Should be an interesting topic, considering the number of British people here, the nation with the highest number of binoculars per household in the world :) I will suggest somehe good birding places based on my personal experience as a birdwatcher from the neighbourhood.
Today I am going to talk a little about Srebarna, a natural reserve in NE Bulgaria, on the banks of the Danube, just 20 km west of Silistra.

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It is a very important nesting site for a lot of waterbird species. By far, the most important and spectacular nesting colony here belongs to the Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus crispus). It is the only DP breeding colony in Bulgaria. Herons, ducks, grebes, swans etc populate the lake too, while the bushes, little forests, hills and crop fields surrounding the lake are home to a large range of passerines (it's a very good place for observing the elusive orioles), raptors and Coraciiformes (hoopoe's, rollers, bee-eaters...).
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Dalmatian Pelican
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Great White Egret
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Roller

Watching towers are placed in a few places, making it easier to observe the whole lake. Given the vastity of the lake, bringing a scope would be most suitable. The lake is surrounded by a pathway which is also accessible by bike.
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Don't miss the [url=http:
//www.
srebarnabirding.
com/Index.
htm:2vmqtlwg]Pelican Lake GuestHouse[/url:2vmqtlwg] if you plan to spend the night in Srebarna. It is run by an English couple - Mike and Jerry Black - who moved to Bulgaria some time ago. They will provide a pleasant stay, useful information about the reserve and - most importantly - they will do it in a genuine English. They don't cook for the guests, but there is a place `downtown` (some 10 mins walking) where you can eat and drink very well for a very reasonable amount of money.
I visited Srebarna 3 or 4 times, each time in spring or summer, during the breeding season. I'm sure, however, there's some action in winter too. Just across the Danube, in Romania, the place is regularly visited by geese, including Red-breasted (Branta ruficollis), which will feed on the crop fields, and I imagine Srebarna provides a very good resting place at night. In fact the birding spots in Romania, right in front of Srebarna, [url=http:
//florinsadventours.
blogspot.
com/2010/12/winter-birding-at-calarasi.
html:2vmqtlwg]benefit a lot from its rich birding diversity[/url:2vmqtlwg].
For those interested, below is a species list of my personal observations in Srebarna (sorry, scientific name only in alphabetical order).

Accipiter gentilis
Acrocephalus arundinaceus
Acrocephalus schoenobaenus
Acrocephalus scirpaceus
Anas platyrhynchos
Anas strepera
Anser anser
Ardea cinerea
Ardea purpurea
Ardeola ralloides
Aythya ferina
Aythya nyroca
Buteo buteo
Carduelis carduelis
Casmerodius albus
Chlidonias hybridus
Ciconia ciconia
Ciconia nigra
Coracias garrulus
Corvus corone cornix
Cuculus canorus
Cygnus olor
Delichon urbica
Dendrocopos major
Egretta garzetta
Falco peregrinus
Falco subbuteo
Falco tinnunculus
Fringilla coelebs
Fulica atra
Gallinula chloropus
Garrulus glandarius
Hieraaetus pennatus
Hirundo rustica
Ixobrychus minutus
Lanius collurio
Larus michahellis
Larus ridibundus
Locustella luscinioides
Luscinia megarhynchos
Merops apiaster
Miliaria calandra
Muscicapa striata
Nycticorax nycticorax
Oriolus oriolus
Parus major
Passer domesticus
Passer montanus
Pelecanus crispus
Pelecanus onocrotalus
Phalacrocorax carbo
Phalacrocorax pygmeus
Phasianus colchicus
Phylloscopus collybita
Pica pica
Picus canus
Picus viridis
Plegadis falcinellus
Podiceps cristatus
Riparia riparia
Streptopelia decaocto
Streptopelia turtur
Sturnus vulgaris
Sylvia atricapilla
Sylvia communis
Sylvia curruca
Tringa nebularia
Turdus merula

You can find more pictures from Srebarna [url=https:
//picasaweb.
google.
com/104005128962089714312/Srebarna?feat=directlink:2vmqtlwg]here[/url:2vmqtlwg]
Enjoy and don't hesitate to come back to me if you feel you need more info.

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:Good post:very interesting.

