BALKAN
CENTRAL MOUNTAINS
We had
arrived late last night at our hotel high up in the Balkan Mountains, it was
dark, pouring with rain and lightening lit the road on the way up! So, what a
contrast this morning was, it was very still, no rain, clear blue sky and
bright, superb.
We walked
into the beech forest that surrounds the hotel and searched for woodpeckers, we
spent an hour doing so without success but we did find an impressive flock of
50+ Hawfinches, Chaffinches numbered in their hundreds and Siskins flew around
in smaller flocks. We also saw Eurasian Nuthatch, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Raven and
White Wagtail.
 |
| VIEWS OF THE FANTASTIC BEECH WOODS |
Before
continuing our journey westward towards Sofia we ventured up above the tree
line to look for migrants. We stopped at the impressive ‘Independence and World
War II monument’ which stands at the peak of the mountains. The views were
outstanding and although the weather was lovely and bright it was quite cold,
even for the birds as we only saw 1, a Water Pipit.
 |
| THE WAR MONUMENT |
The next
couple of hours was spent driving through the mountains, we stopped for lunch
midway and arrived at our last hotel on the edge of the Boatin Reserve, which
is a UNESCO protected ancient beech wood, many of the trees are over 200 years
old. Before venturing into the wood we
spent some time photographing butterflies on the alpine meadow adjacent to the
hotel, we found Red Admiral, Long-tailed Blue, Queen of Spain fritillary, Green
Veined White and a few Hummingbird Hawk Moths.
Our walk
lasted an hour most of which was spent photographing a Fire Salamander and some
fungi.
 |
| 3 PHOTOS OFTHE FIRE SALAMANDER - THEY OFTEN APPEAR AFTER SUMMER RAIN |
We did see a Grey-headed Woodpecker but not much else. The remainder of
the day was spent drinking cool beer on the terrace of the hotel watching the
sun go down, a Tawny Owl called and a Grey headed Woodpecker landed in the bush
right next to the terrace and started eating berries. That was the last of our
birding; it started to get cold as the sun disappeared so we went indoors to
finish our beers and eat a delicious evening meal.
No comments:
Post a Comment