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| Two images of Little Gull - my favourite gull |
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| Salt Works at Varna |
The next hour or so was spent visiting various hotels and sites in preparation for the WINGSPAN tour next year so we never logged any new species. However, during the late morning we set off for the northern section of the trip, we headed for Varna with several planned stops along the way.
Our first stop was the Salt Pans at Pomoria where we spent an enjoyable hour looking over the salt pans and bay. We had good close up views of Little Gulls as well as seeing: Bar-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover, Greenshank, Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, Little Stint, Avocet and Ringed Plover. There were also many Great-crested Grebes, Sandwich Terns, Common Terns, Med Gulls, Slender-billed Gulls, Yellow-legged Gulls and Great Cormorants.
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| The famous golden domed church in central Varna |
We then continued north on a quiet road inland from the coast towards Varna, we spent till lunchtime making our way slowly northward. We stopped to watch several species seen in the roadside scrub and raptors overhead: the most notable were; Whinchat, Common Redstart, Red-backed Shrike, Lesser Grey Shrike and lots of Corn Buntings. Raptor migration consisted of a trickle of Common Buzzards, we saw about 30 and a couple of Sparrowhawks, one notable Buzzard was most definitely a Steppe Buzzard.
We ate lunch alongside the river just south of the town of Varna, a short walk didn't produce much except for a very brief glimpse of a Grey-headed Woodpecker, not enough for me to tick though, whilst we ate lunch a Lesser spotted Woodpecker flew across the river and landed out of sight in the trees behind us.
The afternoon drifted by as we drove forever northward to coastal Dobrudzna an area of steppe and cliffs, Our first stop was to search some chalk cliffs for Eagle Owl which proved fruitless but did give us our one and only Bee-eater of the trip so far! We then drove through the steppe countryside noting hundreds of Corn Buntings and large flocks of migrating Chaffinches.
By late afternoon we reached the edge of the cape and drove into a gorgeous ravine with reedbeds, open scrub, mature trees and steep side cliffs which opened out onto the beach. The beach area was interesting as it was covered in wagtails, mostly of the White variety but there were also a couple of Yellow Wagtails too. In the scrub we found a star bird: RED BREASTED FLYCATCHER and another Common Redstart. Out to sea we found Yelkouan Shearwaters and Shag along with Sandwich Terns.
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| artistic flare or just a very bad picture? Red-breasted Flycatcher |
The next forty five minutes were about as good as it gets! We walked inland along a narrow track and whilst there were no birds in the lagoon or reedbed we located a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker calling from a dead tree, we got great views of it in fading light. Then we located GREY HEADED WOODPECKER and two Great Spotted Woodpeckers flew down to hole and disappeared for the night.
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| the back of a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker |
Shortly afterwards, as we walking back towards the beach we heard an Eagle Owl calling, we quickly located it as it sat out in the open in full view and in daylight. A second owl called back to it from further in the gorge, as we watched this owl a Purple Heron flew by and a Water Rail called from the reedbed, the birds just kept on coming. Huge numbers of White Wagtails were dropping into the reedbed and similar numbers of Chaffinches were flying overhead.
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| my camera doesn't seem to work very well in the dark? Eagle Owl |
We left in near darkness and headed for our hotel which was 20km away. During the journey we stopped to watch two GOLDEN JACKELS that were foraging near the roadside, amazing and a superb find and fitting end to a marvelous day, I'm beginning to love this country!!
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