After the traveling yesterday we wanted to have a relaxed day. We were going to spend the day birding around the town of Madzharovo in Eastern Rhodope mountains in Bulgaria. The night was rather windy but we were still willing to go out for a pre-breakfast walk and did not regret it.
We did not go much further than a couple of hundred metres from our guest house and we started recording new birds. Two Sombre tits came rather close for us to enjoy. I heard a Syrian Woodpecker but we only had glimpses of the bird in flight. Golden Orioles, Woodchat Shrike, Cirl Bunting and an Egyptian Vulture right by the house were the other treats for this one hour long walk.
Sombre Tit © Iordan Hristov
After a fantastic breakfast with home made honey and biscuits we drove down into the caldera of the volcano for more birding. Booted Eagle, Black Kite and lots of Griffon Vultures were some of the first birds we saw there. The highlight of the morning must be the Subalpine Warbler which showed rather well. It was getting rather warm so we hided from the sun for a light and pleasant lunch.
The afternoon was fairly quiet with very few bird calls. After an early dinner we decided to do some owling. The evening light was great for landscape photographs so we couldn’t stop ourselves from taking some pictures:
hay fields
hay fields at sunset
The owling session was rather productive. Once we stopped the car, two Little Owls chicks started calling. Shortly after this we had wonderful views of Scops Owl and minutes later we heard the Barn Owl calling but I caught only glimpses of it. Thus the day total was 47 bird species.