Global Big Day is a celebration of birds on a World Migratory Bird Day, and every year it falls on a Sunday in May. The idea is to get people to do some birdwatching, enjoy birds and in the process, see how many birds will we collectively record in a day. And this year, we participated as well! Any excuse to go out birding is a good excuse for us.
South Velebit area
Our first stop for the day was to visit Velebit mountain. Since we were in the area, it was a perfect opportunity to tick a few karst species and to enjoy the views, both of the birds and the habitats. As we parked the car at the stop, we heard the familiar rattle of a Eastern Subalpine Warbler, calling and singing from the nearby brush. It didn’t take long before we saw the first males flying up the perch and singing from there, and he wasn’t the only one – at least 3 other males were singing around him, so “our” male was on a move constantly, moving from one to another perch, defending the territory. And this was just the beginning of a great day.
Continuing our trip, we moved just under a kilometer away, but to a bit different habitat. This time we stopped next to a hollow, with many old trees, surrounded by rocky peaks. It proved to be a great stop! Common Nightingale and Eurasian Golden Oriole were the loudest birds around us, but proved to be quite elusive, and not willing to show themselves. That seemed like a theme with these two species throughout the day, where we were trying to spot them, and they would be singing in the thicket, almost seeming a few steps away, only to remain unseen. But, that’s how birding goes. However, seeing an adult Western Rock Nuthatch from its rocky stage was a thrill! Another karst specialist and rock enthusiast, the Rock Partridge was an interesting find! If you remember the April part one post from a few weeks ago, you’ll remember seeing them in a much different habitat, surrounded by grass and gentle meadows. Well, not this time! This time, it was all about the rocks and climbing the peaks! We heard it from a far away, and after a short search, we found it hiding, but after a while, it came out on top and started singing. We knew this wouldn’t be the last sighting of Rock Partridge on that day, but we wanted to snap the photo bellow, as it was quite interesting (and far – about 400-500 m away!).
Pag Island
As one of the best birding places in Croatia, Pag island just shouldn’t be missed by birders. It has a very unique landscapes and great locations for birding. As such, we hopped to the island to see what we could find and it sure did not disappoint! One of the goals was to see the Woodchat Shrike, a beautiful hazelnut-black-and-white bird and European Bee-eater, and we did exactly that! The more remote places around the island, with less traffic, were great for both of these species, as well as Tawny Pipits and Crested Larks. But, we wanted to have a closer look of a Rock Partridge and Little Owl. Little Owl is a fairly common owl species on the island, if you just look around. Usually hiding (sometimes not even that) on the stone walls of the island, they can be seen quite well, and usually will not move much (unless you get too close), so viewing it with a spotting scope works best.
As it often happens while birding, you have one plan, and something happens and you end up forgetting what you wanted to do in the first place. Well, that’s what happened to us. On our way to find Rock Partridges and Eurasian Thick-knee (also known as Eurasian Stone-curlew), we saw a few Rock Partridges singing on the stone wall next to the road. Great, it’s not too far, right on the road, quick photo snap and a minute or two of checking them out with the binoculars and off we go, right? Absolutely not! The birds ended up coming right next to us, staying and singing from the stone wall 7-10 meters away, performing its dance and (presumably) competing for the female that was not interested at all. We stayed there for almost an hour, just enjoying this magnificent partridge, thanking our lucky star we had so much luck to experience this! We enjoyed this so much, we just went to our final stop, only later realizing, we missed Thick-knees entirely.
Nin saltpans
Just to add a layer of diversity to the day, we headed out to Nin saltpans. From the observation deck on the side of the road, we checked the saltpans to see what we can find. And it was a good place to be! From the observation deck, you see into three different Black-necked Stilts nests, and we even seen one couple exchange places! That’s always a great sighting. Have you ever seen a sitting Black-necked Stilt? It just looks uncomfortable!
It was a nice thing to see the Little Terns back from their wintering grounds as well as trying to spot Kentish Plovers among the barriers, trying to hide. They tried, at least, unlike Common Redshanks, that were seen perching on a pole and chasing anything and everything that came near them, from a Black-necked Stilt, to a Little Egret, even a Common Shelduck!
After visting Nin saltpanes, our birding day was over. With 62 species found that day, and a little bit over 8 hours of birding, it was a truly fun day, with some close-up encounters and amazing birds.
Do you wish to know how a tour with us looks like? You can always check our trip report from 2023, where we went on a 7-day birding trip around Croatia! If you’d like to experience a tour like that yourself, feel free to reach out to us.
