Archive for the ‘Wildlife’ Category

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Marchegg Stork Sanctuary near Vienna

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009Amanda Kendle

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If you’re on a driving trip near Vienna or around the Czech and Slovak borders, I’ve got a great detour to recommend: the WWF Stork Sanctuary at Marchegg, Austria, about half an hour north-west of Bratislava. I stopped there on the advice of a friend a few years ago, without realising it’s a World Wide Fund for Nature project, and I was impressed.

Marchegg Stork Sanctuary

Storks fly up from Africa to breed in Marchegg every year – last year 43 breeding pairs produced 92 baby storks, according to the close-watching experts. The season generally goes from late March or mid April through to sometime in August, and this year the first stork arrived on March 19. When I visited I saw dozens of stork nests in trees, and if you look extremely closely in the picture, you’ll see I also saw a lot of storks (mostly their heads!).

There are various walks you can do around the sanctuary and I’m not sure if it’s always the case, but during my visit, volunteers were there to answer questions and there were a few tasteful souvenirs to buy in support of the WWF work.

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Posted in Austria, Wildlife by Amanda Kendle | 2 Comments »

Discover the sea-turtles on the Greek island of Zakynthos

Thursday, March 19th, 2009Heather Cowper

Turtles are a big deal on the Greek island of Zakynthos where I visit my sister every year. Zakynthos is home to the loggerhead turtle, Caretta Caretta and their nesting sites on the beaches in the bay of Laganas are protected.

But there’s controversy too, in turtle-paradise and the building and development of land nearby continues as locals try to cash in on the island’s tourism. A marine park has been established, and the turtles are a big draw for visitors who go out on boat trips to try and spot the turtles. If you swim out far enough from the beach with your snorkle you might even see some in the water.

The best place to find out about the turtles is the Earth, Sea and Sky information centre at one of the key nesting areas on Gerakas beach, staffed by volunteers from all over Europe. Go and find out about their efforts to preserve the nesting sites and  buy a few turtle postcards there. Then pop next door to the traditional taverna, for a cold drink and a plate of kalamari, in the shade of a huge mulberry tree.

Gerakas beach

Because of the marine park, building is banned around Gerakas beach which makes it one of my favourite beaches on Zakynthos, but if you find it a little overcrowded in high season, try Dafni beach, which is just the other side of the headland and with just as much chance of seeing a turtle. If you can get your hire car down the steep and hair-raising drive down the pot-holed dirt track, you’ll find the same unspoilt environment, with just a few shady beach bars to relax.

Thanks to RobW for his turtle photos on Flickr

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Posted in Greece, Wildlife by Heather Cowper | 3 Comments »

Peacock butterfly photos

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008Karen Bryan

I’ve read recently that the UK butterfly population is in decline due to the recent wet Summers interfering with their breeding season. However we seem to be bucking this trend in our garden in Berwick upon Tweed in north east England, where we have seen more butterflies than ever this Summer.

We have regularly been spotting 4 Peacock butterflies on one particular flowering shrub.

It’s been wonderful to see these butterflies in our own back yard, as Peacock butterflies are considered to be one of the most beautiful species of butterfly in the world.

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Posted in England, Environment, Wildlife by Karen Bryan | 2 Comments »

Building site opposite Forvie Nature Reserve, Aberdeenshire

Friday, September 7th, 2007Karen Bryan

One the things I was really looking forward to doing on my recent trip to Aberdeenshire was returning to the Forvie National Nature Reserve as I think that the sand dunes there are really dramatic and beautiful. The area is even dubbed the “Northern Sahara” due to all of the sand left after the last ice age around 15,000 years ago. The present dunes are thought to be around 2000 years old. The mud flats in the estuary are home to many types of marine life and birds.

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Sand dune at Forvie Reserve
Imagine my surprise when arrived at nature reserve car park to see a construction site sporting an enormous crane on the other side of the estuary. I thought that it was a real blot on the landscape and I wondered how on earth the builders had managed to get planning consent.

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The building site opposite Forvie Reserve


I spoke to a local resident out walking her dog and she told me that although there had been a lot of local opposition that planning consent had been given mainly because it was a brownfield site where there had been industrial use. Evidently the town houses in the development will have a price tag of around half a million pounds. This is truly amazing as there is still a large industrial unit on the development site, which you can see to the right of the photo with the low sun shining on one side of the building. Imagine paying hundreds of thousands of pounds for a house with supposedly great views and seeing, even partially, a large steel shed. Perhaps we can call on Forvie’s Curse, where according to local folklore, three sisters were set adrift in a leaky boat so that they could not inherit. The sisters placed a curse on Forvie, saying the it should only contain thistle and sand. The curse resulted in a fierce storm which covered the village in sand. I’d certainly rather see thistle and sand than a luxury housing development so near a nature reserve.

