The sound of falling snowflakes

Peace! Quietness! Wilderness! That's what my weekend trip was about.

After a lazy morning the road took us to a photography hide where I wanted to put some bait for Common Buzzards Buteo buteo. Some snow just fell down and it's finally time to attract these lovely birds to the feeding site at the photography hide. I intend to come back in a couple of days to give them a try. Let me keep my fingers crossed for some luck. Ideally a Red fox or Golden Jackal may also turn up.Will let you know in a couple of days.

Around the hide we did see a buzzard, a male and female Hen Harriers, a  Common Kestrel, couple of Magpies and over a hundred Fieldfares and Yellowhammers. Left some seeds for them in frond of the hide. See what happens. Looking forward to the photography session in a couple of days.

After the hide the road took us to the high mountains not far from Sofia. Lovely conifer area at the beginning of the trail and alpine cliffs in avalanch zone at its end. We arrived fairly late in the afternoon buy there was still enough light. Skiers were already coming down from the mountains after course for mountain guiding. Finally it was peaceful.No people. No sounds of cars, coaches and heavy traffic or any sort of noise. It was only us and ..... the snowflakes. Listening them falling down was a miracle. Soooo quiet... Sooo 'neat' superb relaxation :)

In an hour trekking we arrived at altitude of  1960 m a.s.l. Had a lovely tea from mountain herbs and a brief chat with the new house keepers of the chalet and started descending. The new managers of the chalet have come only 10 days ago and were still surpring themselves by the falling avalanches in the area. They were about to undertake some serious reconstruction works on the chalet. See what happens. Looking forward to seeing the changes and even helping these people promoting the place for hiking and birdwatching.
We descended in dusk and off we went. The way home was a bit risky because of the snow, low temperatures and slippery road. Anyway we finally got home after a lovely day in nature.

Bird photography trip results

Here are some of my first images from the last photography trip I had in North East Bulgaria. There are loads of images so I will be slowly going through. Please be patient.

Enjoy :)

Lesser Whitethroat photography

Long-legged Buzzard photography in Bulgaria

Roller photography in Bulgaria

Roller photography in Bulgaria

Lesser grey Shrike photography in Bulgaria

Long legged Buzzard photography

Lesser grey Shrike photography in Bulgaria

Starling hide photography

Red-backed Shrike photography in Bulgaria

Crested Lark photography in Bulgaria

Great spotted Woodpecker photography in Bulgaria

Blackbird photography in Bulgaria

Balkan Green Lizzard photography

Photography trip preliminary results

After two weeks in the field, here I come with some of my first images. Last two weeks I guided two groups of wildlife photographers who visited Bulgaria to photograph our lovely birds. The first tour was mainly for Rollers and Bee-eaters and the second was for specifically targeted bird species.

The photography sessions were in the area of Suha reka in North East Bulgaria: an area with incredible diversity of wildlife. Birds were not the only focus. We also had the privilege to see a family of Badgers, a Fox, a Hare, a Pine Marten and a Wild Boar.

Exciting and intimate moments with Nature and the contacts with professional photographers brought new experience to the guiding service of wildlife photography. Professionalism! That's all about it. The time ahead will be an interesting time full with lots of challenges and more moments in Nature.

More images and the story behind making them is coming soon.

Bee-eater photography in Bulgaria

Bee-eater photography in Bulgaria

Bee-eater photography in Bulgaria

Bee-eater photography in Bulgaria

Black headed Bunting photography

Great Spotted photography in Bulgaria

Hoopoe photography

Isabelline Wheatear photography in Bulgaria

Lesser Grey Shrike photography in Bulgaria

Lesser Grey Shrike photography in Bulgaria

Northern Wheatear photography in Bulgaria

Northern Wheatear photography in Bulgaria

Roller photography in Bulgaria

Roller photography in Bulgaria

Starling

Tawny pipit photography in Bulgaria

Birdwatching and bird photography in Bulgaria - Rupite

An observer reported that Red-footed Falcons has started breeding in an Important Bird Area to the south of Sofia some 3 hours driving. Since the species is a rare breeder now and colleagues put a lot of efforts in finding the species, I had to check this observation.

The place is called Rupite (bg, engl). Absolutely lovely place. Unique for its habitat, climate, birds, flowers, butterflies, culture, geology to name but a few.

