Who is in Kvarner and Istria, and what they are doing

Today, 3 October

59 species in Kvarner and Istria, each shown at the point of its year it has reached today.

The season in four numbers

how the species split across the stages today
Sitting the year out 14Getting ready 4Young about 10Young leaving 31

Turned over this week

phases that opened in the last seven days

Mammals

14 · tap a card for the whole year

Birds

16 · tap a card for the whole year
Barn swallow Hirundo rustica leaving started 18 days ago21 days to run then: away for the winter Blue rock thrush Monticola solitarius moulting started 53 days ago7 days to run then: going about the year Common raven Corvus corax moulting started 22 days ago68 days to run then: courting Eurasian scops owl Otus scops leaving started 29 days ago7 days to run then: away for the winter Griffon vulture Gyps fulvus young dispersing started 22 days ago21 days to run then: going about the year Sardinian warbler Curruca melanocephala moulting started 39 days ago7 days to run then: going about the year Tawny owl Strix aluco moulting started 22 days ago7 days to run then: courting Yellow-legged gull Larus michahellis moulting started 53 days ago21 days to run then: going about the year Common cuckoo Cuculus canorus away for the winter started 29 days ago189 days to run then: arriving Common nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos away for the winter started 13 days ago189 days to run then: arriving Common swift Apus apus away for the winter started 34 days ago193 days to run then: arriving European bee-eater Merops apiaster away for the winter started 3 days ago208 days to run then: arriving European robin Erithacus rubecula going about the year started 22 days ago149 days to run then: courting Great spotted woodpecker Dendrocopos major going about the year started 8 days ago123 days to run then: courting Great tit Parus major going about the year started 8 days ago139 days to run then: courting Hoopoe Upupa epops away for the winter started 8 days ago177 days to run then: arriving

Insects

15 · tap a card for the whole year
Buff-tailed bumblebee Bombus terrestris new queens leaving started 22 days ago7 days to run then: hibernating Hummingbird hawk-moth Macroglossum stellatarum adults on the wing started 65 days ago38 days to run then: hibernating Violet carpenter bee Xylocopa violacea new queens leaving started 39 days ago21 days to run then: hibernating Western honey bee Apis mellifera new queens leaving started 53 days ago38 days to run then: wintering here Common glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca larvae feeding started 53 days ago38 days to run then: overwintering European mantis Mantis religiosa on eggs started 8 days ago21 days to run then: overwintering Great cicada Lyristes plebejus larvae feeding started 22 days ago243 days to run then: in the pupa Rose chafer Cetonia aurata larvae feeding started 90 days ago7 days to run then: overwintering European hornet Vespa crabro courting started 22 days ago7 days to run then: new queens leaving Stag beetle Lucanus cervus in the pupa started 39 days ago7 days to run then: overwintering Cleopatra butterfly Gonepteryx cleopatra hibernating started 22 days ago149 days to run then: going about the year Great green bush-cricket Tettigonia viridissima overwintering started 8 days ago203 days to run then: larvae feeding Scarce swallowtail Iphiclides podalirius overwintering started 8 days ago177 days to run then: going about the year Swallowtail Papilio machaon overwintering started 3 days ago182 days to run then: going about the year Two-tailed pasha Charaxes jasius going about the year started 75 days ago7 days to run then: larvae feeding

Reptiles

14 · tap a card for the whole year
Balkan green lizard Lacerta trilineata young dispersing started 8 days ago26 days to run then: wintering in cover Common wall lizard Podarcis muralis young dispersing started 8 days ago47 days to run then: wintering in cover Dalmatian algyroides Algyroides nigropunctatus young dispersing started 22 days ago52 days to run then: wintering in cover European glass lizard Pseudopus apodus young dispersing started 3 days ago31 days to run then: wintering in cover European green lizard Lacerta viridis young dispersing started 13 days ago16 days to run then: wintering in cover Grass snake Natrix natrix young dispersing started 3 days ago26 days to run then: wintering in cover Italian wall lizard Podarcis siculus young dispersing started 13 days ago68 days to run then: wintering in cover Nose-horned viper Vipera ammodytes young dispersing started 3 days ago38 days to run then: wintering in cover Slow worm Anguis fragilis young dispersing started 8 days ago21 days to run then: wintering in cover Aesculapian snake Zamenis longissimus raising young started 24 days ago1 day to run then: young dispersing Four-lined snake Elaphe quatuorlineata raising young started 29 days ago1 day to run then: young dispersing Hermann's tortoise Testudo hermanni raising young started 34 days ago1 day to run then: young dispersing Mediterranean house gecko Hemidactylus turcicus raising young started 39 days ago7 days to run then: young dispersing Moorish gecko Tarentola mauritanica raising young started 49 days ago1 day to run then: young dispersing

How this is built

One calendar, four regions

Every species table is written for the Dalmatian coast. The other regions replay the same table a fixed number of days later — 10 for Kvarner, 14 for Slavonia, 24 for Velebit, 32 for Tukhlia — because altitude and latitude delay spring roughly that much. It stays a coarse instrument: a species that runs five days late and one that runs a month late both get the regional average. A few species — the adder, the viviparous lizard, red deer, the black stork — never reach the coast at all, so their baseline is back-calculated from the region they do live in.

Where the shift is not good enough

The shift is fitted to spring, and it runs the back half of the year the wrong way: in a colder region hibernation and departure come earlier than on the coast, not later. One number per region cannot say that, so where the error passed about a month the region states its own dates instead, used as written with no shift on top. No species needs one here — this close to the baseline the shift is honest enough.

Where the dates come from

Breeding windows are compiled from published Croatian and wider Mediterranean field literature and atlases, rounded to the nearest useful fortnight. They are typical years, not this year: a warm February pulls half this page forward and the page will not know.

What it cannot tell you

Nothing here is observed. This is a calendar, not a sighting — it says what is usually happening, not what is happening in your particular valley. Second broods, failed clutches and late replacements all fall outside a table that gives each species one phase at a time.

Before you go looking

Most of these species are protected. Nests, dens and roosts are protected too, including empty ones. Watching from a distance is always legal; approaching a nest in the weeks this page marks as "on eggs" or "raising young" is the one thing most likely to make the attempt fail.