An early start saw us all loaded onto the bus by 6:30am carrying our breakfast with us in the shape of a sandwich, we hoped to get as far as we could in 2 hours before stopping to eat our picnic. A short stop near Shabla was made for coffee before we drove around Varna and headed west for Sofia. By 8:30am we had reached our destination, it was a tiny village west of Varna where a quarry held a sizeable Bee-eater colony, it was to be a treat for the photographers as Dancho had brought three mobile hides with him.
For the rest of us we ambled around the lanes near the village and had a great time in the warm morning sunshine. Our first sighting was of a Rook, this was our first Rook of the trip too, we followed this with another first, an Icterine Warbler, this bird sang it's heart out the whole time we were there and it showed very well.
THREE PICTURES OF THE VERY OBLIGING ICTERINE WARBLER
The next species to show up was the Lesser Grey Shrike, a pair were chasing around and favoured the scrub by the side of the road, they sat perfectly for the camera too, how nice.
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| another obliging bird - the Lesser Grey Shrike |
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As we continued our walk so more birds appeared we saw; Crested Lark, Great Reed Warbler, Red-backed Shrike, White Stork, Common Cuckoo, Bee-eater, Eurasian Hoopoe, Turtle Dove, Spanish Sparrow, Golden Eagle, Lesser Spotted Eagle and a couple of Honey Buzzard. how's that for a lost just strolling down a country lane in the middle of nowhere? Pretty good eh!
I continued the walk alone as the rest of the group decided to return to the bus for shelter and water, we were still waiting for the photographers to return. I went on to see Eurasian Nuthatch, Stonechat, Black-headed and Corn Bunting, Red-rumped Swallow and I found a roadside Bee-eater colony, it was then that my camera battery expired and my are was uncharged from yesterday, as a consequence these are my last three pictures of today.
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| several Bee-eaters were sitting on the road near their nest holes |
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| a very nice blue flower |
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| a very nice blue butterfly - Common Blue |
We set off again at 11am and put quite a few kilometres behind us before we stopped again, during our trip we noted very species as most of the group were fast asleep, including me!
After a lunch break we arrived at the next birding spot which was high up on the top ot he Central Balkans, it was quite cold and a little bit windy but it stayed dry. We had passed our hotel and from where we walked we had a magnificent panoramic view of the surrounding countryside. A few birds appeared but not many, we noted; Common Cuckoo, Ring Ouzel, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Whinchat, Common and Lesser Whitethroats, Tree Pipit and Grey Wagtail.
We left at 5:30pm and drove down to the hotel, some of the group went for a. walk around the hotel grounds, they brought back tales of seeing Bullfinch, Blackcap and Goldcrest.
Dinner was our last supper together and consequently went down with a lot of alcohol, the table was very loud with plenty of laughs as we recalled our holiday highlights, it was a great end to the tour and a nice meal too.
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