Good post I didn't realise there were so many species in Bulgaria I'm not a twitchier but I shall be watching the post for more interesting info thank you

:Thank you:florin. Very interesting. We bought a book on birds so that we can look up any new one's that we see. We are not twitchers but it is really interesting. Makes a change from Sparrows and the odd Magpie back in the UK.

Well, Tony, things are not very different in Bulgaria from what they are like in Britain: sparrows and magpies are everywhere. But if you take a closer look, there's a whole lot more to it than that, so go for it !

Great topic Florin.
I spotted two big flocks of large birds migrating Northwards this morning. They were too far away to identify.
I'm quite sure they weren't Geese as we've had lots of them flying over us recently and the wing beat of a Goose is much faster than that of these distant birds.
The next 2 or 3 months is a great time for twitching here. The Northward migration of many different species happens right here in BG. We're lucky to live on the'Via Pontica' migration route and get a grandstand view.

Alfie, you just make me envious :) Maybe you'll keep us posted as to what you will see during migration.

last night while watching telly ( fairly dark) a stork flew into the patio doors, one almighty bang, it sat there for a moment, then thankfully flew off uninjured. they are big and their wing span is incredible. obviously lost in the dark.

A stork at this time of year ? Pretty unusual. Are you sure it wasn't a heron ?

I dont know a great deal about birds if im honest, but my other half and i had a good look at it because we thought it had hurt itself flying into the door. its beak was longer than a heron and a big wingspan, although there is only about 3 foot between the two species. yes it is early and the village where i live is not noted for storks they go to the next village on mass because of the lake. it was on its own and flying in the dark, obviously lost and probably had a headache too. but at least it was ok.

florin wrote:

Should be an interesting topic, considering the number of British people here, the nation with the highest number of binoculars per household in the world :) I will suggest somehe good birding places based on my personal experience as a birdwatcher from the neighbourhood.
Today I am going to talk a little about Srebarna, a natural reserve in NE Bulgaria, on the banks of the Danube, just 20 km west of Silistra.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

It is a very important nesting site for a lot of waterbird species. By far, the most important and spectacular nesting colony here belongs to the Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus crispus). It is the only DP breeding colony in Bulgaria. Herons, ducks, grebes, swans etc populate the lake too, while the bushes, little forests, hills and crop fields surrounding the lake are home to a large range of passerines (it's a very good place for observing the elusive orioles), raptors and Coraciiformes (hoopoe's, rollers, bee-eaters...).
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Dalmatian Pelican
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Great White Egret
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Roller

Watching towers are placed in a few places, making it easier to observe the whole lake. Given the vastity of the lake, bringing a scope would be most suitable. The lake is surrounded by a pathway which is also accessible by bike.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Don't miss the [url=http:
//www.
srebarnabirding.
com/Index.
htm:2cls3y2p]Pelican Lake GuestHouse[/url:2cls3y2p] if you plan to spend the night in Srebarna. It is run by an English couple - Mike and Jerry Black - who moved to Bulgaria some time ago. They will provide a pleasant stay, useful information about the reserve and - most importantly - they will do it in a genuine English. They don't cook for the guests, but there is a place `downtown` (some 10 mins walking) where you can eat and drink very well for a very reasonable amount of money.
I visited Srebarna 3 or 4 times, each time in spring or summer, during the breeding season. I'm sure, however, there's some action in winter too. Just across the Danube, in Romania, the place is regularly visited by geese, including Red-breasted (Branta ruficollis), which will feed on the crop fields, and I imagine Srebarna provides a very good resting place at night. In fact the birding spots in Romania, right in front of Srebarna, [url=http:
//florinsadventours.
blogspot.
com/2010/12/winter-birding-at-calarasi.
html:2cls3y2p]benefit a lot from its rich birding diversity[/url:2cls3y2p].
For those interested, below is a species list of my personal observations in Srebarna (sorry, scientific name only in alphabetical order).

