A couple of work days, with the mornings (from 6am to 11am) at the project site carrying out habitat management works and then an afternoon break (swimming and siesta) before a bit more work in the cooler early evening followed by some night herping.
On Wednesday we met up with Dimiter and Marina for lunch at the Tango restaurant at Kamen Bryag (great food!) and then went to Yailata cliffs/ rocky coastline for the afternoon and then after the evening shift had a quick tour round the village (for Dylan and Anton) before another session at Tango. Ebird list for local area Here.
Same kind of drill on Thursday, early work followed by lunch at Mopko and a visit to town to get some cash (Kavarna is the nearest town, about 30 min drive from Kamen Bryag). Then in the evening we went herping at Shabla Tuzla. Interesting that there were good numbers of Wood Sandpipers at the lake (wasn't expecting waders moving yet, didn't even bring my scope) and also high numbers of Black-winged Stilts.
Juvenile Lesser Grey Shrike, one territory within our project site with young birds across the road. We only had one Red-backed Shrike in the village (they were more prominent around Balchik). Plenty of juvenile birds around including juvenile Pied Wheatears in the village.
Adult Lesser Grey Shrike
Juvenile Syrian (above) and Green (below) Woodpecker at the project site. Also juvenile Great and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers around. Golden Orioles were particularly prominent (and vocal) during the week, with presumably juvenile birds involved (difficult to get good views of them). I was surprised to not hear a single Nightingale singing (although did not sound record at night) so presumably they've finished breeding and gone to 'deep ground' now with adults moulting and juvs around.
Dice Snake at the beach. As a snake novice I was shocked to discover this species is commonly found on the coast in Bulgaria often seen swimming in the sea.
'Goby' fish (above) and crab sp in rock pools. A really stunning little rock pool area. We went back later in the week with snorkelling gear but unfortunately the sea was rough and visibility much reduced.
The stunning Peacock Moth caterpillar was a good find
Oak Hawkmoth- more on the local moths to follow.
Highlight of the trip was successfully finding Spadefoots, a speciality of the region and unusual in that they are found in sand dunes, where they spend the day buried and come out at night. Spadefoots have undergone recent taxonomic revision
See here with at least Balkan Spadefoot and Common Spadefoot (and probably Syrian Spadefoot) occurring in Bulgaria. We believe the ones we saw were Balkan Spadefoots.
Another highlight was finally visiting the Snail Farm and Restaurant at Balgarevo
Dylan and Anton (above and below) and the rocky shoreline at Yailata (below), this is the closest swimming area to our project site (a 20 min walk or so from the nearest road, long enough for it to be private each time we visited).
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