Danube Delta & Black Sea Coast Spring Tour with Limosa Holidays

May is one of the best birding time in the Danube Delta and along Black Sea Coast. This spring was not an exception and we had again a successful and memorable trip with 177 bird species during this 9 day long holiday.

Straight to the beginning, after the group arrived we soon enjoyed masses of birds around Calarasi`s first class wetland sites, in the perfect afternoon light! We had our first Little Bitterns, Spoonbills, Glossy Ibises, Purple Herons, all 4 Grebe species, all Marsh Terns here and the show continued with 100+ Ferruginous Ducks, mixed colonies of 300 Whiskered Terns with Black-necked Grebes and 2 separate colonies of Black-headed Gulls and Black-winged Stilts. What a good start!

Purple Heron (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

Next day we moved from the lower Danube Valley to Mamaia city, to the Black Sea coast. This day we had 10 Red-rumped Swallows, 50 Ruddy Shelducks, an adult White-tailed Eagle, a very close Booted Eagle, Honey Buzzards, Black Kite, many Bee-eaters, Hoopoes, Golden Orioles, Turtle Doves, Red-backed Shrikes and newly arrived Rollers.

Pale morph of Booted Eagle over Dobrudja (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

Male Red-backed Shrike (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

Roller (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

During the next three days we mostly did birding around the Sinoe lagoons and steppe grasslands -agricultural fields of coastal Dobrudja. Highlights’ here was hundreds of soaring White Pelicans, 7 Dalmatian Pelicans, 3 Marsh Sandpipers, 80 Collared Pratincoles, 6 Little Terns, a Red-breasted Flycatcher, singing Red-throated Pipits on migration, Pied Weathears, Paddyfiled Warblers, Calandra- and Greater Short-toed Larks, male Levant Sparrowhawk while hunting than eating a lizard, 80+ Red-footed Falcons, 2 imm. Pallid Harrier, an immature (3 cy) Eastern Imperial Eagle and a close, perched Saker Falcon!

Dalmatian Pelican (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

Female Red-footed Falcon (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

3 cy Eastern Imperial Eagle in Dobrudja (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

Above Babadag forest Short-toed Eagles, Honey Buzzards and Long-legged Buzzards glided to North direction. In the woodland Icterine Warblers, Wood Warblers, Blackcaps sang without intermission.

Male Honey Buzzard over Babadag Forest (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)

Near Enisala fortress Short-toed Eagle, Long-legged Buzzard and more White Pelicans were the main attractions, than just after the lunch we arrived to Tulcea and started discovering the Delta`s birdlife with our new boat. We had mostly sunny and warm days here, this means excellent conditions to find our targets. Every morning we start our daily program from Mila 23 village, then we return to our accommodation for lunch and dinner.

Higlights in the Delta was 6 Great Black-headed/Palla`s Gulls, hundreds of White Pelicans, Black -, Lesser Spotted-, Grey-headed Woodpeckers, singing Little Crake, Collared Flycatchers, singing Thrush Nightingales, a close Little Bittern, 2 Red-rumped Swallows, Red-necked Grebes, Hobbies, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler and many more bird species.

Territorial Black Woodpecker in the Danube Delta (Photo: Zoltán Baczó)