Spring Birdwatching Bulgaria Tour - 8 Days

Take off for Varna. When you get there, someone from BRANTA TOURS will meet you. Transfer (40 miles) to our exclusive lakeside accommodation at Branta Birding Lodge, which is on the Northern Black Sea coast, just 3 miles from the Romanian border. On the way, stop at the resort of Albena to see its alluvial forest Baltata.

The Branta Birding Lodge, which looks out over Durankulak Lake, will be our home for the next four nights. We will enjoy the great view and see the exhibition, which has detailed photos and maps.

After breakfast, we drive 10 miles south to Lake Shabla, which is the most important place for geese and ducks to spend the winter in Bulgaria. We look for the Paddyfield Warbler, the Red-necked Grebe, the Whiskered and Black Terns, the Red-crested Pochard, and the Bearded Tit at this time of year.

On the fields near the lake, you might see the beautiful black-headed feldegg race of the Balkan Yellow Wagtail. Barred Warblers often sing from patches of scrub. On the way, you might see a Calandra Lark, a Lesser Grey Shrike, or a Syrian Woodpecker.We'll spend the afternoon at Shabla Touzla, a small, high-salinity lagoon whose mud is known for being good for healing.

Here, we could see the Little Tern, the Red-footed Falcon, the Barred Warbler, the Lesser Whitethroat, the Moustached and Olivaceous Warblers, the Reed Bunting, the Broad-billed and Marsh Sandpipers, and the Little-ringed Plover.

Come back to our base at Branta Birding Lodge for dinner and our second night.

After breakfast, we spend the day exploring Lake Durankulak, which is a Ramsar site and a beautiful natural area close to the border with Romania and the Black Sea. The brackish waters and huge reed beds are home to the Pygmy Cormorant, Ruddy Shelduck, Bittern and Little Bittern, Purple Heron, Red-necked Grebe, and Ferruginous Duck.

The Paddyfield Warbler is one of the major tour highlights. Around the lake, there are a lot of Red-footed Falcons and Lesser Grey Shrikes living in tall hedges and windbreaks. Collared Pratincole, Stone Curlew, Calandra Lark, Barred Warblers, Syrian Woodpecker, Bee-Eater, and Roller all live in the steppe next to it and in the area around it.

Come back to Durankulak for dinner and a third night in our very comfortable base of operations.

We got going after breakfast to spend the day exploring Cape Kaliakra and the area around it. Kaliakra is an archaeological site and the largest area of unspoiled steppe that still exists in Bulgaria. It is also the site of ancient homes and fortresses from more than 2,500 years ago.

The 70-meter-high cliffs are a great place to watch dolphins, and the abrupt turn of the coast to the west brings a lot of migrating birds to this area. The steppe, which goes right up to the edge of the cliffs, has a lot of different kinds of plants, like the Narrow-leaved Peony and three plants that only grow in Bulgaria, Greece, or the Balkans.

Kaliakra is one of the best places in Europe to see Rose-coloured Starling, though the number of birds there changes a lot from year to year. Calandra Lark, Short-toed Lark, Tawny Pipit, Roller, and, especially in the evening, Stone Curlew are more certain species of the steppe, while Eagle Owl, Rock Thrush, Alpine Swift, Red-Rumped Swallow, Pied Wheatear, and Long-legged Buzzard breed on the cliffs. We should be able to find Olive-tree Warblers in brushy areas, and we might even see a Levant Sparrowhawk.

The afternoon will be spent at Yailata, which, like Kaliakra, is an archaeological reserve with beautiful sea cliffs and steppe in the back. The area is home to Hoopoe, Pied Wheatear, Calandra Lark, Short-toed Lark, Tawny Pipit, and Black-headed Bunting. Two rare mammals live here: the Steppe Polecat and the Romanian Hamster. The Broad-leaved Peony is a plant that grows only at this site. When you go to the beautiful Bolata Gorge in the evening, you can see the Little Crake and the Pygmy Cormorant. There are also Eagle Owl nests here, which we hope to see at night.

