The last for the year monitoring of wintering birds in Coastal Dobrogea was conducted under conditions more reminiscent of the beginning of the summer season. With temperatures up to 18 degrees, sunny weather, strong south wind and a lot of mud, the Green Balkans’ team toured the lakes of the Shabla-Ezerets Lake Complex and Durankulak Lake to monitor the conditions in these important bird ecosystems, the changes in them due to another unusually warm winter and how this affects the species composition and biodiversity in general.
The monitoring is part of Green Balkans’ activities under the project "Long-term program for conservation of Red-breasted geese". But as you can guess, in these almost summer conditions there are no geese in Dobrogea. Single individuals have been observed to fly over the area, but the actual migration of the species to our latitudes has not begun. The mild winter so far not only in Bulgaria, but also in Romania and Ukraine, allows the geese to stay in the coastal areas of these countries. We hope that this is a temporary phenomenon and the winter will return to our country, and with it the typical for the season inhabitants of Dobrogea.
However, interesting observations were not lacking. One of the more interesting was of three White-headed duck (Oxyura leucocephala) in Durankulak Lake. Our monitoring there was interrupted by the flight of the local White-tailed eagle - the largest bird of prey in Bulgaria - which raised the flocks of ducks and pochards from the lake in panic. A pleasant surprise was the abundance of birds in Shablenska Tuzla, as the reported number was the highest so far by our team. The large number of Little gulls (Larus minutus) made an impression.
We continue to monitor the state of ecosystems in Coastal Dobrogea and the impact of the warming on their functioning. Our team will keep you posted on the results.
The monitoring is part of Green Balkans’ activities under the project "Long-term program for conservation of Red-breasted geese". But as you can guess, in these almost summer conditions there are no geese in Dobrogea. Single individuals have been observed to fly over the area, but the actual migration of the species to our latitudes has not begun. The mild winter so far not only in Bulgaria, but also in Romania and Ukraine, allows the geese to stay in the coastal areas of these countries. We hope that this is a temporary phenomenon and the winter will return to our country, and with it the typical for the season inhabitants of Dobrogea.
However, interesting observations were not lacking. One of the more interesting was of three White-headed duck (Oxyura leucocephala) in Durankulak Lake. Our monitoring there was interrupted by the flight of the local White-tailed eagle - the largest bird of prey in Bulgaria - which raised the flocks of ducks and pochards from the lake in panic. A pleasant surprise was the abundance of birds in Shablenska Tuzla, as the reported number was the highest so far by our team. The large number of Little gulls (Larus minutus) made an impression.
We continue to monitor the state of ecosystems in Coastal Dobrogea and the impact of the warming on their functioning. Our team will keep you posted on the results.
