Winter snow tracking of hazel grouse in Travna gora

For the second time in January 2017, winter tracking of hazel grouse was conducted by representatives of the Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Nature Conservation and the Slovenian Forest Service in cooperation with BirdLife Slovenia. Winter tracking allows us to determine the presence of hazel grouse, but a good observer can also reveal many details regarding living and eating habitats of this forest grouse.

Snow tracking was conducted at a preselected transects, on which every sign of presence of hazel grouse is recorded. Grouse footprint is usually 4 -5 cm long and the typical form, which is characteristic of all representatives of grouse species. Droppings are small, curved, usually long between 2 and 3 cm and less than 1 cm wide. There are visible undigested plant parts (needles, buds).

For now, we were unsuccessful to track down hazel grouse, but we will continue to try. Winter presence date would help us in the spring, when we plan to capture hazel grouse for radio telemetry, which will enable us to look even more detailed into mysterious life of this magnificent forest bird.

News prepared by ZRSVN.

foto:  ZRSVN

foto:  ZRSVN

foto:  ZRSVN