Moving Day

Sunday September 4

Not a good night, too many disturbances, Pam had the same in her room across the small landing. We've had a suite here. A bedroom each plus a shared and very large sitting room.

Her bedroom was small with a large toilet/wet room, my bedroom large with a small wetroom. I had both a single and a double bed, Pam a double only. 

Bags packed and outside the door before the usual enormous 7.30 breakfast, he stll hasn't learnt that we hardly touch it. I had eggs on toast and Pam the same plus a cheese and ham on toast. The coffee is lethal, thick and strong, the addition of sugar an essential. Minko has coffee only.

Our 220 K drive to Burgas, south of Varna, was driven on mainly side roads with several birding stops. Again the sky was cloudless with a maximum of 24/25C (especially for you Mags x).The Eagle Owl was nowhere to be found, the family has dispersed at the end of the breeding season. The scenic coast road took us past all the Black Sea resort complexes north of Varna, crumbling chalk cliffs and broadleaf woodland and shrubs garnishing the white hillsides.

Minko drove past Varna Cathedral especially, as I'd been asking about the Bulgarian Orthodox churches. This photo was taken from the car, please excuse the odd angle of the traditional 'onion-top' architecture.

Next stop was birding Minko's home patch, the area viewable from his home is wild and scenic. A Little Owl has taken over one of the holes in the deserted Bee-eater cliff. No sign of the Woodchat Shrike pair, just the usual Red-backed. Who can resist a Northern Wheatear? Not Minko and I.

Driving down a very pleasant valley, slowly, Minko was looking for something, Pam spotted a bird in  a tree about 150 metres away. Our first Lesser Spotted Eagle of the trip. Worth a photo even though it was a ridiculous distance way.

The end aim was a drive through ancient beech woodland, still plenty of people parked in scattered areas.  This weather is too good for September - and not the best for migration. No birds around to-day, late and hot. The highlight was a Great Banded Grayling butterfly. Far too fast to photograph.

A nearby extensive dune syatem is where Minko's girlfriend Maggie is basing her doctorate, studying its plants. He showed us a very small blue flower, the only splash of colour in a brown sea of dead vegetation. It's a Bulgarian endemic. He only knew the latin name and I can't remember it. I'll ask him to write it down to-morrow. Plenty of sunbathing Bulgarians but no nude ones to-day.

Minko and a group of friends look after a stretch of ancient forest, protected  especially for Semi-collared Flycatcher. They have erected 400 nestboxes, some of them occupied by Woodland Dormice which eat eggs and young birds! Useful. To-day, the Flycatchers have migrated but we had good views of a Middle-spotted Woodpecker, responding aggressively to its own tape lure and to the sound of other woodpeckers.

Neophron Tours boss, Dimiter, was meeting us for lunch at a roadside restaurant run by a Russian woman. We beat him to it by 20 minutes, sitting outside at shaded tables to have our drink, watch the last House Martin chick being fed and, photograph an extremely war wounded, Scarce Swallowtail butterfly.

After lunch  (this is where I fell face down onto the concrete path) and saying goodbye to Dimiter, we set off on back roads to a comparatively low level mountain pass. Towards the start of it, we parked next to some woodland, walking a short way down the slope. It took at least 20 minutes of luring, the bird flying around, landing in cover and then off again, before we had excellent views of a Sombre Tit. Burnt on my retina is the image of this desirable and attractive little black-capped bird, hanging upside down feeding. Like a bigger Marsh Tit with a much bigger black bib. There were Nuthatches, Red-breasted and Spotted Flycatchers, Green and Great-spotted Woodpeckers too. I musn't forget to mention the Robins, Chaffinches and Greenfinches.......

A fly past Lesser Spotted Eagle was the cause of another  screeching stop. I manage one photograph which is shown greatly enlarged.

The top of the pass gave panoramic view of miles of rolling hills where migration can be viewed - we shall return in the next days.

Our last birding session of the day was the best. A rough track down a hill towards the end of a reservoir, took us past a tree-full of Bee-eater, hunting around the car, landing for  while, then off again. Deligtful birds. All three of us took endless photographs. Here are a selection of mine. 

The marsh is pretty dry after so little rain. There were sheep, goats and cows wandering about, our first though distant White Stork

two Great Egrets, 20+ Grey Herons, Teal and our first Crested Larks. 

Reaching the part of the track which looked down onto the water, Minke got out with my scope, Pam and I scanned from the car. He called out what he was seeing and we did likewise. All very companionable. Amongst the Gulls. Cormorants and Spoonbills were Little Ringed Plovers, Little Stints, two Greenshanks, Ruff, Green, Wood and Common Sandpipers and White Wagtails. Pam then spotted four Short-toed Larks creeping along in the sandy/stony bank below us. Pam's photo.

That pleased Minko, as well as us, as we'd missed them where they were supposed to be - on the Steppe.
Tired and happy we drove to our Hotel for the next five nights. It's in a Burgas suburb off a main road but quiet. Guess what, four flights of stairs to our first floor room. The air conditioning unit was switched on very quickly, we were steaming. 
Having organised our electrics - I have to jam the converter plug into the two pin round socket by putting a bag and my handbag underneath - we suppered  downsatirs in the restaurant, having the usual wide-ranging and stimulating conversation with Minko. I'm more than ready for a good night's sleep.

Random photograph......