Pelican Lake Guesthouse Environmental Project Centre, Srebarna.

Environmental Project & Info Centre EPIC Opening!

2011-07-03T02:56:00.000-07:00

Mid-summer Danube monitoring

2011-06-21T12:22:00.001-07:00

We joined the team from BAN, BSPB, WWF and RIOS for the Mid-summer Danube bird count.
Stoyan Mihov, Krasi Kirov, Yordan Kutsarov, Petcho Shurulinkov, Kolyo Mihov, Svilen Chesmedjiev, Gergana and Stella, Jerry and I, all had a great few days. Looking forward to seeing the final figures.

2011-06-06T23:47:00.000-07:00

Very busy May and start to June, with guests from all parts of Europe and New Zealand.

Nice to see the nesting/breeding birds with their young.

Hristina and Ivo at the Mihof's

2011-05-22T02:21:00.000-07:00

Very nice to spend time with Hristina from the Green Balkans Wildlife Rehabilitation and Breeding Centre in Stara Zagora and the latest edition to their team Ivo. We popped around to see 'Chicho' Mihof and his lovely wife Danka.

Trip to Romania

2011-05-15T07:22:00.000-07:00

3 day trip to Romania as part of the Calarasi Silistra cross border co-operation tourism project. We stayed at the Valea Iazurilor Hotel Complex with our hosts Razvan and Petre.

Light lunch and afterwards a boat trip on the Mostistei River.

Local student volunteers collecting plastic waste from the Mostestei banks.

A nice group and we're looking forward to the next trip :-)

Party at the British Residence Sofia

2011-05-01T02:40:00.001-07:00

We were invited by the Charge d'affaires, Catherine Barber, to a party at the British residence in Sofia on Friday.

Sofia 'Green Days'

2011-05-01T02:29:00.000-07:00

We went down to Sofia on Thursday to visit the GREEN DAYS exhibition, lots of nice stalls advertising tourism, technologies, foods and other green products.

What a day!!!

2011-04-27T07:21:00.000-07:00

What a day!!! Saw around 40 Hobby, 20 Sparrowhawk, Rough Legged and Common Buzzard plus a pair of White-tailed Eagle flew right over my head. Cuckoo in grey and brown morph. Added to this the Whiskered Tern have returned in big numbers. I also saw Collared Flycatcher, my first Oriole of the year, good close views of Glossy Ibis feeding, Gadwall, and what I am 99% sure was Marsh Sandpiper, will be going back to check that one later. Saw most of the usual suspects for here too. What a day!! Oh and I located the tree where our guest Jochen saw Wildcat last week, so will be staking that spot out regularly. For those who missed the Wildcat pic, here it is again.

Earth day

2011-04-22T07:05:00.001-07:00

Nice article about our Earth Day event. Just cut and paste this link into your browser

http://sedmicata.net/2011/04/20

Thanks to all the volunteers for their participation and also to our guests Ward and Jill for their kind donation that covered the costs of gloves, bags and refreshments.

Here are some pics from 'Waste Away'.

Happy Birdday!!

2011-04-09T09:44:00.001-07:00

A great walk today and saw a good number of birds too:
Little Grebe,
Great Crested Grebe,
White Pelican,
Dalmatian Pelican,
Cormorant,

Pygmy Cormorant,
Night Heron,
Little Egret,
Great Egret,
Grey Heron,
White Stork,
Black Stork,
Spoonbill,
Mute Swan,
Greylag Goose,
Mallard,
Teal,
Garganey,
Pochard,
Ferruginous Duck,
Marsh Harrier,
Common Buzzard,
Honey Buzzard,
Pheasant,

Moorhen,
Coot,
Black-Headed Gull(2500+),
Mediterranean Gull,
Wood Pigeon,
Collared Dove,
Hoopoe,
Green Woodpecker,
Syrian Woodpecker,
Middle Spotted Woodpecker,
Skylark,
House Martin,
Pied Wagtail,
Wren,
Robin,
Redstart,
Black Redstart,
Song Thrush,
Fieldfare,
Blackbird,,
Chiffchaff,
Great Tit,
Long-Tailed Tit,
Lesser Grey Shrike,
Magpie,
Jay,
Jackdaw,
Rook,
Hooded Crow,
Starling,
House Sparrow,
Tree Sparrow,
Chaffinch,
Goldfinch,
Hawfinch,
Yellowhammer.
Still plenty more exciting species to arrive before we are fully stocked here:-))
But enough to see already here to be worth a visit now.

Pelicans are back

2011-03-16T22:43:00.001-07:00

Somewhere between 100-120 Dalmatian pelicans are now in residence at their breeding site here. Water levels are high and we are all optimistic about a successful fledge this year.

Trifon Narezan

2011-02-03T03:42:00.000-08:00

Trifon Narezan, another great celebration on the hills above Srebarna Reserve with friends from the village,

RAMSAR World Wetlands Day

2011-02-02T08:32:00.000-08:00

World Wetlands Day 2011
04/10/2010

2nd February each year is World Wetlands Day. It marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Each year since 1997, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and groups of citizens at all levels of the community have taken advantage of the opportunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the Ramsar Convention in particular.

for more information

http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-activities-wwds-wwd2011index/main/ramsar/1-63-78%5E24770_4000_0__

Mid winter bird count

2011-01-15T03:56:00.000-08:00

Very early this morning Mike joined an international team from Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia and UK including representatives from Dragoman Marsh and Kolyo Mihov of the Bulgarian Accademy of Science, to conduct the mid winter bird count for Silistra region.

By far the best sighting of the day was over 2,500 assorted ducks in the nearby village of Popina.

Andrey multitasking-...counting Pygmy cormorants (Phalacrocorax pygmeus) while giving a live radio interview!

Out for Winter walk...

2011-01-03T05:42:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!!!

2010-12-31T22:41:00.000-08:00

Wishing all our guests of Past, Present and Future the very best for 2011!
May it bring you Health & Happiness.....

Season's Greetings...

2010-12-22T21:59:00.000-08:00

Bird monitoring

2010-12-09T22:43:00.001-08:00

The final day of this years monitoring of the Pygmy Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygmeus) and the Ferruginous Duck (Aythya Nyroca)

The day was fine and bright but cold and although we spotted many other species the ones we wanted were scarce ...

A Busy time!

2010-11-10T21:10:00.001-08:00

Well in past years November has been very quiet for us...but not this year!

