In 2013 my daughter got married in the town of Hlohovec about 40 miles NW of Bratislava. This gave me the opportunity to explore an area of Europe I had not considered visiting. At first it seemed quite daunting, with visions of visiting birders in the communist era being locked up and a number of friends saying "you will need a guide". My main base is in the village of Sokolovce about 76 km north of Bratislava Airport.
Basic guide to Slovakia
Getting there
Ryanair do regular economical flights from many UK airports to Bratislava, I usually go from Manchester. Bratislava Airport is modern and fairly quiet.
Driving
There are several car hire companies at the airport that can be booked online. Check as many web sites as possible, prices vary a lot and check the small print. Some companies charge extra at the airport for crossing borders, snow tyres (Nov to Mar.) and late pick up (After 5:00 pm). By and large the roads are good, with big investments in new roads in recent years. The philosophy of most Slovak drivers is to get from A to B as quick as possible, overtaking as many cars as possible on the way. This does not make it easy to drive around slowly looking for raptors etc. Hire companies (Sometimes for a fee.) allow you to go into all neighbouring countries except Ukraine. There is no problems crossing most borders, Austria since the migrant crisis, slow you down and have quick look at who's in the car. You will need to pay a toll to use motorways in Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic. These come in the form of tickets to put on your windscreen and in the case of Hungary you register and they will check you with number plate recognition cameras. The cost is about €8 for about 10 days and you can purchase/register at most service stations. Be aware most of the old Eastern Block countries have a zero drink drive limit. A worry when your hosts have been filling you with their local brews, the previous night. Fuel is usually cheaper than the UK.
Food and Drink
Most towns and villages have a Coop store and the lager cities/towns have multinational supermarkets such as Tesco, Lidl etc. Most food seems to cost more than the UK, but alcohol is much cheaper. Eating out is made easy as most restaurants have an English menu with very reasonable prices, away from central Bratislava. Be aware that often fries, vegatables etc are often charded as seperate items.
Accommodation
It is possible to find very cheap apartments and hotels in Slovakia and Hungary, I have paid as little as £17 a night. Czech Republic prices are slightly higher. Austria can be expensive, but outside of busy times, reasonably priced places can be found.
Climate
Slovakia is further south than you imagine, Bratislava being further south than Paris. Winters are a lot colder, summers a lot warmer, spring and autumn about the same, when compared to the UK.
Landscape
Very varied. The lowlands to the north and east of Bratislava are mainly very intensive arable farmland, with livestock/dairy all seemingly indoors. Virtually every hill is covered in forest often stretching continually for long distances. As you travel further north upland farming becomes more pastoral with strip farming and its not unusual to see single cows being led out to pasture. Sheep flocks are often shepherded, there are wolfs, bears and lynx at large. As you travel north and gain hight, forests change from broad-leaved to confer (Spruce). Many of the lowland rivers such as the Vah, Morova and Danube have extensive flood forests often confined within flood banks. To the south west of Slovakia (Malacky) lies a large area of sandy soil with a heath like appearance, a lot of which is a military area, but some can be explored. There are a few wetland/marsh areas and many, often large reservoirs, most of which are the equivalent of seaside resorts and can be busy at peak periods with swimmers, boaters, anglers etc.
Maps
There are some good local maps for walking, that cover all of Slovakia, but I have found them difficult to find locally. I get all mine from a bookstore in Piestany, which is upstair in the shopping mall there. They are in drawers under the road atlases. https://mapy.hiking.sk is a useful online app showing the coloured walking routes.
Birding
For my early visits I had no bird guide and just worked on spec from maps looking for different habitats. The following web sites which have English sections are great for Slovak bird information;
Bird Life Slovakia /Slovakia Ornithological Society. Has a useful distribution atlas and bird population estimates.
Birding Slovakia All the latest sightings, complete with photos and maps.
Books
Eastern Europe by Gerard Gorman (WildSounds 2006) contains descriptions of 20 different sites. Mostly gives a general overview of large areas, but a few lack detail into how to access them.
