At this site in the area of European importance Holubyho kopanice, the management is made more difficult by the occurrence of the large copper (Lycaena dispar) and the Jersey tiger (Callimorpha quadripunctaria), each of which has different requirements, host plants and we want to accommodate them all. We really have to proceed slowly, working by hand, at different times and in small areas.
After several years of efforts, negotiations with farmers, administrating permits, building fences and placing a well with watering holes, on August 15 we managed to bring cows to Apál Island, located at the confluence of Váh and Old Nitra rivers.
In the area of European importance Beckovské skalice there are also colourful meadows, which were restored by the State Nature Conservancy in our joint project LIFE Butterflies CR-SR, which ended in 2016. They have been mowed annually since then by the administration of the White Carpathians Protected Landscape Area.
Despite the intense summer heat, 39 dedicated volunteers—members and supporters—joined us once again to lend a hand. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed under such challenging conditions.
Rescue trapping of ground squirrels near the Bratislava airport will soon be completed. You are looking at one of the last squirrels from this capture. We recently wrote about our colleagues from our ground squirrel conservation project who have been trapping ground squirrels there to save them because there is going to be construction on this site.
We are changing pipe culverts to frame culverts. We are following with this activity on Vojcianske side arm
After we restored the arm in 2013 and dug another inflow channel last year, it is necessary to check the species composition of the fish. And that is happening right now – experts, ichthyologists from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Comenius University are conducting such monitoring these days. They catch, identify, measure and…
This confirms that some species are already discovering that we’ve cleaned this site up. Do you still remember what “hilltopping” is? This summer we were delighted to see this animal, the Macaronius owlfly (Libelloides macaronius), which seeks out unvegetated elevated areas within the range of its occurrence for mating flights.
It is not any news that the largest population of ground squirrels in Slovakia lives at the Bratislava airport. Well, these squirrels naturally also run into the open countryside from there, and the mowed grass meadows between the technical buildings provide them good living space.
Small-scale wetlands in agricultural landscapes are not only important for amphibians, birds and mammals, but are also home to many species of butterflies and insects. Orchids and other rare plants often grow here. In Holuby’s Kopanice, a site of European importance, we also find burnets (Sanguisorba) which are host plants to the rare Blues butterflies.