Eurotrip 2019- Day Eleven: Arrive on the Flyway!

We have finally reached our destination (F##k Greta Thunberg- I'm flying next time, the grief to drive here has been something else and we are £2000 down especially after not having the VC5 and had to hire another vehicle and all the additional hotels etc)  

Anyway the purpose of this trip is mainly to set up a migration recording project in this area, hopefully to buy some land and set up a small observatory and nature reserve- basically a little holiday home for a naturalist. Will see how we get on. We made an offer on some land in November but it wasn't accepted so might need to view some new plots and options. 

So we got through border control and got our vignette (road tax) and  arrived in the vicinity of Cape Kaliakra at about 2pm and after setting up base in a guesthouse at Balgarevo and getting supplies I managed a couple of hours on the edge of the village. Ebird list HERE. Basically there are birds everywhere. A very interesting west to east passage of Golden Orioles (about 25) with several coming into roost in the trees along the main road. A brisk easterly wind blowing and clear skies- this place must be dripping in birds during fall conditions because it was busy today in clear skies. Be interesting to see the daily variation over the next two weeks. 

 Adult male Eastern Black-eared or Pied Wheatear- notoriously difficult to identify. They struck me as Pieds when I first saw them but  but currently seeking opinions on social media. 

 First-winter male Eastern Black-eared or Pied Wheatear 

 Juvenile.First-winter Red-backed Shrike 

 Juvenile Levant Sparrowhawk 

 Migrating Short-toed Larks 

 One of 25+ Golden Orioles moving west to east this evening 

View over to Cape Kaliakra- the migrants are spread out right across the coastline in this region. Will be interesting to visit the Cape tomorrow to see if the density is more concentrated there. The Cape is  a very similar configuration to Spurn or Portland.