Wildlife photography in Bulgaria gets more friends

Another prominent Bulgarian photographer agreed to exchange banners with Nature Travel. Mladen Vasilev, who has published photos in a number on national and international media gave us the right to put a link to his website.

Nature Travel is a company that offers a cottage to rent for wildlife photography in Bulgaria and birdwatching in Bulgaria. The cottage has several hides for bird and mammals photography. Opportunities to photograph around the cottage area include photography of Grey-headed Woodpecker, Sombre Tit, Long-legged Buzzard, Golden Oriole, European Bee-eater, Roller etc.
 

He has always been interested in nature and birds and since 2000 he is a member of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB). He has participated in most of the major BSPB projects (Red-breasted Goose and Egyptian Vulture conservation, Natura 2000 establishment and many others). Mladen is very keen on wildlife photography and has published many photos in Bulgarian and European magazines, brochures and websites. He also guides birdwatching and wildlife photography tours in Bulgaria.

First evident migrant

For some reason, the birds today were a bit more active than yesterday. The weather was still cloudy but a bit milder. I suppose that's what makes the birds be more active.

On my way to the park nearby I had an evident migrant Grey Wagtail. I think this is the first bird that is clearly a migrant across here. Further down the track the Lesser spotted Woodpecker was vigorously drumming and calling to announce its territory. This is another sign of their approaching breeding season. Two Green Woodpecker were also calling from different locations responding to each other. Bullfinches are still around. About 20 birds were actively feeding and occasionally feeding from here and there.

Fantastic views of Hawfinches. The head of the males becomes really bright and the whole head patterns becomes so contrasting. The huge bill and this head pattern makes the bird one of my favourite ones. Blackbirds have also got their fantastic bright yellow bills. Amazing colors that would finally bring some excitement in the grey winter days. Starlings are still in their breeding plumage but actively start calling and are already grouping in pairs.

A great quite a nice surprise was the call of a Black Woodpecker. Initially I only heard its flight call, but then it also did its territorial call. Fantastic bird certainly with presence. Another favourite.

 The Siskins were not around any more, which would mean they have moved to their breeding territories.

I should be doing these walks more often. It took just about an hour to see these 15+ species and it was really pleasant. Now with the coming migration there will be a lot of action in the woodland. The birds I saw are:

Lesser spotted Woodpecker - 1
Green Woodpecker - 2
Great spotted Woodpecker - 1m
Black Woodpecker - 1 (h)
Grey Wagtail - 1
Hawfinch - 4
Bullfinch - 20+
Common Chaffinch - 5
Great Tit - 10+
Blue Tit - 3
Song Thrush - 1
Mistle Thrush - 2
Blackbird - 10
Jay - 3
Magpie - 3
Wood Nuthatch - 3+

Saturday morning walk

Instead of staying in bed on Saturday morning, I had my coffee staring at the bird feeder and decided to go for a walk to the park in the village where I live. I wanted to see if there are any migrating birds already.

Great Tits were loudly singing everywhere around. One even went into a nesting hole which looked like an old Green Woodpecker hole. Two Common Starlings were chasing each other and playing their courtship games. Green Woodpecker and Wood Nuthatch were noisily calling from the woodland.  A Mistle Thrush was also actively singing. Although some of the local birds are already getting ready for breeding, Bullfinches are still around in groups. At one spot there were a few males and further down the track there was a group of a dozen birds both males and females. Fantastic looking birds. One of my favourite species. A few Siskins were still around, which is a bit of a surprise.

The ice in the lake in the park has started to melt and a female Mallard has decided to make use of it. A male Eurasian Sparrowhawk dashed amongst the branches of the poplar trees chasing a small bird. I couldn't identify that one but at least the Sparrowhawk didn't get it. Perhaps I was going to identify it otherwise.

So in total, for an hour birding I had some 17 species. Here is a list of the birds I saw.

Eurasian Sparrowhawk - 1 male
Green Woodpecker - 2
Great-spotted Woodpecker - 1
Wood Nuthatch - 2
Great Tit - 10+
Blue Tit - 3
Marsh Tit - 2
Greenfinch - 2
Common Chaffinch - 3
Bulfinch - 20+
Hawfinch - 1
Blackbird - 3+
Mistle Thrush - 1
Jay - 2
Magpie - 1
Siskin - 3
Corn Bunting - 2

Banners exchange

Nature Travel and Alcedo Wildlife exchanged banners aiming at attracting more public attention to the charm of wildlife photography in Bulgaria.

Nature Travel is a company that offers a cottage to rent for wildlife photography in Bulgaria and birdwatching in Bulgaria. The cottage has several hides where fantastic local birds can be photographed. Amongst the highlights are Grey-headed Woodpecker, Sombre Tit, Long-legged Buzzard, Golden Oriole, European Bee-eater, Roller etc.

The website contains explicit information about a variety of services including cycling, kayaking, culture, etc. There is a gallery with photos and videos.


Alcedo Wildlife offers images from the wildlife photographer Boris Belchev. A Bulgarian who currently lives in Lithuania. His devotion to wildlife photography is prominent. He started with his hobby in 2007. However, just two years later he won a monthly award by Wild Wonders of Europe.

