WELCOME TO THE BLOG OF WINGSPAN BIRD TOURS



ALL NEWS, BIRD SIGHTINGS AND TOUR UPDATES WILL ALSO BE RECORDED ON MY WEB-SITE BLOG PAGES FOUND HERE


http://www.wingspanbirdtours.com/blog




FURTHER DETAILS OF FUTURE TRIPS CAN BE FOUND ON OUR MAIN WEBSITE:-



http://www.wingspanbirdtours.com/






FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT PARTICIPATED IN A WINGSPAN TOUR DURING 2017, THANK YOU FOR YOUR CUSTOM & YOUR COMPANY AND WE WISH YOU HEALTH AND HAPPINESS FOR 2018.

THE PROGRAMME FOR SPRING 2018 IS NOW ON MY

WEBSITE BUT HERE IS A PREVIEW



Jan 2nd - 5th - Somerset Levels

Jan 7th - 20th. - Sri Lanka. £1850

Feb 16th - March 3rd Costa Rica - full

Mar 20th - 30th Morocco - 10 nights. - full

April 2nd - 9th - Andalucia migration tour. - full

April 10th - 18th - Coto Donana & Extremadura - £950 - 2 places

April 19th - 27th - Coto Donana & Extremadura - £950 - full

April 28th - 5th May. - Lesvos - full

May 6th - 13th - Portugal - £950 - 4 places

May 15th - 22nd - Northern Greece - full

May 23rd - 30th Bulgaria - £850 - 4 places

May 23rd - 30th - Andalucia birds and butterflies - £850

May 31st - June 7th. - Extremadura and Sierra de Gredos - £950

June 12th - 20th - Pyrenees and Picos de Europa - full


FLIGHTS NOT INCLUDED IN THESE PRICES



BOOK NOW TO SECURE YOUR PLACE SEND AN E-MAIL TO:

E-mail: bobbuckler49@hotmail.com





















Red-throated Bee-eater

Red-throated Bee-eater
join us for a fantastic tour of The Gambia this November

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

MAY 22ND 2013 - BULGARIA DAY 1 – TOUR 2

SOFIA - WESTERN RHODOPE MOUNTAINS AND THE TRIGRAD GORGE WITH STOPS ALONG THE WAY AT PAZARDZHIK (QUARRY) AND TESHEL

The first day of the second tour of Bulgaria started in central Sofia. Steve, Roz and Jim had arrived yesterday, we had a couple of hours to kill this morning so we took a walk in one of the local parks called Borisovata Gradina (Boris's Garden), which, in fact, is a thickly wooded area with some open sections  and lots of sports facilities embedded within it. We saw Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers, Robin, Greenfinch, Song Thrush, Jay, Magpie, Chaffinch, Great Tit, Eurasian Nuthatch, Hooded Crow, Common Swift and Alpine Swift, and we also heard Blackcap and Grey Headed Woodpecker.

some of the group in the quarry

 Our mini-bus collected us from our hotel at 10:45. in order to get to the airport by 11am to collect Teresa, Richard and Peter. Iordan,  our co-leader and local bird guide, joined us along the way.

By 11:30am we were on our way, the sun was shining through broken cloud and everyone was in a good mood in anticipation for some super birding ahead of us. We traveled for a couple of hours making one stop for toilets etc our journey birds so far included: White Stork, Lapwing, Red-rumped Swallow, Raven, Common Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Common Cuckoo and lots of hirundines.

Spanish Sparrow


At Pazardzhik we stopped to buy lunch and then drove a short distance out of town to eat it. Our lunch stop was along a track that led to a disused quarry, it overlooked a few miles of arable farmland and some scrubland. Over the next hour we logged several species, the colourful Black-headed Bunting proved to be a crowd pleaser but we also found Crested Lark, Corn Bunting (my two favourite species - not!), Calandra Lark, Tree & Spanish Sparrow, Little Owl, Northern Wheatear, Long-legged Buzzard, a distant Tawny Pipit and we heard a Hoopoe calling.


 From the quarry we began our journey into the Rhodope Mountains, but first we stopped to admire a Hoopoe sitting on a pole 'singing' loudly. Just before we passed through Krichim we logged Turtle Dove and Isabelline Wheatear. The long winding road climbed up into the mountains, we passed Devin (where the main production of mineral water occurs) and onto Teshel where we stopped to watch Dipper which went onto the day list with Raven and Grey Wagtail.

Elephant Rock - use your imagination!


The last few kilometers were delightful, we passed through breath taking scenery, steep sided gorges, limestone tunnels and a quintessential babbling brook. At Yagodina we had reached our destination and our hotel for the first night, this tranquil little 'hamlet' is set high up in the mountains in the most picturesque valley.

Our last species of the day were seen around the hotel; White Wagtail, Black Redstart, Tree Sparrow, Hooded Crow, Serin, Marsh Tit and Magpie.

Dipper at Teshel


We ate a lovely trout dinner and drank a nice cold beer. Our log call was short as we only saw 53 species during the day.




Pazardzhik  Krichin Devin (where the main production of mineral water occurs)
Yagodina

No comments:

Post a Comment