What a cracking day, no traveling, perfect weather and tons of birds! We saw over 70 species, most of them new for the trip with some great species thrown in.
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| a misty morning |
Madzarovo is a town built in an ancient caldera of epic proportions, basically it is a volcanic valley surrounded by a circle of volcanic rock that rise steeply into vast cliffs where the vultures and eagles soar, at some stage it was breached by a river that still flows through it today.
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| Common Whitethroat |
We started at 6:30am. The sky was clear but a mist hung over the valley, we walked from the hotel into the surrounding fields and oak woodland, bird song came from every direction. Hoopoe, Common Cuckoo, Golden Oriole, Song Thrush, Common Whitethroat, Common Nightingale and Turtle Dove were quickly on the list. As we progressed up a track into the hills the mist came down a little thicker. But we still enjoyed good views of most of the above and Hawfinch, Red-backed Shrike, Corn Bunting and we also heard Bonelli's Warbler. A Little Owl sat on a chimney as we returned to the hotel.
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| Barred Warbler playing hide and seek |
After breakfast our first stop was in some open scrub-land just above the river on the outskirts of the town. Again the air was full of bird song. We quickly found a Barred Warbler delivering its melodic rendition of the 'blackcaps' song. We also heard Woodlark and we found Black-headed Bunting, Black-eared Wheatear, Orphean Warbler, Woodchat Shrike, Hawfinch and many common species.
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| Lesser spotted Fritillery |
As we walked down the track towards the river we added a few new birds. A Subalpine Warbler gave us the run around for a while before we all nailed it, then we got onto a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker which showed well for a short time. Sombre Tit was next and a very showy Hawficnh quickly followed. Birds of prey began to appear with Griffon vulture, Egyptian Vulture, Peregrine Falcon, Long-legged Buzzard and Common Kestrel all drifting over.
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| Bonelli's Warbler singing to us |
On the cliff face we found several Blue Rock Thrushes, Rock Bunting, Ortolan Bunting, Crag Martin and a good number of Alpine Swifts. We spent some time looking for a drumming Middle Spotted Woodpecker before finally pegging it down.
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| Cirl Bunting |
For lunch we visited the vulture centre just above the town, whilst enjoying a lovely two course lunch we found Golden Oriole and Short-toed Treecreeper. In fact we found the nest of the Orioles and watched at the nest site.
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| group photo |
For the afternoon we drove a short distance to the another area of the valley on the east bank of the river and we were surprised by the number of birds still in full song at this time of the day. We heard Hoopoe, Common Cuckoo, Golden Oriole and Blackcap as we left the bus. Then we found a Lesser Whitethroat, followed by Cirl Bunting and then a very showy Eastern Bonelli's Warbler. It was great to listen to three similar trilling songs at the same time and hear the subtle differences in them all, superb birding.
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| Smbre Tit |
This was quickly followed by the finding of a pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers that showed very well after a bit of patient birding! Then a Golden Eagle circled above us as did White Storks and then 3 Black Storks, Vultures were in the sky all the time as were Barn Swallows, Red-rumped Swallows , House and Crag Martins. Looking down at the river we found a pair of Semi-collared flycatchers, very nice indeed and a couple of Olivaceous Warblers sang from the river-side scrub.
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| Semi-collared Flycatcher |
Finally we spent sometime back at the cliff face where we had visited this morning, we were hoping to find Rock Nuthatch and maybe Chukar but instead we found many of the species seen this morning and a couple of Honey Buzzards drifted over.
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| red valarian |
After dinner we went out for a torchlight Owl Prowl and in fifteen minutes we had great views of a Scop's Owl and several short views of a Barn Owl. A Little Owl called in the distance but we never heard the Tawny owl that had called last night, all in all a very good day and not a bad evening either.
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