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ROMANIA Exclusive online content birdwatching.co.uk/ worldbirding ROMANIA ROMANIA It’s a case of ‘the birds and the bears’ in this rich and varied eastern European wildlife haven WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS: MIKE WEEDON E uropean birdwatching trips are not really supposed to be like this. One day, you are watching a Ural Owl and Chamois in the morning, a dozen close-up Brown Bears in the evening. And a couple of days later drifting along by a floating Whiskered Tern colony, with White and Dalmatian Pelicans overhead, enjoying more Squacco Herons than you can imagine. And, moored up at night, the frog and toad chorus is so loud that you can barely dream, let alone sleep. But Romania presents a different kind of European birding, offering several different worlds within its borders. I was there in June, accompanying a group from the Ramblers Worldwide Holidays. The trip was split between exploring the Carpathians and Dracula country in Transylvania; the steppe; and five nights sleeping on a ‘floating hotel’ in the mind-blowing Danube Delta. The bears were the highlight of the first couple of days of the trip, in the Carpathians. We visited a little hide and watched the glorious mammals emerging from the forest to come to biscuit bait. Brown Bears are nervous and sensitive to each other’s positions and movements. A sneaky Fox, which came in to pinch some biscuits, set the younger bears and females on edge. But not as Male Brown Bear much as the appearance of a big brute of a male, massive and muscular, and already mostly in his short summer coat. One of the females flirted with him, outrageously, leading him into the forest. But the highlights, for me, of the whole bear-watching experience included hearing the blood-curdling, instinctjarring roars of nearby bears in the forest. That and the all-too-brief appearance of a mother with two tiny cubs which almost looked like they wanted to come and explore in the back of our (open-doored) hide. Delta drifting The core of the whole trip was cruising the myriad water ways of the Danube Delta. There are 3,446 square km of this incredible delta system in Romania. Channels take you through subtly different vegetation systems and forest types. There are vast floating reedbeds, damp forests, dunes, lagoons, and richly vegetated banks. And there are masses of birds, everywhere! The excitement started when we first boarded our floating hotel at Tulcea, the gateway to the delta. House Sparrows, of all the exotic birds you could choose, were sweeping majestically over the water by our boat and catching giant yellow Tisza Mayflies (Europe’s biggest mayfly). We even got excited by our first passing Whiskered Terns. I say ‘even’ not because Whiskered Terns are anything other than fantastic birds, but because we were to see thousands of them over the next few days in the delta. I love Whiskered Terns, but they are so common there that, when a couple of (for us, more familiar) Black Terns White Pelicans are more numerous than Dalmatian Pelicans in the Danube Delta joined one feeding flock, these grabbed all the attention. The Danube Delta is a massive source of food for a great variety of birds. There are feeding herons everywhere, with different tracts attracting Night Herons, Squacco Herons, Purple Herons and Little and Great White Egrets, Pygmy Cormorants and Cormorants, and of course White, and a lesser number of, Dalmatian Pelicans. But above the water, there were great riches, too. Never have I known such numbers of Cuckoos. There is a constant accompaniment of the males’ song and occasional females’ ‘bubbling’ calls. There are Icterine and Eastern Olivaceous Warblers warbling, Golden The landscape of the Carpathians is truly beautiful 18 World Birding 2016
SPONSORED BY Spanish Sparrow Roller Whiskered Tern Orioles orioling, Grey-headed Woodpeckers pecking wood, Hobbies catching insects for fun and Rollers round every corner. And turning a corner is part of the joy of the delta. You may come across a basking Grass Snake, a quick splash of an Otter, the odd Musk Rat, or the nesting pond of Red-necked or Black-necked Grebes. Drift round another corner and there could be a White-tailed Eagle waiting in a tree. Or you could drift, engine off, up to the hanging nest of a tiny Penduline Tit. Night life For all its rich birdlife, the most amazing magic the Danube Delta had to offer came with its night life. When your ‘floating hotel’ is moored in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the Danube Delta, next to the largest reedbed in Europe, you are in the heart of the action. There are barking Little Bitterns and booming Bitterns and plenty of croaking Great Reed Warblers, but, though they are not far away, these are hard to hear because of the sheer volume of frogs and toads. The sound is overwhelming. It engulfs you, hypnotises you, snatches you with its long sticky tongue and spits you out, goggle-eyed. Back on dry land One gets used to life on the water and it was strange even after just five nights to be back on dry land, where frogs and toads don’t shout you to sleep. But with the richness of the birding, flowers and insect life of the rolling oak woods and steppe country of Dobruja meant the delta was soon not missed. We were in Lesser Grey Shrike and Red-backed Shrike heartland, with Honey Buzzards overhead and an abundance of the mighty Cardinal Fritillary butterfly feeding on every large purple flower. I missed the only Levant Sparrowhawk of the trip as we were picnicking in a forested area. I had snuck off to photograph Middle Spotted Woodpecker in a beekeeper’s field and perhaps the singing Icterine Warbler which was OUTLAND X 6X30MM monocular Compact, lightweight (227g), easy to carry and versatile, this monocular is perfect for any naturalist or birdwatcher who travels – its size means you need never be without an optic in any situation, even in the airport queue! It has a field of view of 184m@1000m, and multi-coated lenses and the 6x magnification mean it can cope with all conditions. There’s 20mm of eye relief, and it’s waterproof. Prices start from £41, and you can find out more details at celestron.com overhead. We found Spur-thighed Tortoises and Green Lizards and massive Bradyporus crickets, which look like they are made of riveted bronze plates and could bite your thumb off. There were Spanish Sparrow condominiums in White Stork stick nests, Little Owls peering at us over flowerfilled ancient ruins, where Wheatears and Tree Sparrows fed their young. Out in the steppe, grazed by tiddly, cute European Sousliks (a ground squirrel), were Isabelline Wheatears, Tawny Pipits and Stone-curlews. The glory of Romania is in the contrast between the different landscapes. It is wonderful to know that parts of the EU still preserve traditional landscapes. Some directives designed to protect habitats may have negative impacts, but at present there are great riches there. From the roar of the bears in the mountains to the cacophony of frogs in the Danube Delta, Romania provides a wealth of treats for all the senses. birdwatching.co.uk 19
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