May 2011 - Wildlife Travel

Danube Delta, species list and trip report, 12 th to 21 st May 2011
SCIENTIFIC NAME
Paeoniaceae
ENGLISH NAME
Paeonia peregrina The large red paeony, Babadag
Primulaceae
Lysimachia nummularia Creeping Jenny
Ranunculaceae
Adonis vernalis Yellow Pheasant’s-eye
Tamaricaceae
Tamarix gallica French Tamarisk The pinky shrub on sandier places in the delta
One of the nice things about doing the report is that, once you actually get started, it brings back
some really good memories that can all to easily slip away, especially when an ageing memory
comes into play. Sitting down to write this, my overwhelming sense is that it was a great trip:
everything seemed to go smoothly, from leaving Henfield and other parts of Sussex, the Terminal
5 experience at Heathrow made the prospect of flying almost bearable and the flights themselves
were good.
On arrival in Bucharest our meeting with George and Calin and transfer to the coach again all
worked and throughout our time in Romania the organisation of the whole holiday was excellent
and this was very much down to George and his company Eurodelta Travel who was so attentive
to our needs throughout, though even he couldn't quite predict the amount of alcohol a Sussex
group might enjoy!
The following is my interpretation of the 10 days spent in Romania, using my notes and diary that
I can't read and a memory that is starting to become unreliable so I hope it doesn't read as what
can be described as 'faction'!
12 th May
Travelling day which, as I said, went about as smoothly as it could and not long after arriving at
Otependi Airport we were on our way through the the suburbs and industrial sites of Bucharest
and very much the first glimpse of the Country's post 1945 history. It was not long though before
I realised what a difficult group this might be when there was an attempt to try and get a shorttoed
eagle on the list as a distant raptor was spotted from the speeding coach. My resolve stayed
firm and it didn't go down on the list as I was determined to set a precedent that the leader was
always right… even when he tried to turn a female marsh harrier into an osprey and a common
into a Caspian tern at various points in the holiday!
A three-hour journey through very flat and fast developing agricultural plains eventually brought
us to the Hotel Diament at Amara, a comfortable hotel but definitely not after the international
tourist market and we had a first Romanian meal...eventually; but it was very nice and it gave a
chance while we were waiting for a group of people, most of whom already knew each other very
well, to get to know them better.
13 th May
A hardy group assembled before breakfast for a walk around the Amara Fishponds opposite the
hotel on a brilliant sunny morning and, as a leader, you dream that a holiday can start like this as
we enjoyed a fantastic hour and a half's birdwatching. So good was it that Liz nominated it her
most memorable moment of the trip. Immediately we were treated to wonderful close views of
great reed warblers, barking at us from the top of reed stems, while soon we were looking at a
10
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Notes