After the late night we had a lay down and had
a pretty late breakfast. Understand 8,30 J It was pretty rainy so it didn’t
really matter. We had lovely French toast with home made raspberry jam and off
we went to our first.
We decided to try and see the Balkan Chamois
which I expected to be difficult in the rain. The situation was even more
difficult with the mist in the high parts of the mountains. We drove up a hill
and stopped a good look out point. The mist and the rain were just too much. So
nothing here but I didn’t give up. The location was pretty certain so decided
to check from a different angle. We drove another km or so and there they were –
A mother with three calves and two more adult were calmly grazing in between
some cliffs. They quite far for a photo but not for the scope. We enjoyed them
for a while and off we went to our next destination. It was high time to go to
the lowlands.
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| Balkan Chamois place |
In an hour drive along the winding roads we
arrived in the lowlands. The first birds to spot were a pair of Syrian Woodpeckers,
then Black-headed Bunting and so the species list started to change. We grabbed
a few things for lunch and went to The proper place for birding.
Once approaching it we got a lovely Masked
Shrike sitting just by the side of the road. Loads of Crested Larks, Woodchat
Shrike, Black-headed Buntings were just the few birds seen before getting of
the van. Then we started ticking Bee-eaters, Olivaceous Warbler, Lesser-grey
Shrike, Woodchat Shrike and the highlight Rose-coloured Starling. Three groups
of 10-15 birds each flied past.
After an hour and a half we wanted to change
location to search for a few other birds. At the next place we saw our first
Montagu’s Harrier and a Tawny pipit which was just sitting around while we had
our lunch. One juvenile and one adult Short-toed Eagles were hunting at the
same time to have their lunch. A walk in the area produced a few Calandra
Larks, Little Owl, Hobby and that’s about it. It was time to go. We had about
two hours drive to our hotel.
