Bulgaria May 06 – 12, 2008 Southern Mountains Raptor viewing.
Itinerary – 06/5 Arrived at Sofia airport mid afternoon and was met by my guide for the week Ivailo Nikolov (ivailo@penguin.bg) in a smart new people carrier which was to be our transport.
We started out on the fairly long drive to Melnik which is situated in the south western corner of Bulgaria. The smallest town in the Bulgaria, bordered by Greece to the south and Macedonia to the West. The week was to consist of visits to Melnik and Rupite, Trigad Gorge,Madzharovo, Studen Kladenets, Sakar Mountains and finishing off in the eastern edge of the Sakar mountains for the Eastern Imperial Eagle. Each evening was spent was spent in local alpine guesthouses all of which were exceptional friendly and provided (for low cost) excellent meals and on occasion locally produced brandy and wine.
The Itinerary was put together by Ivailo for the best chances of finding as many raptor species as possible. Unfortunately due to inclement weather conditions in the Eastern Rodopi mountains (Studen Kladenets) on the day we were to view Black Vulture, it was to elude us. These birds travel for four hours from their home in Greece a distance of over 100 Kilometres. They are prompted to do so by the sight of Griffon vultures circling over carcasses provided at the Studen Kladenets vulture watch point. This particular morning there was low cloud cover which put pay to any chance of the Griffons being viewed from Greece.
The next morning they were there unfortunately we were long gone. However during our travels in the next 5 days we managed to chalk up:
Egyptian Vulture
Griffon Vulture
Black Kite
Marsh Harrier
Montagu's Harrier
Goshawk
Sparrowhawk
Levant Sparrowhawk (Brilliant views of Male and Female both perched and in flight)
Honey Buzzard (Four in the air together)
Common Buzzard
Long-legged-Buzzard
Lesser Spotted Eagle
Golden Eagle
Eastern Imperial Eagle (Male putting on a magnificent tumbling display)
Booted Eagle
Short toad Eagle
Kestrel
Hobby
Red-footed Falcon (Possible view very distant which I probably shouldn't count, still)
I also managed to view the following species which were new to me:
Ruddy Shelduck
Rock Partridge
Collared Pratincole
Slender-billed Gull
White-winged Tern
Scops Owl (Which serenaded us whilst we were eating dinner in Plovdiv city centre)
Pallid Swift
Alpine Swift
Syrian Woodpecker
Middle spotted Woodpecker
Calandra Lark
Crested Lark
Red-rumped Swallow
Black headed (Yellow) Wagtail
Masked Shrike (In the same location as Lesser grey, Red backed and Woodchat)
Isabelline Wheatear
Black-eared Wheatear
Olive-tree Warbler (This little bugger made our Nightingale seem like a poser)
Olivaceous Warbler
Barred Warbler
Orphean Warbler
Subalpine Warbler
Bonelli's Warbler
Sombre Tit
Wallcreeper - (Trigrad Gorge, probably the best site in Europe for this little beauty) I nearly made headlines by almost falling down the Gorge whilst trying to digiscope my first Wallcreeper and walking backwards with my set-up, scared the life out of two German birders next to me.)
Black-headed Bunting
Ortolan Bunting
Rock Bunting
Spanish Sparrow
Rock Sparrow
Aside from the above, many more species one would expect to encounter in Bulgaria were seen
All in all a very enjoyable trip, I would highly recommend Bulgaria and will certainly return myself. For anybody with a passion for raptors, like me, they are literally Eagles around every corner in the Rodopi Mountains. Penguin Travel who organized my trip provided an exceptional service. Their English speaking guide Ivailo was extremely knowledgeable and helpful (left me standing with airborne raptors) and went out of his way to ensure I has a successful visit. Many thanks Ivailo.
For a more detailed trip report by my guide (who has a far better memory for places to go with the birds http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=114342
sounds great - the link to your main report doesnt work sadly!