MAY 17TH 2013 - BULGARIA DAY 5 – TOUR 1

BURGAS AREA ALL DAY WITH VISITS TO: SALT PANS AND VAYA (BURGAS) LAKE 

It was raining when we awoke this morning! That wasn’t supposed to be in the script. However it did ease off by the time we set off for our early morning walk at 6:30am. The dull weather made birding even more difficult so we didn’t see many species at all.  The best of which was good views of Golden Oriole and a brief glimpse of a Grey-headed Woodpecker.

White and Dalmatian (far right) Pelicans - you can see how big these birds are because the black dots on the left are Great Cormorants!

Our morning venue was the big lake on the west side of the main road heading back into Burgas from Sarafovo.  We spent our first hour watching from the roadside and had tremendous views of many species. Both the White and the Dalmatian Pelicans were in good numbers as was Great Cormorant and great Crested Grebe, many Common Terns hawked the water and sat on posts out in the lagoon, we also found Gadwall, Mallard, Common Pochard, Moorhen, Mute Swan and Common Coot. More interesting species were added as fly-overs or were seen in the reeds: Great Reed Warblers sang from many places, Little Grebes swan and dived near the reed beds, Squacco Herons flew back and forth and a pair of Little Bitterns performed very well for us.

My group of pelicans

A couple of Honey Buzzards drifted in across the bay and a single Purple Heron was seen flying in the distance over the reeds, just as we were about to leave a couple of Night Herons flew  over us.

We stopped again to view the same lake a little further south to get better views of the terns, what a spectacle some 100+ Common Terns sitting in rows along a metal fence, they were joined by Mediterranean and Black-headed Gulls and a single Sandwich Terns. Large flocks of White Pelicans could be seen flying around the lake but one huge flock came in over the bay and there was at least 700 birds present! A good number of White Storks were also passing over, heading north, one flock held 150+ birds. Lesser numbers of Honey Buzzards passed over and at least 5 Lesser Spotted Eagles were seen.

Great Reed Warbler

it has a very loud song - you can see why

The third stop produced even more species and topped our morning with some great additions to our list. A small flock of male Garganey sat out in the open looking very smart in their summer outfits. Some Shovelers sat there too as we also found Gadwall, Common Pochard and a pair of Ferruginous Duck. But it was the terns that received most of our attention, Common Terns, Little Terns and good numbers of Whiskered Terns hawked over the water and a couple of Black Terns were found in with them. Glossy Ibis flew over in small numbers and a single Great White Egret also flew by. More Honey Buzzards and Lesser-spotted Eagles drifted over and at least 3 Collared Pratincoles hawked insects a fair distance behind us.

Spanish Sparrow - we counted 25 of their nests built in just one White Stork's nest

We turned inland to view other parts of the huge lake and spent the next 3 hours or so watching over reed beds and small lagoons. Not many new species were seen but we had terrific views of Squacco Heron, Pygmy Cormorant, Hobby and we heard a Marsh Warbler singing from the scrub. We ate lunch in the shelter of a wooden bench with a canopy whilst watching more Ferruginous Ducks, Little Egrets, Grey herons and even more Great-crested Grebes.

After lunch we visited yet another area of the lake but this time our efforts produced nothing new, we did Turtle Dove, a Roller on a wire, Whinchat, Black-headed Buntings and many common species.

For the rest of the afternoon we drove back through Burgas to re-visit the salt pans where we saw many of the species seen there yesterday. We did add a couple of new species in the shape of a Yellow Wagtail (feldegg - black-headed), Caspian Gull, Little Gull and Gull-billed Tern. Most of the waders had cleared out but we found Curlew Sandpiper (19), Kentish Plover, Lapwing, Little-ringed Plover,  Eurasian Spoonbill, Sandwich Tern, Little Tern and Common Tern.

So despite the wet and dull start to the day we ended seeing another 30 new species and a total of 97 for the day.