Bulgaria


Autumn Migration along the Black Sea Flyway

 Wednesday 1^st – Thursday 9^th September 2010

Cost per person according to group size:

This tour is run using our unique sliding price scale, where the more people who come on a trip, the less you pay – this makes our tours truly great value as our starting price for 2/3 participants already compares favourably to that of similar trips.
Also, if you have travelled with Altiplano before, you will receive a 5% discount on the prices below.

7-8 participants - £930

5-6 participants - £955

4     participants - £975     (4 booked so far - 4 places left)

3     participants - £1,125

2     participants - £1,195

This 9-day tour focusses on the spectacular annual migration of thousands of birds of prey, pelicans, storks and passerines along the Via Pontica, often called the Black Sea Flyway.

The tour begins on the northernmost part of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast at Dobroudzha. This is an area of vast plain, rolling gradually towards the coastal sand dunes and lakes. Here,  the last remnants of the Great Steppe form a bottleneck for birds on their way south.
A great number of birds are likely to be present here, including Little Bittern, Ferruginous Duck, Glossy Ibis and Caspian Tern.
The southern limit of this geographic area is Cape Kaliakra with its dramatic red cliffs, dominating the sea waters. Here we will watch the Mediterranean subspecies of Shag and migrating seabirds. On the dry, open steppe we can find Calandra Lark, Stone Curlew and a range of migrants including Isabelline Wheatear, Bee-eater, various pipits (including Tawny and Red-throated), larks, shrikes and buntings. The shrubs hold a great diversity of warblers (Icterine, River and Barred) Red-breasted Flycatcher and more. At this time of year we can still expect to find Pied Wheatear and Alpine Swift around the cliffs.

Migrating raptors will be passing overhead all through the day as we drive to the southern Black Sea coast, stopping to explore the coastal riverine forests and sand dunes, and also the Goritza oak forests. There we can expect to find residents such as White-tailed Eagle, Grey-headed Woodpecker, Middle-spotted Woodpecker, Lesser-spotted Woodpecker, Short-toed Treecreeper, Hawfinch and other forest birds.

The second part of the tour is dedicated to the wetlands around Bourgas, which form one of Europe’s richest bird areas. Together they harbour about 340 bird species.

One of the biggest attractions of the Bourgas wetlands is the huge flocks of White and Dalmatian Pelicans roosting there during migration. The numbers of soaring birds following the Black Sea coastal flyway in autumn can rival those at the Bosphoros or Gibraltar as seemingly endless flocks of thousands of White Storks, Lesser Spotted Eagles and Honey Buzzards and incredible numbers of Black Storks, Booted Eagles, Short-toed Eagles, Black Kites, Red-footed Falcons, Montagu’s Harriers, Levant Sparrowhawks pass overhead.

We will spend one of the mornings watching the migration at Dyulinski Pass – a watch point high up in the wood-covered hills of the Eastern Balkan range, overlooking the seashore below. Then we will move down to Lake Atanasovsko – a shallow saline lagoon still featuring traditional saltpans. The lake is of major importance for a huge number of birds, including Black-winged Stilt, Broad-billed and Curlew Sandpipers, Marsh Sandpiper, Kentish Plover, Slender-billed and Mediterranean Gulls, Gull-billed Tern and many other species of migrating wader and waterfowl.

A stop at the Visitor Centre in the Poda lagoon is also planned. We will spend an afternoon on the terrace of the Centre, watching raptor migration or walk in the Poda Protected Site, focusing on waders.

As elsewhere in Europe, autumn migration may produce many rarities. Species like Richard’s Pipit, Desert Wheatear, Terek Sandpiper and Steppe Eagle have been recorded in Bulgaria in recent years.

Itinerary – Autumn Migration along the Black Sea Flyway

Day 1

Arrive at Varna Airport and transfer to Kavarna.

Day 2

Cape Kaliakra steppes and cliffs.

Days 3 & 4

The lakes of Shabla and Durankulak

Day 5

Drive to the southern Black Sea coast with stops at the Batova and Kamchia forests

Day 6

Bourgas wetlands

Day 7

Dyulinski Pass and Atanasovsko Lake.

Day 8

Bourgas wetlands.

Day 9

Drive to Varna Airport, birding en route, for our return flight home.