Kurjaka Streets. The area of the forest is 56 hectares. Banjica Forest is a source of fresh air and its presence helps alleviate climate extremes. John Timothy Byford, an Englishmen and a passionate bird watcher who intensively engaged in bird watching in the forest from 1986 until 1989, is the most deserving for proclaiming the forest a National Monument of the Third Category. The terms of forest protection were defined by the Serbian Institute for the Protection of Nature, and the public company “Belgrade Greenery” was appointed to look after it. All those activities are directed towards the preservation of the forest’s authenticity, and planting new trees is restricted to deciduous or fruit trees in order to let the dominant dwellers of the forest have normal sustenance and living conditions. The city budget through the Department of the Environment provided the financial resources for the maintenance and development of the forest.
SONG OF DWELLING AND MIGRATORY BIRDS From whatever side one enters the forest, signs inform visitors that they are entering the habitat
of a great number of dwelling birds, migratory birds and transitory birds. Visitors are expected to be careful and to be good guests. Visitors should not make noise, fell trees, throw litter or light fires. Unfortunately, not all guests of the forest are that considerate. Early in the morning, committed strollers can listen to the song of different birds. There are small birds such as nightingales, whitethroats, great tits, blackbirds and wood pigeons, but also big ones such as magpies, crows, jays, pheasants and green woodpeckers. There are also cuckoos, flycatchers, bullfinches, wrens, blue tits, woodpeckers and many others. If you are quiet and patient, you will surely see many other forest dwellers such as moles, hedgehogs, squirrels, snails, earthworms, butterflies, or at least their trails. Among the trees, the most numerous are maples, black locusts, European ash and occasionally oaks. There are lots of mushrooms, wild strawberries, ivy, and dock plants; most are stork’s – bills, celandines, wild garlic and rest-harrows. While walking along side paths, off the main
so-called path of health, you will come across the Banjica Brook. This once mighty brook flows partly through the forest, winding between trees like a magical ribbon. For a moment, you might forget that you’re in the middle of Belgrade – you might even think you’re in the mountains. That impression is even stronger when you come across that part of the forest covered with reed, with a nearby bridge over the brook. The brook gradually entered the earth while the city expanded. When the Red Star Football Club Stadium was being built, an entire lake appeared in the hole that formed before the end of the stadium. Though it’s hard to imagine now, children from the adjacent Cukarica settlement used to swim here. Near the forest are the Banjica Sports Center, Mladost Hotel, a petrol (gas) station and St. Vasilije Ostroski Church. Although all of them contribute in their own way to the human body and spirit, the sojourn in the forest is unique – incomparable and beneficial. JOVO ANĐIĆ photographs: RASTKO ALEKSANDROV
BelGuest SPRING 2007
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