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Posted in Environment, Scotland, Wildlife by Karen Bryan | No Comments »

Salmon leap at Falls of Feugh, Banchory

Sunday, August 26th, 2007Karen Bryan

The Falls of Feugh are just outside the Aberdeenshire town of Banchory. It was amazing to watch the salmon attempting to leap up against the torrent of water.

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On several occasions two salmon leapt simultaneously but I didn’t manage to capture that on film. The fish must have been exhausted with so many failed attempts as I didn’t spot any fish making it up during the 15 minutes I stood observing them from the footbridge.

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Posted in Scotland, Wildlife by Karen Bryan | No Comments »

The goose who thinks it’s a cygnet

Wednesday, July 25th, 2007Karen Bryan

This evening when we were walking over the Royal Tweed Bridge in Berwick upon Tweed we spotted this goose in between 4 cygnets paddling along behind a mature swan.


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Posted in England, Wildlife by Karen Bryan | No Comments »

Salmon net fishing at Berwick upon Tweed

Saturday, July 14th, 2007Karen Bryan

The salmon net fishing has commenced at the estuary of the River Tweed in Berwick upon Tweed. You can watch the process from the quayside or the old bridge. The same process of sweep netting has been used for generations. The net is spread by the boat, called a coble. Then the fishermen pull in the net by hand while they are standing on the small island exposed at low tide. This process is repeated many times.

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Sweep netting fishing at Berwick upon Tweed

The net fishermen are being paid by the River Tweed Commission not to fish during the first part of the season in order to conserve fish stocks.

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Posted in England, Wildlife by Karen Bryan | No Comments »

Aberlady Bay Local Nature Reserve, East Lothian

Saturday, July 14th, 2007Karen Bryan

The Aberlady Bay Local Nature Reserve lies 20 miles east of Edinburgh in East Lothian. In 1952 it became the first local nature reserve in the UK. The reserve is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The Reserve is best known for birdwatching and is home to some rare birds such as skylarks. A small herd of roe deer live in the area.

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Wooden footbridge at Aberlady Nature Reserve 

There’s a fairly good footpath after you cross the wooden bridge and it takes around one and half hours to do the full walk. The reserve is just east of the village of Aberlady on the A198. The car park is not well signposted from the A198 but look out for the layby on the side of the road next to the coast. You can see the wooden pedestrian bridge as you approach. There are public toilets at the layby.

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View to Aberlady village from the reserve

There are lovely views as you the walk, across the Bay to Aberlandy and out to the Forth Estuary and over to Fife.

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Posted in Day trips, Scotland, Wildlife by Karen Bryan | No Comments »

Trips from Newhaven Harbour, Edinburgh

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007Karen Bryan

Newhaven Harbour is now a departure point for boat trips or “seafaris” to the Firth of Forth. You must book for all trips by phoning 0131 331 4857. There’s a one hour seafari to spot wildlife seals. puffins and guillemots or two hour trips to the island of Inchcolm where you can visit the Abbey.

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The Newhaven Museum located in the Fish Market building is closed for renovation at present. It’s free to park by the harbour and there’s a bus stop. There are views up the Forth Estuary towards the bridges and over the Fife. There are several pubs and restaurants so you could have a day out in the area.

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Posted in Culture, Day trips, Scotland, Wildlife by Karen Bryan | No Comments »

Highland Deer Spotting

Sunday, June 10th, 2007Karen Bryan

Last week we stayed at a holiday cottage on the Leckmelm estate just outside Ullapool, in the Scottish Higlands.  One evening as I was descending the stairs in the cottage I spotted a deer grazing just outside the cottage, through the glass at the top of the front door.

We saw many deer during our week in the Highlands. unfortunately several of them dead by the road side.  It is one of the hazards of driving in the Highlands.  We did have deer cross the road in front of us but it was a single track road so we’d time to slow down.  We watched a couple of deer grazing in a field below one of the walks from the cottage. There were aware that we were close and would look up regularly to check on us.

[tags]Scottish Highlands, deer[/tags]

Posted in Scotland, Wildlife by Karen Bryan | No Comments »

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