Many guests have been taking the advantage of the lovely mild weather.

We had the opportunity of working in partnership and cooperation with other guesthouses, hotels and restaurants in the village.
We were able to accommodate some very large groups of guests, some here for bird-watching holidays and others for research and training purposes.

The last such group numbered 25 and utilised, accommodations in Srebarna and the nearby village of Vetren, we enlisted the help of one of the restaurants in the village to cater for these visitors. We also had some local entertainment!

Without this sort of small enterprise cooperation Srebarna would not be able to host parties of this nature meaning that the business and the money would go elsewhere.
We were delighted to ensure that this time it did not.

Bird monitoring

2010-10-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

The start of our second monitoring days for the Pygmy Cormorant(Phalacrocorax pygmeus) and the Ferruginous Duck (Aythya nyroca)

Some good sightings,although distant and again we were lucky with the weather...

Happy Birthday!

2010-10-17T00:15:00.001-07:00

This week we celebrated Mike's Birthday...

A nice evening out with friends....

Trip to the cinema...then on for a lovely Chinese meal....

Orphanage Auction Update!

2010-10-01T22:06:00.000-07:00

We are very pleased to announce that the 2 nights stay at our Guesthouse which was on auction all last week on Trust Radio Europe reached a staggering 604leva!

Thanks to Mr Dave Kennedy, The Silistra Orphanage will be thrilled with this donation!
And we will look forward to meeting you soon!

5 Year Anniversary!

2010-09-29T22:46:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated our 5th Anniversary of moving and living here in Srebarna,Bulgaria.

We invited lots of our dear friends and neighbours without whom, life would have been very difficult, if not impossible.

A big thanks to them all!

Garden Party

2010-09-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

Today a garden party was held for the children at Dimcho Debelianov Orphanage ,Silistra.

We were only too happy to help out Berni & Dougie Leggett, the organisers of this event.

There were lots of activities including a bookstall,tombola,raffle,guessing games, etc.

And there was some live entertainment provided by the children of the orphanage and also by Mike Black, Jeff Groves,from Texas/Sofia,and Krasi Yordanov from Plovdiv.
There was also dicso throughout the day which was a special request from the children.

Everyone had a great day! Almost 700 leva was raised and hopefully there is more to come!

Berni and Dougie are now organising an auction with Trust Radio in Bulgaria this week with some fabulous prizes!

We have donated a weekend at our guesthouse with bed and breakfast and a guided walk.Let's hope we can raise even more money for this fabulous orphanage!

We at Pelican Lake Guesthouse would also like to add a very special big thanks to our personal sponsors
Henry and Susie Buswell, who's very generous donation earlier this year enabled us to provide the live entertainment on the day.
Many thanks to you both!

If you would like to read more about this day and the orphanage take a look at:
http://bulgariaorphanagesilistra.webs.com/
If you would like to take part in the auction please visit:
http://www.trustradioeurope.com/contact.php
OR contact us direct:
www.srebarnabirding.com

Mike vounteers in Malta again

2010-09-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

Committee against Bird Slaughter (CABS) is to organise a bird protection camp
PRESS RELEASE
Wednesday, 29.08.2007

Valetta. The Committee against Bird Slaughter (CABS) is to organise a bird protection camp on the islands of Malta and Gozo during mid-September 2007. This camp will include 22 experienced campaigners from Germany, Italy and the UK with the aim of collecting data on the bird migration over the islands and, the influence of illegal hunting on different bird species. The organisation and implementation of this camp will be made in close consensus and cooperation with Nature Trust (Malta) and the Maltese Section of International Animal Rescue. The principal aim of the operation is, the deterrence of potential law-breakers by a round-the clock presence of the teams in the main hunting `hotspots', and on those stretches of coast important for bird migration. The task of the campaign teams on the ground will be that of precise recording of the migration of selected bird species. This will also incorporate the reporting by telephone of instances of illegal hunting to the operational base. In emergency cases, the operational base will contact the police and provide them with all relevant and necessary information. "We are only present to observe, record and report; everything else is a matter for the police" the spokesperson for CABS, Heinz Schwarze, explains.
CABS further state that the Maltese police have been notified of the operation earlier this year and have signalled their "full support" to the team. The NGO emphasises that the volunteer observers will operate in the open and, with their video cameras and binoculars, will be easily recognisable for the hunters. Schwarze stresses that "deterrence through an open and wide-scale presence is more important to us than concealed observation". Nevertheless, according to CABS, the occasional use of concealed cameras in the bird protection operation cannot be completely ruled out. CABS further stresses that similar operations in the Gulf of Naples and in Lombardy have provided them with plenty of useful experience in this field. Schwarze: "Those who are afraid of being filmed, and are later taken to court, don't shoot at protected birds". This maxim, adopted and put into practice over the past 10 years in Italy by the permanent presence of bird protection teams and game wardens, has proved successful in reducing the scale of illegal hunting there to a noticeable extent. All of the participants in the Malta camp are volunteers, the majority of them are field biologists, bird ringers or professional conservationists. A daily summary of events will be available through an internet blog in English and German at www.komitee.de.
http://www.animalliberationfront.com/ALFront/Actions-Philippines/MaltaBirdProtestors.htm

You can read about Mike's week here!

Some different guests this month...

2010-08-28T23:16:00.000-07:00

Tree maintenance

2010-08-23T22:45:00.000-07:00

A small group of us went early today to check upon the trees that we planted for Earth Day way back in April this year..

The weather has been unusually hot and dry and even though we have been regularly weeding and watering them some of them have not survived....

But we weeded and watered them all again and we have 14 strong trees and in the Autumn we will replant and try again......

Nature walk & waste collection

2010-08-20T20:54:00.000-07:00

Today we had the pleasure of taking a walk with a large group of home-schooled children from Bulgaria,Romania,Hungary & the USA......

Kolyo Mihov from the Bulgarian Accademy of Science kindly joined us to share his
knowledge........

........we had some great views of the Pelicans.........

....took only photographs and memories....

.....did some rubbish collecting along the way..........

...then we had some well deserved refreshments!

This project was sponsored by guests of Pelican Lake Guesthouse
Katia Yankulova & Jim Guittard..
Many thanks to you both!

http://srebarna.spaces.live.com/

For more pictures of the day please cut and paste the link above.

Jerry's Birthday

2010-08-02T22:35:00.001-07:00

1st August-Jerry's Birthday....

