The idea of this trip, with a two year old in tow, was to have a fairly relaxing family holiday taking in beaches and play grounds, but with the chance of some decent birding along the way. A dedicated birding trip to the region at this time of year could produce far more, I'm sure.
As far as the birds went, the raptor migration wasn't quite what I'd hoped for in terms of bulk - maybe we were a bit too late (28-9 til 5-10) due to work commitments - but we did very well for species and had one morning of heavy passage. Small migrants were plentiful - mainly chiffchaffs, white wagtails, redstarts, red-breasted flycatchers and red-backed shrikes - and I'm sure could be truly spectacular slightly earlier in the season and/or with a bit of rain, or even cloud-cover - we had neither. Autumn isn't the ideal time for breeding birds and many had clearly already left. We did, however, do extremely well for woodpeckers - nowhere else I've ever been in Europe approaches the population densities we found here.
We are all-round naturalists, up to a point. The trip was amazingly good for butterflies, 31 species are listed below and in addition there were some blues we couldn't identify. The flight periods for most quoted in the literature were way-off, even for obvious species like the swallowtails. Moths weren't so exciting, but we saw eastern bordered straw, hoary footman and a few other things. We saw an excellent range of grasshoppers, mantids and bush-crickets, although we couldn't identify any for sure. Reptiles and amphibians were frequent, and are listed below. Plants were okay. We saw three species of autumn bulb in flower - sea daffodil, autumn squill and Colchicum turcicum. A large number of wayside plants, mostly widespread species of southern Europe, were in flower, as were various grassland / dune species including scabiouses, bindweeds and knapweeds. The variety of trees is large, we identified seven species of oak for sure as well as eastern beech, eastern hornbeam, horse chestnut etc. The colours were very spectacular, particularly smoke bush (Cotinus coggyria) in the dunes and wild vine (Vitis vinifera) in the woods.
In general terms it was a good holiday with no problems to mention. Accommodation, hire car etc all worked very well and, even as vegetarians with a toddler, we found food that we could not only eat but enjoy. People seemed very friendly, although we couldn't understand a word most of them were saying. Having said that, a few words of English were spoken in the places where we needed it, and most restaurants translated their menu into a form of English (with amusing mistakes thrown in) even although the signs outside were all in Bulgarian.
SITES
I don't suppose we discovered anything particularly trail-blazing here, but these are the places we went birding:
Sozopol is where we stayed. It's a small resort, popular with Bulgarians, with an old town as well as a sprawl of newer hotels and flats. The best birding, an easy walk from the town centre, seemed to be along the coast road heading south. Most of the fields here are abandoned, with big dense hedges and small copses but there are also some larger areas of grassland on the small headlands. Migrants would probably be exceptional if it had rained, as it was we saw quite a few, as well as resident Syrian woodpeckers. There's a small park in the middle of town with loads of trees and even this had Syrian woodpecker, redstart and spotted and red-breasted flycatchers, as we discovered whilst playing on the swings.
Arkution Lake is by the road about 10km south of Sozopol, and consists of a large area of reedbed with smaller patches of open water. Pygmy cormorants were plentiful here and we also saw great white egret, purple heron, slender-billed gull, great reed warbler etc.
Ropotamo - the mouth of this river is about 20km south of Sozopol. There's a large area of woodland and sand dune, and patches of marsh and meadow. It's mostly fenced off but worth the effort of finding a way in. The dunes etc are excellent for plants - we found a way in where the dunes meet the woods by the road. You can get a boat trip down to the river mouth, which isn't great for birding but is very pleasant. We had middle-spotted and grey-headed woodpeckers around the car-park where the road crosses the river and red-footed falcon over the dunes..
Strandjha National Park - this covers a huge area on the border with Turkey, mostly wooded hills but also areas of open grassland and some large reedbeds. We just stopped in places that looked promising. Along the coastal road, a walk into the woods just south of Sinomorec went through two very different areas of woodland, one regularly cut for firewood and dominated by oaks and the other apparently unmanaged. The latter produced white-backed woodpecker, and there were middle-spots in both areas. Just north of Sinomorec there is a very attractive river mouth, with a beach that is presumably accessible from the village. We parked where the road crosses the river and walked down the riverbank. This led to a small swampy area, which we waded around in a bit, seeing more frogs than you would believe possible. There was a purple heron here, and the swamp and open hillside to the south seemed to act as a bit of a migrant trap - we had ortolan bunting, tawny pipit, calandra lark, spotted flycatcher, blackcap, whitethroat etc. A few kms further south from Sinomorec there was a large open area where we saw imperial eagle.
