TRANSFER FROM VITOSHA MOUNTAINS TO YTRIGRAD GORGE WITH STOPS IN SOFIA AT TWO PARKS - QUARRY -
WEATHER: Low cloud and misty to start - broken cloud all day. temp 1C - 16C
What a difference a day makes! Yesterday, in the Vitosha Mountains we had high cloud, nice light and zero wind, today, when I had a full complement of group memebers (12), the weather was awful. We had low cloud, thick mist and it was really quite cold.
the group in the mist at the Aleko Ski Resort
We spent an hour before breakfast and another hour after breakfast looking for all the 'goodies' that the mountain habitat had to offer. In the mist we found Grey Wagtail, Ring Ouzel, Common Crossbill, Coal Tit, Goldcrest, Song Thrush, Robin, Blackbird and we had glimpses of fly-over Nutcrackers.
After breakfast it bcame a lot clearer, the mist cleared up and we enjoyed better views of the Spotted Nutcracker and we got to see the Willow Tit really well.
3 shots of the Spotted Nutcracker
Our walk produced a few more birds, we added Black Redstart, Jay, Greenfinch, Bullfinch, Chiffchaff, Eurasian Treecreeper and several more Ring Ouzels.
a Willow Tit taken by Dancho
For the rest of the morning we drove down into Sofia and much warmer temperatures, the light was much better too. We visited two parts of 'South Park' in the city in the search of Black Woodpecker. Our short walks produced many woodland species, including Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackcap, Jay and dozens of common woodland species. We did find Short-toed Treecreeper and we heard Syrian Woodpecker but it wasn't until the end of the second walk that we finally got to see the huge Black Woodpecker. Our views of this much sought-after species were brief but good, we saw it flying from the tree to tree and most of the group saw it perched briefly.
We headed out of the city and before long we stopped to buy lunch and then made a short journey to some grass meadows near the town of ............ . Dancho had mentioned that we may see or hear Corncrakes in the area, we were all sceptical, but sure enough he produced the bird, well, he produced the sound of a calling bird, we never actually got to see it.
Lesser Spotted Fritillary
In the pursuit of the Corncrake we notched up a few other species, most noteably was the Ortolan Bunting, what a beauty! We found Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Lesser Spotted Fritillary Butterfly! To top that, two Lesser Spotted Eagles flew over and a Eurasian Sparrowhawk circled above us.
Ortolan Bunting
A barred Warbler was singing tantalisingly close, but only one of the group managed to see it perform its dispaly flight and no-one else even saw the bird!
Other species seen or heard were: Pallid Swift (two very close birds), Alpine Swift, Common Cuckoo, Yellowhammer (heard), Corn Buntings were very common, we saw Tree Sparrows and a White Stork flew over. As we left the area we stopped to photograph a mass of Green-winged Orchids and we found a beautiful male Montagu's Harrier circling the fields, what a stunning bird!
Photgraphing orchids
Green-winged Orchids
a male Montagu's Harrier taken by Dancho
As we made our way south-easterly along the motorway we added 'journey-birds' to the list, such as White Stork, Commn Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Black-winged Stilt and Great Cormorant.
Our last stop around 3:30pm was near the village of Kirchim at a huge stone-quarry, we had views over a few meadows and some farmalnd with orchards. The birding there was fantastic. In a brief 30 minute stop we found: Rollers, Bee-eaters, Hoopoes, Red-backed Shrikes, Black-headed Bunting, Tree and Spanish Sparrows, Levant Sparrowhawk, Red-rumped Swallows, Spotted Flycatcher, Greenfinch, Goldfinch and a Crested Lark.
Eurasian Hoopoe
The rest of the day was spent travelling, we left the motorway and made our way to the Trigrad Valley, passing several reservoirs and dams. The long and winding road took nearly 3 hours to navigate, we arrived at our hotel around 7pm! Dinner was taken at 7:30pm.
Elephant Rock near Devin, we saw Crag martins when we stopped to photograph the rock formation