Spent in old town Plovdiv....and Shipka......beautiful!

Population monitoring

2010-07-02T22:19:00.000-07:00

As part of our work with BDZP (BSPB) here in Bulgaria we spent the day monitoring populations of Aythya nyroca , Feruginous Duck and Phalacrocorax pygmeus ,Pygmy Cormorant.

And we encountered other interesting things along the way..........

Water levels made it very difficult in places.Indeed the Danube itself looked like it was never going to stop rising!

The bar??...the car park??...the road??...nothing to be seen!!!

Red-footed Falcon update

2010-06-26T23:14:00.000-07:00

Today we checked up on the Falcon boxes.

No interest as yet but it's early days.
We will not visit again now until early next Spring ..

But the day was not wasted...it was good to see some other bird activity along the way....

Danube Bird Colony Survey

2010-06-22T04:35:00.000-07:00

Today we joined the team from Sofia as part of a survey of all bird colonies along the entire length of the Danube, being conducted by the Ornithological Lab of the Bulgarian Academy of Science.

Recent walks

2010-06-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

Well the guesthouse is starting to get really busy now but we are still able to time to take some time out with friends for a walk.....

Here with Gus, Lynnette,Katia & Merlijn......

Some great birding to be had at the moment!

Whiskered Terns

2010-06-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

A colony of Whiskered Tern (Chlidonias hybridus)are successfully breeding on the South West of the Reserve again this year. We've counted around 50 nests, 23 of which are clearly visible from the ecotrail.

They are delight to watch and all our recent guests have enjoyed the opportunity to see them at close quarters.

Happy Birthday

2010-06-06T12:41:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to Srebarna Reserve.

First declared a protected area 68 years ago in 1942.

Categorized as a Nature Reserve in 1948.

Protected by the Ramsar Convention in 1975.

Designated a World Biosphere Reserve in 1977

Inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage site in 1983.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Juvenal 160AD.

Pygmy Cormorant and Ferriginous Ducks

2010-05-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

Good day out with Miki from B.A.N. and Emil & Mira from BSPB. Kolyo Mihof joined John and I as we started our monitoring of Pygmy Cormorants and Ferriginous Ducks for WWF and Birdlife Int.

Niki used the base of a new lakeside BBQ to get a better view :)

John went to check a site he's been monitoring recently and found a pair of Ferrignious.

25 Nest Boxes for Red-footed falcons

2010-05-18T02:02:00.000-07:00

Here's John up a tree locating one of the new Red-footed falcon nest boxes.

In partnership with БДЗП we are monitoring 25 such boxes around the region.

We'll keep you posted on any news.

Earthday 2010

2010-04-22T20:43:00.001-07:00

At around 1.30pm a group of 30 or more of us set out to celebrate this very special day.

We planted over 22 different fruit trees at our new campsite and picnic area here in Srebarna.

Afterwards refreshments were provided.
What a fabulous day!

A Big Thanks to our sponsors!

This project was sponsored by guests of Pelican Lake Guesthouse
whos kind donations earlier this year paid for many of the trees and all the refreshments:

Nicholas and Jaqeline France
AND
Gus, Lynette and Dan pictured below........

and our local Mayor, Gosho, at the Mayor's office.

We would like to say a very special thanks to all involved!

First guests of the year!

2010-04-08T05:34:00.000-07:00

This weekend we welcomed our first guests of 2010!

Ici and her family joined us over the holidays and Peggy , as always , was a big hit...

Happy Easter

2010-04-03T22:23:00.001-07:00

Mike and our very good friend and colleague Ivailo from Green Balkans were out for the afternoon walking on the reserve talking to all the visitors and tourists and trying to get them more interested about the area

Great views can be had at the moment through the scope of the Pelicans and the youngsters really loved this!

2010-03-31T14:17:00.000-07:00

Vladimir Dobrev. Reflections.

Dalmatian Pelicans Return

2010-03-18T02:08:00.000-07:00

We missed the return of the Pelicans this year as we were in Cuba, more news and pics about that soon, The date was March 2nd according to the team at RIEW. There are now around 30 pairs with more expected to arrive soon. Conditions are ideal for this years breeding colony as the water level in the lake is very high and water is flooding in directly from the Danube bringing with it new stocks of fish.

-30!

2010-01-25T22:47:00.001-08:00

It's times like these when the pictures,taken from indoors of course, say it all....

It has been so very very cold with so much snow!!!
For the last 2 days we have been clearing a path to the bird table and feeders almost every hour!
Bread ,cereals, oats, cake and margarine have been their favourites and lots of new comers have been visiting the table...including woodpeckers- lesser and greater spotted, thrush and blackbirds.

A Big Thanks to our sponsors

Abi and Mike, who visited earlier this year and made a very kind donation, have paid for all the food for the birds throughout December and will also cover January and possibly February depending on the weather....Thanks Abi & Mike!!!!

What's with the weather?

2010-01-12T06:43:00.001-08:00

Over the past few weeks temperatures have really fluctuated.

This week while the UK and most of the rest of Europe seem to be in the grips of a
big freeze we here have had sunshine and temperatures of 15/18 degrees!

Water levels are rising on the Danube and on the lake which is very good news.
The lake itself keeps freezing over then thawing out again like it has today.

We know this weather won't last , and that's probably for the best,
the weather forecast says back to minus temps with some snow....

...but for now some of us have time to make the most of it!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-27T04:29:00.000-08:00

weekend

2009-12-06T22:22:00.001-08:00

Early start on both days this weekend as we had visitors from BSPB Svishtov looking for various geese and counting the winter population of all species.

High on the hill overlooking the lake with BSPB's two new wondererful scopes and the young teams eagle eyes.

Really cold morning but the banter kept us warm

Emil looking very shifty down at the bottom of this page. Love the hat mate....

Our monthly collection

2009-11-27T22:19:00.000-08:00

Well it is very good news!

Whilst out on our regular monthly rubbish collection we only managed to fill one bag of rubbish.

This shows the new rubbish bins in the village are really having a positive effect!

Thanks to our sponsors

Monthly rubbish collections are curently sponsored by:
Colin & Anne Blyth, Wolverhampton.
Thanks to their kind donation earlier this year all materials are paid for-gloves,bags etc until next Spring!

It was a really beautiful day for a walk.The temperatures have continued to be extremely mild during the day around 18 degrees in the sunshine.

And some of our neighbours were out walking too collecting Rose Hips.......

Village News!

