Land of Beavers!

I use to find signs of Beavers occurrence regularly during my walks in the nature in the surroundings of Bratislava. Have a look what I found yesterday:

tree with freshly nibbled wood, next to the Danube's seepage channel

marks of beaver's teeth

another site, signs of beavers again: small creek along the road, red arrow shows to the dam

creek with the beaver dam

beaver dam from above

Is this spring?

After the weekend that was full of duties I made regular walk along seepage channel of Danube's Hrušovská zdrž water reservoir to count the wintering waterbirds. Weather forecast looked bad but I had no other option. First 2 hours it was only cold and windy and after 8:30 it began to snow. I spotted my first Stonechats (Saxicola torquata) and Grey Wagtails (Motacilla cinerea) of the year. Snowdrops started to bloom two weeks ago, now Two-leaf Squills (Scila bifolia) appeared. I was lucky to observe Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus) and was able to shoot short video of an Eurasian Beaver (Castor fiber). The second half of my walk was covered under snow blanket. Pretty weird to see flowers under snow. I spotted also one Fox (Vulpes vulpes) and three Roedeer (Capreolus capreolus) Fortunately the rain came in late afternoon so the only problem was snow on my spotting scope and freezing hands.

Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus) and Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus)

happy Beaver (Castor fiber)

Two-leaf Squill (Scila bifolia)

road along seepage channel covered with snow

not very typical photo from spring birdwatching walk

Two-leaf Squill under snow

Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis)

Bear's Garlic (Allium ursinum)

Bear's Garlic meadow under snow blanket

I found these feathers: upper two are from Wood Pigeon, undermost is from Pheasant