MAY 25th 2013 - BULGARIA DAY 4 – TOUR 2

ARDA HOTEL TO BURGAS VIA TOPOLOVGRAD WITH STOPS IN THE SAKAR HILLS, SREDETS AND BURGAS SALT PANS.

This transit day saw us travel some 200 kilometers to the east of the country to the Black Sea Coast at Burgas. It wasn't a long way but on the poor Bulgarian roads it took us all day.

 We never went for an early birding walk, so we set off at 7:45am after an early breakfast, several species were seen from the car park and along the approach track to the hotel.

The Hotel Arda - named after the river that flows just behind it, a lovely setting

Turtle Dove, Common Nightingale, Hoopoe, Common Cuckoo, Golden Oriole, Spanish Sparrow, Olivaceous Warbler, Red Backed Shrike and several others were all seen or heard near the hotel. A Little Owl sat in the chimney of the main hotel block.

Little Owl seen in the chimney shown below

you can see the owl in the tower chimney of the hotel building

The first part of the journey passed with only a few bird sightings as we drove through thick mist that only cleared after we had climbed out of the crater on the east side of Madzarovo. We then started to see White Storks, Black-headed and Corn Buntings and Red-backed Shrikes.

Our first official stop was at a traditional site for Olive Tree Warbler but we must have seen 30 other species in a very short space of time as well. The site was an Oak Woodland on a gently sloping hillside, bird song was all over the place. Cirl Bunting, Common Nightingale, Masked Shrike, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Blackbird, Hoopoe, Common Cuckoo, Bee-eater, Woodchat Shrike and the Olive Tree Warbler were all heard within a few minutes. It took us quite while before we all saw the OTW and even then it was only fleeting views as it moved from song post to song post, but we were all happy with what we got. In the sky during the hour we stayed there we saw: Raven, Black Stork, White Stork, Common Buzzard and Long-legged Buzzard.

Short-toed lark

We bought our lunch in Topolovgrad and drove a short distance out of town to eat it. The site we chose was a good site to look for Imperial Eagle and before the bus had come to a complete stop we had seen one drifting high above us. During our lunch hour we saw one or two more Imperial Eagles drifting over on a regular basis, sometimes quite low, and we also saw  Booted Eagle and a Short-toed Eagle. On the ground and in the open scrub we added Short-toed Lark, Northern Wheatear and lots of Isabelline Wheatears,

Next we stopped in an oak woodland not too far from Burgas, we were hoping to see Semi-collared Flycatcher at a nest site. Unfortunately for us the site was surrounded by people having a Saturday Market!! Cars were parked right next to the nest hole and not a bird was in sight. We walked for a while and saw some interesting species, Common Redstart, a stunning male showing a very large white wing bar, it was of the eastern race Samamisicus, we also saw Song Thrush, Spotted Flycatcher, Short-toed Treecreeper and several common Species. The nest hole of a Middle Spotted Woodpecker was very active and provided some good bird watching.

looking at the Imperial Eagle near Topolovgrad

Lastly we visited the Salt Pans on the norther edge of  the bay of Burgas. It wasn't brimming with birds but we added about 20 new species to our trip list, they included about 20 Dalmatian Pelicans, Eurasian Spoonbills, Little Egret, Common Shelduck, Kentish and Common Ringed Plover, Pied Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Oystercatcher, Common, Caspian, Little and Sandwich Terns, Yellow Wagtail of the Eastern Feldegg race and a few Gadwall. A pair of Penduline Tits fed in a tree just behind us and the male showed particularly well, all the group had great views.

some of the group at Burgas Salt Pans picnic area

Looking across the salt pans to Burgas

We called it a day around 6pm and finished our journey to the hotel a few minutes away, we had seen 95 species despite being in the bus for most of the journey. A really nice dinner finished the day off with a lovely cold beer, aah!