2009-10-28T22:38:00.001-07:00

While we have been away, taking a well deserved break for a few weeks, something very special has happened in the village!

We now have bins all over the village and a weekly rubbish collection!

We are so excited about this and we are sincerely hoping that it will make a huge difference to the amount of rubbish that accumilates on the reserve.

We will be going out on our Autumn rubbish collection in the next few weeks ..so fingers crossed!

Mike goes to Malta

2009-09-29T03:20:00.001-07:00

Earlier this month Mike was over in Malta volunteering with CABS
to prevent illegal bird hunting and trapping.

See this excerpt from the report below from:
www.komitee.de/en/index.php?index

MALTA: Final Autumn Camp Report

In the course of the 3 week operation a total of 486 cases of illegal hunting were recorded. These included 23 directly observed shooting down of birds of prey, some of which were captured on video. In addition 24 observations or finds of protected birds, with what were evidently shot gun injuries, were registered. Four cases of illegal wader species trapping and the discovery of one illegal cage trap containing a dozen freshly-caught Turtle Doves were also recorded.

In the course of nightly mapping of illegal electronic bird lures, used by hunters and trappers to lure birds to their nets or shooting hides, 119 ‘bird callers’ were located. Between 15 and 30 September CABS teams registered a total of 286 shots after the afternoon hunting curfew imposed by the government

The final report from the CABS autumn migration camp - Operation SAFE HAVEN - is now online and available for download below. It includes all incidents and other observations made by our teams over three weeks and a short evaluation of the collated data. Our sincere thanks go to all 32 team and staff members from Bulgaria, Germany, Holland, Israel, Italy, Malta, Poland, UK and the USA who contributed to the success of our operations. We hope to see them all back in 2010.

You can download a detailed report as pdf here simply cut and paste the link below:
MALTA_final_report_autumn_2009-2.pdf

For more information and details on how you can add your support visit : http://www.komitee.de/en/index.php?index

Migration.....

2009-09-08T05:25:00.000-07:00

Well the birds are definitely on the move now.

This morning while drinking my tea in the kitchen I was able to witness a
fabulous sight.
Thousands of swallows taking a short break and sheltering from the rain,as best they could,on the electric and phone wires outside our guesthouse and all up and down the street for as far as I could see!

It was truely amazing.I have seen large numbers do this before but never so many.

They were coming in from all directions .These pictures really do not capture it but there must have been 4,000 or more.
Beautiful!

This year we have also the pleasure of seeing large numbers of Bee-eaters every day over the garden and over the past week this very special vistor here.....

Quite a few pairs and juveniles have been helping us to keep our wasp population down in the garden.

This one here was resident for 2 weeks outside the kitchen window eating all the wasps it could that were trying to nest in our roof!
Sorry wasps but we could do we these Red-backed Shrikes visiting more often!

August news

2009-08-10T22:19:00.001-07:00

Well the heat has really been intense ,high 30's everyday and very little to no rain whatsoever....

But we have been busier this August than ever before!
With guests coming from all over the world UK, France,Italy,Germany and Slovenia to name but a few!

August also brought Jerry's birthday and we did find time in our busy schedule to celebrate locally with some friends and neighbours......

Sorry if the pictures seem a little blurred....

.....the evening was a bit too!

Also in August we had the annual festival day in nearby village Popina.
Great fun was had singing, dancing and eating!
Also some strange but interesting activities......

Red-footed Falcon box check....

2009-07-30T21:26:00.001-07:00

Mike and our good friend John went out today to check on the Red-footed Falcon boxes that we have up just outside the village.

It was difficult to see throught he trees so it was lucky they had the GPS ,that was donated by MYBulgaria , to help them!
Although they are still not being used there has been signs of activity in the area.

In the next few months we hope to meet up with the volunteers again to talk about planning the building of the boxes for next Spring...

Pelican update

2009-07-07T22:36:00.000-07:00

We are very pleased to be able to report that at least 70 pairs of Dalmatian Pelican have bred sucessfully here in Srebarna!

While they are clearly visible with the scope it is very difficult to get any pictures of them.

This is such a relief after last year and hopefully mean that we will have another 70 young Pelicans flying around us very soon!

Busy with visitors

2009-06-25T22:16:00.000-07:00

This first pic shows Jerry with our colleagues from the BSPB in Svishtov, Emil, Beth, Mira and Svilen and also Beth's affianced Larry. They came to catch up on the Red-footed Falcon Bird Box project that we are helping out with locally and for a good old natter too, looking forward to seeing them again soon.

The second motley crew also pictured with Jerry are our visitors from London, Lynette, Nikki, Steve, Dan and Gus. Splendid bunch of humans who brightened our lives for an all too brief while. Gus is the spawn of my friend Fred but we won't hold that against him. This group very kindly made a donation to 3 of our projects, 'Waste Away Days', 'Bird Box Builders' and 'Watch this Space'.

2009-06-24T02:38:00.000-07:00

Hello all, we had a very sucessful day yesterday in Silistra, presenting the proposals for the Bulgarian Society for the protection of Birds' expansion of their Red-footed Falcon nest box building programme. The Silistra Tourist Info Office kindly allowed us to use their premises and projector to share the information with a group of students and their tutor. Ten people signed up to volunteer for the project which will begin in September and run, hopefully, for the next 3 or 4 years. Emil Todorov who coordinates the entire project from the BSPB offices in Svishtov is visiting us today for an update. We've also enlisted the help of two local builders who will assist in the construction of the boxes. For more info please visit www.bspb.org

Northeast Bulgaria Registers Record Heat Wave

2009-06-07T08:48:00.000-07:00

The Danube city of Silistra registered at 12 pm Sunday a temperature of 35 degrees Celsius, the local meteorology station reports.

The weather people forecast even higher afternoon temperatures that might hit new records.

The temperature measured in Silistra Sunday is the maximum for this day in over 100 years. The absolute June record was on June 26, 2007 - 39,6 degrees Celsius, while the absolute low has been on June 4, 1950 - 5,5 degrees Celsius.

In the other northern Danube city, Ruse, the temperature has reached 38,5 degrees Celsius, measured in the shade.

Novinite.com
Sofia News Agency

Prize giving..

2009-06-02T13:03:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we returned to Ivan Vasov school to visit the children who earlier this month participated in our 'Waste Away' rubbish collection day.

We had set the children a writing competition and we were there to announce the winners.Everyone received a gift and a certificate thanking them for their help.