Return to Durankulak for dinner and your last night at "Branta Birding Lodge."

After breakfast, you will be driven the 120 miles to the city of Burgas. On the way, you might see birds like the Eastern Bonelli's Warbler and the Ruddy Shelduck, and you might even see an Imperial Eagle.

We stop to look around the Kamchiya Reserve, which has one of the most northerly alluvial or Longoz forests in Europe. The 1500-hectare reserve is made up of dunes, a beach, an estuary, and small freshwater pools. This area has a lot of interesting plants. In the marshes, you can find the rare Nuphar lutea and Nymphaea alba, and in the dunes, you can find Silene euxina and Coryspermum nitidum.

The Semi-collared Flycatcher, the Short-toed Treecreeper, the Black, Grey-headed, and Middle Spotted Woodpeckers, the Goshawk, and the Lesser Spotted Eagle are all birds that nest there.

Our home for the next two nights is the small port of Pomorie, which is just a few miles north of Burgas.

Dinner and the first of two nights in a beautiful hotel on the Black Sea shore.

Today, we go to Lake Atanasovsko Reserve, which is one of Bulgaria's five RAMSAR sites and is probably the best place to watch birds in the country. The 1690-hectare complex has a lot of saltpans, freshwater pools, marshes, scrub, and semi-steppe. Because the reserve is on the Via Pontica flyway in eastern Europe, it gets a lot of migrants in the spring and fall. More than 300 different kinds of birds have been seen here.

We will be able to see hundreds of Avocets, Black-winged Stilts, Collared Pratincoles (Black-winged have also been seen here), Kentish Plovers, Gull-billed Terns, Mediterranean Gulls, Little Terns, Marsh Harriers, and Penduline Tits nesting on the lake. At this time of year, we may also see Caspian Tern, Slender-billed Gull, Squacco Heron, and Marsh Sandpiper. In the reedbeds, Cetti's Warbler and Little Bittern raise their young, and there are many Black-headed Buntings and Red-backed Shrikes in the fields around the lake.

A site that is so big and beautiful and in such a good location can also have surprises.

Coryspermum nitidum and Lepidotrichum uechtritzianum are two plants that are endangered in Europe that can be found in the reserve.

For dinner, we go to a folk-tavern in the old town of Nessebar and eat traditional Bulgarian food. Come back to the hotel for a second night.

We will spend the morning looking around the wetlands just south of Burgas. Spoonbill, Little Egret, Purple Heron, and Glossy Ibis all have nesting colonies in the reedbeds of Poda. Waders like the Marsh and Broad-billed Sandpiper, Kentish Plover, and, if you're lucky, the Terek Sandpiper could be seen in nearby brackish pools. The Black-Winged Stilt and Savi's and Cetti's Warblers nest in the reeds.

On the nearby lakes of Ouzungeren and Mandra, we might see a Ferruginous Duck, a Bearded Tit, a Squacco, or a Night Heron. We should also keep our eyes on the sky for flocks of White Pelicans that come to spend the summer there.

In the afternoon, we go back to Varna for a tour of the city before our last dinner and night in Bulgaria. As we head north, we stop at the Salinas of Pomorie to watch the waders as we do every year. One of the best places in Europe to see Rose-coloured Starlings breeding is in the nearby small village. In the old town of Nessebar, where there is a lot of traditional architecture, you will spend an hour. The Yelkouan Shearwater, the Yellow-legged Gull, and its sub-species michahellis are among the birds that can be seen there.

As we head north, the road climbs through the wooded hills of the Eastern Balkan mountain range. Our next stop is at Cape Emine. We look for cetaceans by climbing up to bushes on cliff tops above the water. The Sombre Tit, the Rock Bunting, the Masked and Woodchat Shrikes, the Wood Lark, the Tawny Pipit, and the Barred, Olive-tree, and Olivaceous Warblers are all good breeders.

After breakfast, you will be taken to the airport for your flight home.