With this exchange of  banners, Nature Travel and Alcedo Wildlife aim at attracting the public attention to the preserved wilderness of Bulgarian nature.

First calls of birds in spring

A colleague from a birding and photography cottage in NE Bulgaria reported some fantastic news on the coming spring.

After the first weekend of March more and more birds become vocal to announce their territories. Hawfinches, Tits and Thrushes are the first to start. Woodpeckers have also started actively drumming and calling. A pair of Syrian Woodpeckers perched on the tree in front of the tower hide several times for the day. The birds have been drumming and displaying on several trees around the yard and most probably they will start breeding within a range of 50m. This will suggest regular visits to the walnut tree in front of the tower hide later in the season. Once they start breeding, we shall still try to find the nesting location of the woodpecker to increase the photography opportunity of the species.

There were still a few flocks of Greater White-fronted Geese that were late on their migration to the North. Several flocks of about 100 birds each flied passed the yard of the cottage. We are looking forward to see the first flocks of White Storks and groups of Lesser-spotted Eagles.

To complete the wildlife observation pleasures a weasel showed up. I watched it for about a minute while working in the yard when it just disappeared into the scrub.

See a description of the cottage's photography tours and species you can photograph there in the section on photography tours.

Weekend retreat

Sunday evening is the time when people get ready for the coming week. It is also the time, when people get home after a fantastic weekend out of town to their favourite places. It was the same for me. Initially, I wasn't going to travel at all and just stay at home and relax. However, some family appointments took me to my home town: Petritch, South West Bulgaria. It's one of my most favourite areas in the country. The area where I have grown up and have to a large extent built up my personality.

To make use of the trip I decided to go to lake Kerkini, not far from my grandparents place. So on Saturday morning I woke up, helped my grandparents with some domestic work and off I went. The weather was superb. Sunny. About 10 degrees. In the afternoon it reached 20 degrees so enjoying the worm weather I walked around with a t-shirt only.

Reaching the lake was a bit of a hassle. Although I've been there twice, I still wasn't sure how to get to some of the places. So driving around was a bit of a labyrinth job but I enjoyed it. When I reached the place I wanted to reach I felt like I have reached a target. However, the pleasant emotions were just starting. The fantastic weather, the snowy peaks of Belasitsa mountain and the water were rather promising. The good weather has triggered the bird migration and the lake was full with gulls and ducks. The majority of the gulls were Black-headed Gulls but there were also a few Caspian and quite interesting, there was also one Little Gull. It was a very nice surprise. This cute and elegant bird is always nice to see. It was a nice adult with black underwings. Walking along was pleasant and i was taking my time. Then, suddenly a familiar call attracted my attention. Common Cranes. I had never heard this call in live before but I have watched a good number of natural history programmes with the Cranes in subject. The birds took off from the shallows of the lake and gradually raised as high as the mountain peaks. This was the scene that again reminded me of the Siberian Cranes crossing the Himalayas. Fantastic moment. I wish I had a proper camera to capture this moment. The birds soared for a while and landed back in the shallows of the lake. There was a strong NW wind which prevailed them from crossing the mountains.

Further along the trail, a flock of Greater White-fronted Geese called and flied right above my head. I thought, "another fantastic moment".

Suddenly all the birds started flying around. Something has caused some panic. Looked up in the sky. An large raptor was approaching. From a distance I saw a huge bill and flashing white tail. The powerful talons of an adult White-tailed Eagle were suddenly hold out and the raptor grabbed a Coot. What a sighting!

After this spectacular moment of Nature's intimate moments I carried on further along the trail. In the distance another mass of birds was flushed. This time it was two Greater Spotted Eagles. However, several Hooded Crows started mobbing them and the raptors couldn't have their catch. This time though...

After a few hours at the spot I decided I should carry on to have a look at some other areas. I knew there is a spot where Dalmatian Pelicans often stay and wanted to have a closer look at them. Took my car and off I went round the lake. There they were. Some 50 Dalmatian Pelicans were struggling with the wind and the current on the lake but were faithfully waiting by the bank for a fish that local fishermen or photographers some time give them. I didn't have any with me so I was only making photos from a distance.

Luckily the birds were tame enough to allow me do some photos even with my small digital camera. The light wasn't too bad so I will leave you enjoy some of the photos.

