Category Archives: Nature

Nesting

We’ve been rather fixated on the storks recently, but other birds have been equally industrious. Not far from the storks’ nest, a rather elegant pigeon had made her nest on a street sign. One chick died and was ejected: She … Continue reading

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Morava Meadow

The meadow by the Morava river has been busy over the last few weeks. Of course the storks are the stars; we first saw them on eggs on April 3rd; by 16th May the chicks had hatched, and they’ve been … Continue reading

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A Year at the Shore

In Andrew O’Hagan’s “Our Fathers”, the narrator as a young boy is given a book by his old teacher as a parting gift: “A Year at the Shore”, by Philip Henry Gosse. Intrigued, I found a scan of the book … Continue reading

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New Storks

The storks have had a visit from the stork: We counted four, or possibly five little dinosaurs.   Mum and Dad did some yoga together at changeover time:

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Great and Small

As a distraction from the manifold failings of the British Labour party, we went today for a walk along the Slovak-Hungarian border, on the Danube floodplain. This turned out to be much more satisfactory. We saw* buzzards: a marsh harrier … Continue reading

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Beautiful Big Bird Barneys

If there’s one thing more impressive than a bird of prey soaring overhead, it’s two birds of prey having a damn good go at each other. On our recent visit to Britain, the Headington Red Kites put on quite a … Continue reading

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Curtain-twitching

Saturday was a quiet day, mostly staying in and taking pictures of the neighbours through the window. Fortunately, our neighbours are exhibitionists:   According to Wikipedia, kestrels generally raise around four chicks per pair, so this could be a lively … Continue reading

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Big Birds

As well as the storks, we’ve come across quite a few big birds in the last few weeks. Herons occupy the same kind of territory as the storks: One of the biggest surprises buzzed overhead while we were admiring the … Continue reading

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Stalking Storks

One sign of spring in Bratislava is the return of the storks, several pairs of which nest in the suburb round the corner from us, Devínska Nová Ves. Here the Morava river marks the border between Slovakia and Austria, and … Continue reading

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In the Nature

Every Slovak loves spending time in the nature, and the coming of spring means there’s a lot more on show now. A few weeks ago Dúbravka was a winter wonderland: Some animals at least left their marks: Tatran Chamois were … Continue reading

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