Penguin Travel

The Wetlands International Cormorant Research Group and members of INTERCAFE organised a pan-European Cormorant breeding colony count in 2006. The first stage of the count in Bulgaria was carried out during 04-08 April, comprising visits to all colonies on islands along the Danube River and the Black Sea Coast. This time of the year was chosen due to several reasons: all nests were already occupied by Cormorants, laying eggs or still building nests at final stages; the trees were not in leaf, which allows direct detailed count from outside the colonies in order to avoid disturbance (as most of the colonies were mixed with herons, egrets and spoonbills (some of them already breeding); the continuously increasing water level of Danube River (that actually reached its record levels some 5-10 days later), which could have hampered the access to the islands even more if postponed even with few days etc.
Almost all islands along the Danube were totally flooded by the high waters of the river. Counting from inside the colonies was not possible at all (most of the islands were covered with 2-3m deep water). A total of 7 islands along the Bulgarian part of the Danube were found to house Cormorants colonies. The services of local fishermen were used to count 4 of them by boats, equipped with engines, as direct observations from the banks of the river were found to be not enough accurate approach in these particular cases. Additional 3 colonies on Romanian islands were also counted (the latter data will be provided to help the Romanian counts if there is evidence, that these islands remain uncovered by the Romanian teams). The Bourgas lakes along the Black Sea Coast provided the last 2 major colonies for the country. However few other colonies, that were known from the inland territories were checked during the following weekend (April 16th), but only one of them in Northern Bulgaria showed presence of few pairs of breeding Cormorants.
If possible during late May - early June some colonies will be checked again in order to collect more information on the average number of the fledglings, chicks mortality etc.
The first stages of the counts were financed by the RSG-funded project "Conservation of Pygmy Cormorant through education and public awareness" and co-financed by "Penguin Travel DMC - Bulgaria". The latter provided also excellent Swarovski scope and the 4WD Lada Niva - the best transport for the dirty roads along the river.

 

http://www.birdwatchingbulgaria.com