The area we tried further up into the hills wasn't so productive, although I can imagine it would be in the spring. We stopped where the road crosses the River Valeka near Gramatikovo. There was some migration overhead, including lesser spotted eagles, and abandoned cultivations were excellent for insects. Otherwise the woods around here had loads and loads of great-spotted woodpeckers but not a lot else.
Bourgas Lakes - these are very well known. The three lakes are extremely productive, but unfortunately they surround the city of Bourgas. Summon up a mental picture of an east European industrial city and you're there. On our first visit the view was further enhanced by a large ship pouring out smoke and flames from a dry-dock. The sea here must be heavily polluted, but is still manages to support an enormous number of cormorants, as well as fishermen, so perhaps all is not lost. The obvious place to start is Mandra Lake, the southernmost one. Most of it is rather barren but there's a large area of lagoons and reedbeds around its outfall to the sea. There's also a visitor centre here, called Poda, a bit hard to spot but on the seaward side of the road as you cross the main outfall from the lake. This has some good information, including a map on the wall showing major concentrations of birds at the three lakes month by month. There's a viewing platform on the roof and a trail through the reedbeds - a very pleasant spot. Birds seen here included both species of pelican, a large passage of raptors including both spotted and lesser-spotted eagles, and moustached warbler. Bourgas Lake had plenty of birds, including pelicans, but it wasn't a very child-friendly spot so we didn't check it out. We had a brief look at Atanasovosko Lake, which is near the airport. This had loads of birds, especially ducks and waders, but we didn't manage to find a good viewpoint. The best places are along the main coast road heading through the outskirts of Bourgas, again not a terribly pleasant spot.
SPECIES LISTS
Black-necked grebe: Up to four on the sea at Sozopol daily, c70 at Mandra Lake on 1-10 and 3-10.
Little grebe: c20 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; small numbers at Mandra Lake.
Great crested grebe: c30 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; c2000 at Mandra Lake on 1-10 and 3-10.
Red-necked grebe: c20 at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Great cormorant: Abundant on coast.
Pygmy cormorant: 32 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; 5 at Ropotamo on 30-9; c100 at Mandra Lake on 1-10; 3 at Arkution Lake on 2-10; c100 at Mandra Lake on 3-10; 6 over Sozopol on 5-10..
White pelican: c2000 at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Dalmatian pelican: 6 at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Little egret: 26 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; 100 at Mandra Lake on 1-10; 20 at Strandza on 1-10; 20 at Arkution Lake on 2-10; 150 at Mandra Lake on 3-10.
Great white egret: 3 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; 30 at Mandra lake on 1-10; 1 at Strandza on 1-10; 10 at Arkution Lake on 2-10; 4 at Mandra Lake on 4-10.
Purple heron: 1 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; 1 at Sinomorec on 2-10.
Mute swan: 11 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; 6 at Mandra Lake on 3-10; 7 over Sozopol on 5-10.
Ruddy shelduck: 8 at Atanasovsko Lake on 5-10.
Shelduck: 2 at Mandra Lake on 3-10; c200 at Atanasovsko Lake on 5-10.
Teal: 6 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; c40 at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Gadwall: 5 at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Mallard: Common on wetlands.
Shoveler: 3 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; 15 at Mandra Lake on 1-10; c300 at Atanasovsko lake on 5-10.
Garganey: 1 at Arkution Lake on 30-9.
Pintail: 3 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; 3 at Mandra Lake on 1-10; c40 at Atanasovsko Lake on 5-10.
Pochard: 20 at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Marsh harrier: 1 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; 1 at Ropotamo on 30-9; 4 at Mandra Lake on 1-10; 1 near Tvardica on 1-10; 2 at Arkution Lake on 2-10; 1 at Mandra Lake on 3-10.
Osprey: 1 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; 1 at Ropotamo on 30-9; 1 at Mandra Lake on 1-10 and 1 there on 3-10.
Goshawk: 1 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; 1 north of Sinomorec on 2-10.
Sparrowhawk: 2 at Ropotamo on 30-9; 1 near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Levant sparrowhawk: 1 juv over Sozopol on 29-9; 1 juv near Marinka on 3-10.
Long-legged buzzard: 1 juv north of Sozopol on 3-10.
Steppe buzzard: 2 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; at least 40 over Mandra Lake on 1-10; 8 near Tvardica on 1-10; 1 at Mandra Lake on 3-10; 8 at Bourgas airport on 5-10.
