Back from Bulgaria

Sorry for the lack of updates from Druridge lately, we've been on hollibobs for a week in Bulgaria, A cheap-as-chips package deal, but we hired car and managed to do quite a bit of birding as well as sight-seeing and getting hammered!

Bulgaria is great, nothing much new for me, only Dalmatian pelican and sombre tit, both of which we managed to see, pygmy cormorant was a western-pally tick.

Highlights were though:

1) Family Parties of pied wheatears at Kaliakra Point

male pied wheatear

2) golden oriole chasing a roller from it's patch - there is no more a colourful spectacle in Europe, even the Dutch in tonight's world cup final.

3) an eagle owl perched in a tree in Rusenski Lom National Park

Eagle Owl in Rusenski Lom National Park

Other superb birds included: Lots of family parties of red-backed, woodchat and southern grey shrike, black-headed buntings, rose-coloured starling, olive-tree warblers, great reed and savi's warblers, white-tailed eagle and stacks of beeaters...... All in all, a good trip!

male red-backed shrike

I called in at Druridge last night for a bit, nothing much doing, though I did confirm that reed warbler are breeding for the first time at Druridge in the phragmites at the eastern end f the big pool, the first confirmed breeding of reed warbler at Druridge as far as I know. The phragimites had started to colonise the SE corner of the pool quite well.

offshore, 32 manx shearwater moved north in ten minutes, a mass of horrid black flies prevented any further seawatching.