Efteni Gölü sits at the knot of Düzce's water network, at the foot of the Elmacık mountains, where the Aksu, Asar, Uğur and Küçük Melen streams and their side creeks meet before draining through the Büyük Melen channel to the Black Sea. The lake is in Gölyaka district, 5 km from the district centre and 25 km from Düzce.
In 1992 the national parks and wildlife directorate of the forestry ministry put the lake under protection and banned hunting, to safeguard migration routes and habitats. The protected area's reedbeds, open water, marsh and mudflats give room to a rich animal life, above all water birds: around 150 species have been recorded, 35 of them resident. The regulars, and the easiest to spot, are storks, wild ducks, great egrets, ruddy shelducks, coots and swans.
The lake lies on the north-west to south migration route that runs through Trakya, the Boğaziçi and central Anatolia, and is a resting and feeding stop, a wintering ground for some birds that live in Europe but do not go further south, and a breeding site for others, so migration season brings the greatest variety. Among the threatened species recorded here are swan, crane, great bustard, pygmy cormorant, gadwall, garganey and shoveler, with mallard, pintail and pochard among those considered potentially at risk. A viewing terrace overlooks the water.
Water lilies, irises, buttercups, reeds, mint and duckweed grow in and around the lake, with willow, ash, alder and plane among the waterside trees, and five different vegetation belts occur in the mountains to the south of the protected area. Between the lily pads and the reeds, the lake makes a good setting for birdwatching and photography.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Düzce as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 3.8 °C in January to 22.5 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (101 mm) and lightest in July (47 mm). Long-term means for 1959-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
