Bulgaria, Spring 2022, Day Six

Today was rather windy (a north-easterly) and also much cooler than the previous few days and by the looks of it has put the dampeners on migration with a notable drop in grounded passerines and vis-mig and large soaring birds visibly struggling to move forward . I started the day off at Cape Kaliakra where I met Andrew Bailey (a local ex-pat birder) and then after a work session on the plot spent the late afternoon and evening at the Shabla lakes complex. A few new trip ticks included Jack Snipe, Grey Partridge and Thrush Nightingale but new birds are slowing down fast now Ebird trip report here . Apparently it's been a late Spring, I haven't seen a single Red-backed Shrike this trip yet but presumably they will arrive soon as its generally a ubiquitous species in this region. I'm moving south tomorrow to meet up with Dylan and Anton for a few days herping in the Burgas/Standzha region but return back here mid-week for a few more days so will be interesting to see how things change in a few days time (a long time in Spring migration terms). 

Nothing new in the moth trap in the cooler evening. 

Hobby

Female Ortolan

White Pelicans ditching on the sea. The wind was so strong today that these Pelicans decided to sit it out off the Cape. They eventually leap frogged towards the coast before finally (presumably) finding some kind of thermals and moved on (below) 

Third-calender year Baltic Gull (dark markings on bill and no mirror on p10) 

Northern Wheatear - the first picture of one on this blog this Spring

Two of the White-tailed Lapwings were still present

An influx of Ruff at Shabla Lakes

Jack Snipe- a Bulgarian tick. Was hoping to get a three Snipe day today but no sign of the Great Snipes- this Jack Snipe instead in the same area 

The obligatory Black-winged Stilt foreign birding trip pic

European Pond Turtles 'mating'

This exhausted Barn Swallow at the Kaliakra Castle restaurant unfortunately later died- a sad end to a long journey to and back from Africa