What lives here.

The dominant habitat of the Rađevina hills. Beech (bukva) predominates on north-facing slopes and higher elevations; oak (hrast) on south-facing and lower ground. Hornbeam, hazel, and wild cherry occupy the understory and margins. The forest floor in spring is carpeted with wood anemone, wild garlic, and primrose. In summer the canopy closes and the floor goes quiet. In autumn the fungi begin.

The traditional hay meadows of the Planina area are among the most flower-rich grasslands remaining in western Serbia. Cut twice a year — in July and September — and never fertilised, they support a diversity of plants that has largely disappeared from agricultural landscapes elsewhere. Field scabious, knapweed, ox-eye daisy, betony, yellow rattle, and wild orchids in the wetter corners. The invertebrate communities they support are extraordinary.

Old orchards — especially those with traditional fruit varieties, hollow trees, and undisturbed ground — support a disproportionate diversity of wildlife. Decaying wood in old plum trees hosts specialist beetles. The orchard floor, kept in wildflower cover here, is among the best habitats on the farm for bees and hoverflies. Swallows nest in the barn. A little owl uses the old apple tree at the farm boundary.

The transition zone between forest and open land — where the trees thin out and light reaches the ground — is often the richest habitat of all. Nightingales sing here in May and June. Roe deer move through at dawn and dusk. Bats emerge from the forest edge after dark: common pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle, noctule, and long-eared bats have all been recorded in similar landscapes nearby.

First migrants arrive: swallows, swifts, warblers. Wild garlic and wood anemone carpet the forest floor. Bees begin to build.

Peak birdsong — nightingale, golden oriole, turtle dove, cuckoo. Orchid flowers in the meadow corners. Swallows nesting.

Grasshoppers and crickets dominate. Butterflies peak — purple emperor around the forest edge, marbled white and meadow brown in the hay meadow before the first cut.

First porcini if the summer rains have been good. Honey harvest. Plums beginning. Swifts departing south.

Mushroom season in earnest. Roe deer rutting — the bucks bark at dawn. Migrant warblers pass through. Meadow cut for the second time.

Fungi peak. Leaves turn. Fieldfare and redwing arrive from the north, feeding on the windfall fruit in the orchard. Bats active on warm evenings until mid-month.

The forest goes quiet. Great grey shrike sometimes overwinters on the exposed ridge. Woodpeckers active. Little owl calling from the orchard on clear nights.