All the entries were very good and runner up prizes were given for the best essays.
It was a very difficult job to pick a winner.
First prize went to Desislava Ivanova as we felt her words described the day perfectly.

Srebarna:))))))))))))))

My name is Desislava. Last week me and my class, we were invited by Jerry and Mike to visit The Srebarna Nature Reserve. They are from England and the moved in Bulgaria a few years ago. They really like the nature here .The whole class accompanied by the class teacher went together to The Srebarna Nature Reserve. It’s located near my town. It’s very famous for the birds that can be watched there. The ones that attract the attention most are the pelicans and the swans. For example the largest pelican can be seen here. It has curly feathers, grey legs and greyish-white plumage . It has a red lower mandible . Тhe Mute swan that can be found here is the largest member of one of the swan family. That bird is so beautiful. The feathers are totally white. It’s a very calm bird and people enjoy watching it. The nature was just so indescribable .
What we went for was to help the English family to clean up a region from the garbage. We were glad to do that, because we all realized the pollution it caused. We were having co much fun collecting the garbage. I never new we could have such a great time doing something good for our land. In the end we had collected 30 bags of plastic waste. We were really proud of ourselves.
And of course after every well done job, there is an award. The nice English family had prepared for us croissants and refreshing juices.
It was one of my best days . Srebarna is such a unique place. I’m glad I visited it with my friends, I’m happy for the time I spent there and that we did such a great job . I hope someday we are going to visit Jerry and Mike again and I truly believe that wasn’t our last meeting.

The students were such a great group and we would like to thank them all once again for all their help and enthusiasm.

We will indeed be inviting them back in the Autumn for another 'Waste Away'!

The end of May........

2009-05-29T11:51:00.001-07:00

The end of May approaches and with it comes our wedding anniversary.
Here on the 25th of May we celebrated 11 lovely...long...years together and we are still smiling.

The garden is in full swing now teeming with insects and birds.
To take a look at it copy and paste this link into your browser.

www.srebarnagarden.blogspot.com

'Waste Away' collection May 2009

2009-05-10T10:59:00.001-07:00

Another successful plastic waste clearance on Sunday 10th May

A class of students from Ivan Vazov school in Silistra, 2 of their teachers, our colleague Kolyo Mihov and our friend Karl collected 30 black sacks of plastic and other waste.

They were one our most enthusiastic volunteer groups to date and have asked to return to collect again with us at the end of this year.

Students have all been asked to enter a competition to write a short paragraph about the day.
There will be first, second and third prizes and consolation prizes for all those that enter.
We will post the results in two weeks time......

'24 hours from Tulcea'

2009-04-27T22:24:00.001-07:00

Wow! What a great time we had in Tulcea (Tool,cha) in north east Romania on the Danube Delta.Five relaxing yet busy days exploring the backwaters of this beautiful location and enjoying a bit of city life, restaurants, bars etc.

Just 150 miles to the north of us, roads were fine and we would definitely recommend the Hotel Select,good rooms,great food & friendly staff.

Here are a few pictures and you can view the rest by following this link.
Just copy and paste the link into your browser

http://srebarna.spaces.live.com/default.aspx?sa=954968248

waters rising.....

2009-04-08T21:45:00.001-07:00

We are all very pleased that the spring melt and the heavy rainfall in western Europe have lead to a significant rise in the water level of the Danube and the lake here has had a much needed and long awaited replenishment.

Wildlife Rehabilitation and Breeding Centre S.Z.

2009-03-31T10:47:00.001-07:00

Hi, we had a great weekend visiting our friends at the Green Balkans Wildlife Rehabilitation and Breeding Centre in Stara Zagora......everyone made us feel very welcome and the guided tour of their wonderful facility was one highlight of many.

Stara Zagora itself is a fantastic city, many nice restaurants and cafe/bars and a very modern 'European' feel. (what other feel can a European city have??). We recommend the Ясиа Chinese restaurant....so good we ate there twice!

The team at Green Balkans are involved in a number of very interesting breeding programmes and you can read all about them at;

www.greenbalkans-wrbc.org/index.php?language=en_EN&cat_id=0&

Just copy and paste the link into your browser

Честита Баба Марта!

2009-02-28T23:46:00.001-08:00

Честита Баба Марта!

Wishing you all Health & Happiness!

2008-11-27T02:45:00.000-08:00

Christmas comes early!

2008-10-19T22:17:00.001-07:00

It felt like Christmas had come early for us this week.
You can't imagine how excited we were to spot these in Silistra!

Yes recycling bins for plastic and paper/card with ones for metal and glass to follow.
This is such a huge step forward for us in this region and the great news is they are dotted all over the town and are already in use.

Thanks Santa,this is fantastic!

White Pelicans

2008-10-04T03:29:00.000-07:00

We were fortunate enough to get these pictures of a very large group of white pelicans from the lay by off the highway.

2008-08-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

The following is the wording of a petition we received from the Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation.

Please take a few moments to read it and then cut and paste this link into your browser to visit and sign the petition;

http://en.forthenature.org/petitions/say_no_to_the_changes_in_the_hunting_and_game_protection_act

Let’s say NO to the changes in the Hunting and Game Protection Act and the prolonging of the waterfowl birds hunting season!

To:

The President of the Republic of Bulgaria press@president.bg
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria primeminister@government.bg
The Chairman of the Parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria Priemna@parliament.bg
The Chairman of the State Forest Agency syurukov@dag.bg
The Agriculture and Forest Commission of the Parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria infocenter@parliament.bg
The Commission on Environment and Water of the Parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria env422@nt52.parliament.bg
The Anticorruption Commission of the Parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria anticorruption@parliament.bg
The Commission on Prevention and Combating Corruption at the Council of Ministers anticorruption@government.bg
The Prosecutor General of the Republic of Bulgaria n.markov@prb.bg
The Parliament Members of the Parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria

The European Commission
The GD Environment of the European Commission stavros.dimas@ec.europa.eu

Dear Ladies and Gentleman,

I am seriously concerned that the proposed bill for changes of the Hunting and Game Protection Act, which have been developed in complete lack of transparency and without any public participation, do break the established principles of sustainable use of the game recourses, thus creating environment of corruption and non-democratic practices.

I insist strongly that the Bulgarian Parliament sends back this bill for revision to the respective Commission!

