I'm back home from a short, three-day trip to Bulgaria, where our main aim was to see Red-breasted Geese on their wintering grounds. Upon arrival at Varna airport, however, our guide announced that the geese had moved on as the lake was frozen, which was not what we wanted to hear! Still, we birded en route to the lodge, seeing a couple of Long-legged Buzzards, Great Grey Shrike, a female Merlin and a group of 25 Corn Buntings; not bad for what was predominantly a travel day. The following morning we awoke to thick fog so headed south for a bit more visibility. A local who was monitoring the geese had told us here were none at all in the area, so were surprised to flush a group of around 1500 White-fronts as we came over the crest of a hill. Thankfully, they landed at the far end of the same field, perhaps 850m away, so we were able to get the scopes out and find 5 Red-breasted Geese among them. We kept moving, getting great looks at a Short-eared Owl as it came in off the sea and an immaculate, adult Pallas Gull in full breeding plumage which passed right over us. Having seen a few more Red-breasts, mostly singles or pairs in groups of White-fronts, we ended up at a small, unfrozen pond containing lots of ducks plus all three swan species side by side. Three of us had been scanning through the birds for at least ten minutes, when I suddenly noticed three sleeping Red-breasted Geese hidden amongst the Mallards! That took our day total to twelve Red-breasts, which was better than we were expecting but not quite what we had come for, although a roost of at least six Long-eared Owls was a nice way to end the day. The next day we awoke to yet more fog but the guide decided to take a look in a field next to the frozen lake which had not been checked for over a week. In a repeat performance of the day before and against all our expectations, we suddenly flushed another big flock of around 2000 geese, except this time it was predominantly Red-breasts, which again landed way in the distance and this time shrouded in fog, yet still allowing good enough scope views for us to count approximately 1500 of them. We then birded southwards along the coast and noticed lots of geese and swans passing us so that, by the time we returned to the same field in the afternoon, the flock had increased to perhaps 3000. We'd seen a few birds well the previous day and now good numbers distantly but we were still wishing we could have both at the same time. Our third and final morning was still fairly murky yet we could actually see the lake as there was no fog at last. We thus returned to the same area and finally saw what we had come for; a huge flock of 5000-6000 Red-breasts at a reasonable distance and in good light! It was a spectacular sight, especially when the whole flock finally took off (bottom picture).
Over three days, we tallied 72 species, other highlights being an unseen Eagle Owl singing, all three buzzard species, a pair of redhead Smews, Hen Harriers everywhere, and a few flocks of Calandra Lark. The Red-breasted Geese keep us in suspense right up until our departure but it was shocking to see the amount of shot birds (including our only Bittern!) everywhere, and the geese were very nervous the whole time due to recent hunting activity. The Bulgarian government, tourism board and Birdlife should be ashamed that they are not doing anything to stop the excessive and relentless hunting in a region which contains the entire global population of this vulnerable and rapidly decreasing species, which surely must be one of the main, wintertime tourist attractions the country has to offer.