Accipiter gentilis
Acrocephalus arundinaceus
Acrocephalus schoenobaenus
Acrocephalus scirpaceus
Anas platyrhynchos
Anas strepera
Anser anser
Ardea cinerea
Ardea purpurea
Ardeola ralloides
Aythya ferina
Aythya nyroca
Buteo buteo
Carduelis carduelis
Casmerodius albus
Chlidonias hybridus
Ciconia ciconia
Ciconia nigra
Coracias garrulus
Corvus corone cornix
Cuculus canorus
Cygnus olor
Delichon urbica
Dendrocopos major
Egretta garzetta
Falco peregrinus
Falco subbuteo
Falco tinnunculus
Fringilla coelebs
Fulica atra
Gallinula chloropus
Garrulus glandarius
Hieraaetus pennatus
Hirundo rustica
Ixobrychus minutus
Lanius collurio
Larus michahellis
Larus ridibundus
Locustella luscinioides
Luscinia megarhynchos
Merops apiaster
Miliaria calandra
Muscicapa striata
Nycticorax nycticorax
Oriolus oriolus
Parus major
Passer domesticus
Passer montanus
Pelecanus crispus
Pelecanus onocrotalus
Phalacrocorax carbo
Phalacrocorax pygmeus
Phasianus colchicus
Phylloscopus collybita
Pica pica
Picus canus
Picus viridis
Plegadis falcinellus
Podiceps cristatus
Riparia riparia
Streptopelia decaocto
Streptopelia turtur
Sturnus vulgaris
Sylvia atricapilla
Sylvia communis
Sylvia curruca
Tringa nebularia
Turdus merula

You can find more pictures from Srebarna [url=https:
//picasaweb.
google.
com/104005128962089714312/Srebarna?feat=directlink:2cls3y2p]here[/url:2cls3y2p]
Enjoy and don't hesitate to come back to me if you feel you need more info.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Thank you so much Florin for highlighting Silistra and the wonderful write up re Serbarna reserve. You are quite right it is a fab place and people come from all over the world. Mike &
Jerry Black are the nicest people we have ever met, we have known them for many years now and they are just wonderful. This year the Pelican Guesthouse will be supporting the Silistra Orphanage by making a donation for every guest staying there, this is fantastic news. It is always a pleasure to meet up with them and visit the reserve, It is certainly worth a visit. Berni

Oddy

Thanks for the interesting post Florin.We love spotting all the birds of prey around us,but we really need to get a good book this year.Is it possible the white bird with the headache was an Egret?

I like this thread I've often seen some very beautiful birds but I never know what they are the one I love the most and its always around in the summer is a very bright yellow bird with a longish beak and I think its heat is black so this kind of thread is great for people like me who haven't got a clue

[size=55:1ykh7cuq]BNR

Unusual aggregation of birds on the Bulgarian Black sea coast


This year’s midwinter count of water birds has come to an end. For almost half a century the bird counting has been monitoring the birds’ seasonal migration to Europe, Northern Africa and the Near East. Bulgaria has been part of the counting since 1977. It is a key habitat for quite a number of water birds in wintertime, which fly from Northern Europe and Asia. For example, some 70% of the world’s population of the red-breasted goose, around 40% of Europe’s population of the greater white-fronted goose and some 20% of the population of the pygmy cormorant winter in Bulgaria. Volunteer teams from various environmental organizations are still summarizing the results, although they have already outlined some interesting trends, said Yordan Hristov. He is in charge of the midwinter bird counting of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB).

“Some 180 000 birds were registered on the Southern Black sea coast and around the lakes near the city of Bourgas. Their number along the Northern coast has been estimated at almost 200 000, which means that the entire coast is home to over 370 000 birds. Interestingly this year the number of birds is by 1/3 higher on the total number of birds in Bulgaria last winter. In 2010 some 300 000 birds wintering in Bulgaria were registered across the country”, Yordan Hristov commented.

The increased number of birds is rather unusual and scientists are yet to look for scientific explanations.

“Normally, when the winter is warmer Bulgaria has fewer birds than when it is colder. This year, however, things are different”, Mr Hristov explained. “Despite the somewhat high temperature, we had more wintering birds, which is yet to be analyzed. The most probable reason is some peculiarities in the meteorological conditions across the entire area. We will not make a comment at the moment”, Mr Hristov said.

The most numerous species wintering in Bulgaria are the water birds, mostly geese and didappers. Most white-fronted geese, for instance, winter around the lakes of Shabla and Dourankoulak in Northeastern Bulgaria, where some 11 000 birds have been registered this winter. The same areas have also been found to shelter some 1500 representatives of the world-famous red-breasted goose (Branta ruficolis).

