Bulgaria
Albena Beach
Cape Kaliakra
Illegal wind turbines placed next to a major migration point in Bulgaria. Apparently they used to have watchers stationed
to order the turbines switched off if flocks of birds were passing through. Funding for them stopped this year.
Characteristic flick of the tail.
Red Breasted Flycatcher - Ficedula parva
Lots of juveniles and two adults briefly.
Clouded Yellow - Colia crocus
A little bit the worse for wear but stunning never the less.
A beautiful sunny morning of Red Breasted Flycatchers
Plus
Whitethroat - Levant Sparrowhawk - Wheatear - Black Eared Wheatear - Pied Wheatear - Blackcap - Lesser Whitethroat - Common Crane
Karmen Bryag
Seedbeds on the clifftop at Kamen Bryag
Hoopoe - Corn Bunting - Willow Warbler
and
2
Saker
on
the way there.
Albena Beach
Adult
Ringed in Burgas on 05/06/2015
2nd Winter
Juvenile
Yellow Legged Gull - Larus michahellis
A relative of 'Big Bird'
Little Egret - Egreta garzetta
Squacco Heron - Ardeola ralloides
Sea Spurge - Euphorbia paralias
Wild Carrot - Daucus carota
White Wagtail - Motacilla alba
Dune Plant ????
Chicory - Cichorium intybus
Swallows migrating along the beach. White wagtails in profusion and a Kingfisher
Yatata
Mullein - Verbascumthapsus
Tree ??
Great White Egret - Ardea alba
Rather a downcast morning
quiet
but
Pygmy Cormorant - Great White Egret - Dalmatian Pelican - Spoonbill - Cormorant - Gull Billed Tern - Red Backed Shrike
The "Stone Forest" of Pobiti Kamani
The 'Hammered Stones' of Pobiti Kamani
So name because they seemed to have been hammered or pile driven into the sand.
Knapweed - Centaurea spp?
Lichen on the "Hammered Stones"
???
Pink - Dianthus spp??
Beetle ?????
A vibrant red and black beetle. The photo that didn't get taken was when
I first noticed this ball of red in the sand. About eight battles all wrapped around a seed head.
Durankulak Lake
White Wagtail - Motacilla alba
Very quiet but it did give a chance to enjoy the Corn Buntings singing around the lake.
and
2 Lesser Spotted Eagles
Oh to see the
Red Breasted Geese
one winter!
We had one spend the winter in Langston Harbour forty years ago.
A stand out bird amongst the Brent.
Cape Kaliakra
House Sparrow - Passer domestics
Lesser Whitethroat - Sylvia curruca
Red Breasted Flycatcher - Ficedula parva
Hobby - Levant Sparrowhawk - Wheatear - Blackcap - Chiffchaff - Redstart - Willow Warbler
And in the gorge nearby
Steppe Buzzard - Buteo buteo vulpinus
Tree ???
Old Man's Beard - Clematis vitalba
Spindle - Euonymus europaeus
Redstart - Blackcap - Willow Warbler - Chiffchaff - Purple Heron - Kingfisher
Balgarevo
Crested Lark - Galerida cristata
Whinchat - Wheatear - Quail - Corn Bunting - Bee-eater
Shablenska Tuzla
at
dawn
Little Stint - Dunlin - Avocet - Ruff -
Pied Wagtails in their hundreds from the roost
on the way back to
Cape Kaliakra
Corn Buntings
and a
covey
of
Partridge
and
seed heads
Cape Kaliakra
Painted Lady's on the cliff top.
Lake Atanasovsko
Marsh Harrier - Osprey - Shellduck
Poda
Marsh Harrier - Snipe - Spotted Redshank - Greenshank - Great White Egret - Little Egret
Cormorant - Phalacracorax carbo
Pygmy Cormorant - Microcarbo pygmeus
Carob Tree - Ceratonia siliqua
Cromer
The last crab boat off the beach this morning.
Cormorant - Phalacrocorax carbo
Herring Gull - Larus argentatus argenteus
Cromer Ripples
Turnstone - Arenaria interpres
Still here this morning.
Still routing
But a little sleepier
with a bit more preening
in the morning sunshine.
Cromer
Cormorant - Phalacrocorax carbo
Turnstone - Arenaria interpres.
Routing (flicking, bulldozing and pecking)
through the seaweed on the beach for small
crustaceans,gastropod molluscs and
in one of the pictures the odd fly.
Adults returning from - hopefully
a successful breeding season.
The last remnants of their summer plumage
showing dusky orange red in the sunlight.
Young ones less brilliant with small
dusky buff fringes on lower wing feathers.
The big questions
Where did they breed?
and
Where to now?
Herring Gull - Larus argentatus 
Cromer
Herring Gull - Larus argentatus argenteus
Starling - Sternus vulgaris
WInterton
Small Tortoiseshell - Aglais urticae
Small Heath - Coenonympha pamphilus
Red Backed Shrike
Wheatear
Whinchat
Stonechat
Strumpshaw Fen
Kingfisher - Alcedo atthis
Red Admiral - Just waking up in the morning sunshine. - Vanessa atalanta
Hop - Smell the fermenting beer. - Humulus lupulus
Guilder Rose - Viburnum oculus
Common Darter - Sympetrum striatum
Heron - Ardea cinerea
Willow Emerald Damselfly - Chalcolestes viridis
Hobby
Glossy Ibis
Garganey
Snipe
Ruff
Marsh Harrier
Cromer
Sanderling (Juvenile) - Calidris alba
Black headed Gull - Chroicocephalus ridibundus
Caspian Gull - Larus cachinnans
Cromer
On the way to Cromer
Eye gone over to pale yellow.
Herring Gull - Larus argenteus
2nd Summer/3rd Winter?
House Sparrow - Passer domesticus
Down at the Rocket House Cafe´
Although perhaps a little more passe´
and certainly less domesticus
