BirdID course in Bulgaria 2015: waterbirds

Today my guests had their best day for the trip. It was going to be a day devoted to waterbirds. According to their words today we visited the best sites for the whole trip. The day was fairly quiet and we spend a lot of time birding rather then driving around. We started with the pre-breakfast walk when we spotted a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker, Barred Warbler and a close Roe Deer that came about 20m away from us.

On the way to our first stop we were lucky to see three Grey Partridges feeding in the fields along the road. This observation made the day even at 8 a.m. for one of the participants who managed to take pictures of the birds. “I can never see these in Norway” he said appreciating the time in Bulgaria.

Once we arrived at our first place we started logging the waterbirds for the day: Ruff, Paddyfield Warbler, Ferruginous Duck, Purpe Heron, White-winged Black Tern, Whiskered Tern, Gull-billed Tern, Marsh Harrier and the illusive Bearded Tit. On the bank we had Sanderling and Curlew Sandpiper. At certain point we had over 30 terns flying overhead. “This is a great experience” one of our participants said.

After spending a couple of hours with waterbirds we decided to have a walk in the nearest park. It was a good decision. Soon we started recording flycatcher by flycatcher and listed all 5 species seen in Bulgaria in a small park: Semi-collared, Collared, Pied, Spotted and Red-breasted Flycatcher. Full house! What a place. Since this was a bird id study we spent some time discussing the id features for the different species. It turned out that this discussion was much appreciated as mentioned in the evaluation forms collected later on.

We didn’t realise that lunch time has come. After a lovely mackerel and salad we were back on the field searching for more exciting observations. The afternoon however, wasn’t that packed with excitement. We noted a group of 20+ Ferrugenous Ducks, Garganey, Barred Warbler, Little Grebe and a few other more common birds.

We were back to the hotel on time to pack. It was our last full day of birding and we had to depart tomorrow. No one really wanted it …

It was a superb day with our 114 birds. Here is the full checklist for the day:

1. Mute Swan
2. Common Shelduck
3. Mallard
4. Garganey
5. Ferruginous Duck
6. Grey Partridge
7. Ring-necked Pheasant
8. Black-throated Diver
9. Little Grebe
10. Great Crested Grebe
11. White Stork
12. Great Cormorant
13. European Shag
14. Grey Heron
15. Purple Heron
16. Little Egret
17. Squacco Heron
18. Glossy Ibis
19. Eurasian Marsh-Harrier
20. Montagu’s Harrier
21. Common Buzzard
22. Water Rail
23. Eurasian Moorhen
24. Eurasian Coot
25. Northern Lapwing
26. Little Ringed Plover
27. Common Greenshank
28. Wood Sandpiper
29. Common Redshank
30. Ruff
31. Curlew Sandpiper
32. Temminck’s Stint
33. Sanderling
34. Slender-billed Gull
35. Black-headed Gull
36. Mediterranean Gull
37. Yellow-legged Gull
38. Gull-billed Tern
39. White-winged Black Tern
40. Whiskered Tern
41. Common Tern
42. Sandwich Tern
43. Rock Pigeon
44. Common Wood-Pigeon
45. European Turtle-Dove
46. Eurasian Collared-Dove
47. Common Cuckoo
48. Alpine Swift
49. Common Swift
50. European Bee-eater
51. Eurasian Hoopoe
52. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
53. Great Spotted Woodpecker
54. Syrian Woodpecker
55. Eurasian Kestrel
56. Red-footed Falcon
57. Eurasian Hobby
58. Red-backed Shrike
59. Lesser Gray Shrike
60. Woodchat Shrike
61. Eurasian Golden Oriole
62. Willow Warbler
63. Common Chiffchaff
64. Eastern Olivaceous Warbler
65. PaddyfieldWarbler
66. Great Reed-Warbler
67. Savi’sWarbler
68. Blackcap
69. Barred Warbler
70. Lesser Whitethroat
71. Greater Whitethroat
72. Spotted Flycatcher
73. Common Nightingale
74. European Pied Flycatcher
75. Collared Flycatcher
76. Semicollared Flycatcher
77. Red-breasted Flycatcher
78. Black Redstart
79. Whinchat
80. European Stonechat
81. Northern Wheatear
82. Pied Wheatear
83. Eurasian Blackbird
84. European Starling
85. Black headed Yellow Wagtail
86. Citrine Wagtail
87. White Wagtail
88. Tawny Pipit
89. Black-headed Bunting
90. Corn Bunting
91. Common Chaffinch
92. European Greenfinch
93. European Goldfinch
94. Eurasian Linnet
95. Hawfinch
96. House Sparrow
97. Spanish Sparrow
98. Eurasian Tree Sparrow
99. Barn swallow
100. Red-rumped Swallow
101. Houses martin
102. Jay
103. Jackdaw
104. Hooded Crow
105. Crested Lark
106. Calandra Lark
107. Skylark
108. Great Tit
109. Blue tit
110. Magpie
111. Greater Short-toed Lark
112. Sand martin
113. Rook
114. Bearded Tit