Bulgaria Trip - 23rd April (Day 2)

We awoke to the sound of a Black Redstart singing from the tiled roofs outside our room, we quickly freshened up and were drinking shots of expresso by 06:15. Minko arrived at 06:30 and we were off. Driving along the wooded gorge we passed through the still sleeping town of Devonish and climbed the slopes above the town. Our first quick stop was for 2 Chamois that Minko spotted high on a rock outcrop. The stop also produced singing Lesser Whitethroat and Cirl Bunting. We continued our climb before stopping in a pine and spruce dominated woodland near to Lesichevo. A flock of 6 Crossbill called and sang overhead and a Firecrest showed briefly nearby, singing birds included Cuckoo, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin and Dunnock, familiar birds from home but then a distant calling Black Woodpecker showed we were birding in more distant lands. We took a short walk through the forest looking for our target Hazel Grouse seeing Firecrest, Common Treecreeper, Willow Tit and a flyover Black Woodpecker but no sign of the grouse. Bear poo complete with crushed bone seen along with evidence of foraging Wild Boar. We returned to the car and took a slow drive back towards Devonish adding Jay to the list along the way.

A short stop in Devonish produced a pair of Dipper with two fledged young, this seemed very early for these birds to have fledged chicks and the pair were busy freshening their nest with new material. Overhead were around 40 Pallid Swift, 15 Red-rumped Swallow, 25 Barn Swallow and 30 House Martin while Serin twinkled their song from the treetops.

Dipper action in Devonish. Shots 3 and 4 show the bird capturing and eating a Stone-fly larvae and the prey time can be seen as the bird surfaces. The bottom image is of a juvenile bird already manically dipping at this age. These birds are of the race aquaticus.

We headed back through the gorge towards Trigrad admiring the stunning gorge and the crystal clear waters of the Trigrad River. Minko was very excited to see two Chamois feeding on the gravel beach's lining the river and we stopped and watched as they fed on vegetation before heading up the steep cliffs and back into the forest. We stopped at a viewpoint just before the tunnel located immediately to the south of the ‘Devil’s Throat’ a deep cave said to be the route to the underworld that Orpheus took to rescue Euridice from Hades. The viewpoint was flanked by shear cliff face and just above the road was a small vertical crack where a tuft of moss could be seen, this was a Wallcreeper’s nest. We waitied and after around 10 minutes Minko and I both heard a distant calling bird.  Slowly the bird got closer until the calling was fairly loud, reverberating around the canyon and within a short while Minko spotted the bird on the cliff face above us. And there was my nemesis bird, dipping and flashing its bright crimson wings - a Wallcreeper! The bird dropped and was now within 15m of us, absolutely stunning, even Sarah let out a ‘wow’! The bird entered the nest and we could see it in the crevice freshening the nest and moving material around and then it was out and flying away along the cliff face. I followed the bird in my bins as it flitted butterfly like againist the vastness of the limestone cliffs of the gorge.

Chamois feeding along the edge of the Trigrad River, Minko said it was very unusual to see them beside the river as they are usually very high on sheer cliff faces

What can be said! The Wallcreeper is absolutely unique.

We headed back to the hotel for 11:00 for a much needed breakfast stop of scrambled egg, toast and more shots of expresso. After this we headed to the meadows above Yagodina. It was a little early in the year for the meadow flowers to be blooming but it was clear that there these were flower rich meadows. Fairly quickly we found our main target here, Sombre Tit, which enthusiastically responded to a recording. This was a surprisingly large tit with a hefty bill, large black bib and a very long (for a tit) tail. Also here were Rock Bunting, Lesser Whitethroat, Stonechat, Green Woodpecker and Serin.

Sombre Tit - Yagodina

Serin - Yagodina

Stonechat of race rubicola - Yagodina

Rock Bunting - Yagodina

Marsh Orchid species - Yagodina

Traditional farming methods still used in Yagodina

The village of Yagodina

Buynovo Gorge below Yagodina

Buynovo Gorge below Yagodina

We then headed back through Devin and back up the road to Lesichevo to try once more for Hazel Grouse. Around the mainly derelict village of there were at least 4 Ring Ouzel of the race alpestris with big white wing panels and scaly flanks. It started to rain and we headed for the woodland but saw little at our first stop. The next stop was a wide ride that lead for around 1km through woodland to a mammal hide we spent around 1.5 hours here as it was fairly birdy. The rain had encouraged the emergence of Fire Salamander and we saw 5 of these amazing animals. Birds included our first Crested Tit, calling Grey-headed Woodpecker and 3 fantastic Black Woodpecker but no Hazel Grouse. We headed back to the hotel for much needed cold beer and a fantastic salmon meal.

