CZECH REPUBLIC 2004 TRIP

My wife, our one year old daughter and I took a vacation to the Czech Republic this year, planning to spend a little less than half the trip birding the southern part of the Czech Republic and the rest of the trip in Prague sightseeing and visiting relatives.

We left Minneapolis, Minnessota, on the 11th of May on Northwest Airlines to Amsterdam where we changed to Czech Air (CSA) and flew in to Prague, arriving May 12. Quite tired, we picked up our rental car, a decent sized Opel Vectra, from Budget rent a car. We rented the car for the weekly rate of just under $400, which went to about $425 with the baby seat rental included. Hertz had offered us a weekly rate of over $1800!

Before getting on to our destinations and the birds seen I'll cover some practicalities and other items.

Practicalities: It will be about 2009 or 2010 before the Czech Republic begins dealing with Euros although it was this May that they joined the European Union. Many places, including hotels, outside of Prague do not accept credit cards, so be prepared.

The majority of persons we dealt with outside of Prague spoke German rather than English, and my little knowledge of German came in handy. At only one point did someone get bothered by our not knowning the Czech language and this was a person in Prague who I believe would be bothered by just about anything, so I would say that our experience indicates the Czech people are quite accomodating with regards to language.

We made hotel reservations between three and four weeks ahead of time, and it seemed to be a good thing to do.

Our "birding days" were more than just that. We wanted to also relax and enjoy the varying scenery: the mountains, fish ponds, the little cities, the food. Given the presence of our daughter we generally left the hotel no earlier than 9am and even later.

For most of the trips from destination to destination the kilometers are not many and if one drove at a quick pace they could get between them in a fraction of the time we did. We went at a leisurely pace and did get lost about once each day, requiring a bit of back-tracking.

Birding Challenges: We did see a number of raptors, several of which we were not able to definitively identify. We could have taken a guess but would rather not do so. The sky was often filled with clouds and viewing conditions of the raptors was therefore not ideal. Aside from the lapwings we saw no other shorebirds. We had hoped to see some but did not find any, a minor dissapointment.

Favorite Places: The Dehtar pond, the Trebon area and the area adjacent to the hotel we stayed at in Lednice were our favorites. We would have liked to stay another full day at each of these places!

Resources: It turns out that to actually find some of the places I birded at and that were mentioned in some of the books, it made a big difference to use one or more of the trip reports.

Books: 1) Birds of Britain and Europe, Hamlyn Guide; Bruun, Svensson, Singer and Zetterstrom; published 1992. 2) Taschen Fuhrer Vogel, Alle Arten Mitteleuropas; Kightley, Madge, Nurney; published 1999. 3) Where to Watch Birds in Eastern Europe, Hamlyn Birdwatching Guides, Birdlife International; Gerard Gorman; published 1994. 4) Birds of the Czech Republic; Josef Kren; published 2000. For a field guide both 1 and 2 are nice. I am more used to 1, but 2 does have some additional identification tips, in German. 3 provides a nice overview of places to go not only in the czech republic but in other eastern european countries. As expected, 4 covers the birds of the czech republic in detail and is nice as a reference.

Trip Reports: 1) Howard Broughton's 30th May - 11th June Czech Republic Trip Report on Surfbirds.com 2) Chris Lester's Europe 2000 trip report on birding-aus 3) Trip reports from organizations leading birding trips to the Czech Republic and just general information on the areas in the southern Czech Republic I found on the web.

Trip Details and Birds Seen


note: not all birds seen are listed, just those that I wrote down, which includes most, and those few that I did not write down but can definitively recall.

Cesky Krumlov

We drove from Prague to Cesky Krumlov, passing through Ceske Budejovice, and arrived at our hotel just near the castle: Bed and Breakfast Zamku (http://ois.ckrumlov.info/uk/mesto/rpphv/i_uzamku.htm). We had a very good experience at this hotel and highly recommend it; the rate was 1500 CK and the exchange was about 25CK/1 dollar. The drive from Prague was about 4 hours.

