Bulgaria May 09—23, 2006
Posted by Peter Roberts
Peter Roberts
Peter Roberts is based in Britain and lives on the island of Islay in the west of Scotland. He has been a keen naturalist since childhood in London. While birds remain his ...Related Trips
We saw the Wallcreeper as we were stepping out of our minibus, but it was flying away down the Trigrad Gorge. It is a superb, unique, and flashy species. Its distinctive shape, habits, and habitats combined with a stunning color scheme of mid-gray, black, white, and crimson should make it easy enough to find. But the high, craggy limestone cliffs on either side of a steep gorge running for over half-a-mile reduced our search to "needle in a haystack" levels. Despite this, the Trigrad Gorge must be one of the easiest and most reliable places in the world to find this must-see bird. Within another couple of minutes our local guide had relocated a pair and we indulged in prolonged, close views of these little gems as they flitted about, probing into crevices for invertebrate food. Like huge moths or butterflies, they flitted across sheer rock faces, flashing their wings in and out, revealing white spots on black primaries and rich, crimson wing spots, eliciting heartfelt "oohs" and "aahs" from everybody watching. We finished this experience with beaming smiles firmly fixed to our faces, the more linguistic of our group shouting out their newly acquired Bulgarian: "Strachotno"?spectacular/fantastic!
This was towards the end of a truly "Strachotno" tour where just about all of the localized, special, and hoped for species showed up: Corn Crake ratcheting out its "crex crex" call as we watched through our telescopes before breakfast; dainty Red-footed Falcons contrasting with the might of the huge Cinereous Vulture; the sunlit quartering of a pair of territorial Long-legged Buzzards; offshore flocks of Levantine Shearwaters seen from the beautiful Cape Kaliakra headland with its stunning wild peonies and other flowers; highly local Masked Shrikes and Olive-tree Warblers amidst stunning and unbelievably extensive open, mixed deciduous woodlands; exotic Paddyfield Warblers, Ruddy Shelducks, and Dalmatian Pelicans at the western edge of the central Asian range; flocks of migrant Curlew Sandpipers on their way to Siberia, but already in phenomenal brick-red nuptial plumage; irruptive and absurdly colored Barbie-pink and shiny black Rosy Starlings newly arrived in excited flocks from goodness knows where in Asia, to quickly nest and move on back to who knows where again; shy Black Storks contrasting with the "in-your-face" White Storks nesting on poles and roofs in every village?each huge stick nest harboring a colony of Spanish Sparrows in its untidy, bulky mass; and the sheer abundance of bright gems such as Lesser Gray and Red-backed shrikes, European Rollers, Eurasian Golden-Orioles, European Bee-eaters, Pied Wheatears, and Black-headed Buntings making every day a joyous kaleidoscope of color. Our lively group was dedicated to coming to grips with all of the look-alike warblers with their subtle differences in shape, plumage, song, and habitat.
All of these memorable birding experiences were from a tour tailored to a sensible pace, rather than the "blink and you miss it" schedules of other tour groups. Socially, culturally, and developmentally, Bulgaria truly does deserve that over-used phrase "land of contrasts." Apart from the super birding and countryside, we were fascinated by the contrast between the virtually peasant existence of horse-and-cart with towns sporting internet cafes and modern spa hotels, and the crumbling Soviet concrete juxtaposed with new investment properties along the Black Sea coastal resorts?all part of the travel experience.