Great idea...
A brief weekend trip to a new European country in the height of the summer season in the hope of a magnificent Caspian whip snake, what could go wrong? We all know the answer to that one, so probably no point in even telling this story is there, but in the spirit of trying to write up my trip memories shortly after they happen rather than 4 years later, here we are. So, an entire spring spent in the Middle East, a great June holiday to Greece, and that's the herping over until after the Northumbrian summer right? Not if I pretend it's still spring and head off for 2 full days in south-east Bulgaria it's not....
Wetlands on the edge of Burgas, so many waders; black-winged stilts, black-tailed godwits, flamingos, Dalmatian pelicans, & are any in this shot, of course not....
After braving a packed 6am flight full of non face mask wearing sunseekers from northern Britain, and a very brief stop on the edge of Burgas to admire the incredible bird life around the wetlands on the outskirts of the city, I was at last up and running on the Bulgarian herp trip that was now running just a couple of years late. I had planned this for the Covid spring of 2020, but a week in the milder temperatures of late April had now turned into 3 nights in peak Sunny Beach redback season. Luckily I was going in the opposite direction to said beach, but my chances of turning up my target species were not high, even if my hopes still were.
Sunny, and a beach. But not that place
In the heat of the afternoon I decided on trying an abandoned airbase area I had google-earthed in the hope that I could get the herp count started as soon as possible after landing. A DOR grass snake on the way showed there were snakes around, but that was to be it snake-wise. Some great habitat, but after a couple of hours of flipping, walking, and enjoying hearing and seeing so many of the European bird species that are either gone, or almost gone from Britain, I was on the road again to my target area in the south-east of the country.
White storks nesting in a village, and house sparrows nesting within the stork nest. And all of that on top of a humble lamppost.
The Deep South
The area I was heading for is known for some pretty good herp diversity, as well as a couple of snake species right on the very edge of their European range. Not that any of that matters much when you make your 1st attempt at them in the heat of a July weekend. The landscape heading south-east down the Black Sea coast was different to the usual Euroherping Mediterranean maquis look though, parts of it even reminded me of the Apalachicola area of north-west Florida.
Just like the time when I also didn't find any snakes in Apalachicola National Forest
The forested hills and wetland areas alongside the Ropotamo River as it neared its final destination in the Black Sea provided the scenic backdrop to this brief, but enjoyable, introduction to Bulgarian herping. In the end herp-wise, I had to make do with triumphantly completing the European Tortoise Slam and finding a couple of old favourites of the Natrix variety; the many sheds (or coats/shirts/onesies, depending on your stance) never turned into the actual whipsnakes I was hoping for. I did come close a couple of times to something big disappearing off into the scrub, I know in my heart they were "Caspitos", but in reality it was more like I glimpsed a sound, that unmistakable noise of a big semi-hidden snake uncoiling into the ether; did I see a dark shape for a second through the grass and brambles......? Hopefully I will have another chance soon to look for one of the most magnificent of all the continent's snakes.
Somebody was up early.....
Was it you? An adorable baby spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca) in the dunes. These guys were everywhere, and completed the Euro Tort-Slam for summer 2022
The bird life in this area was a pleasure to see though. Well, mostly hear, as my eyes were focused on that improbable coil of summer whipsnake.. But to have constant beautiful-sounding reminders that you are in the breeding habitat of golden orioles, turtle doves, cirl buntings and many more species that call this wild area of south-east Europe their summer home was a reminder of what could be. Of course being further south and attached to the rest of the continent, as opposed to a northern island, there will always be more ecological diversity in this area of the world than in Britain. But, so many of the species here are not on the edge of their range, and are ones that should also call Britain their summer (or forever) home. Some still just about do in some areas. Others, like the red-backed shrikes that seem to watch you from every bush here, are now just a bit of excitement when they turn up every once and a while, now out of place in the barren agricultural wastelands of Britain. If things were even halfway close to how they should be, I shouldn't need a weekend in southern Europe to have the pleasure of seeing and hearing so many of these species.
What's this, another blurry raptor shot to bulk out the story...?
It certainly looks that way
A lesser-spotted eagle, my favourite raptor encounter of the trip. You certainly don't want to see my red-footed falcon photos though
Raptors are still the birds that have the power to turn my gaze temporarily away from my terrestrial whipsnake dreams. In my limited time of looking for dots this time, there were still a lot of species about, including marsh harrier, booted eagle, osprey, (probable) eastern imperial eagle (a bit too much of a dot for a dot specialist if I'm honest..), red-footed falcon, lesser-spotted eagle, and steppe buzzard (my first time seeing this variety of our regular common buzzard outside of the Middle East).
Grass snake (Natrix natrix persa)
Anyway, briefly back to the main point of this trip; snakeage. If grass snakes were as uncommon in Europe as they are in the northern part of Britain, they'd be another holy grail species. They are truly beautiful snakes, like whipsnakes crossed with watersnakes. Those beautiful facial markings, the yellow splash of colour on the neck, their graceful movements in and out of water, just an all round classy snake. Of course these ones are actually a different species to the ones I used to look for most weekends of my southern summers. And, if Caspian whip snakes were as widespread in the areas I'd visited and these weren't, I'd definitely dedicate trips to seek out Trixies. I still love you all, Euro-Trixes.
The same Trixie, still in-situ, just with a new friend
I didn't do the beauty of dice snakes justice with the one rushed record shot of one of the 3 that I managed to see. All were found while I skirted round some swampy grassland on the way to a much less Natrixy area I was hoping to explore before the heat made it even more of hopeless task. So, a blurry tessellata shot, and a Caspito onesie was all I had to show for a search around another beautiful piece of herp real estate.
Arguably not the greatest dice snake (Natrix tessellata) shot ever taken... But just to show there were some snakes found anyway
Something was keeping an eye on me
Another Trixie, just after finishing a meal. In-situ of course
Another unexpected in-situ, a European nightjar and chicks. As soon as I spotted this camo-beauty in the dead leaves, I backed off a fair distance before zooming in with the camera to check if it was still there and hadn't flushed, and got this quick shot. Another few steps and I'd have been almost on top of this family
Another "one for the future"
And that is about all I've got, it was only one weekend after all. Amazing I have any photos at all really considering that I told myself I would only write this if I managed to find a Caspito, or a reddish whip snake, or a blotched snake.... But, everything here was a privilege to get to see, and in such lovely habitat too. I even saw my first ever jackal, the European sub-species of the golden jackal, slinking through the forest in the twilight. There is something so magical and wild about encounters like that. I wasn't so wild about what the magical mosquitoes were doing to my face and legs while I was watching that mind. This region has so much wildlife, and this is only the tip of the iceberg as to what can be found out here, herp-wise especially. Not even sure if it is the tip, maybe just the shape of it under the water. Hopefully there'll be a next time, and if so, hopefully I'll get to explore for a bit longer, and in some spring or autumn temperatures that will give me a better shot at some of the magnificent snakes that call this bio-diverse south-eastern edge of Europe home.
Some lovely habitat along the edge of the Ropotamo, where forested hills meet wetland and duneland. And also where I didn't find any Caspian whip snakes
Stormy skies over Primorsko on the Black Sea coast at dawn. Of course, the temperature quickly went back towards "cook" as soon as they had passed