Ring Ouzel of the race alpestris which has whiter wings and more scaling than the nominate race found in the UK - Lesichevo

Crested Tit of race bureschi - Lesichevo

Cowslip - Lesichevo

Fire Salamander - Lesichevo

Black Woodpecker - Lesichevo

Links to the Other Days of the Trip

Day 1 - Background and Day 1 travel to Trigrad

Day 3 - Trigrad Area

Day 4 & 5 - Trigrad Area and Sofia

India (Rajasthan and Kashmir) Trip - 29th July - Day 5

We were up at 03:00 for 03:30 departure from our hotel to Delhi Airport for a 05:45 flight to Sringigar. The flight was on time and after a 1.20 minute flight, during which we enjoyed views of the Himalayas, we landed and were very soon waiting for our bags at, what seemed, a very low key, low fuss airport. We were picked up by our guide Farooq and our driver and were soon on our way to Yousmarg, a journey of two hours or so. We drove through the hectic streets of the outskirts of Sringigar where dogs and children played alongside one another on the road sides and wild Marijuana grew in thickets along the roadside filling the air with a sweet fragrance. We climbed from Sringigar to Yousmarg via Chadoora and Jeroha, through winding mountain roads, rice paddies and pastures, through broad-leaved scrub and into tall pine forest and flower rich alpine meadows.

Our first stop was adjacent to the reservoir a kilometre or two below the main restaurant and main carpark at Yousmarg, we climbed up the hill through the tall pine forest and walked a short loop up the slope and back to the road – energy levels were low due to the very early start and thinner air at higher altitude. There were singing Western Crowned Leaf Warbler, Himalayan Woodpecker, Spot-winged Tit and a single singing Brook’s Leaf Warbler while a Booted Eagle soared overhead. Then we hit a small feeding flock and added Bar-tailed Treecreeper, Rufous-naped Tit, Lemon-rumped Warbler and our first Kashmir Nuthatch. I had a brief view of a female Spectacled Finch but by the time the others had found the spot the bird had dropped out of view and we didn’t see it again. We then headed to the main visitor centre restaurant for a much needed sit down with a couple of Cokes and a nice spicy Dal.

After a bit of a chill we headed into the forest to the west of the restaurant with its tall pine trees but rather overgrazed understorey. By now we were shattered and birding was tough going in the heat of the afternoon but we did see a few new species including Kashmir Nutcracker, Hodgson’s Treecreeper, White-cheeked Nuthatch, Ultramarine Flycatcher and Rusty-tailed Flycatcher. The birding was generally pretty slow going with occasional bursts of activity as a flock moved through led by Spot-winged Tit and Rufous-naped Tit. This low level of activity was no doubt due to the time of year which appeared to be in-sync with the UK with birds now longer singing, young birds fledged and adults in moult.

We birded this area until 17:00 before heading back to Shrinigar. The traffic through town was appalling and despite the dodging and weaving of the car we remained stationary for some time before progressing through the town bumper to bumper through dusty streets, past a massive stone quarry that appeared to have sprung up amongst houses, past army checkpoints and a captured Pakistani tank. Beer was a must after a hard day in the field but little did we know that nowhere in Shrinigar sells it and so our guide took us to a hotel where a ‘black market’ in beer is operated and Ian and guide smuggled our stash of 16 Kingfisher into the car. After the one hour or so beer diversion we checked into our accommodation for the next three nights, the Marco Polo Houseboat on the edge of Nigeen Lake. We had a rather bland dinner amongst the wood clad, colonial settings and crashed at 23:00.

View of the Himalaya's from the plane

Jhelum River, Chadoora and House Crow

Himalayan Woodpecker sunning - Yousmarg

Large-billed Crow - Yousmarg

Brook's Leaf Warbler - This was the only definite Brook's that I saw, Lemon-rumped seemed to far out number this species - Yousmarg

Silver-washed Fritillary - Many of the butterflies we saw were familiar or were certainly very similar to British and European species including Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Small Tortoiseshell, Queen of Spain Fritillary and Painted Lady - Yousmarg

Lichen on pines at Yousmarg

Puffball - We got a bit distracted by the amazing variety of fungi - Yousmarg

Fungi- Yousmarg

Earth-star - Yousmarg

Coral Fungus - Yousmarg

Pine Forest to West of Restaurant. The pines are very high and subsequently many birds are high in the treetops - Yousmarg

Spot-winged Tit. Formerly lumped with Coal Tit, this really is quite a distinctive looking bird differing from that species in many respects - Yousmarg

Grey Bush-chat - Yousmarg

Rock Bunting of race stracheyi which extends from China to Kashmir- Yousmarg

Dark-sided Flycatcher, adult and juvenile (right bird) - Yousmarg

Kashmir Nutcracker also known as Large-spotted Nuthatch this species was once lumped with Spotted Nutcracker but Kashmir replaces that species abruptly in the NW Himalayas and hybrids are little known  - Yousmarg

Kashmir Nutcracker - Yousmarg

Rusty-tailed Flycatcher - Yousmarg

Kashmir Nuthatch, once treated as a race of European Nuthatch but differs in more extensive rufous underparts and vocalisations - Yousmarg

Greenish Warbler of race trochiloides (Two-barred Greenish) - Yousmarg

Scaly-bellied Woodpecker - Yousmarg

Temple Repairs

Streaked Laughingthrush - Yousmarg

Kashmir Nuthatch - Yousmarg

Links to the other Days of the Trip:
Day 1 - Background and Travel day
Day 2 - Surajpur Wetland and Nahargah Biological Park
Day 3 - Sonkhaliya
Day 4 - Ajmer Thorn Forest and drive back to Delhi
Day 6 - Yousmarg
Day 7 - Dachigam National Park, Shankarachariya Temple and Dal Lake
Day 8 - Yousmarg then return to Delhi and flights home

If you have any comments or queries on this post then please do not hesitate to contact me at simon@ecosa.co.uk