Corncrakes and wet-meadow night chorus, Ljubljana Marsh

Corncrake (Crex crex); quail, curlew, whinchat, grasshopper warbler, snipe. Ljubljansko barje, central Slovenia, Slovenia.

Best time: 15 May – 20 Jun (May to June). Where: Iški morost nature reserve (DOPPS, near Ig), Bevke / Blatna Brezovica meadows, Rakova jelša / Črna vas (Slovenia). Time of day: Corncrakes call from about 22:00 and are near-continuous from midnight to 03:00, when fog settles and traffic stops.

• You can go on your own
• Free
• No binoculars needed
• Sound 5/5

Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.

When is the best time?

Peak: 15 May – 20 Jun. Mid May to about 20 June, before the first mowing

Active from 1 May to 10 Jul (May to July) in a typical year.

Time of day

Corncrakes call from about 22:00 and are near-continuous from midnight to 03:00, when fog settles and traffic stops; curlew and the meadow chorus in the hour around sunrise.

• Night calling: 22:00 → 03:00
• Dawn chorus: 45 min before sunrise → 1 h after sunrise

What will you hear?

Corncrake'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.

Binoculars?

No binoculars needed. Night calling from the meadows beside the trail; the birds stay hidden in the grass.

Where to go

• Iški morost nature reserve (DOPPS, near Ig) — Managed for corncrake; Koščeva učna pot trail. Highest reliability, one of the largest corncrake concentrations in Slovenia. Map
• Bevke / Blatna Brezovica meadows — Western marsh; corncrake, quail, curlew. Farm tracks, ask before entering meadows. Map
• Rakova jelša / Črna vas — Closest to Ljubljana — more traffic and the ring-road hum; still corncrakes some years. Map

How to go on your own, and what it costs

Iški morost: park at the DOPPS reserve car park near Ig (bus 19 from Ljubljana to Ig, then 2 km on foot) and walk the Koščeva učna pot trail — open at all hours, free. Bevke meadows: farm tracks from the village, ask before entering fields. Stay on tracks; nests are in the grass.

Cost: Free.

Field-recording notes

The marsh is a bowl below Ljubljana airport's approach (Brnik is north, but the southern motorway and the A1 ring are audible on a still night as a broadband floor at 5–10 km). Pick the southern edge (Ig–Iška) for the cleanest ambience. Corncrakes are a Natura 2000 qualifying species and DOPPS runs LIFE projects here — no playback, no walking into uncut meadows (nests are on the ground). Fog settles after midnight in June and is excellent for propagation; bring gaiters. Mowing dates are set by agri-environment contracts, so peak singing ends abruptly.

Sources

• DOPPS – Ljubljansko barje
• Krajinski park Ljubljansko barje
• xeno-canto – Corncrake

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More: all spectacles in Slovenia · wildlife at night · Slovenia in May · Slovenia in June