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Czech Republic & Slovakia - Dragonfly Tour

DRAGONFLY SPECIES OF NORTH BOHEMIA

Search for Whitefaces and more

North Bohemia is a lovely region of low hills, sandstone rocks and various small lakes. Traditional villages are also well preserved here and there. Our hotel is located just 60 miles from Prague airport at a large Machovo jezero lake. Beautiful ruin of Bezdez castle with lanice marshy areas below dominates the skyline in the east of the lake.

Dragonflies are represented mainly by the species common over much of Europe but several with northern distribution thrive there as well. Whitefaces will be a real highlight of the tour. Yellow-spotted and Dark Whiteface are common in several places and we also visit early enough to find Ruby and Small Whiteface. Lilypad will be a bonus if we find it. Nice range of Bluets including Ornate, Crescent and Spearhead or Northern and Yellow-spotted Emerald are a few out of other species that should please every odonatologist.

Photo opportunities will be plentiful as the sites are often easily accessible and dragoflies are found there in abundace.

Our guide Martin Waldhauser is a real dragonfly expert and he lives close to several sites visited on this tour. He designed the tour to cover the best areas and species of the beginning summer. Martin is one of the authors of „The Dragonflies of the Czech Republic", probably the biggest dragonfly book ever published. He is in his fourties and you cannot wish a better companion and dragonfly enthusiast to guide you through the north Bohemia. He will give lectures in the field and one slide show on an evening. Martin is employed at Landscape Protected Area Luzicke hory and is also a renowned dragonfly photographer.

DRAGONFLIES OF SLOVAKIA

Jewels of the Carpathians

Not many people are familiar with an issue of Slovakia and its dragonflies. Despite this still limited knowledge the country offers wealth of species and habitats ranging from lowland rivers and marshes to the glacial lakes in the high Carpathians. Thus the dragonfly fauna is represented by eastern, southern and northern/alpine species which make Slovakia an extremely interesting destination.

Though timed to cover the highest number of species the tour will be also focused on some eastern and northern specialties. The sceneries are beautiful and alongside with plenty of butterflies and birds, the trip will offer many things to see.

To this date 75 dragonfly species have been recorded in Slovakia (more than in Hungary or Bulgaria). The highlights of the tour should be Ornate Bluet, Alpine, Northern and Yellow-spotted Emerald, Sombre Goldenring, Small and Yellow-spotted Whiteface, Small Pincertail, White-tailed Skimmer, Green Snaketail, Eurasian Baskettail or Bog Hawker.

The tour starts on a flat landscape of Turčianska kotlina basin, and passes the highest mountains of the West Carpathians, the High Tatras. Then it goes through a remote rural area on the Polish border all the way to the Hungarian border where dozens of pools are home to about 45 species of dragonflies.

Your guide Dušan Šácha is one of the Slovak foremost dragonfly experts with unsurpassed knowledge on dragonflies of north Slovakia. In two evenings he will give lectures complemented with a screening of his documentary „A Year in the Life of Dragonflies" and a slide show of dragonflies and their habitats.

Contact

Phone: Call May-October; Text all year 
+36 30-645-9318 or +36 30-211-0006
Call Nov-April: +506 84961012 or 84961417
e-mails: 
ecotoursgabororban @ gmail.com
toucanbirdingecolodge @ gmail.com 

Our mission

Our first priority is to save habitats & species.

Secondly we would like to share our knowledge of wildlife and encourage you to participate directly or indirectly in protecting nature.

We are also working continuously on our carbon balance with developing our 23 hectares of wildlife reserve.

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