20 years visiting Bulgaria

It's been twenty years since I first visited Bulgaria in 2006. My brother Paul, his partner Sophie and two kids, Dylan and Archie had decided to leave the UK behind and start a new life in Shipka at the foothills of the Balkan Mountains. After a few years of finding their feet they established the Balkan Ecology Project HERE and I did my best to visit as often as I could to help out on the project and also explore Bulgaria from there.

In 2016 Paul and I purchased about 14 hectates of land in the Shipka area for the project and in 2020 I also purchased a plot on the Black Sea coast at Kamen Bryag and since then have also been visiting that area regularly to focus on migrant birds and lepidoptera of this part of the Via Pontica flyway. 

So basically Bulgaria has become a second home/holiday home over the last twenty years. In total I have visited 26 times! - in July 2006 to Shipka with Kate, January 2009 to Shipka before embarking on a six week road trip to the Middle East with Paul, December 2010 to Shipka and then with Dimiter for wild geese, May 2011 with Dimiter, Darryl and Greg for a Spring tour with Neophron, June 2013 to Shipka, February 2015 with Wise Birding for Geese in Romania, July 2015 to Shipka with Maria and the girls, September 2015 for autumn birding with Dylan, April 2016 to Shipka, July 2016 to Shipka (met Anton for first time),  May 2018 with Holly and Jacob to Shipka and herping with Dylan and Anton to the Eastern Rhodopes, November 2016 with my dad to look into Black Sea purchase, August and September 2019 with Holly and Jacob on a road trip through Europe to Bulgaria, February 2020 to complete the Kamen Bryag purchase, April/May 2021 to Kamen Bryag and then herping with Dylan and Anton to Kresna, May 2022 to Kamen Bryag and herping trip to Burgas region with Dylan and Anton, July 2022 to Kamen Bryag to work on the plot with Dylan and Anton, November 2022 to Kamen Bryag for more work on the land, May 2023 to Kamen Bryag and then herping at Kresna and Baba Vangas, July 2023 to Kamen Bryag for moth recording, September 2023 with Arjun for his Cambridge University dissertation and the boys and Roger also visited as we started the pond, October 2024 with Kojak to Kamen Bryag, June 2026 with Kojak to Kamen Bryag to complete the pond, September 2026 with Kojak to Kamen Bryag, October 2026 to Kamen Bryag on my own for some epic migration and now May/June 2026 with Holly and the boys and later visiting Shipka and natural history exploring. 

Far too many highlights to even begin listing them but found several megas for Bulgaria on both the birds and moth fronts. In total I've had 306 bird species HERE (23 in Ebird Top 100) and 582 moths and butterflies HERE and most of the herps in Bulgaria plus loads more with over 700 species on I-Nat HERE which is incomplete as doesn't include botany, herps or mammals. My butterfly list without the moths is on 92 HERE. 

Still loads more to do out there. The next plans include to target the remaining Butterflies, I still need Cat Snake, to keep up the migration recording on the Black Sea Coast and hopefully find more megas for the country and to expand the land purchasing to create a new nature reserve in Kamen Bryag. 

Dylan in 2006

Me mincing in the woods

Dylan and Anton

Paul, Dylan and Archie

Dimiter, Marina and Dylan in Burgas September 2015

Bulgaria Day 14: Pirin National Park

Our final day of this trip was spent at Pirin National Park. Anton, Kojak and I headed to the Bansko summit lodge and spent the morning there and had lunch before descending and checking a few spots on the way down. A few new bird ticks HERE including a cracking Nutcracker, Ring Ouzels and Crossbills. Birding trip report for the last two weeks HERE. We had 144 species which wasn't too bad considering this was a family and natural history trip. 

The main purpose of the visit was to look for Adders (a regional subspecies) which, thanks to Anton, was successful. 

We then headed back towards Sofia and stopped off in South Park for a few herps, dropped Anton off and then back to the hotel.

I had to drop the car off in the evening ahead of the very early flight the next day. According to the car rental company we did 3000km over the last two weeks (see the Ebird map HERE ). 

Nutcracker (above and below)

Male Ring Ouzel 

Male Red Crossbill

Red-rumped Swallow

Dunnock- everywhere in the mountains 

Adders, male (above) and female (below)

Viviparous Lizard

Aesculapian Snake in South Park, Sofia

Sand Lizard

Heart Moth- the highlight in the moth trap from Kresner

Balkan Chamois- common around the summit

Pirin (above and below)

Bulgaria day 13: Kresner Gorge

We met Anton this morning at our hotel and then in torrential rain we headed south to Kresna. Our orginal plan was to head to the mountains north of Sofia but the weather changed our strategy so we headed south instead.

Nikolay had given us a couple of locations to check for butterflies so Kevin and I did some lepping while Anton concentrated on herping. Between us all we had a nice haul.

Purple-shot Copper (above and below)

Sooty Copper

Chequered Blue

Great Banded Grayling

Nettle-tree Butterfly aka European Beak

European Swallowtail (above and below) 

Oriental Skipper (above and below) 

Southern White Admiral

Balkan Marbled White

Brown Argus

Common Blues

Velvet spider sp

Dice Snake

Horn-nosed Viper (above and below)

Kresna Gorge (above and below)

Bulgaria Day 12: Sakar Hills

Today (3rd June) was our second day with Nikolay. We over nighted at a forest lodge near the Sakar Hills and then spent the day in the area checking various spots. I kept Ebird running all day in the general area HERE with 60 species recorded including Olive-tree and Eastern Bonelli's Warbler and Eastern Black-eared Wheatear. 

Nikolay lead us to a nice selection of butterflies, dragonflies and orchids with the highlight being two Bavius Blues at a site they are unrecorded from- a lifer for our guide and only 3 previous observations on 1-Nat for Bulgaria HERE .

Also several other butterfly lifers today. Slowly 'collecting' more of the Bulgarian butterflies, now on 70 species for the country HERE 

Bavius Blue

Tiny Tiger Blue- such a good looking butterfly

Blue Argus

Osiris Blue

Mazarine Blue

Balkan Zephyr Blue

Silver-studded Blue

Orbed Red Underwing Skipper

Oberthur's Grizzled Skipper

Yellow banded Skipper

Lesser-spotted Fritillary

Southern White Admiral (with Nine-spotted Moth in background)

The Odalisque, male (above) and female (below)

Eastern Spectre

Turkish Goldenring 

Southern Darter

Scarce Merveille du Jour was the highlight of the moth trap at the forest lodge

Horned Orchid

Anacamptis palustris elegans

Juvenile Woodlark road casualty . We also had a dead Blotched Snake on the road.