Birds of Morava River floodplain and stork village Marchegg in Austria – bicycle trip

Sunday, September 16, 2012

During autumn and winter, from September 2012 on, we decided to organize at least one birdwatching trip in a month, each on the third Sunday in the month. As a part of European mobility week this time we set out to watch birds on bikes. Our aim was the Austrian village of Marchegg, which is famous by the colony of White Storks. It is the biggest colony in Central Europe and the nests are built at trees which are nowadays so rare in our country. We knew that storks have already left but beautiful nature in this area allow us to have a very pleasant experience.

We met at 9:00 a.m. in Devínska Nová Ves and rode through a brand new cyclobridge, informally known as the Chuck Norris Bridge, to Austria. We continued along castle Schlosshof to the village of Marchegg. Near the Morava River we spotted Syrian Woodpecker (Dendrocopos syriacus) and were surprised by swimming Least Weasel (Mustela nivalis) in the river. Among all species of birds that we saw we were most pleased by the observation of Red Kite (Milvus milvus), which was wonderfully showing off in the flight. We continued to the Marchegg mansion, were we observed flying European Bee-Eaters (Merops apiaster). In this time of the year most of them are already on their way to their wintering places in Africa. We have also managed to see two gliding Imperial Eagles (Aquila heliaca) and shortly before our departure we saw majestic young White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla). Among other bird species we observed juvenile Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio) and Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata).

During our five hour trip we recorded 44 bird species.