Bulgaria, September 2025, Day Six

Sadly it's out last day today. We did a morning session around the village HERE, new trip ticks included Rook, Honey Buzzard and Black Kite. 

I spent the rest of the day doing a bit of work on the plot, cutting back the trees to get the caravan in and doing some final work on the pond. 

Final trip report HERE. 131 species in 6 days staying locally is not too bad but migration has been pretty slow in the hot, dry and north east wind conditions. We've added three new species to the local Ebird hotpsot HERE- Capsian Tern, Middle Spotted Woodpecker and Wood Warbler. 

Will post seperately on the Leps. Site list now on 409 (awaiting verification) HERE.

Adult Red-breasted Flycatcher- about 30 or so of these around the village and we had six around the pond this morning 

There's also 30-35 Red-backed Shrikes around showing a lot of variation. This was the palest bird we had

A single kettle of raptors were thermalling over the village including 2 dark juv Honey Buzzard (above and below), Common Buzzard (below that), Black Kite (keep going down) and an Osprey with a few Levants, a couple of Hobby, two Marsh Harrier and a Red-footed Falcon. Very nice indeed! 

Had this distinctive moth on the edge of the village- a lifer whatever it is. Update 130925- it's a Feathered Footman 

Bulgaria, September 2025, Day Five

After doing the moths and a bit of birding around the village HERE we headed over to Durankulak to meet up with Pavel. After helping Pavel put up a 12 meter net we quickly popped into Shabla Tsula HERE before heading back to meet up with Pavel and do an evening's ringing. Day list from Durankulak HERE.

Highlights included Thrush Nightingale in the hand, juvenile White Pelican and a boost to the trip list with some more waterbirds. 

Live Trip Report HERE.

Thrush Nightingale in the nets just as it got dark (Dodgy photo by Kevin)

Reed (above) and Sedge Warbler (below) 

First-winter Turtle Dove

Caspian Tern, Little, Black-headed and Med Gulls, Ringed Plover and Little Stint at Shabla Tsula in the only damp bit of mud on the salt lake 

The expansion of the Branta Lodge Ringing Site, next year we will set up a satellite site at our Kamen Bryag plot with Pavel if all goes to plan. The caravan sale goes through tomorrow and should be in position in the next couple of weeks so all going good.

Always stop off at our favourite local shop on the way to see Pavel

Bulgaria, September 2025, Day Four

We spent the whole day at Kamen Bryag today. Ebird list HERE with highlights including Corncrake, Wryneck, Caspian Tern and Osprey and Lesser Spotted Eagle over the garden. 

We started off at the plot and did a skywatch (Tawny Pipit, Tree Pipits, Yellow Wagtails and a few raptors over) and then at 11am I had a logistics meeting with the locals about moving the caravan onto our plot. 

In the afternoon we went to Lidl to buy a kettle as the nearest coffee shop is in Kavarna and then spent the evening walking round the wood, the sheltered south side is alive with migrants, and then did a quick seawatch (Caspian Tern and Mediterranean Shearwater were the highlights).  

Six new trip bird species today takes us to 107 so far HERE.

The moth trap was lively again, about 250 individual moths of approx 50 species, mainly Devonshire Wainscots, Scarce Bordered Straws and Delicates with up to 15 new species for the project so far HERE. A few butterflies are about including Silver-studded Blue, Cardinals, Brown Argus, Wall and Meadow Browns. 

Male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (above and below)- nice to have these regularly buzzing around the place. What with Wryneck today we are now on six species of woodpecker for the project area this week and seven in total (we had Grey-headed Woodpecker last year). 

Osprey over the plot

Lesser Spotted Eagle over the plot

Juvenile Levant Sparrowhawk over the plot

Spotted Flycatcher- about eight in the village and wood today

Hoopoe

Silver-studded Blue 260826 uodate- Obsidentify says this is Blue Argus 

Cardinal 

Bulgaria, September 2025, Day Three

As usual we started off at the plot doing the moths and then after that we went on an Eagle Owl hunt. Dimiter and his group went to Balchik and we went to Bolata Gorge. Dimiter found two birds at his site so after a quick search of Bolata we went over to Balchik to twitch one of his birds. 

As we were in Balchik we decided to do an hour or so at the raptor viewpoint despite the unfavourable wind. Not a lot was going on - a couple of Lesser Spotted Eagles, a Short-toed Eagle and a couple of Montagu's Harriers were the highlights.

We then stopped off for a proper coffee at Kavarna (and picked up Pallid Swift) and then visited a staging site for Stone Curlews- 16 of them in a flock! 

