Another day of transit saw us traveling up the west coast of the Black Sea passed Varna and on up towards the border with Romania. We made frequent stops and had a very successful day, the weather was again superb, clear sky with a nice cooling breeze.
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| Pomorie Salt pans |
There wasn't an official morning walk but some of the group went out, they came back with reports of several sightings, none of which were new for the trip but some good ones anyway. Syrian Woodpecker was seen again as was Common Nightingale, Golden Oriole, Common Whitethroat and Olivaceous Warbler.
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| Pied Avocet in defensive mode |
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| Great White Egrets |
At 8:30am we were on the road heading northward towards Varna, after about 20 minutes on the road we stopped just north of Pomorie. A wide expanse of salt pans stretched either side of the main road north of the town and it was there that we made a short stop. A couple of Rollers seen on the wires went quickly onto the sightings list as did Pied Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Common Shelduck, Little Egret and Common Tern. Whilst we were there a couple of Great White Egrets dropped in, whilst Gull-billed Terns joined the Common Terns over the water. A large flock of White Pelicans circled on the thermals, Common Kestrels hovered and a Marsh Harrier quartered the fields nearby. The only wader seen there was a Little Ringed Plover!
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| The large Bee-eater 'bank' where about 30 pairs were digging their nest holes |
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| A 'digger' in action |
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| Northern Wheatear posing nicely |
We turned off the coast road and headed westward inland to visit the Viulimiski Pass which is famous for migrating raptors etc. Our first stop at the beginning of the pass was magical. We saw some great species in a short space of time and enjoyed the lovely spectacle of a Bee-eater colony. Here is a list of what we saw in 30 minutes:
1. Isabelline Wheatear
2. Northern Wheatear
3. Bee-eater
4. Roller
5. Hoopoe
6. Golden Oriole
7. Crested Lark
8. Spanish Sparrow
9. Common Cuckoo
10. Common Buzzard
11. Barred Warbler
12. Common Whitethroat
13. Little Ringed Plover
14. Red-rumped Swallow
15. barn Swallow
16. Common Swift
17. House Martin
18. Sand Martin
19. Corn Bunting
20. Black-headed Bunting
21. Red Backed Shrike
22. Woodchat Shrike
23. Black Stork
It was amazing really, all those birds in a matter of minutes, just shows you how good Bulgaria is.
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| Crested lark |
At the peak of the pass we stopped to look for raptors, finding Steppe Buzzard, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard and Common Kestrel. In the scrub we found a lovely male Ortolan bunting singing, Linnets, Skylarks, Hawfinch and lots of Red-backed Shrikes. As we drove back down to the coast road we drove through some open oak woodland and it was there that Iordan our Bulgarian guide spotted a Wryneck sitting in a tree. Fantastic, we reversed to the spot and we all had great views of this elusive species.
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| one of the many Skylarks at the top of the pass |
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| the Wryneck taken from the bus through the window |
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| bad light and bad picture of an Ortolan bunting singing in the pines |
We enjoyed a lovely lunch in a roadside restaurant before driving through Varna and on towards the Cape of Kaliakra. On the way we stopped at some cliffs near balchik to look for an Eagle Owl. Again our guide Iordan came up trumps as he found an adult bird perched nicely on the cliff face.
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| The Eagle Owl sitting out but distant and fast asleep! |
Our visit to the Psuedo Steppe near the Cape of Kaliakra also proved successful. Our target birds were Tawny Pipit and Stone Curlew, we got both in a short period of time. The Stone Curlews showed well, they were a pair and had inadvertently driven them off their nest as we nearly trod on a couple of eggs, we quickly retreated from the area. The tawny also showed very well for us as did Short-toed Lark, Calandra Lark, Crested lark and a Hoopoe.
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| A happy bunch of birders after just seeing the Stone Curlew |
As we drove through the small villages on the way to our hotel we found a small flock of Rosy Starlings bathing in a roadside puddle, how fantastic was that. The birds flew up into some bushes to preen before flying off, great views were had by all of us. After that we found a couple more groups of them.
Lastly we drove down a small track to a site where a couple of Demoiselle Cranes had been seen in recent days. Unfortunately for us they did not appear but we did see our first Stonechat plus Yellow Wagtails, Rollers, Bee-eaters, Turtle Dove, Black-headed Bunting and a few common species.
We finally made it to our hotel at 7pm, after checking in and a short break we settled down to eat a lovely dinner in the restaurant that overlooks the beach, lovely.
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