Imperial eagle: 1 imm. north of Sinomorec on 2-10, plus 2 eagle sp.
Lesser-spotted eagle: 1 at Arkution Lake on 30-9, plus an eagle sp; at least 5 over Mandra Lake on 1-10; 4 near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Spotted eagle: 1 over Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Short-toed eagle: At least 5 over Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Red-footed falcon: 1 at Ropotamo on 30-9.
Hobby: 1 at Mandra Lake on 1-10; 1 at Sozopol on 1-10.
Kestrel: 2 at Bourgas Airport on 5-10.
Water rail: 1 on River Veleka on 2-10.
Moorhen: 1 on sea at Sozopol and small numbers on wetlands.
Coot: Very large numbers on wetlands.
Black-winged stilt: 1 at Atanasovsko Lake on 5-10.
Avocet: c400 at Atanasovsko Lake on 5-10.
Snipe: 12 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; 8 at Mandra Lake on 1-10; 12 there on 3-10.
Dunlin: 1 at Mandra Lake on 3-10.
Black-tailed godwit: 6 at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Green sandpiper: 1 at Arkution Lake on 30-9.
Wood sandpiper: 1 at Mandra Lake on 3-10.
Redshank: 13 at Mandra Lake on 1-10; 8 there on 3-10.
Greenshank: 3 at Strandza on 1-10.
Ruff: 1 at Mandra Lake on 3-10.
Mediterranean gull: 2 at Sozopol on 5-10 and 1 at Atanaskovo Lake the same day.
Black-headed gull: Frequent at coast.
Slender-billed gull: 1 at Ropotamo on 30-9.
Yellow-legged gull: Frequent at the coast. All were michs - I had hoped for a bit more variety in the big gulls.
Caspian tern: 1 at Ropotamo on 30-9; 8 at Mandra Lake on 1-10; 4 there on 3-10.
Sandwich tern: - large numbers past Sozopol daily, the maximum 400+ in an hour on 5-10; 30 at Ropotamo on 30-9; c200 at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Common tern: 20 past Sozopol on 30-9.
Black tern: 1 at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Whiskered tern: 2 at Mandra Lake on 3-10.
Collared dove: 1 seen a few times in Sozopol - no wood pigeons!
Kingfisher: 7 at Ropotamo on 30-9; 4 at Sinomorec on 2-10; 1 at Mandra Lake on 3-10.
Grey-headed woodpecker: 1 at Ropotamo on 30-9.
Green woodpecker: 1 near Sinomorec on 2-10.
Middle-spotted woodpecker: 4 at Ropotamo on 30-9; 7+ south of Sinomorec on 2-10; 1 near Gramatikovo on 2-10.
White-backed woodpecker: 1 south of Sinomorec on 2-10.
Great-spotted woodpecker: 2 south of Sinomorec on 2-10; 16+ near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Syrian woodpecker: At Sozopol 4 on 29-9, 1 on 1-10, 1 on 3-10 and 4 on 4-10; also 1 at Sinomorec on 2-10.
Crested lark: Common in agricultural areas and edges of towns, eg 14 in a small area on the edge of Sozopol.
Skylark: 7 over Sozopol on 4-10.
Calandra lark: 6 at Sinomorec on 2-10.
Swallow: Small numbers seen.
Red-throated pipit: In small numbers overhead most days.
Tawny pipit: 2 at Sinomorec on 2-10.
Tree pipit: 1 at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
White wagtail: Common overhead and on ground, including 1000+ at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Flava wagtail: 1 black-headed at Arkution Lake on 30th; mixed flock of c300 at Mandra Lake on 1-10, including many black-headed; 8 (not black-headed) over Sozopol on 4-10.
Wren: Common..
Robin: Small numbers in woodlands.
Redstart: 1 at Sozopol on 29-9; 1 near Tvardica on 1-10; 1 at Sozopol on 1-10, 1 there on 4-10.
Stonechat: 1 at Sozopol on 4-10.
Northern wheatear: 1 at Sozopol on 29-9.
Blackbird: Common.
Song thrush: Small numbers.
Moustached warbler: 2 at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Great reed warbler: 1 at Arkution Lake on 30-9.
Reed warbler: 5 at Arkution Lake on 30-9.
Icterine warbler: 2 at Sozopol on 29-9.
Garden warbler: 1 at Sozopol on 29-9.
Lesser whitethroat: 2 at Sozopol on 29-9.
Whitethroat: 1 at Sinomorec on 2-10.
