Ulcinj salina, a bird airport between the town and Long Beach

Between the town of Ulcinj and Velika plaža lies a flat stretch of pools, channels and low scrub that looks like nothing much from the road. This is the old Ulcinj salina, and for birds heading down the Adriatic it’s one of the great stopovers on the journey. For visitors, it’s a place for binoculars and patience rather than a quick look.

A wetland made by salt

The Ulcinj tourist board dates the salt works to the 1930s, the same decade the town’s first hotels went up. Alongside the salt, its website highlights the mineral mud that forms around the pans about two kilometres from the sea, which it rates among the best studied on the Adriatic, and the unrefined sea salt it describes as concentrated sea. OpenStreetMap marks the whole area as Ulcinjska solana Nature Park and flags a viewpoint over the pools.

Why the birds come

The national tourist board explains that Montenegro sits on the Adriatic migration corridor, which is why millions of birds pass over every year. At the salina it counts 240 species and suggests walking between the saltwater pools to see collared pratincoles, little terns, purple sandpipers and black-winged stilts. The Ulcinj tourist board adds that more than 20,000 birds are recorded in winter, mostly waders, with pelicans, herons, ducks, cormorants, birds of prey and songbirds wintering here too. In the fields nearby, on the way to Velika plaža, the national tourist board mentions crested larks, stone-curlews and bee-eaters.

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Protection, what’s known and what isn’t

According to the national tourist board, the salina has been an Important Bird Area since 1989, Montenegro’s first private nature park since 2004 and an Emerald site under the Bern Convention. What I couldn’t confirm on any official website is whether salt is still produced and on what terms you can go in, so I’m not presenting either as fact. It’s exactly the kind of detail that changes, and worth asking about at the tourist office in Ulcinj.

Mud, salt and the road south

The salina is part of what made Ulcinj a health resort. Since 1992 Ulcinj has held the title of spa and climate resort, and its tourist board lists the mud around the pans and the unrefined salt alongside the sand of its beaches and the sulphurous water of Ženska plaža; dissolved in water at home, it says, the salt does the job of sea water. For a visitor, the natural route strings the salt pans together with Velika plaža and ends at Ada Bojana, where the river and its delta add yet more birdlife. The tourist board also notes that pelicans winter at the salina, which is worth knowing if you’re coming outside the summer season and want something other than a beach day.

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Best time of year

According to the national tourist board, migration peaks in late February, in April and in the August to November window, with breeding from March to July. Winter brings the biggest numbers, while summer heat and harsh light make it harder going. If birds are your thing, my guide to birdwatching in Montenegro adds Lake Skadar, the Tivat salt pans and the national parks of the north.

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