YAGODINA - TRIGRAD GORGE - PREVALA PASS - SMOYLAN - KRUMOVOGRAD VALLEY - ARDA HOTEL
A very long day today with a lot of travel and a lot of birding packed into it. We all met at 6:30am outside the hotel Yagodina for a morning walk around the village. It was quite bright and sunny with some cloud but it was also quite windy. We quickly logged all the local species around the hotel: Black Redstart, White Wagtail, Chaffinch, Serin, Tree Sparrow, Magpie and Hooded Crow.
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| Crag Martin |
Our walk took us up a gentle slope leading out of the village and along the track we found Wren, Crag Martin, Red-rumped Swallow and we heard a Blackcap and a Cuckoo calling. In the hedgerows and open hillsides we scanned for new species and found a ROCK THRUSH, unfortunately it was me that found it and by the time the first other person got to the scope the bird disappeared and wasn't found again!! Other species seen or heard in the area were: Red Backed Shrike, Long-tailed Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Eurasian Treecreeper, Coal Tit, Eurasian Chiffchaff and a distant Yellowhammer called.
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| A Great Spotted Woodpecker |
After breakfast we loaded up the bus with all our luggage and set off for the long trip to the Western Rhodope Mountains but first we had a date with a Wallcreeper in the heart of the Trigrad Gorge. Our drive down from Yagodina through the scenic mountains was stunning we also had several views of Grey Wagtail, Dipper and Raven. At the Trigrad Gorge we spent sometime near the tunnel looking for the 'creeper' but all we got there was Crag Martin, Black Redstart and Coal Tit. We then drove up to the car park at the entrance to the 'Devil's Throat' Cave where we spent a lot of time scanning the high cliff faces of the gorge.
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| The view from the hotel terrace at Yagodina |
Just as we were starting to leave we finally got onto a Wallcreeper, it promptly disappeared into a small cave but reappeared some minutes later and showed very well, it even flew down to 5 meters from the road, how fantastic was that?
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| The Trigrad Gorge |
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| record shots of Wallcreeper |
Happy as Larry we climbed back into the bus and set off for Smoylan our lunchtime destination. We stopped at the head of the Prevala Pass up in the skiing zone where many lodges lay empty and pine trees covered most of the ground. As soon as we got out of the bus we located 4 Ring Ouzels, all on the grass near the road, great stuff. Then we spent time watching a Serin before a couple of Common Crossbills turned up, one green one and one red one. A Mistle Thrush sang but did not show and a Black Redstart did show.
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| Black-veined White |
We arrived at Smoylan for lunch at 1:30pm and set off again at 2:30pm heading for Kadzhali. One stop for ice-cream produced a flyover Black-crowned Night Heron, a Sand martin and a Little Egret.
Our afternoon birding began at 5pm near the village of Krumovograd we drove along a single metalled road with a high ridge on one side and open arable fields behind a river on the other side. It was a wonderful stop especially for raptors. We quickly found 5 Griffon Vultures and whilst watching them an Egyptian Vulture appeared and a couple of small of small falcons. We quickly identified one of
them as a Hobby but the other was much darker and had longer wings. We illuminated
Red-footed Flacon when the bird got nearer and we realised we had found an
Eleanora’s Falcon, a super find.
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| Comma Butterfly |
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| Mountain Hares |
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| Latticed Brown |
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| Marbled Fritillery |
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| Spur-thighed Tortoise |
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| a view from the ridge near Krumovograd |
We scanned the steep rock faces for a Rock
Nuthatch and spent over an hour looking for one without luck. In the meantime
we found Roller, Red-backed and Woodchat Shrikes, Corn bunting,Crag Martin, Raven,
Turtle Dove, Black-eared Wheatear, Chukar, Black Stork and another Hobby. We also
heard several species: Common Nightingale, Syrian Woodpecker, Olivaceous Warbler
and Golden Oriole. Many butterflies were on show with dozens of Commas soaking
up the afternoon sun as well as Black-veined White, Meadow Brown and a couple
of Fritilleries. Back on the bus we drove the last 30 kilometres to our hotel
near Mardhzarovo arriving just in time for dinner at 7:50pm.
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