So here we are. My girlfriend and I decided to spend some time in the area and have a check of this record. We spend about an hour each of the two days we were in the area. On the first day a flock of 26 Eleonora's Falcons met us upon arrival. Calls of Black-headed Buntings, Golden Orioles and Great Reed Warblers were all around the place. Rollers were dashing over the arable fields and Rock Nuthatch calls were thrilling from the cliffs. What a place.

No Red-foots though. On the first day we had these Eleonora's Falcons and on the second, we had a single Hobby which might have confused the observer who has reported the Red-foots. Well he did confess it might have been the Eleonora's. Every year at the end of may groups of them will spend some time in the area. In 2012 a group of 50 was here. Lovely birds.

Breeding Red-rumped Swallows were rather obliging allowing me to approach them so close that I could focus with my 400 mm lens. The birds were less than 3m from me. Here is one of them:

Red-rumped Swallow photography, copyright Iordan Hristov

Lesser grey Shrikes were also in the area:

Lesser grey Shrike photography, copyright Iordan Hristov

Here is brief checklist of some of the birds seen for both of the days in no order:
1. Common Buzzard
2. Golden Oriole
3. Roller
4. Bee-eater
5. Red-rumped Swallow
6. Spoonbills
7. Great Cormorant
8. White Stork
9. Eleonora's Falcon
10. Hobby
11. Scops Owl (h)
12. Great-reed Warbler
13. Little Egret
14. Lesser-grey Shrike
15. Cetti's Warbler

and many others.

Images trip 1, Birdwatching around Bulgaria: 13-21.05

Eastern Bath White © Iordan Hristov

Marsh Warbler © Iordan Hristov

Silver Studded Blue © Iordan Hristov

Red backed Shrike photography © Iordan Hristov

Red-rumped Swallow photography © Iordan Hristov

Cirl Bunting photography © Iordan Hristov

Black Stork photography © Iordan Hristov

More images will come soon...

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 is coming

A lovely drive around the area of Sofia where I live was a bit quiet bird wise. It was great though. I went out to see if bird migration has started and the exceeding of spring. Honestly I expected a bit more but it was rather pleasant to see the first Whinchat and Stonechats which were more abundant. It was mainly males that were actively singing. They were all around and but still quite shy and difficult to photograph. This lovely male was busier singing than flying away from my camera.

Stonechat photography by Iordan Hristov

Corn Buntings, Skylarks and Yellowhammers were actively singing marking their territories. I also enjoyed some of the winter birds that are still around like Hen Harrier - a lovely male and female, and one of my favourite birds a Great Grey Shrike which are always so shy. Fieldfare and flocks of Chaffinchs were also suggesting the time of active migration.

Yellowhammer photography by Iordan Hristov

Yellowhammer photography by Iordan Hristov

Some of the local birds were pretty vocal as well. The call of the first Black Redstart, and the drum of Syrian Woodpecker, Lesser spotted Woodpecker and Nuthatch were echoing in villages. A pair of Sombre Tit were actively feeding and enjoying the lovely weather. A gorgeous Long-legged Buzzard was patrolling its usual grounds.

Sombre Tit photography by Iordan Hristov

Lesser spotted Woodpecker photography, copyright Iordan Hristov 2013

Spring is coming :)))

Photography trip to lake Kerkini

From Germany, I am going directly to Greece. Well, I had to spend a night or two at home to do the washing but here I am on my way to the South :) Greece, lake Kerkini.

A photography trip at the lake is one of the dreams for every wildlife photographer. Opportunities are endless. The diversity of birds there is huge. Not all the birds are easy to photograph but still. For a day birders can see over 50 species. Migration time is the best. Anyway, I am now going for a photography trip. The main focus will be the Dalmatian Pelicans which are known to stay quite close to the bank and present suitable photography opportunities for everyone with rich imagination. Pelicans are so tame that can literary do what you want them to do. Thus you can plan your background, action or interaction. Well see what happens.

Here is some info about Dalmatian Pelicans from Wikipedia. You can see some images from my former post here.

author: Iordan Hristov 2012

author: Iordan Hristov 2012

Hope to add some some nice images of Dalmatian Pelicans and other birds. Stay tuned for more of those ;)