Prague To Cesky Krumlov
night heron (Ceske Budejovice)

Cesky Krumlov, in the park near the castle
black redstart, jay, robin, blue tit (nest in tree), kestrel, swift, house martin, swallow, chiffchaff, great tit

VIMPERK

The next day, May 13, we took a nice tour of the castle and began our trip to Vimperk, in the Sumava Mountains; our first scheduled day of birding. The drive from Cesky Krumlov was about 3 hours. Here we stayed at the Kuba Hotel (http://www.travel.cz/katalog/en_1045.html). The hotel was basic but did have a restaurant and a pool and hot tub; the rate was 1200 CZK and the reservation was made through czechhotels.cz. Here we birded for about 3 hours in the Boubin area. To get there you go down the hill from Vimperk on the main highway and turn at Hor. Vltavice to Boubin. Eventually there is an obvious large parking area on the right which is a starting point for the trails. In the morning I did some solo birding beginning at the hotel, walking along the railroad tracks and then off the side of them on the way back, for a total of about 1 hours.

Cesky Krumlov to Vimperk, with a stop at Lipo Reservoir
mallard, great-crested grebe, magpie, chaffinch, blue tit, fieldfare

Boubin Mountain
chaffinch, blackbird, chiffchaff, siskin, mistle thrush, great tit, crested tit, fieldfare; female pied or collared flycatcher, dendrocopus woodpecker

Hotel Kuba
redstart, nuthatch, bullfinch, lesser whitethroat, blackcap, house martin, pied wagtail, hawfinch, house sparrow, collared dove, swallow, fieldfare, goldfinch, serin, magpie, firecrest, black woodpecker, coal tit; firecrest or goldcrest, red kite or black kite, gallinaceous bird, warbler type bird with red under tail which sang a sweet song interrupted by a raspy burr, one of the two treecreepers

TREBON

We next travelled to Trebon, staying there for the 14th and 15th of May. We stayed at the Hotel Zlata Hvezda (http://www.zhvezda.cz), the charge being 1980 CK a night. This was a very nice hotel and we highly recommend it. A quite good restaurant and nice rooms. We stopped at Dathar Pond on the way to Trebon. Dathar Pond was wonderful. We stopped for a while at the view area and then drove a little around the Pond. The trip to Trebon was between 2 and 3 hours, not counting our stop at Dathar.

Brthew
northern lapwing, tufted duck, pochard, mallard, grey heron

Dathar
coot, common tern, gadwall, great-crested grebe, greylag goose, northern lapwing, mute swan, black-headed gull, mallard, sedge warbler, grey wagtail, yellowhammer, red-backed shrike

Trebon, large park on Svet Pond near center
tree sparrow, hooded crow, chaffinch, great-spotted woodpecker, jay, mistle thrush, nuthatch, blue tit, great tit, robin, red-backed shrike, blackcap, white stork; flycatcher

Rozmberk Pond
tree sparrow, cuckoo (h), pied wagtail, blue tit, mallard, starling, black-headed gull, nuthatch, swallow, redstart, collared flycatcher, chiffchaff, short-toed treecreeper, middle-spotted woodpecker, robin, great-spotted woodpecker, red-creasted pochard, red-backed shrike, marsh harrier

Velky Tisy & little pond just down the road
mute swan, pochard, red-crested pochard, little grebe, gargany, tufted duck, golden eye, mallard, black-headed gull, sedge warbler, yellowhammer, pied wagtail, grey heron, bittern, wood pigeon, shellduck, greylag goose

LEDNICE

Lednice was our final destination before returning to prague. We stopped at Novy Milne Pond along the way. Novy Milne is quite big and we went to a earthen dike on the north shore of the middle pond to walk on. We had hopped to see some shorebirds but in scanning the pond as we drove around a bit we didn't see any. On May 16, we stayed at the Hotel Hranicni Zamecek (http://www.hranicnizamecek.cz/i_english.php3), which is actually not in Lednice but in a small city nearby. The charge was 1450 CK. On May 17 we did some morning birding and then left for Prague, which was about a 4 hour trip, including stops.