After a break during the heat of the day we spent the evening around the village and the wood. The rather strong wind did us a favour and concentrated birds on the south side of the wood. We had a surprising five species of woodpecker in the wood- Lesser, Middle and Great Spotted, Green and Syrian. Also good numbers of Red breasted Flys, a few Spotted Flys and a nice showy juv Hobby with a juv Montagu's Harrier hawking over the nearby fields. Full list HERE

Live trip report HERE - just over 100 species yet which indicates how slow going it is- although a bad few days here are still pretty darn good!

Middle Spotted Woodpecker (above and below)- a first for the project Ebird hotspot

Stone Curlew

Whinchat- one of two near the wood, surprisingly the first ones of the trip.

Juv Night Heron at Bolata

The daily Red-breasted Fly pic- they are literally everywhere as usual

Willow Warbler- a few around and finally had our first Chiffchaff of the trip

Spot the Eagle Owl 

Bulgaria September 2025, Day Two

Yesterday we started off doing the moths and then headed to Cape Kaliakra HERE where we met up with Dimiter and his group. On the way to Kamen Bryag we stopped off at Sveti Nikola  HERE to look for the resident Laughing Doves and then spent the evening at Kamen Bryag doing the village and Steppe HERE.

Highlights today included a Laughing Dove at the grain store (finally caught up with these birds), a Wood Warbler in our neighbours garden, a couple of Levant Sparrowhawks, Montagu's Harrier on the village steppe and about 30 Red-backed Shrike in the village. Wood Warbler was new for our project Ebird hotspot HERE

At mid-day we met up with the rather lovely Alex who we are buying a caravan off to sort out the logistics of that. She showed us a secret way down to the beach down the cliffs nearby too which was handy. 

There's a moderate north east wind blowing which is never great for migration out here (westerlies are better). Apparantely the wind has been persistent for weeks and it's been dry too resulting in not a great autumn migration round here this year so far. 

Laughing Dove at Sveti Nikola grain store. Only took us a year to see one of these resident breeding birds.

Pied Wheatear at the Cape- quite a pale one, maybe a juvenile male. One for the Cape Kaliakra Pied Wheatear collection HERE

Hobby at the Cape

Red-breasted Flycatchers are prominent but haven't seen a single Ficedula flycatcher and just a few Spot Flys. Also no Whinchats and just a few Redstarts. Overall it's pretty quiet- we only had 28 species on Cape Kaliakra which I think has to be a record low.

Lesser Whitethroat is the most prominent warbler at the moment with a few Blackcaps and Whitethroats and very few Willow Warblers and not a single Chiffchaff yet

Syrian Woodpecker- we've got Syrian, Great and Lesser Spot and Green in the village

The moth traps (MV and the Lepiled) have been pretty busy. A couple of highlights include this unidentified rather distinctive moth (above) and what looks something along the lines of Gold-banded Etiella Moth (below). Will sort out the identifications properly on the I-Nat project HERE 

The new local spot down the cliffs to the beach 

Bulgaria, September 2025, Day One

Kojak and I are back in Bulgaria dealing with dodgy car hire companies and enjoying Eastern flyway migration.

We started the day off at Cape Kaliakra HERE and then did a bit on the project plot HERE and then in the evening we did Shabla Tusla HERE. Highlights including five Montagu's Harriers, hundreds of Bee-eaters, Levant Sparrowhawk, Sardinian Warbler, Pied Wheatears and a nice flock of 20 Turtle Doves on the wires just outside the village. 

Got both the MV light and the Lepiled up at the wildlife plot tonight so interested to see what moths we get in the morning. 

We have a meeting with Alex tomorrow to sort out the purchase and installation of our plot accommadation- a nice little caravan that we will do a nice makeover on. 

As usual good to be back. Background to this project HERE. 

Juvenile Bee-eater. We had about 85 at the Cape and over 60 around the village plus birds on wires between the sites we visited too 

Juvenile Montagu's Harrier- stunner! Also had a single male bird flying around the Cape

Juvenile Levant Sparrowhawk 

Juvenile Red-backed Shrike- about 10 of these at the Cape this morning 

Juvenile Bee-eater and Red-backed Shrike (above) and adult Bee-eater (below)

Turtle Doves on the wires

Juvenile Pied Wheatear

We spent some of the afternoon finishing off the wildlife pond and topping up the water levels. There has been a drought here this summer and our pond had almost evaporated. Water levels were very low at Shabla Tsula lake too with the waders concentrated in damp mud at the far end of the salt lake