BULGARIA WITH BIRDQUEST 18-27th May 2010
by Tim Wilcox
After the anxious wait with skies emptied by the volcano and potentially further by the BA strike the Birdquest group of 13 miraculously got our plane from Heathrow to Sofia on Tuesday 18 May arriving on time for an action-packed and absolutely superb 10 days birding around Bulgaria with our superb and humorous guides, Derek Scott from Birdquest and expert local guide, Lyubomir Profirov (Lyubo) and our genial coach driver, Evghani. We immediately headed straight out from the airport past Plovdiv and Asenovgrad on down to the out-of-season ski resort of Pomporova in the Rhodope Mountains soon leaving behind the last trace of decent road! The first birding was at a motorway pitstop for the always excellent coffee. I added my first of 60 lifers with a singing Black-Headed Bunting in scrub below the petrol station and a Red-Rumped Swallow. A party of Bee-Eaters flew low over in the strong wind. Corn Buntings sang too and this was to be a constant and much welcome soundtrack to our trip along with the clamour of Great Reed Warblers, Nightingales which kept up all night in the Arda River valley and abundant Cuckoos.
Above: Black-Headed Bunting courtesy Russ Tofts
Above: Bee-Eater courtesy Russ Tofts
Above: Red-Backed Shrike courtesy Russ Tofts
Above: Spotted Nutcracker the first ‘lifer-before-breakfast’
The first full day’s birding started with a walk in the spruce forest just behind the hotel and we were not disappointed with Crested Tit, Firecrest, Red-Backed Shrike and one of my target birds for the trip, Spotted Nutcracker perched up superbly in a tall spruce right above our parked coach and allowing this hasty hand-held digiscope record. After that brilliant start there was hardly a day when I didn’t add a lifer to the list before the inevitable breakfast fare of cold meats, boiled egg and cheese and loads of coffee. The only hoped-for bird which got away that morning was a Black Woodpecker somewhere nearby but it failed to respond to taping (Derek’s machine!) and we didn’t get another till the last day which also failed to show. Always good to leave a major target bird in store as the object of a future trip. A bonus was had in the shape of a superb alpestris eastern race male Ring Ouzel right at the side of the road on our way down from Pomporovo.
Our main expedition of the day followed to the Trigrad Gorge. A spectacularly deep gorge in the Rhodope Mountains where there is a deep cave which legend has it is where Orpheus entered the Underworld. The whole area from here to the Thracian plains was the heartland of the cult of Orpheus. A long wait at the side of the road ensued, where we were advised not to use our scopes in case one of us tripped over a leg and tumbled several hundred feet into the gorge! As we moved off to look further up I was lagging behind as the rest entered the road tunnel and suddenly there was a flash of grey and scarlet from behind me and one flew straight ahead across the gorge. I was able to track it as it moved quickly along the rock face flying and resettling but couldn’t get anyone else onto it. A few others had a brief glimpse later but that was it before lunch at a fish restaurant further up the gorge where I added another lifer in the shape of a splendid male Serin. Then it was back down to stake out the Wallcreeper nest and hope for the best. Just as Derek thought we really had to move on one of us popped away for a pee and there it was above him on the rock face. Amazingly it moved round until it was right above us and we enjoyed splendid views of the male. A bird I have wanted to see since I looked through my dad’s Peterson field guide as a small boy and the main target of the trip for many including me. Hardly surprisingly it was voted bird of the trip.
Above: Trigrad Gorge
Above: Male Wallcreeper Trigrad Gorge courtesy Russ Tofts
We then drove on to the Eastern Rhodopes to our next hotel on the Arda River seeing a superb Rock Bunting from a bridge along the way together with great views of Red-Rumped Swallows from above as they flew up and down the river with Crag and House Martins.
Another stop was to view one of the many White Stork nests which characterised the villages of the Rhodope and also gave us great views of Spanish Sparrows which commonly nest inside stork’s nests.
Above: White Stork’s nest supporting a colony of Spanish Sparrows
Above: The Arda River
A morning walk from our hotel produced a very obliging Nightingale responding to Derek’s machine, the first I have seen since I was a kid going to Minsmere. The best views of Hoopoes were to be had here together with an obliging Hawfinch in a low tree and another lifer-before-breakfast – Sombre Tit.
Above: Red-Rumped Swallows near the hotel on the Arda
Above: Studen Kladenets Dam
The first port of call that day was Studen Kladenets Dam where another colourful European special was added – Blue Rock Thrush along with very close views of a pair of Eastern Black-eared Wheatears the male exhibiting almost all black and white, Isabelline Wheatears and the first of several Lesser Grey Shrikes.
The main target of the day was to be the famous vulture feeding station of Madzharovo. We enjoyed 62 Griffon Vultures feeding on the carcasses laid out daily for them along with 4 Egyptian Vultures (the symbol of the Bulgarian equivalent of the RSPB) and a giant Black Vulture with a wing tag bearing the number 64 which had come over from northern Greece where they breed. Black Kites, 3 foxes and Ravens joined the banquet.
Above: Eastern Festoon courtesy Jean Thomas
Our picnic lunch gave us excellent views of Sardinian, Eastern Orphean and Barred Warblers, a Woodchat Shrike together with lots of Eastern Festoon butterflies and Black-veined Whites and a wild Tortoise. In the Krumovitsa Valley later on we waited a very long time for what turned out to be an all to brief view of another of the speciality birds of the trip, Levant Sparrowhawk along with Short-toed Eagle, a much appreciated Roller and several Golden Orioles which were in daily supply thereon. Somewhere near Studen Kladenets village was our 4th shrike of the day a beautiful male Masked Shrike. The Pallid Swift colony was no longer in the village due to building work however. The very end of the day produced one of many bonus birds for us – a Common Quail which shot out across the road in response to tape.
Above: Black Vulture no.64 from Northern Greece
Above: Griffon and Egyptian Vultures
The following day Lyubo guided us to a spot in the mountains where he had found a Rock Thrush’s nest and it duly obliged around its strange cone-shaped nest on the rock face. Here too most had an excellent view of Subalpine Warbler, a very close Syrian Woodpecker (the first of several on the trip) and Russ found me an Ortolan Bunting about a quarter of a mile away in the scope! Another target lifer for me which fortunately I was to see more successfully later on. We also had at our feet the sight of an extraordinary type of lacewing called Nemoptera coa.
Above: Nempotera coa