Bulgaria, Autumn 2024, Day Five

Unfortunately today was our last day here. A last minute short trip dictated by finally being able to get a water connection and the pond liner to the site and having to be back for work commitments. Looks like I didn't pay my electricity bill too as we now have water but the electicity was cut off meaning we couldn't do the moth trapping. Also the strimmer packed up working so we didn't get the meadow management done. We are already planning (better planning!) a Spring trip in April to sort everything out. 

The brisk cold north wind was blowing again so we stayed around Kamen Bryag and birded the sheltered parts of the oak wood and gardens. Ebird list HERE . We then went on a twitch to the neighbouring village of Sveti Nikola. Laughing Doves bred in the communal farm buildings this year and the family was still around last week. However we somehow managed to dip these. Come to think of it, this trip was a bit of a disaster- topped off by the car hire company trying to scam us of 400 euro, which we needed the fraud department of our bank and the local police to resolve. All good fun! 

Trip Report HERE. We had no rarity finds (201024 update- we had a rare moth, Feathered Brindle- the first for the Bulgaria I-Nat recording scheme) although Grey-headed Woodpecker might have been a bit of a local mega as Pavel has only seen one in 45 years in the vicinity but there are several Ebird records HERE in the Dobrich region. Takes the project Ebird hotspot bird list to 169 HERE. The bird of the trip was the locustella that got away and only 121 species recorded overall. In short, not that great but a good crack nonetheless.  Probably best to concentrate on that good planning for the Spring trip!  

A bit of back ground to this project HERE. 

A cracking Black Stork over the oak wood

Another gorgeous Red-breasted Fly. Our ebird tally was 16 of these (although Ebird can double count birds on the same site on different times) but what with birds moving through, in this instance probably not far off that. 

Lots of Jays in the village collecting acorns from the oak wood 

Green toad at the guesthouse 

We spent the afternoon getting on with the pond. Managed to build up a bank and get it filled up. The liner we could get loally was only 8 x 12 meters (the excavation was 14 x 12 meters). We got a quote for shipping a 14 x 12 meter from the UK but the difference was £3500 plus import costs etc and no time frame for delivery or £700 for the smaller local one so we settled for a smaller pond then planned but still happy with it considering all the constraints. In the Spring will need to order some cobbles to place around the edges and then trim off the excess liner. Will be interesting to see how it settles over the winter. Dragonflies were already using it and there were already water beetles colonising.