Annual Report 2010

Conservation –related research and data gathering

In year 2010 a new bird species for Slovakia has appeared, thanks to a catch of the Black-throated Accentor (Prunella atrogularis) at Drienovec ringing station, thus number of bird speciei has increased to 351.  To the rarest breeders belong the Roller, with one breeding pair breeding successfully in a nest-box. It is a good news, that after 5 years the Great Bustard has bred again at SPAs Sysľovské polia and Lehnice, where we had during last years co-operated on a Life project dealing with protection of this bird species. The White Storks had the second lowest productivity of young (1296), in spite of the fact, that total number of  occupied nests was higher (1193).  In frame of winter count of waterfowl has been in January visited the yet highest ever number of locations (almost 500) in the whole territory of Slovakia and more than 125 000 birds had been registered. About 30 volunteers joined the common birds census at 50 transects. Population trends of birds has been used for the first time as indicators in the Rural development program. Great Cormorants were counted at 51 roosts and 6994 birds has been counted there. A winter survey of White - tailed Eagles  has been organised, as well as the geese count and the survey of Common terns. Also regional monitoring schemes of birds of Bratislava and Zvolen has been continued.

Practical protection activities

In Senné SPA Senné SPA two big sluices has been built to retain water in wetlands and wet meadows and they will effect hundreds of hectars of these habitats. Also a dyke at Ostrovík meadow was repaired and retaining of water was supported at a wetland at Iňačovce called Blatá. Despite of a rainy weather at least a part of the Ostrovik meadow has been mowed and mulched. Three large observation-towers has been built for the public and the film Bird paradise Senné and Medzibodrozie has been finalised.

Further plots has been purchased in Senné SPA at Blatná Polianka village. At Žitavský luh despite of the floods 55 ha of meadows were mowed as suitable habitat for waders, part of biomass had been gathered and utilised in a power plant for heating (cca 90 t). Also here was purchased for nature protection purposes the first hectar of meadows and wetlands to our ownership. During autumn and winter months we made management activities at sites Dubnické štrkovisko, Hrušovská zdrž, Adamovské štrkoviská, focused on increasing of breeding population of terns and other gull-like birds (Black-headed Gull, Mediterranean Gull). In Medzibodrozie 35 nest-boxes were installed for the Roller, in Rača for Kestrels, Swifts and Passerines, Lesser-Grey Shrikes were monitored at Podpoľanie region.  In year 2010 in frame of small membership projects twelwe projects has been supported in total sum 1670 EUR. The projects supported protection activities (ajustment of walls of Sand Martins and Bee-eaters, production of nest-boxes), monitoring of less known areas (primarily less known SPAs and rare speciei) and environmental education. On Vtáčí ostrov at Hrušovská zdrž an international protection-camp took place again, breeding islets for terns and gulls were prepared.

Environmental policy

Law and other legal rgulations can have distinct impact on  nature. Therefore we participated in year 2010 also thanks to a support of our members e. g. in annotation of regulations for SPAs Malá Fatra and Tatry, in process of zonation of the TANAP (Tatra National Park). A complaint was sent to the EC in a case of inproper transposition of the Birds Directive into new regulation on the Hunting Law. In frame of administrative procedures we sent 40 opinions. Mainly they dealt with timber-harvesting in nature reserves and strict nature reserves, application of chemicals in SPAs, building of a bike-route at SPA Sysľovské polia, building of an airport in SPA Lehnice and others. Special attention we gave to building of a motorway – especially the D1 motorway in its section Turany - Hubová.

Environmental education of the public and awareness raising

Year 2010 was devoted to Biodiversity, so we used that and our activities also contributed to this topic. 34 schools joined the activity Birds in a winter garden. We decided to present a problem of negative changes in agricultural landscape through the Lapwing as bird of the year. In watching of spring arrivals through the ingternet campaign Spring alive (www.springalive.net) or through letters for schools we gathered the yet highest amount of 1070 observations, thaks to this we reached the 11th rank from 36 participating countries in number of data.  Activities in frame of the Birds Day were organised in Bratislava (Welcoming of Swallows at Hrušovská zdrž, Course of bird songs and excursion to Sadu Janka Kráľa), in Banská Bystrica (Badínsky rybník), Trenčín (excursion to the floodplain forest at Trenčín), excursion to Parížske močiare at Gbelce, information desk in Devín connected with birdwatching and birdwatching at ornithological ringing stationary at Drienovec during spring ringing camp. In year 2010 international co-ordination of European Birdwatch has been organised by our society. After a difficult preparation and communication with 33 BirdLife partners throughout whole Europe has been realised 1 065 interesting activities tied with birdwatch and public events from Portugal to Turkey, from Malta to Finland and, in Slovakia, indeed. The events joined more than 58 000 participants, who observed together almost 2,8 millions of birds. In Slovakia we joined together with our long-term associates and organisers also the European Birdwatch with 17 events and 288 participants and almost 12 000 birds were observed. 

We prepared a new webpage www.birdwatching.sk

for promotion of eco-tourism, with a possibility to enter interesting birdwatching sites and 10 tourist guides  were trained. An atlas of White Storks has been re-constructed and development of application Aves Symfony for data gathering has been continued. We submitted 18 press releases and delivered them to national media. We published a bunch of publications on SPAs/IBAs Dunajské Luhy, Poľana, Slovenský Kras, Volovské vrchy,   Slanské vrchy.  

 Development of SOS/BirdLife Slovakia

We publish the full-colour magazine Vtáky  regularly (4x annually), already the 22nd volume of ornithological journal  Tichodroma has been published. The Rarities committee had 2 sessions, their results were published in  Tichodroma and at our webpage. We participated in organisation of the 22nd ornithological conference „Aplikovaná ornitológia" and of the Feriancov seminár. At the end of the year the riner`s active took place in Košice. We co-operate with other environmental NGOs in frame of campaigns of Ekofórum, as well as with DAPHNE, BROZ,  RPS and all joined activities has been supported. In frame of interrnational activities of BirdLife International  we joined common activities and campaigns as e. g. the petition for halting spring hunting at Malta, influence of Europen policy in favour of protection of biodiversity. At the end of year 2010 we had 967 members – 508 memberships.

The general assembly took place on 6 - 7. March in Zvolen. To the end of the year for our society worked (with different level of professional obligations) the following employees: M. Demko, I. Zajíčková,  A. Chudý, J. Ridzoň, J. Gúgh,  Z. Guziová and in  Michalovce office J. Uhrín, S. Pačenovský and E. Lukáčová.

 Finances

  Main income of the society has been generated from realised projects supported by: SVS/BirdLife Schweiz, the AAGE V. JENSEN Charity Foundation, the European Commission through LIFE NATURE projects, the EKOPOLIS foundation, the  NPOA foundation,  UNDP-GEF, the Ciconia Foundation, the Norwegian financial mechanism, the Financial mechanizm of  European Economic Area, the European Fund of Regional Development, the Government Office of the Slovak Republic, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Education.   

 Audit report 2010 -part 

We expess our thanks to all our members, volunteers, donors, employees of the secretariat, board members, as well as to co-operating organisations for their help, molral or financial contributions.  We believe, that Your support and our common effort was effectively used in favour of research and protection of our nature. 

Thank You and we are looking forward to further co-operation.

Miroslav Demko,  Executive director

SOS/BirdLife Slovensko