site.btaMid-winter Bird Census Establishes Rare Visitors to Bulgaria - Expert

January 18 (BTA) - The relatively mild winter has brought rare bird visitors to the Northern Black Sea coast, Mihail Iliev of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) told BTA, commenting on the results of the mid-winter waterfowl census. The census has established over 140,000 birds from 113 species.

Volunteers have counted 500 Yelkouan shearwaters which usually fly south over the sea. The seawater is obviously warm and there is enough fish, passages of European anchovy, which the birds feed on and follow, Iliev explained.

Four great black-headed gulls, a very rare Asian vagrant which can only be observed during migration, were photographed by Lake Durankulak. Four short-eared owls, photographed near Alexandrovo village, were another surprise. These wintering birds are also rare, the expert said.

The Shabla-Durankulak lake and wetland complex, considered the winter home of the critically endangered red-breasted goose, was nearly devoid of life. Just about a dozen birds were counted, but Iliev said the previous year there had been none of the beautiful geese, which had never happened in the last 25 years./DT/BR