This time last week I was in Slovakia – in the Kosice region of eastern Slovakia.
Well done to those who guessed correctly but the fact that Poland and Hungary were more popular choices shows that Slovakia has some ground to make up with British birders looking for a bird-rich destination in eastern central Europe. And that’s why the Kosice tourist board paid for a group of us to go out to see what was on offer.
The first thing that was on offer at the small and perfectly functional airport at Kosice (Slovakia’s 2nd-largest city (after Bratislava)) was a singing Fieldfare. I was abroad! And then a Hobby flew past scattering the House Martins.
A short drive later we were further east in a lakeside and very comfortable (and cheap!) hotel in Vinne. In the dark there were singing Song Thrushes, Blackbirds and Nightingales.
Over dinner we, two Brits and two Spaniards (one of whom is really a Catalan), got to know each other and learned more about Slovakia.
Before breakfast the next day I went for a walk. Tree Sparrows and Black Redstarts were hopping around the hotel itself. The song of the Cuckoo was almost omnipresent and Raven croaked in the distance. In the woods around the hotel there were Wood Warblers, Hawfinch, Golden Oriole and woodpeckers which I hoped weren’t but actually were Great Spots! And Red-backed Shrikes were perched outside as we ate breakfast.
We were off to a wetland after breakfast – more on this tomorrow.
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Seeing as you had forwarded me the invite Mark, I had a good idea where you were and deemed it unfair to comment!
Sounds like a good trip. Sorry not to have been able to join you.
Have to say main reason I thought of Slovakia was because of an excellent article I saw in a birding magazine years ago in which they mentioned the white backed woodpecker. It also highlighted the threat of logging there, I hope its goverment is beginning to see that would be short sighted, very good news they are pushing birding tourism. It was an amazing experience being in Hungary and seeing red backed shrikes several times a day. Magical to see species so very, very rare at home. I’m just back from Greece and utterly amazing how many house sparrows there were. Interesting to note the lack of any mania about gardens and municipal sites being ‘weed’ free, no bird tables, but maybe not so important when there are plenty of insects and seeds about – so much better than bland expanses of close mown grass.
And so much healthier for the birds too, Les! I don’t artificialy feed birds but currently have a good mix of species nesting in my garden and finding plenty of food in the wide variety of native shrubs and flowers that I have planted. One secret, I think, is to allow a certain level of weed growth among the more traditional plants – good for butterflies as well and the garden still looks managed!
is there a low-co2 way to get there?
By train! Eurostar to Brussels, Thalys to Koln then probably best via Dresden or maybe Nuremburg and Praha. Might take 2-3 days though…
I will be in Kosice next month. Tips on where to find WBW gratefully received…
Thanks John Stone. Nice to have one sensible answer. Obviously(?), my point was not just the literal question, but also that nature tourism does help protect wonderful wild places but we can’t ignore the climate change effect. If *we* can’t set an example, who will? And how will we have any integrity to say to people “we need to reduce our impact”? Won’t we be like a politician telling people to pay their taxes, while having an account in Panama….?
In principle you could walk most of the way…
Hitch hiking may also help drivers wishing to alleviate their ‘carbon guilt’.
Ah well, at least it is equidistant between my two guesses. We enjoyed some great birding in Slovakia when we lived in Prague – and have holidayed there since. I have fond memories of Kosice airport as, early in my time in Czechoslovakia, the Prime Minster (whose constituency it was) had the great idea that I could get a new runway built for them because the old one was a bit bumpy. So we flew there and (after a perfectly safe landing) I had a rather arduous 24 hours explaining to the mostly uniformed ‘old structure’ folk there that the UK government building them a new runway was not in my gift. When we finally left, it was the only time that a plane has waited for me and my interlocutors to finish the last discussions over many a slivovitch in the airport manager’s office before graciously carrying us and the other passengers back to Prague. At this distance I can’t remember how smooth was the take-off or even if the pilot was in our drinking party. But they didn’t get their new runway. Blighty as incorruptible as ever.
That aside, Slovakia is fantastic for nature. It’s a small country but it is much more than the High Tatra, grand as that is. No need for rewilding in much of the less well known centre and west, even if some of the towns are still rather post-Soviet. So well done Kosice, but there is much more too. Including those wetlands by the border.