Sheesh! As if the lack of critters to photograph lately in Estabrook Park was not enough of a problem, today the fog is still so thick at noon that if a bald eagle perched over the island in the pond, I’m not sure that I could even capture an image of it.
So, this is a perfect opportunity to look back at some of the amazing sights that we did get to see this year, and let’s focus on the Balkans this time. As you may recall, Anne put together a wonderful little tour for us back in January, and these are some of my favorite wildlife pictures from that trip.
Before we had even reached the Balkans, we had a nice, day-long layover in Vienna, and I showed you a gray wagtail (Motacilla cinerea) that I spotted along a small river that flows through the center of the city. I didn’t even realize it at the time, because I confused it with the yellow wagtail I had seen in South Holland, but it was a brand new species for us. Woo hoo!
When we finally did reach the Balkans, I noticed black redstarts (Phoenicurus ochruros) seemed to be nearly everywhere, and here’s a cute little female showing off her “red start” in Shkodër, “the fifth-most-populous city” of Albania.
In the historic old town of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, we saw our very first alpine chough, aka yellow-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus), which is thought to “nest at a higher altitude than any other bird.” Yikes!
Before we started to make our way home, I had one more chance to look for critters outside of the picturesque city of Dubrovnik in Croatia, and I found a male western black redstart who really showed off the black mask they can have, and he almost let me take a portrait with him in it. Boy, they are flighty!
Finally, once we were on the road, we stopped along the way to visit the Ostrog Monastery in Montenegro, and there we saw our first white-backed woodpecker (Dendrocopos leucotos).
We did see plenty of other wonderful sights during our short visit there, but these are my favorite wildlife pictures, and if you get the chance to visit the Balkans yourself, I hope you don’t hesitate to take it.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 