Bulgaria days nine and ten

We spent the last couple of days in Shipka, where my brother lives where he runs the Balkan Ecology Project HERE. Kojak and I spent yesterday doing the Monastery first thing, then the birding road, then we went over to Sheynovo lake (and got interrupted by a huge storm) and spent the evening on the east plot sides. We recorded over 70 bird species in the area HERE and HERE with the highlight being a shocking Saker Falcon, presumably a bird from the reintroduction project in Bulgaria where five breeding territories have been established by released birds by a Partnership of the Green Balkans and the Stara Zagora Raptor Rehabilitation Centre. Other highlights included an adult and first-summer male Montagu's Harrier, Long-legged Buzzards, Honey Buzzard, Black-crowned Night Herons at the lake, Wryneck and good numbers of Ortolans and Isabelline Wheatears on the Steppe with Tawny Pipit, Quail and great to see the Sousliks doing well in this isolated fragment of Steppe habitat. 

Today Kojak and I headed up to the Shipka Pass Peak and found some mountain butterfly species such as Clouded Apollo, Woodland Ringlet, Weaver's Fritillary and Scarce and European Swallowtails and a couple of Narrow-bordered Bee Hawkmoths. 

In the afternoon we stopped briefly in some butterfly habitat near Kran and then headed over to Harmanli, our stop over for the night ahead of meeting Nikolay to target some butterfly specialities tomorrow morning.

Saker! (above)

Adult male (above) and first-summer male (below) Montagu's Harrier. I've been visiting this area for over 20 years now and it's absolutely great to see so little has changed in that time with the local valley and Steppe still supporting Montagu's Harriers and Steppe species and now with Sakers ! Seemingly there is no ecological emergency here? 

Male Ortolan

Male Cirl Bunting 

Night Heron

Small Blue 

Weaver's Fritillary

Narrow-bordered Bee Hawkmoth

Woodland Ringlet

Scarce Swallowtail 

Heliothis incarnata. We had the moth trap out in my mum's garden- it was pretty quiet but a few nice ones. 

Calophasia opalina

Zekelita antiqualis? 

Asovia maeoticaria

Coypu in Shipka

The good old Sousliks doing well out on the Steppe

Shipka- an absolutely stunning area

Views from the Shipka pass over the Valley of the Roses and the Balkans

Elder-flowered Orchid- we are trying to ignore the amazing botany round here as we are trying to target moths and butterflies but couldn't ignore these beauties

Bulgaria day eight

Today (Saturday 30th May) I dropped Holly and the boys off at the airport for their flight back to the UK at 4am and then headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours before meeting Kojak for breakfast. We then headed towards Shipka and stopped in the Stara Zagora area at a couple of butterfly spot that Nikolay (our guide for later on in the week) had provided us with. 

Incredible numbers of butterflies in a beautiful setting. The largest numbers of Fritillaries I can remember seeing in one place. All our recent observations HERE. 

In the evening we arrived in Shipka our base for the next two nights. 

Niobe Fritillaries with a Glanville Fritillary (far right)

Niobe Fritillary

Spotted Fritillary

Glanville Fritillary

Queen of Spain Fritillary

Black-viened White

Sooty Copper

Russian Heath

Yellow-banded Skipper

Eurrhypis pollinalis

Black-viened White Moth

Dusky Grass-Veneer, Chrysocrambiodes craterella

Powdered Grass-Veneer

Bulgaria days six and seven

I spent yesterday morning at the plot doing the moths and some more garden birding before we had to say goodbye to Kamen Bryag and head to Burgas to meet the rest of the family. 

There were a few new moths for the trip but only the usual birds. Recent moth observations HERE and project moth list now on 444 HERE. The Kamen Bryag hotspot is now on 190 species HERE with the potential Eastern Bonelli's (still need to confirm) and the Little Bittern new birds for the site. 

It took about three hours to get to Burgas and after checking in to the Diamond Beach we met Paul, Dylan and my mum for lunch. We then went back to the hotel and explored the local beach.

Today after a couple of hours of doing nothing (for the first time this trip) we met up with them again for a visit to a local wild park and then lunch at Happy before the 3 hour drive back to Sofia for a night at the Metropolitian Hotel ready for the flight home tomorrow morning for Holly and the boys. Kojak arrives later tonight so I will meet him for breakfast in the hotel before we head off for part 2 of this trip- a butterfly and moth exploration trip.

Ladies and Gentlemen- the Adulatrix! What a moth, the second one I've caught of these on the plot.

Lemon Bell, Thiodia citrana- a lifer

Cyclophora suppunctaria

Idaea filicata (according to I-Nat AI) -would pass this off for a Least Carpet back home

Jacob doing the moths 

Goodbye to the holiday wildlife plot until next time

My brother Paul with the boys

Going to miss these little tikes but will give Kojak and I the opportunity to get down to some more focused natural history now. Been meaning to do some wider moth and butterfly exploration so in the coming week we are going to focus on the Balkans/Valley of the Roses, the Sakar Hills and Rhodopes and the mountains north of Sofia. 

Bulgaria Day Five

The plan today was for Holly to reburish the caravan while I took the boys out the way. I got up early and did the moth trap and a bit of birding from the plot HERE with highlights from the morning session and lunchtime session including a first-winter male Common Rosefinch, a singing Marsh Warbler, a male Little Bittern flushed from our pond!, a flyover male Montagu's Harrier, Pied Wheatear singing in the village, at least 6 Spotted Flycatchers (presumably migrants still coming through), Barred Warbler, Tree Pipit and a Black-headed Bunting came in for a drink to the pond too. 

In the morning I took the boys to Bolata Bay Beach and then after lunch we headed over to visit Pavel at Durankulak. Pavel had the nets up and we processed a Common Whitethroat with the boys. 

Sadly today was our last day on the wildlife plot and we are heading to reunite with Paul, my mum and Nephew in Burgas tomorrow. 

A whirlwind visit but achieved loads and saw some great garden ticks and moths.

First-winter male Common Rosefinch (above with Red-backed Shrike and below)

Spotted Flycatchers (above and below) 

Female Spanish Sparrow- surprisingly an easy identification with the dark underpart streaking and think dark bill

Lunar Double-stripe- another top of wish list moth. A lifer. I've been a bit dissappointed to have left the UK on the first major moth migration event of the year in record breaking heat wave conditions. Mike Bailey had a Druid on the Peninsula and there have been some mega moths around and enormous numbers of migrating insects. However it's been nice to have some compensation in catching several of the megas recorded in the UK here including this Lunar Double-stripe and Many-lines (below) and Bordered Straw (below that). 

Also some nice Eastern European species including Elicrinia trinotata and other nice local species below

Pease Blossom again- probably the same one re-caught

Evergestis frumentalis

The boys ringing a Common Whitethroat with Pavel

The caravan reburb (above and below). The plan was to paint the whole caravan but as we got two days behind we decided to get some inspiration from the local fields of poppies and painted a few poppies on the side to smarten it up. 

We managed to get everything working including the gas hob, fridge, lights, toilets, fan etc and it was all looking good to get the whole thing ready when we discovered a crack in the water boiler that was causing a flood everytime we tried to use the taps. Seems like water was left in the boiler or the winter which has expanded and cracked so despite overcoming the delay obstacles we still got beaten by Bulgaria- everytime! As always overcoming the next obstacle will have some unforeseen and unpredictable benefits.