BULGARIA - 9 DAY TOUR - DAY 5 - MAY 10TH 2014

BURGAS WETLANDS INCLUDING PODA NATURE RESERVE AND SALT PANS

70% chance of precipitation translates to raining most of the day which is exactly what we got. But despite the rain we had a fantastic day's  birding and saw some wonderful species, over 75 different birds without travelling more that 10 miles along the Black Sea coastline.

Great Reed Wì6arbler

Burgos is not the most picturesque of places to visit but the bird-life is magnificent, we saw species ranging in size from the

pelican

'whose beak will hold more food than his belican'

  to the diminutive Little Stint

'whose identity is revealed by its lack of immensity'.

 

nesting Great Cormorants on a pylon - the fishy smell was enough to put you off your dinner

However it was the terns that really made the day, we saw 7 species,

here they are listed in the order of size not of appreciation:

Little Tern
Black Tern
White-winged Black Tern
Whiskered Tern
Common Tern
Sandwich Tern
Caspian Tern

Quite often we would see 3 or 4 species of tern sitting side by side, it was great to see them in such numbers and in summer plumage too. One lake held over 100 Black Terns, with 20+ White-winged Terns mingled in with them. On the same lake there was an estimated 1000 Sand Martins, plus: Ferruginous Duck, Garganey,  a Little Crake, Purple Heron, Night Heron, Little Bittern, Pygmy Cormorant, Great Reed Warbler and lots more flying over or sitting on the water.

Pygmy Cormorants - click on any picture to see an enlargement

We got soaked during our first stop and less soaked during our second stop and so the day went on until it finally stopped raining at about 4pm.

The large Burgos Lake held Dalmatian Pelicans, Whiskered, Little, Common and Black Terns, also Great Crested and Little Grebes, Gadwall, Common Pochard and Shoveler. We also saw our first Little Bittern, a couple of Night Herons, Mute Swans and Great Cormorants.

Curlew Sandpipers in bad light

The next pool held the most species and the highest numbers, Sand Martins covered the surface whilst Common Swifts clouded the sky,  ducks were dotted all over the place and Great Reed Warblers tried to drowned out the traffic noise.

We found a quiet haven at the far side of the lake where we enjoyed watching Squacco Herons, Pygmy Cormorants, Purple Herons and a Little Bittern. Savi's Warbler 'reeled' from the reed-beds, common Cuckoos sat out in the open as did Bee-eaters, Great Reed Warblers and Common Terns. In fact I can't remember seeing both Common Terms and Black-headed Gulls sitting on power lines before now?

Black, Common and White-winged Terns

After lunch we visited the Poda Nature Reserve Centre where a secluded path led us alongside reed-fringed pools and open water, this is where the Common Tern colonies were and where we had super views of  several different terns. We also saw a few waders, Wood Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Common Snipe, Black-winged Stilt, Ruff, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Common Ringed Plover,  Dunlin and Curlew Sandpiper. Black-necked Grebes sat out on the bay whilst a host of species loafed on a sand bar.

Out on a rocky spit alongside a row of wooden posts we found Mediterranean Gull, Caspain and Sandwich Terns, Oystercatcher and many of the terns mentioned above.

Finally we arrived at the salt pans, the rain had ceased at last but the light was very bad. Waders were in good numbers, Curlew Sandpipers, Little Stint and Dunlin numbered the most but we did see Spotted Redshank, Pied Avocet, Grey Plover, Black-winged Stilt, Kentish Plover and Common Ringed Plover

record shot of White-winged Tern with Black Tern and Common Tern

It was now 5pm and the light was fading so we decided to call it a day, it took just 20 minutes to get back to the hotel giving us plenty of time to relax before dinner.

Our bird log revealed that we had seen over 75 species which was a great total considering the inclement weather conditions.