Another transfer day and this was a long one - we got up early and took our breakfast with us, we planned to travel 450km towards Sofia with a diversion into the Central Balkan Mountains.
We set off at 6:30am and spent the next two hours travelling down through Varna and then out westward towards Sofia. We stopped a short while afterward Varna to look for Golden Eagle at a known nest site. The eagle wasn't there but we did list a few species as we ate our breakfast. Local pairs of Common Buzzard and Common Kestrel circled around us whilst much higher up migrating Lesser Spotted Eagles and Honey Buzzards drifted over. We saw Common Whitethroat, Linnets, Hoopoe, Golden Oriole and we heard a Song Thrush just before we left.
 |
| the group in the beautiful beech woodland in the Central Balkans just before it rained |
The rest of the morning and most of the afternoon was spent travelling, we eventually arrived at our hotel around 3:30pm. The weather had changed from bright sunny skies to dull overcast conditions with the threat of rain.
Our late afternoon birding walk was spoilt by the weather, we managed too see Eurasian Nuthatch, Great Tit and a European Robin before it started to rain. We had hoped for White-backed Woodpecker but none was seen or heard. A Black Woodpecker was seen by a couple of us but nothing more happened so we abandoned the walk.
 |
| The Oxford RSPB group members at their last supper in Bulgaria |
Later at dinner the rain came down heavily whilst we enjoyed our last evening meal together, we read the short bird log afterwards.
Our final tally for the trip was 191 species, with another nine 'heard only' giving us a grand total of 200 species.
The group all expressed their happiness with the trip and gave generous tips to our local guide Dancho and our excellent drive, Martin.
Tomorrow we depart early for the airport, the weather forecast is pants so I don't anticipate much birding.
No comments:
Post a Comment