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Description
The small river Selz has been renaturalised at this reserve and European Beavers have recolonised as well. Along with an area of flooded marshes, reedbeds, ponds, grassland and scattered riverine woodland, some regionally scarce breeders are present and over the years a wide variety of passage and winter birds have been recorded. Over 200 species are now on the reserve list. A concerted effort in Spring on a good day can produce 70 species at the reserve and along the river.
The main attraction for most will be spring and summer reedbed visitors, such as modra taščica, trstni cvrčalec and rjavi lunj. rakar has become more regular. brkata sinica appears on passage and in some years has stayed to breed. plašica has bred but nowadays is generally a scarce migrant. There is a siva čaplja colony and scarcer relatives such as kvakač, mala bela caplja, čapljica, rjava čaplja and bobnarica have all been recorded in recent years, some regularly.
Passage waders can be found on the pools or flooded grasslands, but this is heavily dependent on weather and water level conditions. More regular are pikasti martinec, močvirski martinec, mali martinec and zelenonogi martinec. rdečenogi martinec, spremenljivi prodnik, mali deževnik, komatni deževnik, togotnik and črni martinec are no longer regular but also possible. Local scarcities such as črnorepi kljunač, sabljarka, mali škurh, srpokljuni prodnik, Temminckov prodnik and even ploskokljuni liskonožec have all been recorded here and along the river. zlata prosenka and dular have been recorded migrating overhead on occasion.
žerjav, črna štorklja and bela štorklja are regular visitors, and the latter has started to breed. The woodlands hold good numbers of slavec and kobilar. srednji detel has recently colonised the area. In adjacent meadows and scrub rjavi srakoper, prosnik, rumena pastirica and veliki strnad can be found on passage and breeding. čuk and mala uharica breed, as does škrjančar, rjavi škarnik and črni škarnik.
Wildfowl numbers, mostly dabbing ducks, build up modestly in Spring and Autumn with kreheljc, mlakarica, and konopnica being the most easily encountered. Visibility can be a challenge with reeds obscuring the pools, so try using a scope from higher ground. In most winters, singles or low numbers of wild geese are recorded among the resident groups of siva gos, the most regular being beločela gos, followed by Njivska gos (serrirostris). A labod pevec was a recent and unusual overwinterer. vriskarica is regular on passage and sometimes winter.
Details
Access
Limited free parking is available at a couple of small paved areas next to the L432 between Hahnheim and Sörgenloch. This road is also on a bus-route (652) with the nearest bus-stop at Wahlheimer Hof to the east of the reserve, or alternatively at Sörgenloch to the west. A path, paved only on most of the southern side, circumvents the pools, grassland, and reedbeds. Cycling this part of the southern edge is possible, but other stretches are often high grass (beware of ticks) and can be muddy depending on conditions. An official paved cycling route veers west of the reserve when at the south-western corner but returns to the Selz shortly afterwards. Beaver activity and excessive rain sometimes causes extensive localised flooding.