January at home

Earlier this week I was at home in Bulgaria. Among dealing with domestic issues and seeing friends, I managed to reserve some time to get in a little bit of birding on my local patch. This consisted of two short walks on two separate and quite different days.


I like birding in winter in Bulgaria (providing its not too cold). The birds are mostly in large flocks and have got no where to hide. They also seem more approachable with honourable exceptions which I will mention later.

male greater spotted woodpecker

We have two types of woodpecker within the village confines. These are the more urban Syrian woodpecker and the more rural greater spotted woodpecker. 

I saw two greater spotted woodpecker close up for over twenty minutes and in the end I left them. They were totally disinterested in me just feet below them. How unlike summer.

There was one male and one female which made me look up whether this species is monogamous. Indeed, it does pair for life.

female greater spotted woodpecker

They were two of very few birds who weren't in a flock. Near-by them were  flocks of corn bunting and yellowhammer which sometimes, but not always associated with each other. After all they are close relatives.

  

corn bunting

You'll have to wait for the next blog to see the more photogenic yellowhammer. In the meantime I have shown a picture of a corn bunting. In summer corn bunting is by far the more common of the two species. However its clear in January that yellowhammer outnumber corn bunting. Northern yellowhammer have clearly flown south to strengthen the local numbers.

common buzzard

Winter in Bulgaria also brings large numbers of common buzzard south to increase local numbers. They are a truly common sight.

local magpie

All the local magpie I saw were flocking. I think they may have got over the trauma of a goshawk stealing a full grown magpie under my nose back in the summer. Completely unsurprisingly the starling were flocking too.

the view down my road

On the second day it had snowed, it was much colder and birds were even easier to see. Goldfinch were seen both days but stand out like sore thumb against a white or sky blue background. Such was the second day.

a very cold house sparrow

There were roaming flocks of both house sparrow and tree sparrow all over the village. Both birds were extremely approachable but a bit stupid. I put out bird seed on my bird table which they lap up in summer. However they didn't seem to have touched it during my winter stay. I don't think they flew into the garden at all. 

part of flock of house sparrow

I mentioned at the top of the blog that some exceptional birds weren't flocking.  Two more were blackbird and wren. they weren't ultra-approachable either.

You can tell when you have spent too long birding in hot climes. My first instinctive reaction when seeing a wren was that it was a graceful prinia - they act and even sound a bit like them. I then foolishly realised I was 800 kilometres and 20 degrees centigrade from the nearest graceful prinia.

I spent a fruitless 20 minutes darting around trying to get a photo of one of the several wren around. Still it was only 10 days ago I finally got a decent one of a graceful prinia in Riyadh. Everything comes to he who waits.

Up the hill at Rogachevo

Thirty or so ex-pats met at Elbarr, Rogachevo to watch the royal wedding on Friday. I was among them. Some watched from a long time before the ceremony to way after it finished. I took the liberty of going off bird watching in the area,  getting back just in time for the bride's arrival and the ceremony.


Elbarr is on a hill. I investigated up the hill where a large wooded area starts. This is the edge of Batova forest.  

Once again the weather was dull and so was not brilliant for camera work.

one of several singing robin in the forest

One of the most obvious birding features in the wooded were robin at regular intervals singing from the top or near the top of trees.

the walk up the hill at Rogachevo

In the clearings just before the forest starts there were plenty of corn bunting on bush tops. There were also at least two pairs of hoopoe.

hoopoe at Rogachevo

The most intriguing bird I saw was in a vineyard just before the forest. It was a stonechat. How to recognise the different sub species of stonechat has long exercised me. See my blog of Jan27th 2011 on the status of eastern stonechat in Libya.

stonechat in vineyard at Rogachevo

Like in Libya occasionally, once again I have photographed a stonechat that looks closer to the description and picture of an eastern stonechat (maurus and variegatus sub species included here) than a European stonechat.  The collar is both wide and long, there is plenty of white on the wing and the orange chest patch is relatively small. Have a look at collins guide 2nd edition page 293 for example!

Despite the experts telling me otherwise, I am convinced in my own mind that some eastern stonechat do winter as far west as Libya and now I think that some (possibly the Libyan ones!) migrate back to Siberia (or northern Caucasus in the case of variegatus) as far west as the western black sea coast. I am not going to let anyone fob me off this time!

greater spotted woodpecker

More expectedly, there were greater spotted woodpecker in the wood. This bird is very common near me in the more rural areas along with Syrian woodpecker closer to man. Below is a second picture which shows the bird's chinstraps better. The full chinstrap going all the way to the red spot is characteristic of greater spotted woodpecker and missing on a Syrian woodpecker.

Another notable bird in the forest was sparrowhawk which I failed to photograph. I still struggle with flight photos.

I must also mention, that around the edge of the forest particularly where there was undergrowth, I also saw more whitethroat and blackcap. Clearly they must be quite common near me as I keep seeing them.

Finally the last photo I took before returning to the bar and the royal wedding was a goldfinch on a wire outside. 

goldfinch (one of a pair) in Rogachevo village

A winter's walk near home

Occasionally I blog about countries other than Libya. These are when I'm away from Libya. Even then, I ration these to no more than two or three a week during those times.


Well, I'm at home in Bulgaria and of course I have been doing some bird watching. So here is a blog about a country walk from my village to the next which I took on December 26th. 


It has been relatively warm this winter in Bulgaria compared with normal and its in ironic contrast to the harsh conditions in western Europe.

part of a flock of goldfinch, north of Varna

It was plus 10C but there was a small amount of snow left in places. The birds were busy feeding as this warm spell was clearly a lull not the permanent winter situation!

There were two types of mobile flock I saw on the walk. The first was the predictable Spanish sparrow.  The second was a more exciting (and large) flock of goldfinch.

friends Jonathan English and Joseph Stec inspecting the snow

There were flying from tree to tree along the avenue of trees linking the two villages.

more of that goldfinch flock

They were not the only finches about. I saw a couple (and not a flock) of chaffinch. They look quite different from the ones in Libya (which has sub species africana) although a few European chaffinch appear in winter.

chaffinch north of Varna

There were two birds of prey easily seen in the fields near the road. There were common buzzard and hen harrier. There appear to be less common buzzard this winter than last but I suspect a colder spell further north could easily push more into the area.

common buzzard on a telephone wire

I hadn't seen a buzzard or a harrier balance on a telephone wire before. The one above is a common buzzard. I am not an expert on two birds which rarely come to Libya (though they both do) so my identification came after it flew off. This brown bird had no white ring tail unlike a hen harrier I had seen minutes earlier in the opposite field.

greater spotted woodpecker

Bird ID is always more difficult outside your main patch. To my shame I don't know the locality round my home that well yet. By comparison,  I know the jizz of most birds in Libya very well and can recognise a strange one.

There are no woodpeckers in Libya so the one above was not instantly identified by me. Back in the warmth of my home I now know it is definitely a greater spotted woodpecker (I had to make sure it wasnt a syrian woodpecker). In Bulgaria if I understand it correctly syrian woodpecker is usually a bird of settlements but this was open country. Syrian was always my second choice because of this but the sight of the black straps reaching the back of the neck confirmed my guess. 

great grey shrike

In summer I had seen many lesser grey shrike around my village. Yet in winter it is obvious great grey shrike arrive from the north. One is pictured above. I know this species well in Libya although the sub species  different. It did feel a bit like meeting an old friend though.

Tomorrow I am going in search of red breasted geese and the weather forecast says it will be much colder than the walk just described.