In March we started research about Little Ringed Plover Charadrius dubuis at gravel bars on river Drava between the town of Maribor and village Središče ob Dravi. The goal of the research is to identify the survival rate of the chicks and the survival of the young between the years. Because Little Ringed Plover is a migratory bird, we also want to find out, how many adult and young birds return to the their breeding grounds from the previous years. Through the research we are taking great care identifing all possible human threats that are impacting the life on gravelbars.

Till this day we cought and ringed 27 adult and 39 chicks of Little Ringed Plovers and all were ringed with different combinations of colour rings. Ringing takes less then 10 minutes and the bird is then released at the same place. From this moment on, the bird can be easy identified with the scope which is the purpose of colour ringing. Through the research we will continue to ring the birds and at the same time monitor the activitiy of those already marked.

Photo: Tilen Basle

Photo: Tilen Basle

Photo: Tilen Basle

Photo: Tilen Basle

In March we started research about Little Ringed Plover Charadrius dubuis at gravel bars on river Drava between the town of Maribor and village Središče ob Dravi. More

Interesting bird sightings from our regular water birds monitoring on the Drava river – 15th decade:

Lake Ormož:

• Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) – 10 ind.
• Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) – 2 ind.
• Red-chrested Pochard (Netta rufina) – 1 ind.
• White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) – 1 ind.
• Little Tern (Sterna albifrons) – 1 ind.

Lake Ptuj:

• Black-nacked Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis) – 3 ind.
• Temminck’s Stint (Calidris temminckii) – 2 ind.
• Little Stint (Calidris minuta) – 2 ind.
• Whiskered Tern (Chlidonias hybrida) – 14 ind.

Interesting bird sightings from our regular water birds monitoring on the Drava river – 15th decade: More

Interesting bird sightings from our regular water birds monitoring on the Drava river – 14th decade:

Lake Ormož:

• Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) – 1 ind.
• Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna) – 2 ind.
• White-winged Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus) – 12 ind.

Lake Ptuj:

• Red-necked Grebe (Podiceps grisegena) – 1 ind.
• Sanderling (Calidris alba) – 1 ind.
• Dunlin (Calidris alpina) – 1 ind.
• Mediterranean Gull (Larus melanocephalus) – 4 ind.
• Common Gull (Larus canus) – 1 ind.

Interesting bird sightings from our regular water birds monitoring on the Drava river – 14th decade: More

At this years action of preparation of the river banks for Kingfisher and Sand Martin (action C.9), a volunteer and student Kim Fijok, who attends 2nd study year of programe Ecology with Nature Consevation at Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Maribor filmed a short educational video about the life of Sand Martin, its threats and effort of DOPPS volunteers to conserve the species. A video under mentorship of doc. dr. Damijan Denac was created as part of study course “Introduction to Nature Conservation”, which Kim attends. We congratulate Kim for this great contribution to spreading awareness about Sand Martins and its conservation and would also like to thank Mr. Derek Sanders for allowing the use of some of his video material in the making of the video.

At this years action of preparation of the river banks for Kingfisher and Sand Martin (action C.9), a volunteer and student Kim Fijok, who attends 2nd study year of programe Ecology with Nature Consevation at Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Maribor filmed a short educational video about the life of Sand Martin, its threats and effort of DOPPS volunteers to conserve the species. A video under mentorship of doc. dr. Damijan Denac was created as part of study course “Introduction to Nature Conservation”, which Kim attends. We congratulate Kim for this great contribution to spreading awareness about Sand Martins and its conservation and would also like to thank Mr. Derek Sanders for allowing the use of some of his video material in the making of the video.

From Friday 9th till Sunday 11th of May we had pretty busy weekend at Ormož basins. On Friday, 21 students from study programme Ecology with Nature Conservation from Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics visited the area. As part of their course »Introduction to Nature Conservation« they carried out field work within which they got to know the planned nature reserve and plans for the future.

In the afternoon a group of students and other volunteers pumped the wather from one of circular sedimentation tanks and rescued all the animals trapped inside, mostly frogs. This was urgent, because sedimentation tank will be buried very shortly. Rescued animals and plants were transfered to a new renaturated ditch, completed in March under action C.3. Action continoued through Saturday.

Meanwhile on Saturday we started to bulldoze the piles of earth in the western part of area, which was finished on Sunday. On the surface that was leveled the meadow will be establihed that will serve as a fodder for grazing livestock.

We sincirely thank the »TSO in liquidation« for lending us the machinery required for the earth works free of charge and for the help of all the volunteers.

Photo: Tilen Basle

Photo: Tilen Basle

Photo: Tilen Basle

Photo: Tilen Basle

From Friday 9th till Sunday 11th of May we had pretty busy weekend at Ormož basins. On Friday, 21 students from study programme Ecology with Nature Conservation from Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics visited the area. More