Tuesday, May 14, 2019

πŸ“– BIRDING CROATIA 2019 πŸ‡­πŸ‡· ~ DAY 7/8

It seems that our second week here in Croatia is likely to be a very disrupted one as a major weather event beckons! Not so much the torrential rain already causing flooding in the NW of the country, we've already experienced this but specifically, the wind known as a 'bura'.


In Dalmatia, the sky can get clogged with a haze that makes the islands barely visible. Bura comes in and wipes the sky clean. However, every once in a while, there is Ε‘trokav bura, or dirty bura, that happens during rainstorms. Bura can reach speeds of 220 km (136 miles) per hour but has been clocked as high as 304 km (189 miles) per hour, hurricane force. Apparently, it is most common blowing down from the mountains on the eastern side of the Adriatic Sea where it flows mainly from the northeast through gaps in the Dinaric Alps.

πŸŒ§πŸ’¨8C Sunday 12th May 2019 ~ No 'bura' yet but the torrential rains hit once more! Again we decided to take a drive out along the coast and basically bird from the car, mainly around the Sibenik area. Surprisingly there were a few highlights, one being the amazing sight of six Red-footed Falcons downed in the rain. The birds were lined up along fencing and below is a hand-held video from the car window while the rain was pouring in.



As you can imagine we didn't stay out long but one other highlight included a mixture of several Whinchat and Stonechat also grounded.

Photo's of the Day... 


A few stills from the video

These guys were thoroughly soaked!

πŸŒ§πŸ’¨10C Monday 13th May 2019 ~ More torrential rains but thankfully sightseeing in Split, although we did get a little wet. The 'bura' has hit overnight and currently (Tuesday 14th) galeforce winds are battering the house!