Short-toed Eagle, by Ivaylo Zafirov
By Tanyo Michev, Lyubomir Profirov, Konstantin Nyagolov and Milko Dimitrov
The results of a survey of the autumn migration of soaring birds via the western Black Sea migration route (‘Via Pontica’), at Bourgas Bay, Bulgaria, are presented here, for five species of waterbird and 33 species of raptor. Tanyo Michev and his colleagues report the results of visual observations carried out on 1,640 days in August, September and October between 1979 and 2003. The mean number of migrating waterbirds logged in autumn during the survey was 169,072 individuals (max. 250,623 in 1999), and the corresponding figure for migrant raptors was 38,534 (max. 65,065 in 1990). These data confirm that Bourgas Bay is one of the most important sites for monitoring the migration of soaring birds in Europe, and the most important for the autumn migration of several species, including White and Dalmatian Pelican, White Stork, harriers, Levant Sparrowhawk, Lesser Spotted Eagle and Red-footed Falcon. The data collected during 20 years of the Bourgas survey provide the opportunity to track long-term changes in the populations of migrant waterbirds and raptors in eastern Europe.
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this is amazing!
I spent a few days here in early september 2011, birds pass over quite high up, manged to catch up with a few Saker Falcons