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looking for owls and woodpeckers (1 Viewer)

den mather

Well-known member
Czech Rep. village between Susice and Strakonice on the edge of Sumava was again our base for a cold ( down to -10) and unusually showery - a few snowflakes included - couple of weeks in mid April. I would get a few days/ half days of birding and wanted to continue looking for birds within an hours drive of our village and preferably much nearer. In particular I wanted to find local Ural Owls. I had heard one calling about 40 mins north in a beechwood area within dense conifer forest the previous year. Setting out for a 2 mile walk in the darkening cold drizzle didn't seem an attractive way to spend 'time off' but it was still light enough to see a lovely Firecrest and the light rain was off and on so it was possible to play my old cd for Pygmies and two males responded giving great views right over our heads. My friend,Libor, tried his german wooden owl whistle which was probably better than any cd and did both Tengmalm's and Pygmy, and we both tried just whistling occasionally. As it got darker and we walked deeper into the wood we tried for Tengmalm's and got responses from a couple of them too. They were some distance apart and one was calling very fast - almost a trill. The other was closer to 'normal' sounding like a high pitched fast Ural in a way!As we came up to the beech area we saw a bigger shape arrive through the trees but it was only the omnipresent Black Woodpeckers which clearly had a territory there. Interesting because I remembered a tree with Blackies nest hole upstairs and Tengmalm's below and thought there would be a chance another day of looking for the Tengs here. In the full darkness we tried my beaten up old player for the Urals but got no response as the rain came back and we gave up on them for the night.
A couple of evenings later I tried another beech area north of Nepomuk about 35 mins from the village where I'ld heard Ural Owl last year and where Libor told me one had been seen and photoed by an entomologist working on beetles there! I had a strangely similar experience since the first big bird that came to inspect me in the wood was a Black Woodpecker. A Pigmy Owl replied to a dusk time playing of the tape and a Tengmalm's responded when it was pretty dark but no sign or sound of any Uralensis. This area looked very good habitat for them though - thick wood with beech areas on gentle hillside with riverine marshy clearings below. I began to wonder whether the Urals could be present but sitting on eggs due to the warm spell in March (20 deg C) before it got cold again? Maybe instead of looking after dark with my cd I should have staked out the marshy areas at dusk?
So I tried an area 30 mins away near Rejstejn where the Urals were released as the second site in the reintroduction programme. A steep climb on a good track through lovely old woods produced a Hazel hen and a Firecrest but in spite of having superb views down across clearings to lower wet areas no trace of Uralensis was seen or heard over 4 hours of increasingly shivery scanning. Coming home into the garden I disturbed a Tawny Owl - probably this local family is the reason our nearest Pygmies are more than half a kilometre away in dense young conifers along the little ridge above the stream.
Not far away we heard Long Eared owls so perhaps these are big enough not to be driven away as easily as the Pygmies and Tengmalm's. We also have the Mr Big of Owly soc - a couple of pairs of Eagle Owls live locally and another pair nested last year about 30 mins north - all of them are associated with quarries, although one pair actually has a nest side on a steep hillside in a jumble of rocks and the hunting adults seem to use the nearby big partially disused quarry as a base - I wondered if the lights which stay on all night in part of it are some help? The furthest quarry now has lots of beaver activity so this is a welcome new development and I'm going to try and get Helena's wheelchair up to it at nightime to see if we can see them out of water at night.
A young couple of czech friends who we infected with the orni bug came to help us find Urals at the original release site near Stozec on the German border. Again a perfect habitat except this year for the disturbance of tree felling associated with the spruce bark beetle and the new ministers desire to make money and encourage the wrong sort of tourism by clear felling! Agh! We hung out on the North side of the hill where the biggest marshy area is and the least disturbance and had nice views of Pygmy Owls (and heard Black Woodpeckers)! We came round to the south side about 9.30pm and played the cd a couple of times after dark and got nothing although the night was beautifully moonlit and calm. The next day we found that another czech birder had had good views of hunting Ural owl at 6.15 pm exactly where we were, 3 hours later!
So my local attempts to find Urals completely missed out but it's clear there are some about even if they are no longer vocal so I shall try again in summer. It's also clear that there are plenty of Pygmies and Tengmalm's and Eagle Owls to be found - there are several more woods fairly local to our village where Ps and Ts have been reported. Libor took us to one of his 50 nest boxes for Tengmalm's which get maybe 8 pairs nesting in them (the others get hornets wasps or nuthatches etc) and the first chick had hatched by his first check which was about 14 th April when it was still around 0 degs C at night!
There seem to be 5 territories for Black Woodpeckers within 10 mins drive of our village and as desribed they are not backward at making their presence known at this time of year. Our young Cz friends got some nice photos but Libor wasn't interested - as he said his big local wood has about 30 pairs in it! We had a great morning in the Horsovsky Tyn park which had 2 or 3 singing Wryneck, 2 noisy pairs of middle spotted, green yaffling away and great spotted everwhere of course, but no lesser spot or grey headed that time. The bonus was great views of spectacular Hawfinches which nest there - we saw about 20. We tried the park walk idea a couple of days later in Blatna park about 30 mins north of us and got 2 pairs of middle spots and 2 pairs of lesser spots but again no grey heads although we got photos here last year. We tried for 3 toed fairly locally in 2 locations that looked perfect but got Nutcrackers instead - their calls are a bit similar! We did go to an area where we've seen them before - near Srni, about 45 mins into the Sumava park - and finally found not only our 3 toed but also a very obliging pair of Grey Headeds, right next to Hotel Vydrah. I didn't have time to go looking for White backed in the place we've found them before north of Volary nor Syrian since it's not in our 500 metres above sea level area yet, though it has spread north of us up to Prague outskirts on lower land. It's amazing how easy it is to find woodpeckers at this time of year with a couple of quick bursts of cd player!
We did have a lovely few hours birding with our friend Frantisek near Cesky Budejovice (about 50 mins away) and renewed acquaintance with the Black necked grebes, Night Herons and Spoonbills which nest there although we were a bit too early for returning flycatchers etc. There were some returners like the Stilts, which are now nesting near CB, and still about 10 of the many Rough Legged Buzzards which winter here - some of them allowed the car to drift just a few yards past them without worrying and we got great views. Marsh harrier rivals common buzz as the commonest raptor and you see them all the time. Black Kites and Red Kites were back too, a Goshawk or two were evident and one or two Hen harriers were passing through north but we didn't see our local Monty harriers (we had 4 pairs nesting locally last year) but we did have our local GGrey Shrike on his usual wire.
Sea Eagles have expanded their range and we saw them close to our village twice and indeed they were easy to find in the area. The first Honey Buzzards returned just after we left sadly - but the first pair of Ospreys to nest in Czecho for a while were tempted to take up residence near Nepomuk by a selection of man made nests on top of suitably located electricity pylons!
 
