Wet birds on hot days

We had a couple of very hot days in the middle of the week. I couldn't go birding in the morning because I had Bulgarian lessons and because of my hectic social calendar in the evenings (sic) I was stuck with birding in the heat of the afternoons.


This is where my Libyan experience of birding in the heat came in useful. I had an adage there - "where there's water there's birds".


It didn't work too badly for me in Bulgaria either on these hot days.

starling splashing about

Like many Bulgarian villages, mine has a drinking fountain and trough. Some entrepreneurial local has dug a short channel from the overflow of the trough to his garden. The local starling, house sparrow and probably other species too took advantage of his channel not only to drink but to bathe.

After having this mini success at actually seeing some birds in the heat, I walked out to another trough I know outside the village. I thought this had more potential to see more rural birds It's a beautiful walk at the moment along the side of wheat and rape fields towards the forest. There is of course the incessant sound and sight of skylark too.

flowers by the side of a rape field

It's the wild flowers that make it so beautiful.

poppies in a wheat field

I don't really think the farmer wants as many poppies in his wheat as he has got but it certainly brightens the place up.

water trough outside the village

Very soon you come to a water trough which is a memorial to a man who died young. I wonder if he was the farmer's son? You can see the plaque.

In the hot weather I suspect all the birds in the locality drink here at some time during the day. It would be worth staying put for a few hours if you have the patience. I stayed about an hour in mid afternoon and as with the village trough there was as much bathing as drinking. 

soaked corn bunting after a bath

The water is absolutely crystal clear. There is only a slight sign of algae in the holding area at the end. You can see the bottom of the trough easily. The water must be very pure.

bathing corn bunting

Local corn bunting are very attracted to the water. They drink, bathe and even wallow. 

a wallowing corn bunting in a patch of muddy water next to the trough

Ortolan bunting also enjoy the place. It would be hard to believe that black-headed bunting near-by don't visit it as well.

ortolan bunting just out from a bath

However the most regular sighting at the trough are yellow wagtail. They simply love the place. They obviously spend a lot of time in the water.

yellow wagtail at the trough

yellow wagtail

I counted at least two pairs of adults and on the first day there were fledglings present too.

a wet yellow wagtail fledgling

Barn swallow and house martin were flying regular sorties over-head. Some times barn swallow would stop to perch.

greenfinch at the trough

So what other birds visit? Well greenfinch definitely drink and bathe there. Red backed shrike perch very close but I did see one drink. The trough is next to a copse where I can hear or see golden oriole, nightingale, blackbird, turtle dove  and whitethroat. I would be very surprised if there don't visit at other times.

Alarmed birds among the tranquilty

On Saturday, had the pleasure of birding the local patch of "Rhopodi birder" with the man himself. We saw 41 species although the object was not to collect numbers but to better understand this area and its birds. "Rhodopi birder" is a great teacher with special expertise with the tit family. I know very little about either the area or the family! but three days here in the Rhodopes and a day with RB I finally think I'm getting somewhere.

an alarmed starling

We saw plenty of woodland and meadow birds east and south of Smolyan but more about that later. I'm going to start at the end!  On the way back to Chepelare we stopped at a meadow where we had seen a small number of rosy starling on the way out. They weren't there when we came back but a birding drama was being played out. One starling was siting on a wire and was very alarmed. He was flapping his wings agitatedly and screaming. I haven't seen this behaviour before (see picture above) but  RB told me it was real distress.

Rhopodian meadow flowers

We stopped to look at the situation (and to observe other birds). There were very recently fledged starlings around. Our best guess is that the adult birds had seen something dangerous for the fledglings.

newly fledged starling

Actually it was not just starling fledglings in this neighbourhood. There were also white wagtail fledglings too.

newly fledged white wagtail

We had three suspects for the agitation. First there were hooded crow in the area.

hooded crow and nest

Second there were magpie about too. However we believe the most likely bird to cause alarm was a goshawk seen fleetingly.

crossbill camouflages well in pine trees!

This stop turned out to be a bit of a goldmine. On near-by trees were four crossbill feeding. Apologies for the photo but through a camera lens they were amazingly camoflaged against the rusty reds and green of the tree . 

greater spotted woodpecker

On a dead tree a few metres away was a greater spotted woodpecker. No camouflage problems here.

greenfinch

Same with a greenfinch which was also on a dead tree.

This last stop was a fine finale to a great day's birding. 

Previously we had visited two main areas east of Smolyan. One was near RB's home village. Here the prize sighting was probably the marsh tit. We decided to leave this birding area earlier than planned as there was very recent signs of wild boar!

great tit in garden in Chepelare

The Rhodopes are full of tit family members. We saw crested tit and great tit in the woods and sombre tit in RB's guesthouse garden! (along with black redstart and blackcap by the way) 

chiffchaff in forest

The forest we visited held green woodpecker, black woodpecker and grey headed woodpecker (to add the greater spotted woodpecker seen elsewhere)

dunnock on edge of forest

There was much more than just tits and woodpeckers especially in the second area we birded. On the edge of the forest were dunnock. In a near-by meadow were a pair of long legged buzzard. However, one of one of the best incidents was when we spotted a wryneck. We decided to follow it. This took us into some long grass. 

Just as we lost sight of the wryneck, we heard very loud calling from two separate spots (separated by 30 metres or so) in the grass. We spent 10 minutes slowly creeping towards the source of one of the sounds. When we got very close it stopped and so did the second one. When we walked away it started up again a couple of metres away from where it had been. The second bird joined in too. Corncrake are the ultimate escape artists aren't they?

