Successful Bear watching trip in Bulgaria has just finished

Group of five people is going to go home happy after enjoying the views of a huge male Brown Bear. This attempt to see a bear was a part of a trip that I organised for my friends who visited Bulgaria in mid April. The main reason for the visit was to see a bear but in addition to that my friends wanted to see a bit of our culture including the old town of Plovdiv, Bachkovo and Rila monasteries, Shiroka luka, etc.

Despite of the rain the group visited all their wanted sites, enjoyed superb food and saw Wild Boar, Brown Hares, Red Fox, Black Stork, Golden Eagle and a colossal male Brown Bear. After this successful attempt for observing a bear from a hide our friends felt like they want to do more about bird watching. The 30 m close encounter with a bear must have unlocked their desire to be more intimate with Nature and enjoy its beauties.

We welcome their enthusiasm and will welcome them again. Perhaps the next attempt would be to see vultures and more other birds.

Looking forward to welcoming you in our country.

Crossbill photography

Crossbills are lovely birds but they rarely get to come down to eye level for a decent shot. This time I got them collecting minerals from the wall of a mountain chalet at one of the ski resorts nearby Sofia, Bulgaria. The birds were pretty tame but didn't want to sit on the proper perch.

The first image here is most natural one:

Crossbill in Bulgaria, copyright Iordan Hristov

Crossbill photography in Bulgaria, copyright Iordan Hristov

Crossbill photography in Bulgaria, copyright Iordan Hristov

Crested Lark photography in Bulgaria

Crested Larks are already at their breeding grounds. They often sit pretty relaxed so it is not quite difficult to get their picture.

Crested Lark in Bulgaria, copyright Iordan Hristov

Yellow Wagtail in Bulgaria

Spring is time of migration. Lots of birds of various races fly long distances to get home to breed. This past weekend I witnessed a group of Yellow Wagtails from at least three races. I couldn't get shots of all of them but there were definitely a few of them. The local race in Bulgaria is Motacilla flava feldegg. Other than it there was also dombrowskii and the nominate flava. I managed to picture this feldegg below which is probably last year bird because of its still undefined supercilium. However, you would see marks of it on the lore and behind the eye. Typical for this age is the grey-ish head.

Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava feldegg, copyright Iordan Hristov

Scops Owl in Bulgaria

It's been rather busy in the last couple of weeks. I started a BirdID training course for the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of birds and had quite a few field days. During one of these days I got a phone call from the co-teacher saying he has found a roosting Scops Owl. I couldn't dash out immediately because I was with the bird id students but after a bit of consultation, they all wanted to see it and here we are. We arrived at the place nearly twitching it a couple of hours later and the bird was still there. It was rather high on the tree for a decent shot but it was still pleasant to see him in a day light.

The first shot below is my favourite:

Scops Owl photography, copyright Iordan Hristov

Scops Owl photography, copyright Iordan Hristov

Scops Owl photography, copyright Iordan Hristov