Kosovo, 2024

Our friends [name] and [name] have joined us at the cabin, so we have done a few trips for sightseeing. The other day, we were joined by the wildlife photographer [name] and went for a walk in the forest near Eagle Ranch, where he placed two trap cameras. There was evidence of bear (scat) and boar (digging). We also saw a fox near the restaurant. I have been leaving an egg near the compost pile on our property and every morning it is gone, so we are hoping our regular fox is finding them. I also spotted a hare around the cabin yesterday. The only bad news is that our car got damaged in a severe hail storm a week ago.

Our final week in Kosovo, with several excursions and adventures to report. On a walk down a dirt road through the forest near our cabin we had a close encounter with a brown bear. [Name] saw it about 5 metres off the track, and [name], [name] and I heard it roar – a sound strangely like a chain saw revving. Fortunately it moved off down the slope and we made a hasty retreat unharmed.

We also had a visit to Kamenica where [name] took us on a mini tour. Along the way, we stopped to look at a dead snake along the road and a stranger invited us to his property near the Serbian border where he shared homemade raki and honey and we picked fresh blueberries from his orchard. We stopped at the border to meet the friendly guards and also on the way back to [name]’s home, [name] and [name] spotted a wild cat.

Two days ago we took [name] and [name] to the Sleeping Beauty Cave near Peja, and yesterday we hiked up to Lake Leqinat (altitude 1871 m) near the Montenegro border, where we enjoyed a refreshing swim and watched small salamanders in the shallows. Besides the spectacular displays of wildflowers, I heard the call of a Spotted Nutcracker, which joins my Life List of Birds, along with other additions around the cabin: Yellowhammer, Black Redstart, Goldcrest (rare, and apparently the smallest bird in Europe), Eurasian Blackcap, Song Thrush, Eurasian Wren, Eurasian Jay, Common Woodpigeon, and Common Firecrest.