“Most numerous are the greater white-fronted geese, which account for 2/3 of all birds”, Yordan Hrisotv went on to say. “The greater white-fronted goose is not of the rarest bird species. However, the big flocks of these geese normally include a small number of the world endangered red-breasted geese. To a certain extent, this is a problem because it is allowed to hunt white-fronted geese while the red-breasted ones are protected by law. Unfortunately, people make mistakes when shooting at them, often killing the red-breasted geese because of the low visibility during the season and for the fact that the red geese are hard to distinguish from the rest when flying together with the white-fronted ones”, Mr Hristov said further.

Another interesting fact is that this year the bird species diversity is significantly low. Furthermore, environmentalists have figured that this winter a lower percentage of rare water birds have flown to the Bulgarian coast.

“As a whole, the species diversity of birds is quite lower. The species are fewer, but perhaps they will turn out to be more numerous than last year. This means that a big part of the rare species, which are to be found more often along the Northern coast, have not come to Bulgaria this year”, Mr Hristov pointed out.

The great concentration of geese and other water birds is a cause for celebration among environmentalists. Many farmers, however, frown upon the birds because the overcrowding of birds can bring about damage to their crops. Since early January BSPB has launched a large-scale project aiming to estimate the damage on crops in this part of the country. The organization’s ultimate goal is to set objective criteria for compensating the people who suffer losses. “A leading principal in our environmental work is to make sure that people are glad to live or work in an area sheltering world endangered bird species and that they are paid damages in case of losses”, concluded Yordan Hrisotv, expert from the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds.

[size=55:1ra8xj6m]BNR

April 1 - World Bird Day



For most people April 1 is All Fool’s Day above all. For more than a century however, this day has been marked by nature-lover as World Bird Day. It was introduced by virtue of the Rare Bird Protection Convention on 19 March 1902 in Paris, France, and was enforced on 6 December 1902. For more than two decades the Bulgarian Bird Protection



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Society has marked the day with various bird-protection campaigns. This year, on the eve of World Bird Day, the BBPS presented its latest environmental project – Protection of the Saker Falcon in North-eastern Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. The project is financed by the Life Plus Programme of the European Union and continues until 2014.

The Saker Falcon is threatened with extinction worldwide. This is in part due to widespread poaching for falcon hunting. On the other hand this bird species is endangered due to the worsening of habitats for nesting and feeding. The main part of the European population of the species is found in the Carpathian basin – Hungary, Slovakia and in part, in Ukraine. While in the Ukraine Saker falcons’ numbers have decreased steadily, in Hungary the number of Saker falcon couples has increased from 30 to more than 200 for a dozen years owing to the efforts of environmentalists. In Bulgaria, there are only few couples surviving. “Luckily, there is a good chance of saving the population”, Petar Yankov from BBPS says. Mr Yankov is technical coordinator of the project for the Saker Falcon protection.

“The project seeks to stop the trend of Saker falcon extinction in Bulgaria, and to create conditions for the restoration of its population. The partners in the project are 14 led by Bukk National Park in Hungary. By borrowing from the good practices of Hungary and Slovakia the Bulgarian Bird Protection Society continues its efforts for the protection of the Saker falcon. Thanks to them the drastic decline of Saker falcon couples’ number from sixty to almost zero in 2000, has been stopped. Since 2006, we have seen two couples that tend to remain in Bulgaria. We expect that young birds coming to Bulgaria will also start nesting here. For this reason we use the same design of nesting facilities as in Hungary, so as to make birds recognize them easily and form couples. After that our task is to make sure that baby birds are properly raised. They will be protected and fed when necessary.”

Other efforts in the protection of the Saker falcon include the elimination of threats such as use of harmful chemicals especially of pesticides in farming. Using the example of Hungary and Slovakia, a Guide of Nature-Friendly Farming Practices will be compiled. Environmentalists will work to play down the negative impact of windmills and high-voltage pylons where birds make nests.

“This is required by the European Commission and is linked to losses for enterprises and for the repair of the electricity grid. We count strongly on this project because placing plastic isolators on pylons is an expensive job. This will be good not only for the Saker falcon but for other birds, especially the White Stork”, Petar Yankov concludes.

The optimistic forecast is that by the project’s completion there will be three Saker falcon couples in Dobrudja, North-eastern Bulgaria. They are expected to become the kernel of the new population of the Saker Falcon in this country.