How we organised the trip from Sofia. We hired a van from www.bulgariacarrent.com for only 40 Euro a day, whith unlimeted mileage. We recieved a brand new Renault Master, perfectly convinient for the 9 of us and most of all with a huge boot - ideal for a lots of binoculars, scopes and cameras
We headed towards Greece (the border point Kulata) at 3:00 am on the 11/11/06. Passing the border proved easy and took as only 10 minutes. At 6:00 am we were at the norhtern shores of Lake Kerkini, waiting for the sunrise. The sunrise was "stereo" - one from the east and the other from the norht west. For us the more interesting was the north-western one comprising over 2000 Great Flamingos. It appeared really strange to us as there are only a few Flamingo sighting in Bulgaria. Along them we obsered also:
1. Grey Herons
2. Spoonbills
3. Greylag Goose
4. White-fronted Goose
5. Mallard
6. Shoveler
7. Pintail
8. Teal
9. Wegeon
10. Water Rail
11. Black-tailed Gotwit
12. Spotted Redshank
13. Snipe
14. Green Sandpiper
15. Knot
16. Yellow-legged Gull
17. Black-headed Gull
18. Lapwings
The raptors were:
19. Spotted Eagle - one was feeding near the Flamingos. This species was a lifer for most of the members of the group. We saw another 4 later in the day.
20. Common Buzzard
21. Sparrowhalk
22. Peregrine falcon
The place we were situated was near the Village of Mandraki, there is an artificial quay near the settlement's information center. The water was some 300 meters from us. The wetland is very shallow and fluctionions of a few centimeters of the water level result in changing the area covered by the wetland by a few km. After having lunch we continued to the village of Megalohori (east from Mandraki). From there we continued on foot towards the mouth of river Strimon (Struma in Bulgarian). The area is almost absolutely flat, closely grased by cows and buffalos (one of the attractions at the lake's vicinity. Here we observed some more Spotted Eagles, White-eagle, 2 more Peregrines. The most memorable part was the colony of herons and cormorants. We saw 1000s of nests, unforgetable sight. Interesting observation were also:
1. Blackcap (at this time of the year)
2. Turtle Dove (at this time of the year)
3. Black Stork - probably it has been an sick indivudual since it was not flying well.
We went back to the van and took the road towards Lithotopos (a village located at the South-east corner of the Dam.
Along the way we observed some more Flamingos and mingling among them was one crane. Also we had the luck of spotting 2 Golden Eagles.
Near the Dam wall we observed again Dalmatian Pelecans - we counted over 500 of them and a few White Pelecans. Pygmy Cormorants were fishing with their bigger relatives along the river. Crested Grebes and Little Grebes were also numerous. All the hotels at Lithotopos were full and we continued along the southern banks of the lake towards the village of Kerkini. A flock of over 6000 pochards were slowly swimming near the village. Overall we saw 86 species for that day.
Surprisingly to us the prices in villages of Kerkini and Mandraki were pretty high for our taste - 50 Euro for double room. Our plans were to birdwatch on the next day at Doiran lake and the Axios delta. The whole group decided to go back in Bulgaria and overnight in Melnik (for 15 euro for double room). I will post the results from our second day of birding in Norh Greece in a new thread, but for sure Lake Kerkini is one of the most significant and interesting places in Europe.