Thanks for the encouraging words, Nick. I think we may have met on a beach near Dunbar. You and friend helped me get onto the longstaying Baird's Sandpiper!
I'm still working out this owls and woodpeckers lark! I think I've got the wdpeckers fairly well sorted but it's obvious from my ramblings above I'm not yet with it re the Wols. Frankly the pigs and tengies are so widespread around our area you would have to be unlucky to keep missing them especially if you manage to look at the right time of year and day. I've seen Uralensis in Stozec and they are definitely there still but it almost needs a little team to cover the hunting areas and this is obviously the best way to do it for the birds sake. Playing a little snatch of cd is prob ok to check if they are there but didn't work this year - maybe because the weather was warm and got them laying and silent earlier before turning cold in April? I should have realised staking out the marshy hunting areas was the best bet (also means you actually see them! Even though I would have settled for audible proof they were around). Other compensations included black storks, gargany, first great reed warblers and penduline tits back and great fun looking for spotty and tiny rails and mostly hearing water rails. Loads of green sands and some spotty reds followed by lots of wood sands. Now, two or three weeks later, the whole sheebang is arriving eg 5 singing orioles in the village! We always have this choice - owls and wdpeckers or 3 weeks later for the rest!
den
 
Thanks for the encouraging words, Nick. I think we may have met on a beach near Dunbar. You and friend helped me get onto the longstaying Baird's Sandpiper!
I'm still working out this owls and woodpeckers lark! I think I've got the wdpeckers fairly well sorted but it's obvious from my ramblings above I'm not yet with it re the Wols. Frankly the pigs and tengies are so widespread around our area you would have to be unlucky to keep missing them especially if you manage to look at the right time of year and day. I've seen Uralensis in Stozec and they are definitely there still but it almost needs a little team to cover the hunting areas and this is obviously the best way to do it for the birds sake. Playing a little snatch of cd is prob ok to check if they are there but didn't work this year - maybe because the weather was warm and got them laying and silent earlier before turning cold in April? I should have realised staking out the marshy hunting areas was the best bet (also means you actually see them! Even though I would have settled for audible proof they were around). Other compensations included black storks, gargany, first great reed warblers and penduline tits back and great fun looking for spotty and tiny rails and mostly hearing water rails. Loads of green sands and some spotty reds followed by lots of wood sands. Now, two or three weeks later, the whole sheebang is arriving eg 5 singing orioles in the village! We always have this choice - owls and wdpeckers or 3 weeks later for the rest!
den

