Thursday 6 May 2021

Bulgaria Spring 2021, day twelve- Cape Kaliakra

I spent most of the birding day at Cape Kaliakra again. Ebird list HERE. Only new trip bird was Black-headed Bunting but there was quite a nice little selection of migrants- male Collared Flycatcher, 3 Ortolans, Thrush Nightingale, a couple of Red-breasted Flycatchers,  Redstart, Whinchat, Red-footed Falcon, a small influx of Bee-eater and a Ferruginous Duck migrating past at sea.

It so much quieter than it was last week on the big day- no marsh terns, very few Little and Med Gulls, not much visible migration at all. A good opportunity to look at that botany and butterflies. 

Did a habitat survey on the plot this afternoon and started working out some plans. 

I spent a bit of time sound recording and photographing the Pied Wheatears- something weird going on out here so will do a blog post on that later. 

Male Collared Flycatcher 
Female Ortolan 
Red-breasted Flycatcher
Yelkouan Shearwaters- yesterday there were thousands of these but seems like most moved on since - the turnover at this site is dramatic. 
A close up of a Yelkouan Shearwater (above and below) from Shabla last week showing its bits including legs projecting beyond tail and dark undertail coverts 

Alpine Swift

2 comments:

DavidW said...

I’m really enjoying reading your updates and seeing the fantastic range of fauna you have out there. Thanks for sharing this! David

Peter Alfrey said...

Good to hear. Cheers David