Sardinian warbler: 1 at Sozopol on 29-9 and 2 there on 4-10.
Blackcap: 1 at Sozopol on 29-9; 1 at Sinomorec on 2-10.
Chiffchaff: Large numbers virtually everywhere;
Red-breasted flycatcher: 1 at Sozopol on 29-9; 1 there on 1-10; and another on 4-10.
Spotted flycatcher: 1 at Sozopol on 29-9; 7 north of Sinomorec on 2-10; 1 at Sozopol on 3-10 and 5-10.
Nuthatch: 8 at Ropotamo on 30-9; 11 south of Sinomorec on 2-10.
Short-toed treecreeper: 2 at Ropotamo on 30-9; 1 south of Sinomorec on 2-10.
Marsh tit: 1 south of Sinomorec on 2-10.
Blue tit: Frequent.
Great tit: Frequent.
Long-tailed tit: 10 south of Sinomorec on 2-10.
Bearded tit: 10 at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Red-backed shrike: 4 at Sozopol on 29-9; 2 at Arkution Lake on 30-9; 1 at Mandra Lake on 1-10; 1 near Tvardica on 1-10; 1 north of Sinomorec on 2-10.
Hooded crow: Common.
Jackdaw: Common on coast.
Raven: 2 at Ropotamo on 30-9; 14+ around Tvardica on 1-10.
Magpie: Very common.
Jay: Common in wooded areas.
Starling: Common.
Tree sparrow: Common in agricultural areas.
Spanish sparrow: Common in agricultural areas, including near Sozopol. Also seen as a visible migrant..
House sparrow: Common in urban areas.
Goldfinch: Widespread in small numbers.
Linnet: Small numbers at Mandra Lake.
Chaffinch: Common.
Hawfinch: 3 at Ropotamo on 30-9; 4 south of Sinomorec on 2-10; 2 at Sozopol on 4-10.
Ortolan bunting: 3 at Sinomorec on 2-10; 3 over Sozopol on 5-10.
Cirl bunting: 1 at Sozopol on 4-10 and another on 5-10.
Butterflies
Small white: Frequent
Large white: Frequent
Bath white: 1 at Mandra Lake on 1-10, probables elsewhere.
Clouded yellow: Frequent
Pale clouded yellow: Several white clouded yellows seen, but form helice of last sp not excluded..
Swallowtail: 1 at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Scarce swallowtail: 1 at Bourgas Airport on 5-10.
Red admiral: Frequent
Large tortoiseshell: 1 near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Painted lady: 1 at Sozopol on 5-10.
Silver-washed fritillary: 1 at Ropotamo on 30-9; 10 near Sinomorec on 2-10; 15 near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Cardinal: c40 near Sinomorec on 2-10.
Queen-of-Spain fritillary: 1 at Smokinite on 29-9; 1 at Mandra Lake on 1-10; 2 near Gramatikovo on 3-10; 1 at Sozopol on 4-10.
Great banded grayling: 5 at Ropotamo on 30-9; 2 near Sinomorec on 2-10; 1 near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Lattice brown: 1 at Ropotamo on 30-9.
Small heath: 1 near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Meadow brown: Frequent, including in woods.
Wall brown: 2 at Smokinite on 29-9.
Speckled wood: Frequent.
Purple hairstreak: 3 at Smokinite on 29-9.
Brown hairstreak: 4 near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Lesser fiery copper: 4 at Ropotamo on 30-9.
Small copper: 4 near Sinomorec on 2-10; 2 near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Purple-shot copper: 2 near Sinomorec on 2-10; 10+ near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Sooty copper: 2 at Sozopol on 1-10 and 3 there on 3-10; 4 near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Mazarine blue: 6+ at Mandra Lake on 1-10.
Baton blue: c20 near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Brown argus: 2+ near Sinomorec on 2-10, c10 near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Common blue: Frequent. At least two other blue spp not identified.
Holly blue: Widespread in small numbers.
Mallow skipper: c20 at Mandra Lake on 1-10. Skippers elsewhere could have been this species.
Herptiles
Marsh frog: Common, including 1000s near Sinomorec.
European pond terrapin: 4 near Sinomorec on 2-10.
Sand lizard: c40 at Ropotamo on 29-10 and c10 near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Meadow lizard: c10 near Sinomorec on 2-10.
Balkan wall lizard: Frequent.
Snake-eyed skink: 2 near Gramatikovo on 3-10.
Dice snake: At least one near Sinomorec on 2-10.
Grass snake: 1 at Smokinite on 29-9.
