Route: Burgas – Pomorie – Poroi – Varna – Krapets
Weather: overcast with moderate wind
Today we made our way to the Northern Black Sea coast. We started by the saltpans at Pomorie where we added Black-winged Stilt, Ferruginous Duck, Sandwich Tern and Great White Egret to the trip list. We had fantastic views of Garganey, Whiskered Tern and Little Tern.
After this brief stop we carried on along the road to our next stop. This was an absolutely paradise. There were at least 5 Ruddy Shelducks, lots of Bee-eaters, about a dozen of Rose-coloured Starlings, two Booted Eagles both pale and dark morph and the highlight would be a pair of Yellow Wagtails carrying nesting materials only a few metres away from us. A pair of Marsh Harriers was disturbing all the Lapwings in the area and half a dozen of Whiskered Terns patrolled the area. What a fantastic place!
We then drove over a mountain pass where we heard lots of Hawfinches, Black-headed Buntings and Skylarks. After lunch we visited a wonderful old oak forest where some of us saw Semi-collared Flycatcher, Spotted Flycatcher and Middle spotted Woodpecker. Short-toed Treecreeper only called and didn’t show. We also added Nuthatch which was feeding chicks and was one of the most active birds in the forest.
Eagle Owl © Iordan Hristov
We desperately needed a coffee and ice-cream so we pulled out for a few minutes. In an hour drive we were already ready for our next target birds. Eagle Owl! Just as we arrived, a quick scan produced a fantastic adult bird within the first 1 min. “This is my best view of an adult bird” said one of the group members. We collected our scopes quickly not to disturb the bird and drove to our hotel for a nice and light meal with Black sea fish. “Another wonderful day”, was agreed by everyone in the group.