Carried on further along and stopped at some more places. However it was nearly the end of the day and I decided to start heading home. I was a fantastic day indeed. My main purpose wasn't exactly piling up a number of species seen but I still had over 40 species for the day. Some of the ones I saw are here (not in any order):

White-tailed Eagle - 1
Greater Spotted Eagle - 2
Common Buzzard - 2
Long-legged Buzzard - 1
Marsh Harrier - 1
Hen Harrier - 1 m
Eurasian Sparrowhawk - 1 m
Common Kestrel - 1
Wigeon - plenty
Gadwall - 4
Teal - plenty
Shoveler - plenty
Great White Egret - 12
Greater White fronted geese - 100
Common Cranes - 18
Redshank - 5
Common Sandpiper - 1
Green Sandpiper - 2
Little Gull - 1
Caspian Gull - 2
Black-headed Gull - plenty 200+
Dalmatian Pelicans - 50 +
Grey Wagtail - 1
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Green Woodpecker - 1
Greater Spotted Woodpecker - 1
Middle spotted Woodpecker - 1
Hawfinch - 1
Chaffinch - plenty
Fieldfare - 20
Blackbird - 5
Cetti's Warbler - 1
Chiffchaff - 2

This trip was a part of a project planned and implemented by www.naturemonitoring.com and www.naturetravel.eu

Spring on its way

After a trip to Morocco, I wanted to have a few more warm days in mid winter.When I landed in Sofia, there was some 20 cm of snow. This made me think for the coming weekend when the weather was promising to be warm-ish, as for mid February.

I quickly wrote an email to a friend and planned a trip to the North East part of Bulgaria. Since the coming month is the time when some birds start their breeding, I wanted to set up some nestboxes.

On Thursday it turned out that my friend was going to travel to a city not far from where I live. Then, a colleague turned out to be traveling to that same city. That's how my trip started. I knew it was going be a hell of a trip but didn't expect to travel for the whole night. Just because we started late in the afternoon, we expected to arrive at about 1a.m. However, we did a fairly long stop for dinner and were at our last destination at about 3 a.m. We were in hurry to set up a photo trap for mammals in a woodland not far from a place where we were going to stay. It was quite an insane idea but we wanted to have the trap set for at least two nights to increase our chances of 'catching' something. We put some bait a few metres in front of the trap and went to our place. It was 5 a.m. A whole night traveling with a devotion to the photo trap idea and the willingness to peep into the wilderness secrets :).

We woke up a few hours later in the 'next day'. Took out 4 nest boxes we had built beforehand and off we went to put them up. Weather was fantastic. Sunny. Probably about 5-6 degr. C. The first nestbox we set was for a Sombre Tit. A species seen only in SE Europe and onwards to the east. While having a chat with a very amusing local shepherd I heard the call of a Sombre Tit. This gave us good guidance about the area and we quickly selected a place for the nestbox.

Pleased by our job we selected another place. This time for a different bird: a Roller. A bird well loved for its absolutely fantastic blue colours. We wanted to support its population because it decreases in the last several years because of farming practices. While setting up the nest box two birds of prey suddenly showed up. A Common and a Long-legged Buzzard soaring together reminded us how wild the area is.

After we put a third nestbox for a Sombre Tit we wanted to check the suitability of the area for setting up a photography hide. We want to provide photography opportunities for Golden Jackal and various other mammals and birds. Initially we looked towards an area with my new Swarovski binocular. The area looked quite appropriate so went to check it. It was superb. We've been trying to find such a place for a long time and we knew what we need. There were tracks from lots of animals. The sunlight conditions looked superb for both winter and summer photography. The place for the hide was in a shallow depth which was going to save us some digging. We were really happy with the found location and started making plans for the hide construction. In winter we think that the hide will be suitable for photographing Golden Jackal, Common Buzzard, Long-legged Buzzard, Sombre Tit, Hawfinch and possibly Pine Marten. In summer the area of the hide should be attractive for Badgers, Pine Martens, Hawfinches, Sombre Tit, Red-backed Shrike, Black-headed Bunting, etc. See what happens...

Pleased by the success we went to our place. It was still early in the day so we decided to do a nestbox for a Tawny Owl. Quickly collected a few boards and it wasn't an hour when were ready. Then we mounted a nextbox for a Little Owl we had prepared before. It's kind of late for the Owl's nestboxes but we just couldn't make it earlier. If they don't work out this year, we hope they will do next one.

On the next day we set up another nestbox for a Roller and one for Tawny Owl. It was a great experience planning the photography opportunities for these fantastic birds. At certain moments it was quite a challenge but we succeeded and this is most important.

Now on my way home while writing these notes a go through every moment of the weekend and realise what a pleasant holiday it is for someone's free time.

Setting up the nestboxes and the photography hide are a part of a project I recently started with a friend. We aim at setting up a guest house for renting in a pretty well preserved wilderness area in Bulgaria. We aim at providing various services for outdoor activities including wildlife photography, birdwatching, kayaking, cycling, etc. You can see more for the project at its website here: www.naturetravel.eu


For the two days of the weekend we had quite a good list of birds seen. The highlights were:
White fronted Geese - three flocks of about 200 each passed by the village on their way north
Common Buzzard - hunting at several locations
Long-legged Buzzard - hunting in the area
Middle spotted Woodpecker - courtship calls
Grey-headed Woodpecker - a female
Great spotted Woodpecker - several at different areas. Including one pair with courtship displays
Syrian Woodpecker - heard from the cottage yard
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Sombre Tit - three singing birds
Jay - common
Chaffinch - everywhere
Hawfinches - quite abundant all around
Brambling - several in the cottage yard
Corn Bunting - by the village
Yellowhammer - several groups still in winter flocks

These are only a few of the birds people can see around.
It was an amazing weekend. Spring is on its way