BirdID trip in Bulgaria 2014: day 3, April 24th

The day started with a Scops Owl. Just before breakfast we walked to the park in the town where we spotted the Owl. We went back to the hotel and quietly had breakfast. Then a proposal came to give it a try for Scops Owl in the local park. Some people looked a bit skeptical. It wasn’t long before my colleague Boris spotted the Owl. There it was. Sitting on a branch in a nice daylight view. It isn’t often to have that view. Pretty good start.

Then we headed to our place from last night. We still had to see the Rock Nuthatch. The morning was superb so we slowed down towards the place where we expected to see the Nuthatch. A gorgeous Chukar was proudly sitting on the top of an old building only a couple of meters away from the road and the van. What a view! Never been this close to a Chukar. Later on during the walk we saw at least five more birds. This was quite a place for them.

Rather than shouting out every minutes Stop, Stop, we decided to just walk along the road and enjoy the lovely landscape and birds around. Golden Oriole, Hobby, Rollers, Sombre Tit, Black-eared Wheatears were just a few of the birds we spotted along the road. A Black Stork nest was nicely hidden in the middle of the cliffs. Once we approached the Rock Nuthatch place someone shouted out. There it is! A proudly sitting birds was nicely positioned on the very top of a picturesque rock. It wasn’t a minute when a male Black-eared Wheatear landed next to it. Well this becomes some sort of a trademark of the trip to have two superb species in the frame. Soon we had to go. It was already about 10,30 but we had about 30 species or so. We headed to the North towards Madzarovo where the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of birds had a visitors Centre. We were aiming to lunch there so we had to go.

Woodchat Shrike copyright Iordan Hristov

Along the way we stopped at two more places to log more Rollers, Bee-eaters, pale Booted Eagle and other nice birds. After lunch we went to the oak woodland just next to the centre for the Eastern Bonneli’s Warbler. It took us some time to find it but there it was. Logged. There was still a lot to go so we headed to the cliffs around. Along the way we wanted to see a Barred Warbler, Subalpine Warbler, Eastern Orphean Warbler and yes we did. They weren’t really obliging but we did see them. The walk further along produced some of the other highlights for the day: Egyptian Vulture, Rock Bunting, Ortolan Bunting, and Blue Rock Thrush.

Time flied past quickly and we really had to go if we wanted to go back to the hotel before it gets dark. On the way I just couldn’t stop myself. There were these large birds right above the cliff. The birds were pretty big, V-shaped wings with long tail. This must be Golden Eagle. Immediately the group was out of the van again. Although it was miles away, everyone agreed it was the Goldies. Well this has got to be the last bird for the day. We headed back to the hotel.

Our place for the night is situated in the middle of a small valley right at the foot of a cliff complex in the middle of nowhere. That’s what we like! After a nice meal with chicken stew we counted a total of 81 species for the day and about 120 for the trip so far. This was just day 3 so a lot more to come I hope :) 

BirdID trip in Bulgaria 2014: day 2, April 25th

This was a rather exciting day. We started off with rain, Wallcreeper views, rain, travel, travel, travel and, 40 species of birds for an hour J Absolutely superb end of the day with a calling Scops Owl as I am writing this.

We started off in Teshel. A small village in Western Rhodope mountains where we spent the night in a cozy family run hotel. Before breakfast the keen participants on the trip went out for an hour and ticked Grey Wagtail, Serin, Black Redstart, Marsh Tit to name but a few. The rain quickly sent us back to the hotel for breakfast. After that we headed to the most famous place in Europe to see the lovely Wallcreeper. The weather was pretty miserable with rain so we didn’t really hope for much.

Upon arrival we heard the thrilling call of the Peregrine Falcon. A pair was sitting nicely on the top of a cliff announcing its territory. We sat for a bit and scan the cliffs for a while when someone shouted “I have got it”. The most wanted bird of the trip has turned up. It was about 100 m from us nicely moving up the cliffs. Its butterfly like flight showed its lovely red colour on the wings. What a view. Everyone in the group was really happy seeing this bird. After a couple of minutes we carried on to the next place where we were hoping to see Pallid Swifts, but it wasn’t the right time. It was pretty damp and insects were not flying so no reason for the Swifts to be out.

Soon we headed eastwards to our final destination for the day – Krumovgrad. We had a few kilometers to go. Shortly after departure we stopped again. It was pouring rain but when I opened the door a Ring Ouzel called so I thought this would be a good sign. I asked who the keenest people were and everyone went out under the rain. Well we managed to find a shelter pretty soon and birds were really active. Soon we started ticking them off.

Ring Ouzel was sitting nicely on the top of a Spruce tree. A few were calmly feeding on the floor as nothing was happing. Goldcrest, Whinchat and Black Redstart were also around. In a couple of minutes two superb Firecrests made everyone happy. It was new to most of the people so bits of excitement took over. Shortly after that we headed to our lunch place. I would think we exhausted quite a bit from the rainy weather.

We had lunch in a nice local restaurant where we tried a traditional dish called “patatnik”. It is basically of graded potatoes, fried in a pan like a pancake. The long way to the east was really slow. More rain, fog and slow winding roads. Just in the middle of nowhere I spotted ‘tern’ like bird. Hm rather strange looking bird. Pratincole! I shouted and everyone got off the van really quickly. A bird was flying about and some people even managed to get a few decent shots of it.  Well it was high time for some birding. In a while we stopped at a gas station and we ticked Pygmy Cormorant and Little Egret. It wasn’t long before we were in the paradise!

Chukar, Red-footed Falcon, Eastern Black eared Wheatear, Black Stork, Roller, Hobby, Lesser Grey Shrike to name but a few. It was really exciting. At certain point people had Red-footed falcon and a Roller in the picture at the very same time. Yeee, this is Bulgaria J I really loved it myself.

Black Stork, copyright Iordan Hristov

Red-footed Falcon, copyright Iordan Hristov

It was already after 7 p.m. so we had to go for dinner. Once in the restaurant, people started ordering drinks which was a pretty good sign that the day was a great success. Someone counted about 100 species for the trip from its start. Not too bad having in mind it’s been mostly travelling.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Stay tuned for more bird ID news