I think I would go for owls and woodies too Den. Rewarding when you find you own, unlike me who relied on Finnature when I saw Ural owls.

Must have been another Nick you met Den, only Baird's I have seen was in Notts.
 
Thank you for the great report Den. I am going to Lake Lipno in july (my wife likes sun and water, I like birding... ) and am hoping to find some owls and woodpeckers and ofcourse lots of other birds. I will be close to the Boletice military grounds, so that might be a good area to start looking. I realize it is not the best period in the year to look for woodpeckers and owls, but when you are married you tend to compromize a bit. Your report gave me some at least ideas for some 'further away' trips.
 
Hi Benny, If you visit Cesky Krumlov - the stunning EU heritage town a bit north of you you could look for eagle owls on the steep second bend of the river north east of town centre - there should be newly fledged ones about! You can look for Nutcrackers on the nearby hills too and of course black woodpeckers etc. A good area for Tengies and Pygs is the north side of the river near the Volary road beyond Chlum and Pekna. If you can get round to Stozec you can look for them on the hill there and also for the Ural owls. Chlum and Pekna have a high density of scarlet rosefinch and also have wryneck. If you walk/cycle up the hills to the north of them you might be lucky enough to see hazel hen crossing the tracks and ural owl was reported here last week. If you visit cesky budejovice (where the original budweiser is made) the fish ponds right on the north west edge are good for blacknecked grebe, stilts, coll flycatchers, redcrest pochards, river and great reedwarbler and spoonbill and night heron and peckers eg grey heads(Vrbenske ponds). I was stopped by soldiers and fined last year in the Military area Boletice! Driving an unauthorised car was the problem - walking and cycling is fine. Look out for sea eagles which now nest not far from Lipno lake - they aren't as numerous as my area (north west of C Budejovice towards Strakonice) but are difficult to miss! Black Storks will be about too.
Hope the weather is good for you and please let us know if you actually manage to see any birds at all in between the massed tourists!
(PS that distant raptor you weren't quite sure about was some plumage version of a Marsh Harrier!)
 
Hello Den,

Thanks a lot for your reply! It will help me a lot. Also the information about Boletice, since that is very close from where I will be staying and I did plan to do this by car. Through Observado I learnt that also not that far away from lake Lipno is also a good opportunity to see grey heads. We will be going to Cesky Krumlov anyway, so i will definitely look out for the eagle owls. The nutcrackers would be great too. The man from the place we will stay has a friend, a hunter, who will take me on a daytrip too in the area around lake Lipno. They say half the fun about a holiday is the preparation. This all makes it indeed already a lot of fun!I will post how a (small) report after the trip.
 
Hi Benny - I know what you mean about half the fun being the research and planning. But of course it's annoying if something interesting was living near your location and you didn't find out about it until you got home! So, if you want to PM me when you are there I will try to find out if there is something unusual near you. You can look for yourself at the website which the whole of Czech rep reports birds on. Your area is PT and/or CB so anything reported there could be looked at and latin names are given. Often precise sat map pointer to the bird is provided. Just google 'birds cz pozorovani' and then click on 'pozorovani' ! Best of luck and try looking at 4th june 2012 page and clicking on (CB) Sedlec to see where Marsh sandpiper and Red necked phalarope were a couple of days ago.
 
Thanks again Den! I will find out how the system works :). I hope the location where we will be staying has internet, although I think it might be time for myself to buy a smartphone with internet anyway. I will send you a PM when arrived on location. Kind regards, Benny
 
Hi everyone

I am hoping to come to Sumava next April (2015). I would welcome any further information beyond Den's excellent write up above.

Also how extensive has the logging been in Sumava to deal with the bark beetle? I hope that there are still large parts of the forest worth visiting and where it is still possible to see owls and woodpeckers.

Thanks
William
 
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