Trebon to Lednice
swift, yellowhammer, skylark, kestrel, red-backed shrike, white stork, marsh harrier

Novy Milne
reed bunting, whitethroat, black-headed gull, swallow, house martin, sand martin, common tern, tree sparrow, grey heron, cormorant, chaffinch

Lednice Chateau
black redstart, great-crested grebe, pochard, red-crested pochard, mallard, tufted duck, coot, grey heron, mute swan, pied wagtail, cuckoo, starling, gadwall, mistle thrush, chaffinch, icterine warbler, song thrush, black cap, wood pigeon

Hotel in Lednice - there were more birds seen but don't recall the species
linnet, cardinal, nuthatch, oriole, green woodpecker, greet reed warbler, river warbler, reed warlber, reed bunting, night heron, garganey, red-crested pochard, gadwall, cormorant, mallard, great spotted woodpecker, greenfinch, starling, greylag goose

The list: 84 species, 33 new ones for us

PODICIPEDIDAE

(Podiceps cristatus) great-crested grebe

(Tachybaptus ruficullis) little grebe

PHALACROCORACIDAE

(Phalacrocorax carbo) cormorant

ARDEIDAE

(Botarus stellaris) bittern

(Nycticorax nycticorax) night heron

(Ardea cinerea) grey heron

CICONIIDAE

(Ciconia ciconia) white stork

ANATIDAE

(Cygnus olor) mute swan

(Anser anser) greylag goose

(Anas strepera) gadwall

(Anas platyrhynchos) mallard

(Anas querquedula) garganey

(Netta rufina) red-crested pochard

(Aythya ferina) pochard

(Aythya fuligula) tufted duck

(Bucephala clangula) common goldeneye

(Tadorna todorna) common shelduck

ACCIPITRIDAE

(Circus aeruginosus) marsh harrier

FALCONIDAE

(Falco tinnunculus) eurasian kestrel

PHASIANIDAE

(Phasianus colchicus) pheasant

RALLIDAE

(Fulica atra) coot

CHARADRIIDAE

vanellus vanellus lapwing

LARIDAE

larus ridibundus black-headed gull

STERNIDAE

sterna hirundo common tern

COLUMBIDAE

streptopelia decaocto collared turtle dove

columiba livia rock dove

columba oenas stock dove

columba palumbus wood pigeon

CUCULIDAE

cuculus canorus cuckoo

APODIDAE

apus apus swift

PICIDAE

dryocopus martius black woodpecker

picus viridis green woodpecker

dendrocopos major great spotted

dendrocopos medius middle-spotted woodpecker

ALAUDIDAE

alauda arvensis skylark

HIRUNDINIDAE

riparia riparia sand martin

hirundo rustica barn swallow

delichon urbica house martin

MOTACILLIDAE

motacilla alba pied wagtail

motacilla cinerea grey wagtail

TURDIDAE

erithacus rubecula robin

phoenicurus ochruros black redstart

phoenicurus phoenicurus redstart

turdus merula blackbird

turdus pilaris fieldfare

turdus philomelos song thrush

turdus viscivorus mistle thrush

SYLVIIDAE

hippolais icterina icterine warbler

locustella fluviatilis river warbler

acrocephalus schoenobaenus sedge warbler

acrocephalus scirpaceus reed warbler

acrocephalus arundinaceus great reed warbler

sylvia atricapilla blackcap

sylvia communis whitethroat

sylvia curruca lesser whitethroat

regulus ignicapillus firecrest

phylloscopus collybita chiffchaff

MUSCICAPIDAE

ficedula albicollis collared flycatcher

PARIDAE

parus cristatus crested tit

parus ater coal tit

parus caeruleus blue tit

parus major great tit

SITTIDAE

sitta europaea nuthatch

CERTHIIDAE

certhia brachydactyla short-toed creeper

ORIOLIDAE

(Oriolus oriolus) golden oriole

LANIIDAE

(Lanius collurio) red-backed shrike

STURNIDAE

(Sturnus vulgaris) starling

CORVIDAE

(Garrulus glanarius) jay

(Pica pica) magpie

(Corvus monedula) jackdaw

(Corvus corone) hooded crow

(Corvus corax) raven

PASSERIDAE

(Passer domesticus) house sparrow

(Passer montanus)tree sparrow

FRINGILLIDAE

(Coccothraustes cocothraustes) hawfinch

(Fringilla coelebs) chaffinch

(Serrinus serinnus) serin

(Carduelis spinus) siskin

(Carduelis chloris) greenfinch

(Carduelis carduelis) goldfinch

(Carduelis cannabina) linnet

(Pyrrhula pyrrhula) bullfinch

EMBERIZIDAE

(Emberiza citrinella) yellow hammer

(Emberiza schoeniclus) reed bunting