White-backed Woodpecker
Its still early days to write authoritatively after just 19 visits about Slovakia's wildlife. But I will make a start on my early impressions.
Urban Wildlife
Driving through villages its not unusual to see Tree Sparrows as the most common sparrow, some villages have White Stork nests. Syrian and Green Woodpeckers are often seen going into rural gardens. In my Daughter's garden at Sokolovce, Serin sing from the conifers and Black Redstarts are regular visitors. Bee-eaters also have been seen feeding overhead in summer. Most towns and some villages have an old hall/stately home with grounds that are usually open to the public, which are always worth a look. The parks in the spa town of Piestany for instance have a good population of Red Squirrels. Urban nesting Fieldfare become more common as you head north and they are even to be found in the grounds of communist era flats in Poprad. In a village called Stola in the Tatra mountains I found Common Rosefinch singing in a garden.
Forests
Most forests seem accessible, the Slovaks invade on mass with their baskets foraging for fungi in autumn. Some caution is needed because there are many deer/boar shooting hides in some cases next to marked trails. The best ones for a variety of woodpeckers tend to be the ones with older trees and some dead standing wood. I have managed to find 9 of the 10 woodpecker species in the lowlands on my own, the missing one is Three-toed, which occur only in the northern Spruce forests. The rides in some woods are excellent for butterflies, often with some of the rarer UK species in abundance, particularly on limestone. Golden Oriole and Nightingale seem common in some of the flood forests. In the north east there are virgin forests, that are among the best in Europe for fungi.
Farmland
The intensive arable farmland of the lowlands seems a bit lifeless at times and it is often difficult to find places to stop and scan, Roe Deer are very common despite all the shooting platforms and are often sat in the middle of fields. Tree Sparrows are still common and Crested seem the commonest lark. Skylark seem to prefer upland farmland. In autumn any overhead lines are worth scanning for Great Grey Shrike. Red-backed Shrikes can often be found in any surrounding scrub along with Hoopoes and Wrynecks. The conservation area flood meadows opposite the Austrian border are a reliable place to find Black/White Storks, Red/Black Kites and Eastern Imperial Eagle with the upland meadows having Lesser-spotted Eagles and Corncrakes.
Great Grey Shrike
Mountains
I have been to the top of the high Tatras via cable car on two occasions. The first from the Slovak side at Tatranská Lomnica, which was fairly expensive and where you only get limited time at the top onto a relatively short platform. It was low cloud that day, but at least an Alpine Accentor put in a brief appearance. The other way, was when I went up from the Polish town of Zacopane, this was a lot cheaper and you land up at the Slovak/Polish border. There are no time limits and the opportunity to spend all day exploring along the high ridges separating the two countries. Again Alpine Accentor along with Water Pipit and Wheatear. There is also the chance to drive up to many ski resorts at an altitude around 1000 Mtrs. to save on climbing. From Zverovka near Zuberic there is a tarmac road where you can walk to a much higher altitude with ease, before you do a more difficult accent. Lots of alpine flowers and the valley up there echos to the sound of Ring Ouzels.
Wetlands
Not really had the chance to exploring Slovakia's wetlands at the best times of year. Visits to the fishing ponds and reservoirs between Hlohovec and Piestany have turned up Green Sandpiper, Common Terns, Osprey, White-tailed Eagle Gargany, Night Heron the commoner ducks and in October 2016 a Bluethroat on passage. The Senne Fishponds were a disappointment to be written about elsewhere, but I did find White-tailed Eagle as I have done on the River Morava in summer. Most ponds have a good selection of Dragonflies. The commercial fish ponds at Číčov next to the River Danube about 80 km SE of Bratislava, seem to have open access Great Bittern, Marsh Harrier, Great Reed Warbler and a good variety of Wildfowl. the Oxbows next to the river are worth exploring with Black and White Storks present.
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