BirdID course in Bulgaria 2015: steppe

Today was expected to be a wet day so wanted to stay close to the van. The stops for the day included a reserve that is superb for sea-watching and steppe areas, suitable for larks, pipits and Stone Curlew.

We spent the morning around the cape of Kaliakra. Being 8 km into the sea it offers fantastic opportunities for seawatching. We had a few Yelkouan Shearwaters, Sandwitch Terns, Mediterranean Gulls and Common Terns. The area is also great for the Pied Wheatear, Shag and Alpine Swift. And yes, we did have great views of all of these. A Hobby was also there, sitting nicely on the cliffs. A pleasant surprise were two Red-breasted Flycatchers including one with a red breast.

After lunch we explored the steppe area around. We recorded loads of Calandra larks, Tawny pipit, Stone Curlew, Lesser Grey Shrike, Whinchat and we had great views of Long-legged Buzzard. Thus we added another type of habitat to the extensive list we already had.

We arrived in the hotel in the late afternoon and had some free time to walk around the steppe areas adjacent to the hotel. The coastal cliffs are a home to the Mediterranean Shag which posed nicely for a long photo session.

All in all we had 82 species. Here is the checklist for the day:

1. Mallard
2. Ring-necked Pheasant
3. Black-throated Diver
4. Little Grebe
5. Great Crested Grebe
6. Black-necked Grebe
7. Yelkouan Shearwater
8. White Stork
9. Great Cormorant
10. European Shag
11. Eurasian Marsh-Harrier
12. Montagu’s Harrier
13. Long-legged Buzzard
14. Eurasian Coot
15. Stone Curlew
16. Eurasian Oystercatcher
17. Common Snipe
18. Parasitic Skua
19. Mediterranean Gull
20. Yellow-legged Gull
21. Common Tern
22. Sandwich Tern
23. Rock Pigeon
24. Common Wood-Pigeon
25. European Turtle-Dove
26. Eurasian Collared-Dove
27. Common Cuckoo
28. Little Owl
29. Alpine Swift
30. Common Swift
31. European Bee-eater
32. Eurasian Hoopoe
33. Syrian Woodpecker
34. Eurasian Kestrel
35. Eurasian Hobby
36. Red-backed Shrike
37. Lesser Gray Shrike
38. Woodchat Shrike
39. Eurasian Golden Oriole
40. Willow Warbler
41. Common Chiffchaff
42. Great Reed-Warbler
43. Blackcap
44. Barred Warbler
45. Lesser Whitethroat
46. Greater Whitethroat
47. Common Nightingale
48. Red-breasted Flycatcher
49. Black Redstart
50. Whinchat
51. Northern Wheatear
52. Pied Wheatear
53. Black-eared Wheatear
54. Eurasian Blackbird
55. European Starling
56. Black headed Yellow Wagtail
57. White Wagtail
58. Tawny Pipit
59. Black-headed Bunting
60. Corn Bunting
61. Common Chaffinch
62. European Greenfinch
63. Eurasian Siskin
64. European Goldfinch
65. Eurasian Linnet
66. Hawfinch
67. House Sparrow
68. Spanish Sparrow
69. Barn swallow
70. Red-rumped Swallow
71. Houses martin
72. Jay
73. Jackdaw
74. Hooded Crow
75. Crested Lark
76. Calandra Lark
77. Skylark
78. Great Tit
79. Blue tit
80. Magpie
81. Woodlark
82. Greater Short-toed Lark