Lake Ormož is a reservoir on the Drava on the border between Slovenia and Croatia, named after the Slovenian town of Ormož beside it. Slightly less than half of it lies in Slovenia, and the border still follows the old course of the river as it ran before the dam. Its overgrown shores, abandoned backwaters and the marshes of the old sugar-factory basins make it one of the best places for waterbirds in the region.
How it formed
The lake was made in 1975, when both countries were part of Yugoslavia, to feed the Varaždin hydroelectric plant through a canal; the dam and the power plant are on the Croatian side. On the Slovenian bank, six basins were dug in 1980 for the wastewater of the Ormož sugar factory. When the factory closed, these nutrient-rich pools turned into a marsh of reeds and shallow water, ringed by flooded forest.
History
Birdwatchers noticed the factory pools in the 1980s and, with factory staff and volunteers, built rafts for nesting terns and changed the mowing of the embankments. Ormož municipality protected the Slovenian part of the lake as a nature reserve in 1992, the factory’s owner gave the pools to BirdLife Slovenia (DOPPS) in 2010, and in 2017 they became the Ormož Basins Nature Reserve, where water buffalo were brought in to graze the reeds.
Nature
In winter the lake holds white-fronted, bean and greylag geese, many ducks, goldeneye and smew, big flocks of coot and gulls, and white-tailed eagles hunt over it. In spring and autumn waders gather at the basins, wood sandpiper and ruff in the largest numbers, while common tern, black-winged stilt, ferruginous duck, little bittern and marsh harrier nest among the pools and reeds. The Croatian shore lies in the Mura-Drava Regional Park, part of the Natura 2000 network.
Visit
Getting there
Nearest settlement: Ormož
Swimming
No reliable information
Tips
Trains and intercity buses stop in Ormož. From the station, follow the cycle signs for Ormoške lagune and Središče ob Dravi, cross the main road with care and climb onto the flood embankment: 10 to 20 minutes on foot, and the view over the lake opens up where the bushes end. The embankment path runs on to the basins and the Croatian border, and a cycle route to the basins follows a parallel road.
Allow most of a day for the lake and the basins, bring binoculars or a telescope, and use the bird hide. Keep to the dirt road and do not walk among the pools or on their embankments, so the birds are not disturbed. Spring and autumn migration are the best times, winter the best for geese and ducks; check current visiting arrangements with DOPPS before you go.
Nearby lakes
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Sources & data
- Croatian Wikipedia: Ormoško jezero, Wikimedia Foundation
- Croatia's 2022 Water Framework Directive reporting to the EEA: lake water bodies (SWB, category LW), field cArea, European Environment Agency (WISE WFD), reported by Croatia, 2022
- Wikidata: Lake Ormož (Q26224786), Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikipedia: Lake Ormož, Wikimedia Foundation
- Ormož Basins Nature Reserve, DOPPS – BirdLife Slovenia
- Ormož lake and basins, Birdingplaces.eu
- Railway station Ormož – Ormož Lake, Hike.uno
- Vodič za promatranje ptica uz rijeku Dravu u Varaždinskoj županiji (2022), Javna ustanova za upravljanje zaštićenim dijelovima prirode Varaždinske županije