Transylvania, May '24 (7)

 

A final post from our wonderful Transylvania adventure back in May, which I was fortunate to guide for Yorkshire Coast Nature - ten days of birds, bears, beautiful landscapes and warm, traditional hospitality.

For our final two nights, we were way out in the sticks of central Transylvania, in a 16th century lodge (above and below) surrounded by forests and rolling green hills... birds everywhere, including owls - most notably, the Ural Owl in the clip at the top of the post, which I picked up thanks to my Zeiss thermal imager; we'd heard it loud and clear, but we'd have missed it otherwise, and I was able to track it to a branch where everyone got great views.

Our final adventure involved a drive and then a cable car up to the sunny, hot, snow-patched summit of Cota 2000 Sinaia, where we'd great forest birding on the way up and down (including singing alpestris Ring Ouzels and Goshawks), and plenty of target breeding species at the top, including Shorelarks, Water Pipits and Wheatears.

Alpestris Ring Ouzel belting it out in the southern Carpathians today on our @YCNature #Transylvania tour 😍 pic.twitter.com/5XDqlauPE1

— Mark James Pearson (@Markthebirder) May 10, 2024

Thanks to Bobi from Milvus for a great co-guiding experience - looking forward to next time!