This paper is devoted to the problem of the appearance of a stagnation region during Karman vortex shedding. This particular phenomenon has been addressed by G. Birkhoff in his model of vortices generation. Experimental results obtained by various research methods confirm the existence of a stagnation region. The properties of this stagnation region have been described based on experimental findings involving flow visualisation and hot-wire anemometry. Special attention has been paid to the relationship between the existence of a slit in the bluff body and the size of the stagnation region. The slit takes over the role of the stagnation region as an information channel for generating vortices.