Bulgaria - Red breasted Geese

2nd - 7th February 2010 

Bulgaria is the highest land on the Balkans, bordering with the Danube River to the north and the beautiful Black Sea coast to the east. It is the homeland of Orpheus and Spartacus and is one of the most exciting birding destinations in Europe. Winter is an excellent time to visit this country with the spectacle of many thousands of over-wintering Red-breasted Geese to the western coast of the Black Sea. Large concentrations of White-fronted Geese plus a few rare Lesser White-fronted Geese are also present, along with divers, grebes and seaduck.

BA flights from London Gatwick to Varna (click here)

Day 1 :- We shall catch our flight to Bulgaria where we will be met by our local guide. After loading the minibus we shall drive to Kavarna and check into our hotel, if time allows we will spend the remainder of the day searching the area to get our trip list started. Three nights in Kavarna

Days 2 & 3 :- We will spend these two days in the Coastal Dobrudja - the northernmost part of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast near the Romanian border, including the lakes of Shabla and Durankulak, where the geese roost. Early in the morning we will watch the geese “take off” - every day they leave the lakes and fly inland to feed in the winter crop fields around. The numbers of Red-breasted Goose can vary between 50 & 5000, depending on how severe the winter is. Later in the morning, after watching the geese taking off, we will have coffee, tea and sandwiches at a local bistro, then will explore the fields where the geese graze. Usually while checking the huge flocks of White-fronted Geese we can hopefully pick out one of the few Lesser White-fronted Geese within the flock. Offshore we can expect to see Black-throated & Red-throated Divers, Great Crested, Black-necked, Red-necked & Slavonian Grebes, Red-breasted Merganser, Greater Scaup, as well as the Great Bittern plus White-tailed Eagle, Greater Spotted Eagle, Long-legged Buzzard, Rough-legged Buzzard, Peregrine and Merlin are common winter residents here. There will be a very good chance of Pallas’s Gull at the lakes. In one of these two days we will also explore Cape Kaliakra, where we can expect to see the Mediterranean Shag, Eagle Owl, possibly Wallcreeper and various seaduck. The adjacent steppe area hosts wintering Long-legged Buzzards, Merlins, Calandra Larks, etc.

Day 4 :- Drive to the southern Bulgarian coast via Varna Lake for Pygmy Cormorant, Great White Egret, Cetti's Warblers,  and more with the Kamchia riverine forests to the south of Varna for White-tailed & Greater Spotted Eagles, Black & Middle-spotted Woodpecker, Short-toed Treecreeper. We can also expect various waterfowl in the sea in front and Merlin in the agricultural lands around. Another option for this day would be to spend the morning in Coastal Dobrudja and then drive in the afternoon to Bourgas without stopping at Varna lake. Two nights in Bourgas.

Day 5 :- Bourgas wetlands: Atanasovsko Lake (shallow lagoon with salinas), Bourgas /Vaya/ Lake, Mandra Lake and Poda lagoon: all Ramsar sites and Important Bird Areas. Here we will be able to watch Pygmy Cormorant (nearly 10000 wintering in the area), Dalmatian Pelican (hundreds wintering in Atanasovsko and Bourgas Lake) and White Pelican, White-headed Duck (hundreds wintering in Vaya Lake), White-tailed Eagle, Bearded Tit, Slender-billed Gull, Mediterranean Gull and other commoner wintering water birds. The open waters may hold the Ferruginous Duck too.

Day 6 :- Return to Varna for our flight home, maybe stopping en-route for Sombre Tit, Cirl & Rock Bunting in the Eastern Balkan Range.

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