TRANSFER FROM MADZHAROVO TO BURGAS - WITH STOPS AT LEVKA RESERVOIR AND VILLAGE - BOVSKA RESORT
WEATHER; Rain all day off and on. Temp 3C- 16C
With a prediction of a lot of rain today we planned our day accordingly, the 4 hour trip to Burgos was spread out with birding stops when dry spells occurred, it took all day to get to Burgos.
It wasn't raining when we got up for our 7am walk around the grounds of our hotel, we were very close to the River and some large cliff out crops on the escarpments in the valley. A Griffon Vulture's nest had an adlut and one chick in it and Black Storks drifted along the cliff face a couple of times.
In the scrub around the river we saw several common species and had short but good views of a Common Nightingale. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was also seen briefly and typical scrub birds such as Olivacous Warbler and Red-backed Shrike were in abundance.
The flowers of the Tulip Tree in the grounds of ther hotel
Black-headed Bunting, Spanish and Tree Sparrows, Corn Bunting and Woodchat Shrike were seen in and around the fields and Sombre Tit made it once again onto our list.
After breakfast we loaded up the buses and drove less than a kilometer along the road toward Madzharovo, we pulled over and got out to view another cliff face set back off the road, Dancho pointed out the large nest of a Golden Eagle. Unfortunately, this year the birds were not using that particular nest, we stayed around for nearly an hour in the hope of seeing one.
Many other birds we seen, it was a wonderful area of cultivated fields, surrounded by scrub and a ribbon of riparian woodland that followed the course of the river. We saw lots of species some of the highlights included a perched Hobby, two Hoopoes, two Lesser Grey Shrikes, lots of Red-backed Shrikes and a couple of Woodchat Shrikes. We saw our first Black-headed Yellow Wagtail, also Alpine Swifts, Black Storks, European Bee-eaters, Crag Martins and black-headed Buntings.
It started to rain lightly, so we abandoned our birding and jumped back onto the buses. We drove for nearly an hour thourgh various intensities of rain showers. We stopped twice during dry spells to search for Eastern Bonelli's Warbler, the second stop proved to be successful.
watching an Eastern Bonelli's Warbler
A coffee stop provided us with, not one, but two male Montagu's Harriers! Pallid Swifts were nesting in the garage forecourt and we saw another Yellow Wagtail.
We bought and ate our lunch in the small village of Levka, proir to that, we had stopped at the local reservoir to look for Eastern Imperial Eagle, which turned up right on time. It stayed in the sky the whole we were there but it was distant and in bad light. On and around the reservoir we saw little else except for four Common Terns and pair of Mallards.
After lunch we visited the 'LESSER KESTREL CENTRE' in the village, these rare birds went exstinct in Bulgaria about 30 years ago and this successful reintroduction scheme has now 80 breeding pairs. The problem was that it rained during the whole time we were there and we never got to see too many of them. The staff at the centre were helpful and informative and we could see from their dedication and enthusiasm why this scheme was working.
a apir of Lesser Kestrels near nest box 420, taken by Rosemary Aitken.
two pairs of Lesser kestrels sitting in the rain at Levka
It rained a lot more before we stopped at a wooded resort near Sredets around 4pm, the light was awful as the rain eased off for a little while. We had two target species there and we got both of them. As we pulled up in the car park a large bird flew from an oak tree, it was an all brown bird about the size of a Buzzard. We had mixed opinions on it, with some saying it was a Buzzard and others opting for Tawny Owl because of the commotion caused in the forest where the bird landed. We never got to see it again and none of us saw it well.
Eurasian Nuthatch taken in very poor light
The Eastern subspecies of Common Redstart (samamisicus) was one of our target birds, one was singing in the rain, we located it near the car park. Our second target species was the Semi-collared Flycatcher we had to work a little for that one. Dancho was soon on the case and just after stopping to watch a family party Eurasian Nuthatches he found the flycatcher.
Semi-collared Flycatcher
The rain got heavier and after watching the flycatcher for a while we headed back to the buses, that was our last birding of the day. We drove through rush-hour traffic, roadworks and all, to get to our hotel in the north of the city. Dinner was taken in a local restaurant at the later time of 8pm.