I strongly recommend that a new bill is developed by a task force involving experts of all stakeholders and keeping up with the principles of complete transparency. I believe that a bill developed by such a group would not allow for:
1. Prolonging of the hunting season for waterfowl birds from January 31st to February 29th, which represents a serious breach of the Birds Directive, the national Biodiversity Act, as well as of the Bern and Bonn Conventions ratified by the Republic of Bulgaria;
2. Hidden privatization of the state game breeding stations in the form of concluding contracts for joint management and the unprofitable leasing of the state hunting grounds;
3. Providing exclusive rights to a single hunting organization placing it above all other hunting and nature conservation organizations working for the protection and management of the Bulgarian wildlife in complete discrepancy with the democratic and the non-discrimination principles.

With this letter, I would like to urge you to support actively the elaboration of an adequate and contemporary Hunting Act that meets the expectations of the Bulgarian society!

Thank you for taking the time to show your support for this very worthwhile cause.

Mike.

Jerry's birthday party

2008-08-02T01:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Jerry's birthday so we had a celebration at the local bar, with a mix of Brits and Bulgarian neighbours. Yummy! Chocolate cake and lager is a wonderful combination. Here's a pic of the birthday girl and another of the motley crew.

Mnogo Gosti

2008-08-02T00:56:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile we've been very busy with the guesthouse, aside from all the paying punters who've been here this spring and summer from all over the world, we've also had a few friends and family visit. My brother John and his partner Connie were here for an all too brief few days.Here we are at Fred's place in Shabla and later at Kamen Bryag.

Then our Bulgarian friends Toni and Galia who live in Spain came to visit with Galia's sister and their lovely kids. I hope you like the pic of Toni posing as The Hulk. The melons came courtesy of our neighbours Vasil and Ginka..sweet sweet sweet.

Preserve our Pelican Reserve

2008-07-29T23:23:00.000-07:00

The following is part of a press release we are sending out this week.

Experts are predicting catastrophic consequences for the Dalmatian pelican colony breeding site, the only of its kind in Bulgaria and for the greater Reserve as a whole if actions are not taken to ensure the ongoing and sustainable future of the Nature Reserve. Professor Nikola Mihov, pictured below, is the local representative of the Central Laboratory for General Ecology and he says, ‘Biosphere Reserve Srebarna due to its biological diversity is one of the most important natural reserves in Bulgaria and we have a duty to protect it for generations to come’.
In the past the reed beds which float upon the surface of the lake were harvested by the local population for use as insulation and for building materials but over time this practise has ceased and the old reeds are now left to degrade into the lake. Various action plans have been proposed and some partially implemented during the past 20 years but the situation has now reached a critical point. Professor Mihov told me, ‘The time for action is now, we must implement the proposals made in my recent report and failure to act now will have devastating results’.

His proposals include,

Constructing a new concrete and stone embankment on the Danube similar to those already in place, on less environmentally important stretches of the river, this will stop soil erosion during high tides.

The development of a new more suitable site for the pelican colony, protecting them from invasive predators, such as Wild Boar.

The removal of existing Dykes that are preventing the natural dispersal of sediments causing the Lake to choke.

The formation of an international steering group of interested parties to lobby government within Bulgaria and also the European Commission.

Whilst Nikola is eager to get the work underway he does recognise the importance of carefully thought out planning and feels strongly that the first and most important action to be taken is the formation of the steering committee to ensure that the plans are implemented safely and with as little impact on the inhabitants of the Reserve.

Please take the time to visit and sign our petition at;

www.petitiononline.com/srebarna/petition.html

Please contact us if you wish to receive a copy of the Mihov report in full, stating either 'WORD' or 'POWERPOINT' depending upon your preferred format.

Donation from MYBulgaria.info

2008-07-26T05:04:00.000-07:00

We had some great news this week as we've received a donation from www.mybulgaria.info that will cover the cost of a SATNAV/GPS device which will enable us to more easily find nesting boxes in the field.

We're currently monitoring a handful of boxes on behalf of our collegues at BSPB in Svishtov, I say 'monitoring' what I actually mean is that I spend the odd afternoon scrambling about on my hands and knees tearing lumps out of myself on the wild roses, nettles and Acacia trees in my usually unsuccessful attempts to locate the boxes.

Having GPS will mean that we can now accurately mark the position of these and the new boxes that we will be putting up next Spring, saving us time and skin along the way.

You can see from this pic how difficult they can be to locate :-)

Big thanks from all at Srebarna Birding to the good people at MYBG.

Guests give a helping hand

2008-06-21T02:32:00.001-07:00

Earlier this month we were fortunate to have the lovely Radnell family with us for a few days.

Sam was a great help in the garden watering the flowers and eating the fruit with Peggy and Vladi....

David too did his fair share of the workload, harvesting the peas...

and Elina was busy picking cherries.....

A great time was had by all......

Srebrana, June 27-29, 2008
David Radnell

Podiceps cristatus Great Crested Grebe
Podiceps ruficollis Little Grebe
Pelecanus crispus Dalmatian Pelican
Pelecanus onocrotalus White Pelican
Phalacrocorax carbo Great Cormorant
Phalacrocorax pygmeus Pygmy Cormorant
Nycticorax nycticorax Night Heron
Ixobrychus minutus Little Bittern 2+ active at the 2nd view point on West side
Ardeola ralloides Squacco Heron
Egretta garzetta Little Egret
Egretta alba Great Egret
Ardea cinerea Grey Heron
Ardea purpurea Purple Heron
Ciconia ciconia White Stork
Platalea leucorodia Spoonbill Close views on 1st overlook on East side
Plegadis falcinellus Glossy Ibis
Cygnus olor Mute Swan
Anser anser Greylag Pair with two young, 1st overlook East side. Very shy
Tadorna ferruginea Ruddy Shelduck 1st overlook East side. Main road overlook
Anas platyrhynchos Mallard
Anas querquedula Garganey
Aythya ferina Pochard
Aythya nyroca Ferruginous Duck
Aythya fuligula Tufted Duck 1 at 1st overlook East side.
Circus aeruginosus Marsh Harrier
Buteo buteo Buzzard
Falco subbuteo Hobby
Phasianus colchicus Pheasant Heard only
Fulica atra Coot
Gallinula chloropus Moorhen
Himantopus himantopus Black-winged Stilt
Larus cachinnans Yellow-legged Gull
Larus ridibundus Black-headed Gull
Chlidonias hybrida Whiskered Tern
Sterna hirundo Common Tern
Columba palumbus Wood Pigeon
Cuculus canorus Cuckoo
Coracias garrulus Roller
Dendrocopos syriacus Syrian Woodpecker
Hirundo rustica Barn Swallow
Hirundo daurica Red-rumped Swallow
Luscinia megarhynchos Nightingale
Turdus merula Blackbird
Acrocephalus arundinaceus Great Reed Warbler
Sylvia curruca Lesser Whitethroat
Aegithalos caudatus Long-tailed Tit
Remiz pendulinus Penduline Tit
Parus major Great Tit
Parus caeruleus Blue Tit
Fringilla coelebs Chaffinch
Carduelis carduelis Goldfinch
Coccothraustes coccothraustes Hawfinch
Sturnus vulgaris Starling
Oriolus oriolus Golden Oriole
Pica pica Magpie
Corvus corone Hooded Crow

