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Description
The Schellingwouderscheg includes five city parks (marked on the map). From west to east: Vliegenbos (forest), Rietland (scrub, reedbeds, small lake, young forest), Schellingwouderbreek (lake with natural shores), Schellingwouderpark (meadows and hedgerows, plus the shores of the Y canal) and the Schellingwouder Ecozone (reedbeds, scrub, overgrown woods).
This area is very good for birds of prey with jastrab krahulec, myšiak hôrny, jastrab veľký, sova lesná and formerly sokol lastovičiar all breeding in this urban nature reserve. They are most easily seen in Vliegenbos and Rietland. There's a very good chance of finding rybárik riečny anywhere there's water . In addition to the ubiquitous alexander malý the area also has a lot of alexander veľký, keep an ear out for their distinctive calls as they fly over.
Vliegenbos sometimes harbours birds like glezg obyčajný and brhlík obyčajný among the more common forest birds and is the best place to find holub plúžik. The žlna zelená seems to have mostly disappeared since the football fields in the park were converted to tennis courts, but they are still seen every now and then. The industrial area just to the south of Vliegenbos has breeding žľtochvost domový.
Rietland and Schellingwouderpark have some more open areas of scattered trees and scrub that can be good for penica obyčajná, penica popolavá, penica slávikovitá, kolibiarik spevavý and occasionally kukučka obyčajná or slávik obyčajný . There are some small reedbeds in Rietland and Schellingwouderbreek that sometimes have trsteniarik malý, trsteniarik bahenný and strnádka trstinová. The meadows in Schellingwouderpark often have bocian biely, lastúrničiar strakatý and Brown Hares in the early morning before people arrive. During migration there's a chance of drozd kolohrivec here.
In harsh winters, birds that normally reside outside of the city enter these city parks, and then you can see kačica lyžičiarka, kačica hvizdárka, chochlačka sivá, potápač veľký, beluša veľká, bučiak veľký, chriašteľ vodný, sluka hôrna, močiarnica mekotavá, drozd čvíkota and cibík chochlatý. In the much more common icefree winters you can still find drozd červenkavý, stehlík čížik, králik zlatohlavý, králik ohnivohlavý and pinka severská (ikavec).
Keep an eye out for chavkoš nočný and overflying orliak morský, both are very occasionally seen here. Other interesting animals include Grass Snake and Red Fox. Just to the north of this area are breeding colonies of volavka popolavá and bernikľa bielolíca, both are marked on the map.
Just to the east of this route is the Schellingwouder Ecozone (marked on the map). Another small but wonderfully wild area with trsteniarik obyčajný and cetia západná and a reasonable chance of kukučka obyčajná and slávik obyčajný .
The Schellingwouderscheg is constantly under threat from development: there are plans to build houses, infrastructure and turn the parks from wild city nature reserves to boring run of the mill urban parks. Already it can be very busy with people and dogs.
Details
Access
The best way to explore the area is by bike, but you can walk as well. The car isn't very practical here, as there is little (parking) space and it isn't very convenient getting from one of the parks to the other by car.
If you walked or cycled from Vliegenbos to Schellingwouderpark and don't want to go the same way back, you can take a northern route from Schellingwouderbreek, through the Baanakkerspark (marked on the map).