Well you can't be in paradise everyday, finally our bubble burst and so did the clouds! Yes it rained on our parade today but only in the afternoon.
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| the crew dressed for wet birding today |
We met at 7am for a walk around the hotel grounds, we never added any new species but we got great views of a lot of others. A Little Owl sat in the hotel chimney outlet, whist a Barred Warbler showed well in the scrub. Bird song was as prolific as ever, Common Nightingales, Black Headed Buntings, Olivaceous Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Hoopoe, Turtle Dove and the ever present Common Cuckoo gave it large.
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| Barn Swallow on my balcony this morning |
Our first stop after breakfast was near a reservoir just east of Mardjarovo, we stood on a hillside overlooking the water and the distant hills looked promising for raptors. Three Short-toed Eagles circled above us, Griffon and Egyptian Vultures drifted over the hills and we had super views of Hawfinches in the bushes just below us. An Olive-tree Warbler sang in the distance but we never got to see it. Just after we left we saw our first Black Kite of the trip, it was standing in the road eating a road-kill of some description.
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| another Hawfinch record shot |
The next time we stopped was to look for Masked Shrike and Olive Tree Warbler, both of which failed to show during our search, we did hear Olive Tree Warbler but that was all we got from it. We did see Woodlark, Spotted Flycatcher, Mistle Thrush, Ortolan Bunting, Tree Pipit and Eurasian Sparrowhawk. We also got unbelievable views of a male Golden Oriole that sat out in the open., likewise with a Common Cuckoo. As we got back to the bus we finally found the Masked Shrike, this little beauty sat right out for us, just lovely.
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| Knapweed Fritillary - taken by Roy Grant |
As we drove further eastward we could see the clouds in the distance and we knew we were in for a wet afternoon. We bought picnic lunch supplies in Topolovgrad and ate it just outside the town on a hillside which is a regular raptor watch-point. Along the track towards the summit of the hill we saw Slylark, Isabelline Wheatear, Stonechat (our first of the trip), Woodchat Shrike and lots of Spanish Sparrows.
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| Large Heath |
During lunch we found our target species the Imperial Eagle, this magnificent beauty drifted over us several times as if scanning our lunch in the hope of nicking some! Next a Honey Buzzard circled right above us, it was followed by two Red-footed Falcons, how good was that? In the scrub an Orphean Warbler flitted about and another Olive Tree Warbler sang distantly. It was then that it started to rain, so we quickly abandoned our lunch break and jumped into the bus.
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| Corn Flower |
We drove for another hour before turning off into an oak woodland near a country park called Bozura. The rain came down but it did not stop my intrepid group, we walked along a couple of sheltered tracks before finding our first Common Redstart, then a Spotted Flycatcher and we got onto a Great Spotted Woodpecker in flight, we had previously seen a Green Woodpecker minutes before from the bus.
After a while our guide Dancho led us to a Black Woodpecker nesting hole that he knew of, within a few minutes an adult bird sat peaking out of the entrance hole, fantastic. On our way back towards the car we found Eurasian Nuthatch, Semi-collared Flycatcher, Jay and our first Greenfinches, whoopee!
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| Black Woodpecker at the nest hole |
The rain came down with a vengeance as we drove the last 30km to Burgos, along the way we saw another Lesser Spotted Eagle, another Imperial Eagle - this was a first year bird perched on a pylon, we also saw Grey Heron, Glossy Ibis, Great Cormorant and lots of Yellow-legged Gulls as we drove through Burgos.
We arrived at our hotel around 7pm which was a little late, but we all enjoyed a super dinner and an early night.
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