Great Green Bush Cricket

2008-06-14T06:07:00.000-07:00

While out in the garden picking strawberries this jumped onto my arm....

This beautiful Great Green Bush Cricket , Terrigonia viridissima , was somewhere between pronymph and adult stage, as you can see it's wings were still wet but it had developed most of it's green colouring.

What happened to April and most of May???????

2008-05-20T02:02:00.000-07:00

The first strawberries are ready in the garden and we've been scoffing them by the bowlful.....

No plausible excuses here, just let the BLOG slip off my radar with one thing and another
................

We had big celebrations in the village with folk troupes from all over the region visiting to perform...

..the guesthouse is busying up for the season and we had the pleasure (if you could call it that) of a visit from our friends Tony and Tony with their partners and a higgledy piggledy assortment of vehicles and trailers...I swear they looked like tinker travellers.....We had a great night out with them and are looking forward to seeing them all again soon.

All the usual avian suspects are back for Spring,Summer and Autumn. Golden Orioles, Spoonbills, Cuckoos, I think I heard the first Bee-eaters yesterday too!! The water level in the lake is very low as you can see in these pics but the birdlife is still flourishing...It great to see how various species exploit the changing conditions......lower water levels mean more exposed reed beds so the Terns and Black-headed Gulls are thriving..The Pelicans seem very settled in their new site and whilst this years breeding was badly interrupted we all have big hopes for next year.

Problems for Pelicans/Please sign our petition.

2008-03-23T05:02:00.000-07:00

Srebarna Pelican Colony. No smiling photos to show today, just the following statement.

Despite the efforts made in improving the breeding conditions for the Srebarna Dalmatian Pelican colony, for the second consecutive year a serious problem has arisen and compromised the earliest breeding Pelicans.

On March 19th a sounder of Wild Boar entered the colony and destroyed somewhere in the region of 45-50 Pelican eggs and their nests. As a result of this some members of the colony, around 40 pairs shifted their location 850 south where they have recommenced breeding and laying on this secondary site. The rest of the colony has dispersed most likely to lakes across the Danube.

In response to this incident we are asking for assistance from the government, NGO’s and the general public in implementing the following actions.

1) The construction of a boundary fence that will deny access to the Breeding site to land based predators. This will be done at a time sensitive to the colonies breeding activities with as little impact as possible on the birds.

2) The location of a discreet hide at an environmentally sympathetic distance to be staffed by both paid and volunteer workers who will guard the sites during the breeding season thereby ensuring the safety of future egg clutches and guaranteeing successful fledging.

Please visit and sign our petition, please encourage your friends and networks to do the same.

Our sincere thanks go again to Ekaterina Nikolova for her invaluable help in composing the Bulgarian language version of this petition.

Just copy and paste this link into your browser.
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?srebarna

Winter to Spring

2008-03-03T13:48:00.000-08:00

I spent a fantastic day out on the reserve this week, observing the changes from the winter habitat to the spring conditions, I caught a very close glimpse of Eurasian wildcat (Felis Silvestra) bounding from its lair, unfortunatly too fast for my camera. Looking forward to a bountiful spring and summer with an estimated 180-200 Damatian Pelicans already resident for the breeding season.

Good work at Green Balkans

2008-02-19T06:30:00.000-08:00

Our colleagues at Green Balkans Wildlife Rehabilitation and Breeding Centre in Stara Zagora had an event yesterday when they invited a group of students from a local school to come and see the work they do and to view some of the animals they are caring for. It was a great day and the kids were really engaged by the staff and their patients.

Trifonovden

2008-02-01T04:50:00.001-08:00

A double celebration today. It was 'Trifon Zaresan' the day when traditionally in Bulgaria we wish for a successful grape harvest for the coming year. 5 of us headed out to the hills above the reserve for a picnic with drinks and inevitably dancing around a campfire. It was a great day and we were delighted to see that after a few weeks of small groups coming and going, around 50 Dalmatian Pelicans have settled back in their breeding ground for this year. I attempted to catch a few photos through the eye-piece of one of our telescopes, the quality is low but you can clearly see the bright Red/Orange throat-sack, a sure sign of omcoming breeding behaviour.

In no particular order in the following pics you can see, Geoff, Kolyo, Nasco, Encho and myself enjoying a glass or two of last years wine.

It was a fantastic day and I'm already looking forward to next year.

Babin Den/ Midwives Day

2008-01-21T10:26:00.000-08:00

Today many women of the village gathered together to celebrated 'Babin Den' which translates as Midwives Day.

There was lots of singing and dancing and this year my neighbours managed to dress me in traditional costume.
This outfit is over a 100 years old (made Jerry look about the same) and is the traditional dress that was once worn by the mother of my good friend Ginka's husband Vasil.
It was a little too big but it was an honour to be allowed to wear it.

The Danube freezes....

2008-01-13T02:52:00.000-08:00

These pictures were taken a few days ago in Silistra by our good friends Mick and Ilva.
Looking across to Romania you can see the Danube is beginning to slowly freeze over.

These pics below were taken from the banks of the Danube at Vetren earlier this month.The river had not begun to freeze then but the river bank had.

New Year...new snow......

2008-01-12T09:40:00.000-08:00

Well the New Year has arrived and a very white one it is.
We now have about 75cm's of snow here at the moment that fell over 2 days.
It started snowing on the 3rd of January which oddly enough was exactly the same day it snowed last year!

The lake is now completely frozen over, it is very difficult to capture how picturesque it really is.
It's still great to go walking and fantastic for photography..though you do need to wrap up.
At times like these it is hard to believe that this is the same place as some 6 months ago when the temperatures were in the mid 40's....

