Final Day Bulgaria Improvement Of Movment

Grey Skies some slight mist and thankfully birds. 8 Great 🦩 Flamingo, 23 Mute Swan, 7 Teal. Dullard numbers now stand at around 50 birds.

I simply could not id a couple of distant rafts of Sea Duck. Bobbing up and down on the waves also prevented photos 😢.

6 Swallows through. 1 Greenshank ditto Little Egret & Grey Heron. 2 Common Tern, YLGs, Great & Pygmy Cormorant.

Couple BN G seen on the shorter walk. A party of finch types in the mist remain unknown.

3/4 Crested Lark, 2 White Wagtail & a cream crown Marsh Harrier near the Hotel entrance 😁.

I am now ready to face the superior birds back home 😵‍💫.

Catch Up On Not Much Dullgaria

Friday 27 Sept Hot and Sunny clear blue skies. The absolute pits. I went NNE again but only one unid raptor seen briefly. The woods are just as silent as they are back home. No migrants just a Collared Dove, House Sparrows, 3 Magpies & a bunch of Starlings 😢.

Today Saturday 28 September. Took a while for a mist to clear and I got close to 4 Crested Lark. When the Sun came out it was obvious many birds have gone. 4 BN G, 1 GC G. 7 Mute Swan, 1 Little Egret, 3 Common Tern. YLGs. 

Suppose I should be grateful that 17 Barn Swallow came through 🤔.

A Sparrowhawk took off from the hotel roof above my balcony. A White Wagtail is resident in the same area. A Yellow Wagtail ssp. bathes in the same swimming pool area on a daily basis.

A Bit More About Birding Bulgaria

I really do mean a bit. Wednesday was awful; the only new birds being a pr GC Grebe. Swallow sp. appear to have shot through. A pr Shelduck were still present but none of those big birds whose beaks can hold more than their bellies can 😂.

Today, Thursday showed some signs of migration. A Northern Wheatear was present on a pile of stones not far off the beach. 7 Teal flew over the lake then a couple minutes later flew back and disappeared. c21 Grebes were seen. Most appeared to be BN G but without a telling scope I don’t know if any Slavonian were present.

4 immature Flamingo 🦩, 1 Slender Billed Gull ditto Little Egret. Pr Greenshank still here also 2 RB Shrike & 3/4 Icterine Warblers.

Hard Graft In A Westerly Breeze

Listen you two readers; I’ve told you before I know nobody reads this drivel, I do it for the ego trip 😎.

The slight W’ly breeze really put paid to migratory birds to start with but tallying up in the second half I managed some decent stuff. Views were never prolonged and a couple of juicy observations were at a distance.

I never want to see a Pygmy Cormorant again, they were all over the joint. 1 Pelican in flight, 2 Great 🦩 feeding. 2 Common Tern, a distant Eagle Sp. 2/3 Icterine Warbler, 1 RB Shrike.

I got a pr Black Stork flying over the far end of the marsh but they soon moved away.

A bit of a surprise on the sea was a diver sp. that was very active. Can’t be conclusive but the size and shape fits Black-throated.

A last minute reward in the scrub adjacent to the Hotel front entrance of all places, was a Lesser Whitethroat 😜.

Bulgarian Birds Episode 4

A hot sunny day with hardly any breeze. Got me a few newbies today around Salt Lake City 😁.

Audouins Gull, Great White Egret x 2. Kingfisher, pr Shelduck. 

A few Warblers were knocking around Icterine being one or two of them.

4 Black-necked Grebe, 1 Red-Backed Shrike allowed me to take photos. An airborne White Pelican did the same.

A dozen more Great Flamingos 🦩 turned up and a pr Mute Swan flew in from the Black Sea. Also 2 Sparrowhawk seen which the BHGs weren’t partial to.

Bulgaria Buzzard Blizzard

Decided to turn left at the hotel gates this am and bird a different direction. Not a great start and when I got to the river I found it to be obscured by mature trees and bushes. Managed a Moorhen, 7 Mute Swan and some Dullards 😵‍💫.

My despondency on the way back soon evaporated 😁. Common Buzzards were all over the joint! I estimate 13/14 birds were drifting WSW while a similar number were circling around. 

I remembered to check for Long-Legged but found none. Not to worry because I did cop for 2 Short-Toed Eagles & a Sparrowhawk 😜.

Also: 2 Crested Lark, House Sparrows, few Goldfinch, few usual Swallows. Warblers thin on the ground well scrub then so a Sardinian was welcome. Let’s not forget the YLGs.

Day 2 Pomorie Bulgaria

Warm with a Queensbury like N’ly breeze and slight grey clouds that disappeared near lunchtime.

Evidence of migration patterns for sure. A flock of Starling must have had over 2000 birds in it. They kept moving ahead of me until I finally cheesed em off towards the far edge of the marsh.

The Flamingo crowd have gone only to be replaced by 11 White Pelican 😜 in the same patch. They too departed after about 45 minutes.

A pr Greenshank have joined the Kentish Plovers.

