Wildlife to see in Croatia in September
4 spectacles at their peak in Croatia in September, and 4 more still going on. Wild animals only: no zoos, no wildlife parks, no hunting. Open Croatia in September in the interactive calendar for listening times on the day you pick.
At their peak in September
Red deer rut in the Danube floodplain, Kopački ritDozens of stags roaring across flooded willow-poplar forest and reed — over water the roars carry for kilometres and stack into a continuous chorus; splashing chases, antler clashes, wild boar grunting, night herons and geese overhead.
Neretva delta: the Adriatic flyway stopoverBittern booming from the reeds, whiskered and black terns over the lagoons, marsh frogs, great reed warblers, glossy ibis and egret flights at dusk, Cetti's warbler explosions; frog and cicada layers by June.
Bottlenose dolphins of the Kvarnerić, LošinjWith a hydrophone: whistles, echolocation click trains and burst-pulse squawks; above water, blows and tail-slaps; unfortunately also every outboard within 10 km.
Brown bears and wolves, Gorski kotar and VelebitBear footfalls, huffs and jaw-popping close to a hide; wolf packs howling across karst dolines in late summer; dormice and Ural owls at night; the Lika plateau is one of the quietest places in southern Europe.
Also going on in September
Cicada summer of the Adriatic coastContinuous Cicada orni ticking at 5–8 kHz merging into a shimmer, Lyristes plebejus's louder pulsing song from pines, cricket chorus at night, scops owl, sea.
Golden jackal choruses of DalmatiaThe rising, yelping, quavering group howl of a jackal family — three or four voices climbing over each other for half a minute — answered from the next olive grove and the next, with scops owls, nightjars and crickets underneath on summer nights and silence and sea on winter ones.
Shearwater colonies at night, Lastovo archipelagoScopoli's shearwaters wailing and cackling overhead and from burrows — the 'crying baby' chorus of Mediterranean islets; Yelkouan's higher nasal calls; waves on rock, cicadas fading at dusk.
Griffon vultures on the sea cliffs of CresHissing and grunting at the ledges, the wind-rip of 2.7 m wings passing low over a boat, chick begging; shags and yellow-legged gulls beneath, cicadas and scops owl in the maquis behind.