Frosty Days....

2007-12-28T04:29:00.000-08:00

With the temperatures now around zero in the day and -4 at night we are trying to keep the bird feeding stations stocked up.

Jerry took this nice shot of a Eurasian Jay Garrulus glandarius

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2007-12-22T03:47:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas to one and all and wishing you health, wealth, success and most importantly happiness for 2008 and beyond. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Let it snow...let it snow.....

2007-12-17T23:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday our region had it's first serious snow of the year....it only snowed for the day but with temperatures now zero and below it's looking like it might be around for a few days yet....

and the lake is slowly starting to freeze over....

Pelicans in December....

2007-12-03T09:23:00.000-08:00

Beautiful weather today, which may account for the early return of some of the Pelicans. We saw a small group of around 20, not close to the breeding site but a little further out on the lake. They may be scouts just coming to check things out or they could be stopping off to refuel before heading further North. Either way they were a welcome sight. Close by we also saw 30 or so Egrets. There are a couple of Peli pics down this page but first you will see Mike accompanied by Peggy and our new dog Vladi strolling along the path.

First Snow....

2007-11-20T11:36:00.000-08:00

We had our first snow fall of the year last night and by morning a light covering all over.
We have put all the feeders back out into the garden and amongst the usual visitors ,Sparrows and Tits, we had the Hawfinch and lots of Woodpeckers.

Red Squirrel

2007-11-16T02:00:00.000-08:00

A Red Squirrel on our wall yesterday was so fast I could only just get these pictures of it through the window.

The Wine is ready...

2007-11-15T03:01:00.000-08:00

Some 40 days have now passed since we lovingly pressed our grapes by hand and added the sugar.

Mike pictured here working really hard ...
It took us a whole day to sieve the 200 litres this year..almost twice as much as last.

This year its a great deep red, quite dry ...it tastes lovely...

Cheers!

Mike's 44th!

2007-10-15T09:27:00.000-07:00

On the 14th we celebrated Mike's 44th Birthday.........

Opening of Fishing Museum....

2007-10-13T06:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were very honourned to be invited by the Mayor of Vetren and the team at 'World for All' to the opening of the Fishing Museum in the neighbouring village of Vetren.

Vladi the new boy

2007-10-08T03:01:00.000-07:00

A tiny stray street dog found its way into our garden a couple of weeks ago and as our dog Peggy didn't seem to object to him we decided to feed him and he's now become one of the family. We named him Vladi in honour of the agent we bought our house through 3 years ago, by the way we celebrated 2 years in Bulgaria on Sept 29th.

Village celebrations.....

2007-09-30T05:20:00.000-07:00

The 16th September brought not only my dad's 76th Birthday but a lovely concert in the village.

There was lots of singing and dancing...by the locals .....

including Mike...not sure what George our Mayor thought though.....

Our 100th posting & Lonely Planet

2007-09-01T07:37:00.000-07:00

What a better way to celebrate our 100th posting on our Blog than with a visit from Christopher Deliso from Lonely Planet pictured here having a bit of breakfast with us.

We showed Christopher all that is on offer here in Srebarna, neighbouring village Vetren and Silistra......
Birdwatching, cycling, walking, fishing, canoeing, .....
lovely guesthouses and restaurants, museums and galleries ..........

Hopefully the region will now get the mention in LP that it truely deserves......
New issue due out in June 2008.

Peggy welcomes Jake......

2007-08-29T03:34:00.000-07:00

Peggy welcomed her fellow guest Jake with a glass of homemade cherry wine.....

It was raining but that didn't stop us from sitting out under the gazebo with Jake's ma and pa....Angela and John ...and our friends Mick and Ilva....enjoying the brief cool spell.

Weekend Waste collection...

2007-08-27T01:44:00.000-07:00

On Saturday a small group of us went out early to clear rubbish from the area at the start of the Reserve

Luba who owns the other guesthouse here in Srebarna got some of her friends involved....

Ilya the Reserve Ranger .....

...and our friend Ilva also joined us.......

Then the next morning it was a light breakfast at our place to talk things over ...relax and plan the next collection.....

Danube celebrations.....

2007-08-25T00:09:00.001-07:00

We had a busy weekend of celebrations in villages along the Danube.
For the past 52 years groups of canoeists have been arriving annually at the village of Vetren having set off from Ingleshot in Germany some weeks earlier.
To celebrate this the village puts on a special event on the banks of the river Danube, with live music, dancing, folk shows, food and drink. The mayors of Vetren and Srebarna take part in the organisation to ensure that everything goes smoothly. Around 500 people attended this year and a good time was had by all.

The following afternoon celebrations were held in the nearby village of Popina.
Lots of singing and dancing yet again....lovely!

Guests from Italy and Germany

2007-08-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

Antonella and Pier Luigi are our first Italian visitors pictured here at our back gate.

Christine and Friedrich from Germany enjoying the shade in the afternoon ....they are in there somewhere.....

Bird bath....

2007-08-20T23:33:00.001-07:00

As the temperatures hit the high 30's again the birds are getting very hot!

Each day we fill this dip in the road outside our back gate and watch the birds and lizards have a drink and a swim.

Most days Doves and Gold finches come and wait their turn but today the Sparrows seemed to monopolise the 'pool' and were there most of the day.

Friday the forecast is 40 degrees so we will make sure it is well topped up for all!

Time in the garden

2007-08-15T06:48:00.000-07:00

Bust week here with many visitors, Phil (MYBG Phil40) made it over with his family to say hello, unfortunately we forgot to take pics as we were so wrapped up in our conversation. It was really nice to finally meet him and them in person.

Here's a pic of our Belgian guests from last weekend.

Baron Rodrigue de Crombrugghe, his wife Julie and their 2 lovely kids Igor and Zoe had a great weekend relaxing in the garden.

We also had another visitor, an immature Red-backed Shrike, which has been feeding in and around our fruit canes and grapes.

An insect eater, these birds are renowned for saving excess food by spearing their prey on bush thorns.

Spanish Visitors

2007-08-12T23:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had 2 lovely guests staying with us from Spain, Joan and Laia ,who were on a 3 week tour of Bulgaria.

They are pictured here with Peggy and Mike happily reminiscing about Peggy's early days in Spain...

Mike and I struggled to keep up with the conversation as Peggy's Spanish is much better than ours.