vidale and had a couple of Red-breasted Flycatcher singing in the pine woods and both male and female Montagu's Harrier and a superb Honey Buzzard. I saw several during the day but all bar this bird were distant.

Honey Buzzard

In the evening several Sparrowhawk passed over with Hobby and a Marsh Harrier.

Sparrowhawk - female

This morning I was back at the Cape but despite what appeared to be similar weather conditions the number of migrating finches and wagtails was much lower. Gaidis had seen three Broad-billed Sandpiper at Mersrags, a coastal village about 50km south so I decided to leave the area and stop there on my way to my nest stop in Estonia.
I was surprised to find two Latvian couples already at the tower hide on the northern edge of Mersrags when I arrived. It turned out that they were in an annual competition to see how many birds they could see from the tower in 5 hours with other groups at other towers around the country. They made it to 51 species which wasn't bad going.
I spent a bit of time with them but was keen to look for the Broad-billed Sandpipers. I soon found them feeding with about 150 Dunlin and 20 or so Ringed Plover. I quickly counted 8 birds and then another group of 5 arrived making it 13 in total although there could easily have been more nearby. There was a strong heat haze as it was about 23C but after an hour or so I managed to get in a reasonable position with the light behind me and spent another hour watching these delightful waders.

Broad-billed Sandpiper

Eventually I felt I had to move on and set off back through Riga and headed north again on the A1, near Adazi a Rough-legged Buzzard was hovering over the road but by the time I managed to pull over it had drifted away. Hopefully I'll encounter more as I travel further north.

A few days in Slovenia

I left the Alps and drove almost none stop to Slovenia, driving through the Chamonix Tunnel then motorway passing Milan and Venice then just across the border to the small village of Vipava which is in a good location for bird watching in SW Slovenia.
On the way I stopped at services about 50Km west of Milan and recorded my first Italian House Sparrows of the trip. The males lack the grey crown of the House Sparrow we see in Britain.

Italian race of House Sparrow

The change is immediate once you emerge from the Tunnel and they appear to continue through most of northern Italy but the sparrows in Vipava had the grey crowns. I also noted that the Carrion Crows were of the 'hooded' variety from at least Milan so assume they appear also south of the Alps.

Hooded Crow

Slightly unexpectedly I also saw at least 6 Sacred Ibis in fields at the back of the service station. I had been given a location for this feral population of an African species but here they were at the services so no need to go any further!

Sacred Ibis

I had a look around the campsite area on the first evening and noted several Cirl Bunting singing as well as the usual Blackcaps and Black Redstarts that I hear at every stop.
The following morning (Wednesday 13th) I went to Lake Cerknica which is a large shallow winter flood area. There was plenty of water there during my visit with some large reedbeds from which I could hear several Bittern booming.

Lake Cerknica

The lake fringes had plenty of yellow wagtails, most were Ashy-headed (M.f.cinereocapilla) but I did see the odd Black-headed (M.f.feldegg) as well.

Ashy-headed Wagtail - taking off

Great-crested Grebes and Coot were the commonest waterfowl but there were a few male Garganey dotted amongst the reeds. There were very few other migrants other than Blackcaps and Chiffchaff which was disappointing. I tried a similar area nearby at Planina but that was dry. I did record my first Cuckoos of the year though.
The following day I decided on a trip in to Croatia, to the island of Krk from where Rock Partridge have been reported but there is some reasonable habitat for other birds.
Almost the first birds I saw after crossing to the island on a superb bridge were Black-eared Wheatears, these are of the eastern variety again with both pale and dark throated males. There was a lot of calling from the bushes which turned out to be Eastern Subalpine Warblers. These were calling every where and I couldn't guess at the numbers but certainly dozens. Singing Nightingales were also calling and singing in good numbers.

Eastern Subalpine Warbler - male note rusty upper breast and pale belly

Having failed to locate any Rock Partridge in the barren northern part of the island I drove south through a rather thickly vegetated middle to a more open and cultivated south. The area around Baska was good with Griffon Vultures over the cliffs, more Nightingales, my first Turtle Dove of the trip, Whinchat and a pair of Hawfinch which eluded the camera. In the town looking through the sparrows I saw several Spanish Sparrows which is a good record for the area I suspect as they have a very restricted range in Croatia which I don't think includes Krk.

Male Spanish Sparrow this angle also shows the two pale 'tram' lines on the back which aid ID

Back in Vipava in the evening I decided to move on and head in to Bulgaria where I will spend a few days before heading into Greece. I had planned to drive round via Hungary and Rumania but as I will be spending time in both countries later I am going to miss them out for the moment.
I have been struggling a bit with the IT side of things so apologies for any errors in these blogs.