Home > Custom Tours > Through the Iška gorge
Between the hills of Notranjska in southern Slovenia, lies a hidden, steep valley. Only the lower part, which is called Iški vintgar, is well known among Slovenian nature lovers. On our guided hike, we will go to the less-known upper part of the valley. Our hike is like a mountain hike, but then upside-down: we start out on top, and hike down into the valley. Here, we find a lovely mountain stream with crystal clear water and silent forests. In some parts, the forest is little used because of the steepness of the valley: pristine nature at its best.
Steep valleys, like this one, are among the best places to observe forest butterflies. Already from a distance, we see how different they behave from the meadow butterflies. In the forest, there are fewer flowers and many butterfly species have become territorial: especially males defend small forest clearings against other butterflies – especially against male of their own species. Their flight is fast and direct, and when they are not visiting flowers, they often sit high in the canopy and observe their surroundings. The moment they see another butterfly, they fly towards it. Once when they are very close, they can smell which species and even which gender the other butterfly is. Only then, they decide if they chase the other one away, or court it!
During our hike, we are not only looking for butterflies. We also keep our eyes open for the special birds of mountain streams: dippers and grey wagtails. Both species can be a bit shy, so we have to watch carefully and approach them slowly. From some distance, we can observe them without disturbing. Dippers are songbirds, but, unlike any other songbirds, they adapted to find their food under water! Their plumage is water-resistant and they can even dive with flapping movements of their wings. They often sit on boulders, in the middle of the stream. Here, they imitate the movement of the water surface when they are constantly bobbing their body up and down.
Grey wagtails like the same mountain streams as dippers do. But, while dippers search their food below the surface, the wagtails fly upwards and hunt for insects which fly above the stream. The wagtails also move like the water, only in a different way: they mainly move their hind body and tail.
