Bulgaria Trip - 25th and 26th April (Day 4-5)

We were up at the usual 05:30 and back to the same track as yesterday evening with high hopes but fairly low morale. There was but one target, see Hazel Grouse. We walked slowly, played tapes, scanned the forest floor, scanned the trees but nothing. Then at around 08:45 Minko suddenly beckoned me, he had a Hazel Grouse perched in the trees only around 20m away but as I joined him the grouse flew and all I saw was an arse-end as it disappeared downslope - do I tick it on this view was the question in my mind, far from satisfactory. I moved to a position where the bird had flown to but no sign, then out of the corner of my eye a movement as another bird flew across the track but I could not be sure it was a Hazel Grouse. The Hazel Grouse started calling and there were at least three birds present, we stalked around the area scanning but to no avail and just as we were about to give up I saw a bird fly from the ground into the trees around 75m down the slope, I frantically scanned and then there it was partly obscured and a little distant but unmistakably a male Hazel Grouse. We enjoyed the grouse for at least 5 minutes before it flew further down slope. Fantastic! And so rewarding to have spent around 12 hours looking for this species to have finally found it. I was chuffed and we headed back down the slope to the car.

Our drive to Sofia was punctuated by breakfast watching Red-rumped Swallow and Pallid Swift and a look for Three-toed Woodpecker but although we saw feeding evidence we had no luck with seeing the birds but our time was very limited here. We arrived in Sofia at 16:00 and said our goodbyes to Minko. Before checking into the Hotel Sofia Balkan for one night and a chance to explore the city. We concluded that Sofia was rather uninspiring and headed for the airport at 11:00 for our 14:20 flight back to the UK on 26th April.

Hazel Grouse - near to Yagodinska Cave

Haberlea rhodopensis - Endemic to the Rhodophe Mountains

Three-toed Woodpecker habitat

Wild Crocus 

Trip List

Total of 76 species with 3 ticks (shown in bold).

Grey Partridge

Hazel Grouse

Mallard

Rock Dove

Common Woodpigeon

Eurasian Collared-dove

Alpine Swift

Pallid Swift

Common Cuckoo

White Stork

Little Ringed Plover

Yellow-legged Gull

Eurasian Buzzard

Grey-faced Woodpecker

Eurasian Green Woodpecker

Black Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Common Kestrel

Peregrine Falcon

Crested Lark

Eurasian Skylark

Woodlark

Barn Swallow

Eurasian Crag Martin

Northern House Martin

Red-rumped Swallow

White Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail

Grey Wagtail

White-throated Dipper

Northern Wren

Dunnock

Mistle Thrush

Song Thrush

Common Blackbird

Ring Ouzel

Common Nightingale

European Robin

Black Redstart

Whinchat

Common Stonechat

Common Firecrest

Goldcrest

Common Chiffchaff

Blackcap

Lesser Whitethroat

Sombre Tit

Willow Tit

Coal Tit

European Crested Tit

Great Tit

Long-tailed Tit

Eurasian Nuthatch

Wallcreeper

Eurasian Treecreeper

Eurasian Jay

Common Magpie

Spotted Nutcracker

Eurasian Jackdaw

Rook

Hooded Crow

Common Raven

Common Starling

House Sparrow

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Common Chaffinch

European Serin

European Greenfinch

Eurasian Siskin

European Goldfinch

Common Linnet

Red Crossbill

Eurasian Bullfinch

Corn Bunting

Rock Bunting

Cirl Bunting

Links to the Other Days of the Trip

Day 1 - Background and Day 1 travel to Trigrad

Day 2 - Trigrad Area

Day 3 - Trigrad Area