Birds, nature and wine tour from Nessebar or Bourgas

Birds, nature and wine tour from Nessebar or Bourgas

A tour exploring the diverse birdlife on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea coast with thousands of pelicans, rare birds of prey and passerines and many other eastern delights! Depending on the season, this tour allows you to enjoy the songs and displays of resident breeders or the spectacular annual migration of thousands of birds of prey, pelicans, storks and passerines along the Black Sea Flyway, known as the Via Pontica.

This tour starts from the city of Bourgas, or we can pick you up anywhere between Bourgas and the historical town of Nessebar.

First we drive to the oak forests the Eastern Balkan Range, where we explore for different forest birds, such as the Grey-headed Woodpecker, Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Black Woodpecker, Semi-collared Flycatcher, Black Stork, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Booted Eagle, Short-toed Eagle and other migrating raptors, storks and passerines. While in the area, we visit a mountain village, where the traditional way of life is kept unchanged in the last two centuries, feel the local spirit and taste delicious local dishes and wines.

Then we drive south to the town of Pomorie (if you are based in Nessebar) and the city of Bourgas. On the way we visit the antique beehive tomb situated to the west of Pomorie. The tomb dates back to the 2nd – 3rd century AD. It has served as a heroon (a mausoleum) of a rich Anhialo family, in which religious pagan rituals had been performed. The tomb is the only one of its kind on the Bulgarian Peninsula.

Both Pomorie and Bourgas are lying at the centre of of extensive wetlands that form one of Europe’s richest bird areas.The biggest attraction of these wetlands are the huge flocks of migrating White and Dalmatian Pelicans stopping and staying there in spring. Traditional saltpans are still preserved at the shallow lagoons of Atanasovsko and Pomorie lakes. They are of major importance for a great number of birds, including the Pied Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Marsh Sandpiper, Kentish Plover, Slender-billed Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Little Gull, Gull-billed Tern and many other waterfowl and wader species.

Other birds we can expect to see on this trip: Glossy Ibis, Eurasian Spoonbill, Pygmy Cormorant, Squacco Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron, Purple Heron, Grear Reed Warbler, Eurasian Penduline Tit and many, many others.