Bearded Tit photography

The birdwatching trip is over and here i am awake at 5,30 a. m. on Saturday morning. Hm. This early start has to be utilized. I quickly grabbed my camera and off I went to the marshes near Sofia. My main target was the Bearded Tit. There are plenty of birds there so why not try a few shots.

The Sun was up at 6,30 and gently lit up the frosted grass. It was -6 C. Along the way I recorded quite a few Stonechats which were nicely singing. Corn Buntings, Sombre Tits and Skylarks were also announcing their territories. However, they were still not quite in their breeding behaviour and rarely sit still for long.

I arrived at the marsh at about 9 after a few attempts to get some shots of Black Redstart and Corn Buntings. The marsh was very lively. This was a good sign. Parked the car and off I went into a small hide in the middle of the marsh. Wrens were singing here and there. The call of Water rails echoes from different directions. There are at least 3 in this little area.

I arrived in the hide and soon I heard the first call of the Bearded Tit. It wasn't even 5 min when the birds arrived. Click, click. Nice one.

Here are a few shots:

Bearded Tit © Iordan Hristov

Bearded Tit © Iordan Hristov

Bearded Tit © Iordan Hristov

While sitting in the hide I recorded a couple of Marsh Harriers, Great White Egret, Water Rails, a family of Penduline tit and at least 6 Bearded Tits.

The fatigue from the previous days overtook and I felt like going to get some sleep. That would be enough for today.

Stay tuned for the coming recap of the tailored birdwatching trip last week.

Rock Partridge trip in Bulgaria

This time I got him. Regardless of the miserable weather at the start of the day with rain and low temperatures I managed to see the Rock Partridge today. As a part of the preparation for my coming visitor I decided to explore the area around the mountain where Rock Partridges occur. I spoke to several people and everyone was saying that the birds do not appear in bad weather whatsoever. Moreover, it is still quite early in the season for the bird's display. Well, I wanted to see the site and get some more experience with it so I decided to give it a try.

I started fairly late in the morning regardless of any recommendation for Rock Partridge observation for early start. The trip wasn't long and shortly before I arrived at the area the rain stopped. "That's a good sign", I said to myself. Bright sky showed over the mountain tops. "I might be lucky".

Soon I was on the trail to the spot where I knew the birds should be. Big bird turned up in the distance. No it wasn't the Rock Partridge. A Golden Eagle was circling right over the spot where the Partridges should be. He must be searching for a meal. The big bird disappeared for a while but then it just turned up round the hill. It was sooo close. I quickly leaned down to hide myself. The bird didn't seem to have seen me and calmly continued gliding. What a bird! And of course I had left the big lens at home. Why would I need it in this miserable weather. Well the light wasn't good but the bird was so close that it would probably not fit in my frame. It was at eye level which additionally brought the respect which this bird deserves. Beautiful adult! It circled a couple of times and off it went. I didn't really feel any pressure to go further but wanted to have a look at the Rock Partridge spot.

Rock Partridge habitat by Iordan Hristov

In about 10 minutes I was there. Superb view from the top of a hillside revealed a 360 degrees view. Cliffs all around with meadows and scrub. That's what they like. I sat down for a while to enjoy the view. It wasn't a minute when a Rock Partridge called. Yes I know it is still early for them to breed but there it is calling from the bushes. I waited for a bit more but the bird didn't come out. Then I went round the corner to change my location. There it was. Ohh my.. The bird took off noisily only about 30 m away from me and gently glided down the hillside. Well, I got him this time.

Rock Partridge Habitat by Iordan Hristov

With a smile on my face, I happily went down the track towards the car. Several Sombre Tits made the pleasure even bigger.

Well I think this would be the spot. If we are this lucky, the trip will start really well with rather relaxed schedule and travel. Looking forward to its start.

Photography and bird survey trip

Photography or should I say non photography trip started rather early this time. I wanted to go to a site about 1,5 hours drive from home and then another 1,5 hours climbing up the mountains. Since I wanted to be in the hide before first light which means 6.30 a.m., I needed to wake up at 3 a.m. This is perhaps the earliest start I have ever had for birds. I have been up at 4 a.m. but at 3, never.

It wasn't that hard in the beginning. Had a nice coffee and it kept me awake while driving along the mountainous roads. During the hike I didn't really needed coffee. There was some really thick mist with about 50 m visibility which made driving a bit of an excitement. I nearly missed the layby.

I arrived at the beginning of the mountain track shortly after 5 a.m. It was - 5 degrees C. I dressed up well, got all my gear and off I went. Along the mountain track two Tawny Owls scared the hell out of me in the pitch dark. Two more were calling further along. Their breeding time approaches so they are keen to announce their territories :).

