Category Archives: Nature

Beauty and the Beast

One river, two countries, and some contrasting wildlife this week. In Slovakia, this little fellow lives by the Danube: Upstream, in Austria’s Donau-Auen national park, we met: In Slovak, wild boar is “diviak”, which seems to mean literally “wild thing”. … Continue reading

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Lovebirds

After our superstorks finished their breeding so early, we didn’t know whether they’d start their migration early, or hang around to enjoy the Slovak summer a bit more. Fortunately they chose the latter. They’re much harder to find these days, … Continue reading

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Eyes

Eyes which have caught mine recently; starting with some Austrian insects: Storks’ naturally high position is extremely suitable for glaring: Oxford geese showed an interesting variety of colours: While one wouldn’t want to upset the Headington kite:

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Beginning of the end

Last weekend we made our usual stork visit, expecting to find that another one or two of the chicks had started flying. It was a bit of a shock to come across this: After a wander round, we were about … Continue reading

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Reasons to be cheerful, part 3: storks

Our local storks, having started their breeding early, are now at a pretty advanced stage. The four chicks are almost fully grown, despite a diet which seems to have been heavy on vegetation rather than juicy frog and rodent. I … Continue reading

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Reasons to be cheerful, part 2: jewels

I’m not sure whether these are babies, food, or just passing by: The damselflies could be from space: And our most co-operative kingfisher yet:  

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Reasons to be cheerful, part 1: remnants

At times when one has cause to doubt Homo sapiens sapiens, it’s good to remember what some more accomplished species can produce. First, a present from the storks: And from someone smaller, but clearly a dab hand with a beak:

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Herpetology revisited

Reptiles are out in force these days; for one reason or another, most of the snakes I’ve seen recently have escaped my lens, but yesterday I got luckier. On top of our Hausberg, I spent some quality time with this … Continue reading

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Black kite and …

I finished work early today, so I took the opportunity to spend some time on the Morava river. As did this black kite, who also found his dinner there: From the same spot last week, I saw a couple of … Continue reading

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Bling

There are quite a few jewels on show in the Slovak countryside at the moment. One of them, strangely, is even non-avian: Those blue spangles on his back, it turns out, are a sign that this is a boy slow … Continue reading

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