Waderfest

Tuesday September 6

We spent the morning visiting various parts of the Burgas Lakes complex.  The best was at the Salt Museum where we sat on a covered area scoping the pans. The birds seemed unperturbed by dozens of Bulgarians of all ages, wading out, armed with plastic containers, into which they scooped black mud. 

Returning to shore, they then plastered the salient joints with the mud before standing/strolling about waiting for it to dry. Most entertaining.

There were hundreds of birds on view - but not the Terek Sandpiper Minko wanted to see for a Bulgarian lifer. The greatest number was of Coots !! Followed by Great and Pygmy Cormorants, Common Terns, Black-headed. Mediterranean and Yellow-legged Gulls. Most were perched on the rotting - teeth - like remnants of fences, the coots very distant. 

 
With careful scoping, a Broad-billed Sandpiper

fed quietly below along with Dunlin, Curlew Sandpipers, Great Ringed Plovers and a Kentish Plover. 

With the Coots were at least  four Black-necked Grebes, many Little Grebe, two Shovellers and a Pintail. A delightful, needle-billed and elegant, Marsh Sandpiper made a brief though distant, appearance. 

On the pool behind us, 4 Black-winged Stilts and our first of the trip and  desirable, Slender-billed Gulls fed amongst the usual Mediterranean Gulls. 

Slender-billed on the left, Mediterranean Gull on the right.

One adult Slender-bill, the others juveniles.

Back to the Hotel for lunch before visiting the BSPB (Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Bids) reserve centre at Poda. 

Climbing to an upper deck, sitting on chairs provided by Minko, we spent the next couple of hours surveying the area. Industrialised Burgas in the distance, reedbed and pools.

Very quiet migration wise, none really. The weather is still too good, 24C again but with more cloud and a stiff breeze this afternoon. I saw a beautiful Honey Buzzard whilst Pam was in the loo.........The rest of the time, we watched a distant Osprey fishing and eventually catching a fish.

Pygmy and Great Cormorants, the latter building a high-rise tenement of nests on old pylons.

Although interesting, it wasn't riveting. At our request, we were back for an earlier evening to catch up with laundry etc. before supper. The latter was the usual exchange of birding story-telling and asking questions re Bulgarian food, pronounciation etc.
To-night I had chicken skewers followed by chocolate ice-cream, Pam had pork  schnitzel and ice-cream. I don't know what Minko's was - a lump of lamb in a sauce which came sizzling madly on a hotplate.