It's a shame I am leaving Chepelare today. I could really get into this upland birding.

  

Highland meadows and stream in the Rhodopes

Today's walk was even longer than yesterday's. I calculate we walked about 17 kilometres. The walk was so long we joked that the next people we might see could be Greek border guards.

upland meadow on today's route

Once again we walked upwards out of Chepelare but this time the track followed a stream and there was as much meadow as forest. Unlike yesterday, the trees near the meadows were mostly broadleaf rather than pine. 

bullfinch en route today

This is my second day in Chepelare. Before we left the town, I saw my first species not seen yesterday. A single collared dove sat on a wire. Still haven't seen any house sparrow in the town by the way.

collared dove in Chepelare

On leaving the town we climbed slowly up a road leading to Izgrev. The road follows a stream most of the way. It's not surprising that we saw grey wagtail which loves running water.

grey wagtail on the track to Izgrev

Not to be outdone there were arguably more white wagtail. This bird is common in the town and seemingly along the lower stretches of today's walk.  

white wagtail on today's walk

In the pine forested areas once again chaffinch was common along with robin. In the broadleaf patches there were also bullfinch as well as chaffinch.

local chaffinch

There is a village well up the mountain side (at 1550 metres) set in truly beautiful meadows. It's the reason, I think why the EU is paying for the upgrade of the dirt track into a hard surfaced road which will make this wilderness more accessible.

The village resounds with the noise of blackbird, chaffinch, bullfinch, nightingale, yellowhammer, red backed shrike and several other birds. 

red rumped swallow en route

Sitting on the wires in the village were both barn swallow and red rumped swallow. The latter prefers upland locations (as I understand it) and it was the predominate swallow here.

grey headed woodpecker

To be honest this village provided the majority of the best sightings today including a grey headed woodpecker seen here rather than in deep forest. 

Several other birds I saw today I had seen yesterday but I am including their pictures because they are better ones than yesterday!

mistle thrush on a pile of mature!

Yesterday I saw mistle thrush at two locations but both birds were flighty. Today's mistle thrush was almost reluctant to fly off even as I approached itcloser and closer. It was situated on a big pile of farmland mature!  I suspect this pile provides rich pickings for the bird.

black redstart

Black redstart proved common again both in the town of Chepelare and in the upland village. Indeed it seems equally at home in built up and rural areas here.

female yellowhammer

Finally in the interest of gender equality above is a picture of a female yellowhammer seen today.  A male was shown yesterday. It is obviously quite a common bird in these parts.

Chepelare in the Rhodopes

Today was my first day visiting the resort of Chepelare at 1400 metres in the Rhodopes Mountains in the far south of Bulgaria.


The Rhodopes has many species not found or very rare elsewhere in Bulgaria.


However rather than seeking out the exotic today was a "getting to know you" exercise involving a 8 hour walk around the town and up the Mechi (Bear) trail.

Chepelare

I have to admit some of the best birding was very close to the town itself rather than on the trail up another 500 metres in height to the top of the local peak. This shouldn't have surprised me in retrospect because Chepelare itself is already in the wilderness. You don't have to go further to find it!

yellowhammer

Its birds are obviously very different from Klimentovo on the northern Bulgarian Black Sea coast where I live. For example although they may be here I saw no corn bunting today. Corn bunting are everywhere around my village. However, I did see a very confiding yellowhammer which is an altogether more attractive bunting at least at this time of year.

tree sparrow

Another difference is that so far I haven't yet found any house sparrow in the town. There are tree sparrow and quite a few black redstart in the town. I have never thought of black redstart as a common town bird before but Chepelare is not much larger than a village and it is mountainous which is terrain black redstart like.

white wagtail

There are also plenty of white wagtail in the town too.

magpie

The area has at least three members of the crow family - hooded crow, magpie and jay close to the town.

red backed shrike

I want to see a masked shrike while I am in southern Bulgaria. Today I made do with a few observations of red-backed shrike.

serin

On the edge of the town I saw a serin. This bird is common near Tripoli where I used to bird. In fact a serin would often wake me up in the morning when I lived there. 

kestrel

Very close to the spot where I saw a serin , there was a kestrel. 

house martin in nest

In the town house martin, barn swallow, red rumped swallow, crag martin, house martin and common swift all patrol the skies. The derelict sports school has many house martin nests. It looks ideal for them. A tall building with many eaves and which is deserted.

looking down a ski slope

As well as birding on the edge of the town, I walked with a friend up the Bear trail to the top of the local mountain.   The route was mostly through dense woodland with a few meadows. Clearly two of the most common birds were chaffinch and robin.

chaffinch

People often come to the Rhodopes to see birds of prey and the tit family such as crested tit. There were plenty of songs of tits in the forest especially near the clearings and I did glimpse a very larger bird of prey but not long enough to identify it. So in some ways the trail was unsatisfactory. However I have to remember that I couldn't expect to see all the Rhodopes has to offer in one day.

robin

At two of the clearings I spotted mistle thrush but it seems to be a very shy bird.

mistle thrush

The forest also had jay.  Actually the best birding on the trail was at the very top of the mountain where there was a large clearing. I would have liked to have stayed longer before my descent but there wasn't time.

woodlark

In the clearing at the top (at 7000 feet) were black redstart, woodlark, kestrel, and at least one ring ouzel which I spotted from a great distance away.

black redstart

There is clearly lots of birding still to do and much yet to see. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

ringouzel