June, 2013
We've just got back from a trip to Bulgaria, a perfect destination for bird and animal lovers. It’s a place which could be easily described as true wilderness. Photographing European Bee - eaters during a busy young feeding period was the main our target. Unfortunately the birds had arrived back into Bulgaria 2 - 3 weeks later than normal so it meant that the feeding had not started yet. It was a bit disappointing however we still had good photo opportunities of this incredibly colourful bird.
We decided to spent three days with this adorable bird. Of course, it's not enough but we were restricted for time.
The first afternoon we with our good friend and brilliant ornithologist Boris Belchev found a good site and decided to set - up temporary hides next to a sandbank with the bee - eaters colony. Unfortunately bee - eaters didn't land in front of us. As they are active feeding early in the morning, we decided to come back at dawn. This time we set - up our hides before the sunrise and to our big relieve birds started to turn up with the first light.
As the name suggests bees are on the top of the menu for bee - eaters;
... though they’ll prey on dragonflies, butterflies, moths – just about anything that flies. Smaller insects are eaten while still airborne, but bees are brought back to the perch in order to remove a stinger for a venom free meal. That's why bee - eaters toss it into the air, catch it with its bill tip and bash it repeatedly against a hard surface so the stinger is removed. Only then the food is swallowed safely.
After a good meal, preening and stretching activities followed...
The next day with bee - eaters was even more productive. To our delight two or sometimes even three birds were landing on a perch. There was plenty of action. These are our favourite shots:
As it gets very hot in Bulgaria during the day, our morning photo sessions used to finish around 10 am. The sun was getting too harsh for the photography. Besides with the rising temperature bee - eaters seemed to be less active and preferred to perch with open beaks.
As it was mentioned before, Bulgaria is full of wildlife which could be found relatively easy. As most of the mornings were spent with bee - eaters or in a hide for golden oriols, evening photo sessions quite often were spent roaming along farmland roads in the car and photographing any birds we encountered. We came up with pretty good results; we came across common linnet, black - headed bunting, lesser whitethroat, common wheatear, turtle dove, lesser grey shrike, red backed shrike, corn bunting and others. There are some of the photos:
For the first time we saw ground squirrels also known as susliks. Cute and funny animal.
They are quite shy animals and that day they were constantly disturbed by booted eagles what made photography a bit tricky.
While driving along the country roads all of us were really hoping to encounter Hoopoe. To our big surprise, on the third evening of our trip we spotted this remarkable black and white tipped crest. It definitely was a Hoopoe.
Hoopoe was photographed from our hide - a car which had two front windows functioning. As the bird was on the driver's side, it meant Giedrius had to squeeze his 500 mm with Boris's 300 mm lens through one window. My task was to open the door silently without scaring the Hoopoe, which I've done perfectly. Overall we spent probably 1.5 hours with the bird as it was disappearing in the grass, flying away and coming back again. It was one of the best photographic moments although the pictures are not exceptionally great.
Driving along the roads, we even spotted a roller. It was not as brave as the hoopoe and didn't let us come close enough. Next day we set - up a temporary hide close to the place the roller was spotted. After a few hours of waiting we managed to photograph it.
The last evening of our trip was spent in a site close to Boris's home town were we saw little bitterns, roller, great reed warbler and others. Little egret came pretty close...
Overall it was a great experience with nice memories and challenging photography what made it all more rewarding. Bulgaria is a nice place for nature lovers and we are waiting for our next trip for more bee eaters and hopefully rollers.