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Bulgaria | Branta Tours Birdwatching Company | Red-breasted Goose Winter Tour

Bulgaria | Branta Tours Birdwatching Company | Red-breasted Goose Winter Tour

Durankulak
Dobrich Province
9670
Top Birding EcotoursTop Trekking Ecotours
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Highlights

1. Red-breasted Goose

2. Lesser White-fronted Goose

3. White-headed Duck

4. Pallas's Gull

5. Dalmatian Pelican

Overview

Bulgaria: overwintering Red-breasted Geese, White-headed Ducks, and other notable waterfowl and raptors, plus Pallas’s Gull in support.

Description: The spectacle of many thousands of overwintering Red-breasted Geese is the central theme to this exclusive winter tour to the western coastal zone of the Black Sea. Large concentrations of White-fronts plus a few of the exceedingly rare Lesser White-fronted Geese are present, plus a large array of waterfowl including divers, grebes, and ducks (Shelduck, White-headed Duck, Ferruginous Duck and Smew). If your appetite isn’t already wetted how about a follow-up cast that includes Pygmy Cormorant and Bittern plus several notable raptors: White-tailed, and Spotted Eagles, Merlin, Rough-legged and Long-legged Buzzards. If the weather permits, we shall also travel up to the Srebarna Biosphere Reserve (UNESCO site) by the Danube, for close views of Dalmatian Pelicans in breeding plumage. There is a good chance of an Eagle Owl and outside possibility of Greater Black-headed Gull.

Woodpeckers are well represented (White-backed, Grey-headed, Black, Syrian and Middle Spotted), other passerines including Sombre Tit, Crested and Calandra Larks, Great Grey Shrike and, with luck, Lapland and Pine Buntings.

For a winter tour the overall bird list is outstanding. Romanian brackish lagoons Sinoe, Zmeica, Histria, and Vadu, in the southern part of the Danube Delta, will be the major hot spots to be explored along the Romanian Black Sea coast. Bulgarian coastal Lakes Durankulak and Shabla in the north, and Vaya (Bourgas lake) and Atanasovsko in the south are principal wetlands visited, with the steppes of Cape Kaliakra and riparian forests of Kamchia broadening the habitat theme.

Mammals (including three species of Dolphins) are also on the agenda, searched for after dark aided by powerful spotlight. Jackal, Raccoon Dog, Marbled and Steppe Polecats are our main targets, all being relatively common.

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Ethics

At Terra Incognita we support tours that do good in the world. They must help conserve the environment, support local people and provide educational opportunities for guests and staff, or be actively working to improve in these areas.

What conservation activities do you support through the tour, and your wider operations?

Branta Tours is based in the epicenter of the Red-breasted Goose wintering grounds and benefits from ecotourism are directly contributing to the conservation of this critically endangered long distance migrant from extinction.

Our work related to the RBG is focused mainly on the conservation of the species at its wintering habitats, foraging and roosting areas. A chief aim is to establish a “safety zone” in the Coastal Dobrudja region, where birds can roost and feed undisturbed, and where no poaching is possible.

In parallel, “Branta-Tours” is supporting the operating costs of Branta Birding Lodge & Conservation Centre, where the company is based.

How does the tour support local people?

The Branta Birding Lodge & Conservation Centre in Durankulak is an ideal place to develop youth conservation education efforts that involves exchanges with local schools. The local municipalities of Shabla and Kavarna already demonstrated their commitment to the conservation efforts in the area. Such a specific platform overlooking the roosting site of the geese (Lake Durankulak) provides an important local base for our activities, accommodating our members, scientists and birdwatchers, synergizing the conservation efforts with other large initiatives involving stakeholders, conservation groups and the public, offering a meeting place for discussions with local people, Bulgarian and foreign institutions and NGO’s, and organizing workshops.

Last but not least, several two-metre high wooden pile platform was erected in the Srebarna Biosphere Reserve in Bulgaria designed to attract new breeding pairs of Dalmatian Pelicans and allow nests to be built above flood water levels. The construction of the pile platforms was made in the frame of the Srebarna Dalmatian Pelican Conservation Programme, carried out by Le Balkan Foundation with the financial support of Swarovski Optik and the technical assistance of Branta-Tours Birdwatching Company. Our team, involving also local people from the village of Srebarna, implemented several very important measures and management techniques at the colony with the main goal to improve the breeding conditions of the Srebarna Dalmatian Pelican colony and to ensure the survival of the pelicans.

What type of environmental education activities do you incorporate into your tour?

Raising public awareness to promote conservation action.

Do you provide any additional conservation, community or educational benefits through your wider operations that you’d like to mention?

Branta Tours is developing its conservation activities in collaboration with Le Balkan-Bulgaria Foundation, which is actively involved in the mid-winter counts for the wintering Red-breasted Geese since its establishment.  The objective of this partnership is to provide a conservation presence and measure of security in the surrounding area of the Durankulak Lake, a key site for the wintering population of the globally endangered Red-breasted Goose.

Certificates

Branta Tours was recommended by Birdwatch readers as top-ranked tour company offering high standard of service and holiday to its customers (cf. Birdwatch Magazine, February 2010, Issue 212).

Top 5 achievements

1. The establishment of Branta Birding Lodge & Conservation Centre, birth place of the Bed & Birding concept: www.birdinglodge.com

2. The establishment of Bed and Birding™ - a growing global-network of bird-friendly accommodation providers that have been carefully chosen in accordance with our birding service quality criteria: www.bedandbirding.com

What new sustainability steps or initiatives do you plan to take next?

Establishing an innovative eco-tourism concept to promote a sustainable development within a network of internationally important bird areas in Europe.

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Company Name

Branta Tours Birdwatching Company

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About Company

Located in Durankulak (northern Black Sea coast of Bulgaria), Branta Tours is a licensed travel company that specialises in developing and operating Professional Guided Trips and Wildlife Watching Holidays to observe flora and fauna, in particular birdwatching, to top birding locations of Bulgaria, Romania and Belarus. We are now well positioned to offer guided trips in the most exciting Eastern European countries and beyond. Many of these still possess huge areas of unspoiled nature, few people being aware that such pristine reservoirs of wildlife still exist. Our wide range of experience enables us to provide this specific type of holiday. Our advantages: Small group size and 4WD vehicles facilitate exploration of the most secluded and remote sites. In addition, we are delighted to announce that Branta Tours was recommended by Birdwatch readers as top-ranked tour company offering high standard of service and holiday to its customers (cf. Birdwatch Magazine, February 2010, Issue 212).

 

Tour Website

Click to visit the tour website

Cost

Price:EUR 789(not including flights) base: 4-10 people

Single room supplement: 65 euro
Single person supplement: 75 euro
Price includes:
Accommodation
B & B in twin rooms;
Seven nights dinner;
Packed lunches days 2 and 6
Drinks: mineral water, fizzy drinks including Coca Cola, tea/coffee
Transportation by 7 or 14-seater minibus (4WD);
All excursions plus transfers in Bulgaria;
Guidance;

Price excludes:
Lunch on days 1 & 8;
Alcoholic drinks and tips;
Transport to and from Bulgaria;
Single Room Supplement (Euro 65)

Group size

Group Size: 4 to 10 people

Durankulak
Dobrich Province
9670
+359879455996
info@branta-tours.com
www.branta-tours.com

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    About Terra Incognita

    We believe that ecotourism can be a powerful force for good in the world, and seek to promote the best examples of ecotourism worldwide.

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