Photos from the Vulture workshop in Bulgaria

This photo album from Bulgaria is really extensive. I think it must be the biggest I have done so far.

Almost all of the pictures are taking somewhere in the East Rhodope Mountains. The mountain range is home to a healthy population of Vultures and that was why I went to Bulgaria. The only downside is that I knew before was that I wouldn´t have a chance to photo the Bearded Vulture. The one vulture I really want to see and take photos off. Still I knew I would get good photos of both the Griffon Vulture and the Egyptian Vulture. I really hope that the Bearded Vulture will find its way back to Bulgaria. Maybe they could start to reintroduce them like have done in the Alps.

The pictures are from four different days and two of the days were spent in a Vulture hide. We got a good show on the first day. The Vultures more or less cleared all the food we had put out for them, and it was lots of food. The Griffon Vultures were really fighting between themselves and that made for spectacular scenes. Not always easy to catch, but sometimes you got lucky. We had the fortune to see all three types of Vultures during the day even if the Cinereous Vulture was a little shy. We could also add Eastern Imperial Eagle, Common Buzzard and Red Fox to the count. It was a hectic first day.

Slower tempo the coming days

The second day was a little quieter even if we had more Griffon Vultures on the ground, but they didn´t stay long. Instead we had two pair of Egyptian Vultures that was mating and attacking each other. This wasn´t something we saw the first day. The Red Fox also made more forays onto the site grabbing food and running off, probably to a den nearby.

We decided to skip the third day in the Vulture hide to do a safari in the area. So we drove from the lodge to the nearest village making stops en route. Trying to capture the landscape as well as flora. We also tried to work with the smaller birds we found. It was nice to stretch the legs and to see how far spring had come.

I must admit that I really liked the Eastern Orphean Warbler‘s song. It was really something special. You can visit this site to listen to it : Xeno Canto.

I hope you will enjoy this my Photo Album from Bulgaria and don’t miss the blog post : The Vultures of Bulgaria

Photo Album: Bulgaria 2013