29th April – 8th May 2018

This bird photography trip was planned two years in advance directly with our contact at Nature Travel to assure the best timing for vultures and selected species including European Roller, European Bee-eater and Golden Oriole. Fortunately, we were only two participants on this 9-day photography trip which was based at two main areas in eastern Bulgaria. The first two photography days were spent in the Eastern Rhodope mountains where we used a specialty constructed hide for Griffon and Egyptian Vultures and the remainder of days based at Ognyanovo, north of Varna. On the last day, we had an excursion to Cape Kaliakra on the Black Sea coast for several specialty species including Pied Wheatear and Calandra Lark. At the vulture site we stayed in a rented apartment and evening meals were eaten at a local restaurant. At Ognyanovo we stayed at a cottage owned by Nature Travel with its own tower hide which we used each morning session. All the tasty meals here were prepared by Nature Travel staff and eaten in the garden. The area surrounding the cottage provided plenty of distractions during the middle of the day when not using a hide and were we found some interesting butterflies, breeding Barred Warbler, Scops Owl and Grey-headed Woodpecker. Afternoons were spent photographing from hides located a short distance away for either rollers or bee-eaters although one afternoon we spent in a woodland hide with a pond for woodland species. The last afternoon after the morning excursion to the Black Sea, was spent in a valley close to the cottage for breeding Isabelline Wheatear and Ground Squirrels. Our guide did all the driving between locations and accompanied us on all the morning and most of the afternoon sessions. The whole venue was a huge success and our trip organiser/guide and staff can be thoroughly recommended.   

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