Birdwatching and photography trip around Bulgaria and Greece: 24.05-2.06, day 8

The day was pretty quiet bird wise. Well at least in its first part and then the excitement came.

We started at 6,30 willing to give a try for a Rock Partridge which is seen in the area. We drove half way up a mountain road and then started walking hoping to see these lovely birds. There was also a chance for a few other birds but the weather was just nasty – rain, wind and mist with visibility of about 30 metres. Not the best time for Rock Partridge, is it? Well we had to try. That’s what we are here for.

We managed to see a Black Woodpecker blown up by the wind. Rather brave bird to fly in this weather. There was some activity of song birds though. We had a Rock Bunting and a Skylark was singing. Well not enough activity really. Soon we decided to go down the hill and change the place.

Along the way we had what we wanted to have. An Eastern Imperial Eagle was gracefully watching for prey about 50 m over the road. Then suddenly a Steppe Buzzard came over not happy of having it in its territory. Then a Kestrel came for support. It was quite a show after the morning quiet birding.

The next stop for the Partridge was even worse than the first – fog with 10 m visibility, wind and rain – beautiful weather. We made up our minds reasonably enough and went into a hotel for a hot capuchino, tea and lunch. In an hour or so doing not much we decided to change the location and go away from the mountains. Weather was slightly improving but still not enough for the mountain tops where the Rock Partridge was supposed to be.

view from the mountains

We stopped a few locations to enjoy the view and the Ring Ouzels feeding on the meadows. Red-backed Shrikes also had some activity but the live began once we were down in the lowlands. I decided to stop for some Sousliks. Upon our stop a Barred Warbler called so we had that. Then the birds started turning up – Isabelline Wheatear, Bee-eaters, Long-legged Buzzard, Little Ringed Plover, Black-headed Buntings, etc. Quite an excitement brought a calling Quail and our target for the place – the Souslik. We spent quite some time for it but I was really happy to do it.

Shortly we were already at hour hotel enjoy the drinks and the photos from the last hour of the day.

BirdID trip in Bulgaria 2014: day 5, April 28th

We woke up in the middle of oak woodland with slight rain. Everybody in the group was keen to walk around the new type of habitat so the rain didn’t scare the participants. Even more, some of them had already walked before the time for our meeting and had already seen a Lesser spotted Woodpecker and a Cirl Bunting. After a bite of lovely chocolate we headed towards the woods.

It wasn’t even a 100 m from the hotel when a Middle spotted Woodpecker turned up right next to his Lesser brother. The first came pretty close and everyone enjoyed it. Another 100 m further away we heard a familiar call. Black Woodpecker’s head popped up from a nesting hole. In a couple of minutes the bird took off for everyone’s joy of seeing the whole bird. People in the group really wanted to see it. Another 50 m away a Woodlark called, then the highlight and main reason for selecting this place: a Semi-collared flycatcher! Lovely male was nicely singing.

The walk in the woodland continued with more rain, more Semi-collared Flycatcatchers, Hoopoe, Wood Warbler, Short-toed Treecreeper, an early family of Long-tailed Tits and a couple of Hawfinches. A Grey-headed, Great spotted and Green Woodpecker made it a total of 6 woodpecker species that we had for about an hour and a half before breakfast.

After breakfast it was time to change the habitat. It was time for some waterbirds and we drove to Bourgas. It seems that everyone enjoyed this change. We stopped by a wetland and everyone started shouting out different species names. Some of the highlights were Teminck’s Stint, Glossy Ibis, Purple Heron, White-tailed Eagle, more than 20 Red-footed Falcons, Marsh Sandpiper, Ferruginous Duck, Garganey, White Pelicans, Red-crested Pochard, at least 5 Broad-billed Sandpipers, etc. It was a day of about 120 species which takes us to nearly 190 species for the trip so far. Nor too bad is it?