Birding Carska Bara Reserve in December Fog

I don’t know what those so-called meteorologists are doing: they all claim a moderately cold morning, but do not say a word about the fog! Yet, tree branches are covered in hoar frost and the fog is so thick one could cut it with a machete! Of course, I was going – birding, so the view of the fog (certainly not through the fog) has drawn several comments which I will not share here with you…

While the Lada 4×4 is bumping along the dirt track (road??) along the Carska Bara Nature Reserve, Serbia, a Common Reed Bunting awaits me on a low branch… and then performs a real dance, twitching its tail sideways and following it in a series of quick steps! A way to beat the cold?

Should I stay or should I go: Roe Deer

A Common Buzzard in the ground, another on the top of a bush… Buzzards were the most obvious birds, most of them coming from the more northerly countries to overwinter here.

A cup of coffee in a fog-enveloped willow grove with a two Great Spotted Woodpeckers busy chasing each other and then drumming the bark looking for breakfast, followed by an unusual tsrrrrrrrr – three Eurasian Nuthatches looking for food.

Windscreen air vent as a foot warmer

Mute Swans in their pond, several Great Egrets flying through the white dough, a dozen Eurasian Teals, seductive beauty of frost-covered willows – seductive from a warm cocoon of car, that is.

There is a bird in a low bush, a smallish raptor with slaty back and almost orange nape – an irresistible male Merlin, posing for quite a while. Here it is a strictly wintering species, and the first individual I have seen this winter.

Large birds flying through silver fog… buzzards? No, they are Common Ravens. It rains in a nearby grove – the temperature is shyly going up and the branches are defrosting. The sound is that of rain drops; not from the clouds, but from tree crowns.

A flock of about a hundred European Goldfinches, a dozen European Greenfinches and a few Eurasian Tree Sparrows among them… and that Merlin again! Now it lands on the ground and – observes me for a change.

Corn Bunting

Finishing the field trip, there is one Common Kestrel, all puffed up to block as much air as possible… And that fog.

I hate fog.

Photos by Senka Lecic & Dragan Simic