Sunday 12th January I picked Chris and Sandra up from Horsham and made the journey to Luton arriving around 7pm at the Luton Airport Ibis Hotel, a couple of beers and a meal in their restaurant we had an early night ready for our early morning flight. A straight forward check in and our flight left more or less on time. Arriving in Varna just over 3 hours later the pre arranged free Hotel transport was waiting for us.
A 15 minute journey from the airport and we were in the center of Varna city and at the Capitol Hotel. A quick check in to our rooms and off to the local Primorsky park for a walk before dark. Several Great and Blue Tits, along with Blackbirds and Pied Crows were seen and while Alan and Chris headed off towards the sea,
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| Pied Crow |
Sandra and I headed back to the hotel being alerted by loads of Blackbirds giving off alarm calls we were sure there must be an Owl nearby and sure enough Sandra spotted this Long-eared Owl.
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| Long-eared Owl |
On returning to the hotel a couple of the local beers, and now time for dinner.
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| The Local Beer - despite several still can't pronounce it! |
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| The lobby and bar |
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| Enjoying dinner in the restaurant. |
Dinner took me back to my college days with a menu that had a hint of those mentioned in the La Repertoire de la Cuisine by Escoffier.. In fact it was a really good menu and the food couldn't be faulted and with a price of around £20 for a main and starter we were all very satisfied.
The next morning breakfast was served at 7.00 but with slow service we were still in the restaurant when our guide Minko from Neophron Tours arrived.
Around 8.30 we set off heading north, our first stop was at Albena (a summer holiday resort) where adjacent is a wet woodland reserve known as Baltata.
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| Albena (woodland on the left, beaches and sea on the right) |
Still very bright and frosty we managed to find and had good views of Great, Middle, and Lesser Spotted plus Grey-headed and a brief view of a Black Woodpecker, and only heard a Green Woodpecker.
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| Middle-spotted Woodpecker |
We also had good views of several Short-toed Tree-creepers, but they didn't stay still long enough for a good photo.
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| Short-toed Tree-creeper |
Moving on we looked at some Lime-stone cliffs for an Eagle Owl but probably due to the road works going on had moved on. After a good lunch in a restaurant somewhere near bye? we headed up to Durankulak where an over wintering Great Bustard was (the first in four years)
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| Great Bustard in the distance (digi-scoped) |
We then returned to or guest house of the next 3 nights at Kavarna, where on the way we enjoyed good views of a Wild Cat.
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| Wild Cat with distinctive markings of zig-zag line down the back and black tip to the tail. |
.We checked into our hotel The Guest House Nash Dom in Kavarna, where we were served the local dish as a starter followed by a good main course of pork and of course the local beer.
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| Simple but comfortable rooms |
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| Starter of mixed salads and Feta like cheese |
Wednesday 15th we set off after an early breakfast into Romania as the Red-breasted Geese hadn't arrived this winter yet with it being so mild, however the 2-3 hour journey to where they had been seen the previous day was shrouded in thick fog and a heavy frost. Despite hearing geese overhead we couldn't see any. A possible Moustached Warbler was seen at 1 location, and at lunch time the fog still hadn't cleared so we headed back into Bulgaria.
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| Fog and frost at Istria Romania |
Back in Bulgaria the fog was beginning to clear so we stopped off at the Shabla lakes but while scoping the ducks the fog fell again. Heading further south we stopped at a gorge on Cape Kaliakra, and managed to get a distant view of an Eagle Owl as darkness fell before returning to our guest house.
Thursday 16th another early breakfast and start. Still a little fog was around but headed off to Romania again, as we headed north the weather improved and blue skies greeted us. Sadly there were parties of hunters shooting geese which made our job harder to find some settled flocks but eventually we did and had great views all be it distant of a couple of flocks of up to 80 Red-breasted amoung the thousands of White-fronts, and a flock of 100 Whooper Swans
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| Whooper Swans |
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| Whitefronts |
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| Red-breasted Geese |
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| Red-breasted Geese |
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| Red-breasted Geese |
Having had our fill of geese we headed back to Bulgaria once again stopping at Durankulak and Shabla lakes. Our final stop of the day was in Kavarna at the Long-eared Owl roost where 5 were seen.
Friday 17th, a later breakfast today and we packed our bags ready for our journey home. First stop was at Cape Kaliakra where we had views of Yelkouan Shearwaters, and the mediterranean sub-species desmarestii Shag, along with numerous Yellow-legged Gulls.
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| Cape Kaliakra |
As we travelled south we stoped again to look on the Limestone cliffs for Eagle Owl but drew a blank, then headed past Varna to the village where our guide lives so he could show us a Sombre Tit.
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| Sombre Tit territory near Bliznatsi (I think) |
Although they were regular here it took awhile for one to show.
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| Sombre Tit |
Next stop was the beach at Kamchia where another Yelkouan Sheerwater was seen along with a kingfisher and a distant White-tailed Eagle
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| Beach at Kamchia |
Heading back towards Varna crossing farmland we came across flocks of mixed finches including several flocks of up to 15 Hawfinch, on the outskirts over looking Varna Lake we good views of Pygmy Cormorants and good numbers of Wigeon, Teal, and Great Egret.
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| Over looking the wetlands at Lake Varna |
Down in the industrial part of the wetland a pair of "real" Ruddy Shelduck were seen also a summer plumaged White-winged Black Tern
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| Ruddy Shelducks at a distance |
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| Jackdaws at a cattle farm |
Set amidst the industry was a cattle farm with hundreds of Jackdaws, these being of soemmerringii race different to those in the UK
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| Eastern european race Jackdaw |
By now it was late afternoon and we headed for Varna airport to catch our evening flight at 18.45 which was relatively on time arriving back in Luton around 8.30pm.
A good trip overall, for me I was hoping to get a bit closer to the geese but it was a real experience to see so many together. I technically saw 5 lifers Eagle Owl, Pygmy Cormorant, Sombre Tit, Yelkouan Sheerwater, and Moustached Warbler but cant really count this as it was only for a split second.
Total bird list for the trip was a round 100.
Mute Swan, Whooper Swan, Greater White-fronted Goose, Red-breasted Goose, Shelduck, Ruddy Shelduck, Mallard, Gadwall, Shoveler, Wigeon, Teal, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Smew, Pheasant, Great-crested Grebe, Black-necked Grebe, Little Grebe, Yelkouan Shearwater, Great Cormorant, Shag, Pygmy Cormorant, Great Egret, Little Egret, Grey Heron, White-tailed Eagle, Marsh Harrier, Hen Harrier, Common Buzzard, Goshawk, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine, Water rail, Moorhen, Coot, Great Bustard, Avocet, Grey Plover, Sanderling, Dunlin, Woodcock, Snipe, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Caspian Gull, White-winged Black Tern, Rock Dove, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Eagle Owl, Long-eared Owl, Little Owl, Kingfisher, Black Woodpecker, Green, Grey-headed, Syrian, Great Spotted, Middle Spotted, and Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers, Skylark, Crested Lark, Calandra Lark, Meadow Pipit, Robin, Black Redstart, Song Thrush, Fieldfare, Blackbird, Cettis Warbler, Moustached Warbler, Firecrest, Wren, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Sombre Tit, Bearded Tit, Nuthatch, Short-toed Treecreeper, Magpie, Jay, Jackdaw, Rook, Hooded Crow, Raven, Starling, House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Chaffinch, Brambling, Linnet, Goldfinch, Siskin, Greenfinch, Hawfinch, Bullfinch, Reed Bunting, Corn Bunting,