I can confirm 3/4 Pygmy Cormorant along with their greater namesakes. 

A pr Common Tern, 1 Slender-billed Gull. Numerous BHG & several YLG. 1 White Wagtai. Swallows moving through. 2 Little Egret.

PS Had an unpleasant experience this afternoon concerning a 1CY YLG. It landed in the hotel grounds and was shaking its head around. Myself and others tried in vain to capture it and remove a fishing lure hook and bit of line from its beak. 😵‍💫.

Pomorie Bulgaria Day One

Quite a wind blowing this am guess it followed me from

home.

The sea is on one side of the hotel and on the other is a vast area of reeds farmland and fortunately a very large shallow lake. This comes at a price - birding done at distance.

Couple Slender-billed Gulls 👍. Many YLG, a few BHG. Got my work cut out sorting a juvenile Marsh Tern e.g Black/Whiskered.

c80 Great Flamingo, 1 Grey Heron, 4/5 Little Egret. 7/8 Cormorant & 1 possible Pygmy Cormorant.

c25 Kentish Plover.

1 Crested Lark ditto Yellow Wagtail subspecies. 1 Marsh Harrier. Several Barn & Red Rumped Swallow. 1 Hooded Crow.

Photos to be published whenever.

A Place To Avoid

Road closure warning ahead of sinkhole repairs https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceqn5qen514o

Ogden Water To Carrs Beck

I had a disastrous spell at Ogden on Friday only bird worth a mention was a Sparrowhawk. 

Today was much better ending with an annual at Carrs Beck 😁.

Ogden: pr Goosander, Buzzard screeching again, distant Raven. All the many gulls were on the W shore giving good views but I couldn’t find the YLG that BS got yesterday.

Two Cormorant still present.

My first bird at Carrs Beck was a flighty Whinchat 👍.

Also 2 Stonechat close by it. A Barn Owl elsewhere.

Ogden Water To Nothing Doing Again

My first reaction to the weather on leaving the house this am was I suppose it’s not too grim for a December day 😬.

Ogden turned up a couple of Tufted Duck for a change. Otherwise it was down to the gulls, a noisy Buzzard an equally noisy Grey Heron & 2 Cormorant.

Combing through the large gulls and a photo I took afterwards YLG sprang to mind for one individual. However when I processed the photos on the PC even the obvious LBBG legs appear to have lost their yellow hue!

Carrs Beck had c14 Linnet over the fence.

Apart from the Barn Owl pr that was it. Nothingdoingden remains 100% consistent.

Soil Hill To Carrs Beck

An almost non event at Soil Hill and Ogden but a spirit lifter at Carrs Beck saved both the day and my sanity well almost 🤔.

SH: Loads of House Sparrows at bottom and top of Perseverance Rd. c100 Goldfinch & a Swallow in Coal Lane.

Ogden: similar birds to recent visit.

Carrs Beck: two brief glimpses of a passerine showing its rump and tail to me. It was a juvenile or female Common Redstart 👍 my only one of the year.

Also 2 Stonechat & a pr Meadow Pipit.

Barn Owl pr seen again.

Not Much Joy On The Usual Route

Amazingly the fog lifted on my approach to Ogden Water thereby allowing me to see there wasn’t much doing. It reappeared on the approach to Mixenden where nothing at all was doing. 10 out of 10 for consistency Mixi.

Ogden: 1 Grey Heron, 4 Cormorant & the Gulls. I only got one Herring today.

Quite a few Swallow at Hunter Hill bottom including a juvenile that fancied itself on camera. Also Goldfinches present and elsewhere a Barn Owl.

Another Fogden Water Session

The number of Common Gull present rose dramatically to over 20 birds possibly due to the change in wind direction from the NE? Couple of Herring seen as well as the many BHG & LBBG.

5 Cormorant, 1 Green Woodpecker and a calling Tawny Owl which is long overdue on a personal basis. A couple Swallow over the promenade.

Elsewhere a pr Barn Owl, pr Dunnock & a Pied Wagtail.

Horton Bank Country Park

A very busy morning meant that I only had time for this venue after lunch which I almost dreaded. However the Council have got their act together and cleared the caravans seen on my previous visit and padlocked the gates once more.

Mute Swan with right leg ring 1Y37 present along with an unringed pal present. I think the Passerines here have either passed on or passed out 😄 as none were heard nor seen.

1 Common Gull in with 9 BHG. Moorhens all over but only 3 Coot. 1 Grey Heron and the dullards.

Bad Move Going To Fogden

Took a chance this morning that the fog would lift at Ogden; I was well wrong 😑.

It did cause arboreal avians to wake up however. At the northern bridge a small flock was active flitting around.

Included were 2 LTT, 1 Coal Tit ditto Blue Tit. 2 WW & a juv Robin. Another 2 Robin and once more some wierd raptor like calls heard further afield.

Could only just see the ullage gullage and 1 Cormorant plus a Grey Heron.

c15 Swallow and a pr Dunnock at Stod Fold.