I arrived at the hide just as planned. 6.30 a.m.The first day light was already coming through so it was time to go in. It is on the top of a hillside above the treeline in one of Bulgaria's national parks. The hide is meant to be used for photographing birds like Golden Eagle, Goshawks, Ravens and Red Fox. That's what attracted me. Rather cosy place with wood coating inside and rocks from outside making it look as a typical habitat feature. There is even a small foae and a chemical toilet for the long photography days. Well there has been a few photography sessions here.

The first birds that started singing were Wood Larks. Their lovely fluty song is sooo pleasant and tuning.

The first Raven called at 6.51. Still not enough light for a good shot but the bird didn't land anyway.

Sun started to light up my perches shortly after 7. Now birds can land. I am ready and light is good.

Landscapes in Bulgaria © Iordan Hristov

At 9.27 nothing has landed so far. A Roe Deer call came from the valley bellow which made me think about it coming up here. But why would it? The bait was not for it :)

At about 8.30 an interesting call came from outside. It reminded me of my initial intention to come and explore this area. It was not that much to photograph something but to see a Rock Partridge. The bird call was a Partridge indeed but it was Grey, not the one I was after.

Landscapes in Bulgaria © Iordan Hristov

9.35 A strong wind came out and it became rather cold regardless of the sunny weather. This makes the waiting a bit more challenging but see what happens. I plan to stay until lunchtime and then go to do a few other things I wanted to do in the area.

10.30 bits of excitement: one Raven flied quite low over the bait. No. It didn't land. It needs some more time.
11.00 nothing in front. A distant Wood Lark sings actively. Catching up with emails...
12.00 still nothing. Well I think it is time to go.

Packed my stuff and off I went. It was beautiful sunshine out there which warmed me up a little bit. There was no sign of any bird in the area which explains their behaviour. I started descended from the hillside towards the village nearby where I wanted to check some areas for White backed Woodpecker and book a hotel.

Landscapes in Bulgaria © Iordan Hristov

Along the track several birds made my day. Couple of Goldcrests were singing here and there. A very pleasant surprise was a Sombre Tit which was actively announcing its territory. But the highlight was a male Goshawk dashed between some trees chasing the birds around.

In the rest of the day I didn't have much luck either. Didn't find any woodpecker but a Great spot. At another location I found three more Sombre Tit Parus lugubris which were chasing each other. The hormones are playing their role :)

After enjoying a lovely view to some cliffs I headed towards home. Not much luck today but this is why surveys are important. Not just to find the birds, but to see where birds are missing. So I would say it was a very useful day.

Birdwatching in my local patch

I had some doubts whether to wake up early this morning and go out for some bird photography. After a hard week I decided to spend a few more hours in the bed and then go out :) Priority was clear. Well, I walk up at about 9 am and off I went to my local patch about 20 km W of Sofia. A lovely oak woodland with open patches of grassland and scrub. It is still early for the meadow birds so I decided to focus on the woodland.

Initially it was pretty quiet. Nothing was calling. In a couple of minutes I have apparently approached the territory of this lovely Wood Nuthatch. The birds from the pair were nicely displaying. Really nice birds when you see them this close.

Nuthatch photography by Iordan Hristov

My initial idea was to find some more Sombre Tit so I continued walking around to explore the area and hopefully see some more birds. There are some old orchards nearby that I have been willing to explore for a long time. Just as I expected a pair of Sombre Tit responded soon after I arrived on the spot. It was full with birds. Not just the local Starlings and Hawfinches were there but also a group of 6 Robins. This high number raises the question of their migration. I did a quick Google Scholar and it produced a few quite interesting papers discussing the birds survival (Adriaensen, F & Dhondt A.) and their means of orientation (Sandberg et al.)  and drivers for migration with a focus on rain and wind (Schaub, M.et al) :

Robin photography

Other migrants were also present. On a small patch with scrub there were a few Black Redstarts, my first for the year Willow Warbler and a lovely Firecrest. Rather untypical which is the first for my local patch which is now over 80 species with some of the highlights being Golden Eagle, Short-toed Eagle, Honey Buzzards, Scops Owl, Syrian Woodpecker, Ortolan Bunting, Wryneck, Thrush Nightingale and many others.

Just as I was thinking about this untypical Firecrest, I remembered a pretty old observation of a Ring Ouzel which I observed in the woods in the area many years ago. In that very moment the call of a Ring Ouzel totally thrilled me. :) Well what can I say. Lovely bird. My first for the year and another observation for my local patch.

Blue Tit photography by Iordan Hristov

I carried on walking in the area but it was already 3 p.m. and just like in summer birds just disapeared. Well it was time for lunch or whatever you call it in the middle of the afternoon :)

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