Wildlife to see in Slovenia in July
5 spectacles at their peak in Slovenia in July, and 5 more still going on. Wild animals only: no zoos, no wildlife parks, no hunting. Open Slovenia in July in the interactive calendar for listening times on the day you pick.
At their peak in July
Karst nights: scops owl, nightjar and cicadasScops owl's monotone 'tyuh' every 2–3 s from village edges, nightjar churring on the dry meadows, sub-Mediterranean bush-cricket wall of sound, cicadas at 90+ dB at midday in July, eagle owl from the Vipava cliffs in late winter.
Bat emergence from karst cavesAudible squeaks and wing rustle at cave mouths from Miniopterus colonies of thousands; with a bat detector, horseshoe-bat constant-frequency calls at 80–110 kHz and bent-winged FM sweeps.
Brown bears from forest hides, KočevskoBears are mostly quiet: heavy footfalls in beech litter, sniffing, huffing and jaw-popping when nervous, cubs squalling, mating-season moans; the surrounding evening chorus (wood warbler, Ural owl at dusk, red deer) is the real soundscape.
Marmots, ibex and chamois in the Julian AlpsMarmot alarm whistles echoing off limestone walls, chough flocks, ptarmigan croaking above the treeline, chamois hissing alarm sneezes; in autumn the roar of red deer from the valleys below.
Waders and terns on the Sečovlje salt pansLittle tern colonies screaming over the pans, stilts and avocets yelping, redshank and Kentish plover, reed warblers in the Dragonja channel; salt-worker rakes and the sea beyond the dyke.
Also going on in July
Amphibian chorus of the intermittent lakeWall-to-wall Pelophylax chorus with tree frog 'krak-krak' on top, toad trills, yellow-bellied toad's soft 'poop-poop' from karst puddles, Savi's warbler and bittern in the mix.
Corncrakes and wet-meadow night chorus, Ljubljana MarshCorncrake's rasping 'crex-crex' from several males at once, quail 'wet-my-lips', curlew bubbling at dawn, frog chorus from ditches, grasshopper warbler reeling; church bells and dogs from the villages.
Lake Cerknica reedbed chorus: bittern, crakes, great reed warblerBittern booming across open water, spotted crake's 'whit' whiplash all night, little crake, great reed and Savi's warblers, cuckoo, a huge pool/edible frog chorus underneath, corncrake from the wet meadows on the fringes.
Edible dormouse nights and the 'polharjenje' seasonSqueals, churring and 'kissing' contact calls from the canopy, loud scrabbling on bark, beechnut shells raining down; in mast years the forest sounds like it is full of monkeys.
Mura floodplain dawn: orioles, bee-eaters, heronriesOriole fluting, cuckoo, nightingale, bee-eater 'prrup' flocks over the river, night heron croaks at dusk, stork bill-clattering from village nests, tree frogs from the oxbows.